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the King, and that it was believed all differences with the United States were terminated. It was thought that a treaty had been proposed between the two countries, and advantages had been guaranteed to the Americans in the ports of Sicily.

On December 12th, was puplished by the king of Naples, a decree for the purpose of confirming the privileges granted to the Sicilians, and reconciling their inviolability with the unity of the political institutions of the United Kingdom. By its articles, all civil and ecclesiastical employments in Sicily are to be conferred exclusively on the Sicilians, as, on the other hand, they can form no claim to the same employments in the other dominions of the crown. The great dignities of the United Kingdom are to be shared by them, in proportion to the population of the island, which is reckoned at a quarter of that of all the subjects. Offices in the army, navy, and household, are to be conferred without any distinction of the part of which the persons are natives. The government of the whole kingdom is always to reside with the person of the King; a governor of the royal family, or some other person of distinction, being appointed to preside over the portion lying on that side of the straits opposite to the royal residence. The lawsuits in each part are to be determined in the last resort by their own tribunals. Feudal rights are to be abolished on each side of the straits. The permanent expences of the state are to be regulated every year by a partition, but

in Sicily, they can never exceed the sum fixed by its parliament in 1803, without the consent of the parliament. From the quota is to be deducted not less than a particular sum mentioned, for the payment of the debt bearing no interest, and of the arrears of interest, till the entire extinction of both, after which, the same sum is to be a sinking fund for paying the Sicilian debt. Until the general system of civil and judicial administration of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies is promulgated, all its branches are to remain on their present footing.

Italy. The general weakness of the Italian governments at the present period, would necessarily become conspicuous in a state so ill constituted as the secular dominion of the Roman See; and its incapacity to preserve itself from piratical insults, and from the outrages of banditti, is among the first intelligence transmitted from the ancient capital of Europe. In February, whilst a convoy of vessels was proceeding down the Tiber to Civita Vecchia, and another was about to sail from this port up the river, a large Tunisian xebeck made its appearance, which, putting out two boats, gave a general chace. The vessels all dispersed, and some of them sought protection under the guns of a small tower on the coast. The pirates boldly approached, notwithstanding the fire, and took possession of two vessels, which, however, they afterward found it expedient to relinquish. On the 13th, two piratical vessels appeared off Fiumara, and made captures; and

it is asserted from Civita Vecchia, that pirates are daily in sight, by whom the navigation is wholly intercepted. In fact, the finances of the Pope are so much disordered, that he cannot maintain a sufficient force on the coast, or in the interior, to protect his subjects. At Rome itself, daring robberies are said to be committed in the most frequented streets; and the military tribunal at Frusinone being dissolved, and the moveable columns of soldiers called in, the banditti are again making their appearance, though their expulsion had been proclaimed by the distribution of honorary crosses, with the inscription" Latronibus fugatis, securitas restituta."

As an ecclesiastic, his Holiness did himself honour by a decree relative to the form in inquisitorial proceedings, in which the application of torture is forbidden. This determination was communicated by the Cardinal secretary of state to the ministers of Spain and Portugal.

The same Cardinal on May 4th, published a declaration in the name of the Pope, that having been informed, that some ecclesiastical courts had presumed to print regulations in opposition to those which he directed in his edict of July 1812, relative to the acquisitions made under the late government, of property termed national, whereby alarms were spread among the purchasers, and fears as to the security of the purchases themselves, his Holiness orders it to be made known, that the said papers have been printed without his knowledge, that he highly disapproves of them, that the above edict

is still in full force, and that he guarantees peaceable possession to the purchasers. This is a circumstance worthy of observation, as indicating the unwearied efforts of the Roman Catholic clergy, to recover all of which they had been deprived in the late changes of the time, and the timidity of the head of their church, relative to any measure which might involve him in contests with the secular authority.

An additional proof of the more humanized spirit of the religion of Rome was given, in the beginning of August, by an edict of the Pope, ordaining, that confiscation shall no longer take place to the profit of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in matters concerning the faith. This process had been already abolished in the papal territories, and the present determination was the result of the liberal ideas of Count Funchal, the minister of Portugal, who was desirous of introducing the same reform into that kingdom and Spain.

The following article of intelligence from Rome, dated at the close of September, if it may be depended upon, affords an interesting view of the present state of the papal authority in some of the countries, acknowledging the supremacy of the Roman church.

The news from Germany is very afflicting. It appears now exceedingly difficult, to say nothing worse, to enter into negotiations with several governments. We have temporized too much. The Princes, seeing their subjects without first pastors, have established them by their own authority, and in fact the church of Germany appears to be com

pletely

pletely abandoned. It is only with time, patience, and great circumspection, that we can recover what we have lost. If any thing could console us, it is the conclusion of the negotiations with France. That business is no longer a mystery. His Holiness made known in the Consistory of the 23d, the happy results of the policy of the church of Rome in that delicate and important affair. This much is said to be certain-The Concordat concluded under the Government of the Usurper is annulled, and things are replaced on the footing of the statu quo established by the Concordat between Leo X. and Francis I. with some modifications. The affair has been discussed directly between the two sovereigns, by autograph letters. Secrecy has prevailed throughout the progress of the negotiation, and nothing was al

lowed to transpire to the public until all was finished."

In the other parts of Italy, no public events have occurred during the present year, which require historical notice. States formerly independent, having in the late general settlement of Europe been portioned off among greater powers, of whose dominions they are rendered mere appendages, have lost all political existence, and can only participate in the movements of greater machines. Complaints of conscious debility have been occasionally heard; and an account transmitted from Venice, of the depredations practised in the Adriatic by Albanian pirates, was accompanied with an indignant reflection on the powerlessness of Italy to guard her own seas, which office was delegated to the marine of England, by which it was imperfectly executed.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XIII

Germany-Slow Progress in political Alteration — Hanover, Annexalion of East Friselund, and Cession of Lauenberg.-Order of Guelph.Assembly of States.- Prussia.-Discussions relative to Representative Government.-Restrictions on the Press.-Electorate of Hesse.-Con tinuance of Differences between the King and the States of Hurtemberg.-Death of the former, and Acts of his Successor.- Austria, financial Plan.-Death of the Empress, and Marriage of another.Germanic Diet.-Constitution of Weimar.-Switzerland.-Diet.— Law in Friburg.

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N the great and enlightened country of Germany, the progress towards settling the political constitution of its different states during the present year, has been much less than was generally expected. Whether this tardiness was owing to the variety of opinions, prevalent among a people habituated to discussion, and prone to theorize, or to a re luctance in the governing powers to admit the governed to a share in their authority, is a matter of conjecture rather than of proof; but there is reason to suppose, that both these circumstances have co-operated in throwing difficulties in the way of bringing to a termination the process of forming new constitutions. Meantime the public tranquillity seems not to have suffered from this indeterminate condition of things; such disputes as have arisen, having been chiefly conducted in the quiet mode of lettered argumentation.

Of the occurrences in the different states, those in the new

kingdom of Hanover take the precedence in point of time.

In December 1815, were published by the authority of the Prince Regent, the letters patent on taking possession for the crown of Hanover of East Friseland and the land of Harlingen. This appropriation is declared to be in consequence of a cession from the King of Prussia confirmed by the powers at the congress of Vienna; and the states of the country are required to transfer their allegiance to their new sovereign, with assurance of constant attention to their welfare, and protection in their rights.

As a kind of indemnity for this accession, that portion of the Duchy of Saxe Lauenburg which lies on the right side of the Elbe was ceded by Hanover, in July, to the king of Prussia, to be afterwards conveyed to the king of Denmark, as part of the compensation adjudged to that Sovereign for his cession of Pomerania to Prussia.

The

The Prince Regent decorated the kingdom of Hanover with an order of knighthood, entitled, that of The Guelphs with the same gradations of honour as those of the Bath. The insignia of Grand Cross of the Order were sent to the Brunswick princes, and to the reigning prince of Lippe Buckeburg.

In January, the assembly of the States recommenced its sittings, and employed itself in preparing a new system of taxation. In the same month was announced the dissolution by the Prince Regent of the special commission, created in the preceding April, for superintending the internal security of the kingdom against all suspicious persons, whether natives or foreigners.

A second meeting of the States took place in autumn. In the beginning of November, was officially declared the appointment of the Duke of Cambridge to the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Hanover.

Nothing further of consequence is reported from this kingdom, which seems to be enjoying the blessings of a well-administered government.

No state in Germany appears so much to have excited the interest of politicians as that of Prussia. At the very commencement of the year, general attention was fixed upon the progress in forming that representative constitution which was announced in the royal ordinance of May 22d, 1815. The question first standing for discussion related to the establishment of a chamber of peers, which encountered many difficulties, in consequence of the

comparative indigence into which the order of noblesse had fallen, especially within the last ten years. The public canvassing of this and the other important topics connected with the business under consideration, could scarcely be agreeable to a government habituated to treat political measures as state secrets; and we accordingly find, that on the 3d of January, his Prussian Majesty issued a cabinet order for the suppression of a paper much read as a political journal, the "Rhenish Mercury." Counsellor Sack, president of the Prussian provinces. on the Rhine, wrote to the superior officers of his government, acquainting them with this order; and also mentioning, that the King was occupied with framing a law concerning the freedom of the press, which, for the future, would reconcile the jarring claims of public opinion and the welfare of the state. In the meantime, the president desires, that the censors in their respective districts would redouble their vigilance in examining all gazettes and political journals; so that no passages might appear in which injurious attacks were made upon any foreign government, or incompe

tent criticisms on the transactions of their own. As there is no test more certain of the disposition of governments to favour public liberty, than the degree of their indulgence to the freedom of the press, an inference may be drawn from the fact above recited, of the ideas entertained by the Prussian court of those rights of the people which may be admitted under a monarchy.

Nothing more of a public na

ture

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