g0 POLITICAL SCIENCE.

to hold office, and then to put the names in a bag or bags ready
to be drawn by lot, and kept under watch until the time for
drawing came. In 1328, the committee consisted of ninety-
eight, and every one was rejected who got only sixty-eight
votes out of this number. The bags were put into a coffer,
and the coffer was fastened with three locks, one of the keys
of which was committed to the captain of the people, and
one to the friars of each of two religious houses. The coffer
was opened under due regulations three days before the
expiration of the term of the actual priors, and a new set
were chosen. In 1343, when the squittinio was made by two
hundred and six citizens, thirty-three hundred and forty-six
were set aside (if I understand the passage), so that only a
tenth remained for the drawings to be made every two
months.*

In' the provisions of the balia of the important year 1393,
we read (Capponi, ii., 515) that if any persons whose names
were put into the bags for priors deserved to be gonfa-
lonieri, they could be taken out and put into the bag for
that magistrate, and, furthermore, that persons whose names
were in the bag for that magistrate, if judged to be unfit
for the office, might be taken out and put in the bag for
priors in the same quarter. (Si6.)

These " indorsations," at one time, took place once in
five years ; bags were provided for the priors, and separate
ones for the gonfalonieri of justice and the same process
must have been gone through with the collegi. So also the
councils were chosen by lot, and the names put into the
bags for each guild, not at the time when the squittinio
for the higher officials was made, but when occasion re-
quired,f

It is evident that in the selections of persons fit for office,

Capponi, i., 242, "post a partito.3346, manon rimasero," etc.
' 1'? b' 9' fUr°n° Jlominati— di cluali non rimase il

T Aretino's Greek account of the constitution of Flor-
ence, ed. Neumann, p. 80.