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If His Majesty has reserved to himself the repartition of this Revenue, he has not determined so to do, but by a consideration of the public good for the experience of Ages has proved, that the poorer Classes, notwithstanding all the efforts of the Government, have always hitherto been overloaded, oppressed and sacrificed, in the repartition of the Taxes, beyond any just proportion.

Finally, amongst the benefits granted by His Majesty to the Sicilians, the confirmation of the abolition of the Feudal System is deserving of the notice of the British Government.

The Marquis Circello profits, &c. H. E. Mr. A'Court.

THE MARQUIS CIRCELLO.

(Sub-Enclosure A.)-FUNDAMENTAL LAW of The King, relative to the Administration of the Government of the 2 Sicilies.— Caserta, 8th December, 1816

(Translation.)

FERDINAND I. by the Grace of God, King of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, of Jerusalem, &c.; Infant of Spain, Duke of Parina, Placentia, Castro, &c.; Hereditary Grand Prince of Tuscany, &c.

The Congress of Vienna having, by the solemn Act to which Europe owes the re-establishment of justice and peace, confirmed the legitimacy of the Rights of our Crown, and thereby recognized Us, and our Heirs and Successors, King of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies:

And We being desirous on our part, after the Ratification of that Act by all the Powers, to cause it to be carried into full effect, have determined to ordaia and declare the following Dispositions to be the fundamental and perpetual Law of our States:

ART. I. All our Royal Dominions on this and the other side of the Straits shall constitute the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies.

II. The Title which we assume, from the moment of the publication of the present Law, is the following:

"Ferdinand I., by the Grace of God, King of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, of Jerusalem, &c.; Infant of Spain; Duke of Parma, Placentia, Castro, &c. &c.; Hereditary Grand Prince of Tuscany, &c. &c. &c."

III. All the Acts that shall be issued by us, or that shall be promulgated in our Royal Name by the Public Functionaries in our Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, shall be headed by the Title specified in the preceding Article.

IV. The Full Powers and Patents which have been furnished to any of our Ambassadors, Ministers, and Agents, residing with Foreign Powers, shall be immediately withdrawn, and at the same time changed for others, to be made out conformably to the IId Article.

V. The Succession in the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies shall be

regulated for ever agreeably to the Law of our August Father, Charles III. published at Naples, on the 6th of October, 1759.

VI. We establish a General Chancery in the Kingdom of the 2 Si. cilies, which shall always be held in the place of our usual residence, and shall have for its President 1 of our Ministers and Secretaries of State, to be styled the Minister Chancellor of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies.

VII. In this General Chancery there shall be kept a Register of, and there shall be deposited, all the Laws and Decrees that shall emanate from us.

VIII. The Minister Chancellor shall affix our Royal Seal to all our Laws and Decrees, and shall authenticate and countersign upon them our Signature. He shall also be charged with the transmission of all our Laws and Decrees to all the constituted Authorities of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies; and he shall cause them to be published and carried into execution.

IX. There shall also be held, in the same General Chancery, a Council for the discussion and preparation of the more important affairs of State, previous to their being laid before us by our Ministers, for our Sovereign decision in our Council of State, and it shall be denominated the Supreme Council of Chancery. The Minister Chancellor shall preside over the latter.

X. A Special Law shall fix the internal organization of the General Chancery, and shall define therein, more distinctly, the attributes of the Minister Chancellor, and of the Supreme Council of Chancery.

It is our Will and Command, that this our Law, signed by us, authenticated by our Councillor and Secretary of State, the Minister of Grace and Justice, sealed with our Great Seal, and countersigned by our Councillor and Secretary of State, the Minister Chancellor, and registered and deposited in the General Chancery of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, be published with the usual solemnities throughout the Kingdom, by means of the respective Authorities, who shall cause it to be registered, and see that it be carried into effect.

Our Minister Chancellor of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies is specially charged to watch over its publication.

Given at Caserta, the 8th of December, 1816.

FERDINANDO.

The Secretary of State, Minister of Grace and Justice,

MARCHESE TOMMASI.

The Secretary of State, Minister Chancellor,

[1816-17.]

20

TOMMASO DI SOMMA.

(Sub-Enclosure B.)-DECREE of the King, establishing the Office of Chancellor of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies.-Caserta, 8th December, 1816. (Translation.)

FERDINAND I, by the Grace of God, King of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, &c. &c. &c.

Agreeably to Article VI of our Law of this day, by which we have established a General Chancery in our Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies; We have decreed and do decree, as follows:

ART. I. The Office of Minister, Secretary of State, provisionally maintained by us, in our Royal Dominions, on this side of the Faro, by our Edict of the 5th day of June, of the year 1815, is abolished.

II. All the functions of the said Office are transferred to that which we have instituted, of Chancellor of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies.

III. All the Papers and Registers existing in the Department of the said Minister Secretary of State, shall be transferred to the General Chancery of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, and there preserved.

IV. For the time being, and until we shall have made fresh dispositions, the functions of Chancellor shall be exercised by the Marquis Circello, our Secretary of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

V. All our Secretaries of State and Ministers, and the Chancellor, are charged, each in his respective Department, with the execution of the present Decree.

Given at Caserta, the 8th of December, 1816.

FERDINANDO.

MARCHESE TOMMASI.

The Secretary of State, Minister of Grace and Justice,

The Secretary of State, Minister Chancellor,

TOMMASO DI SOMMA.

(Sub Enclosure C.)-LAW of the King of the 2 Sicilies, confirming the Privileges of the Island of Sicily.-Caserta, 12th December, 1816. (Translation.)

FERDINAND I, by the Grace of God, King of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, of Jerusalem, &c., Infant of Spain, Duke of Parma, Placentia, Castro, &c., &c., Hereditary Grand Prince of Tuscany, &c. &c. &c.

Desiring to confirm the Privileges conceded by Us, and by the Monarchs our illustrious Predecessors, to our well-beloved Sicilians, and to combine the full enjoyment of those Privileges with the unity of the Political Institutions, which are to form the Public Law of our Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, We have by the present Law sanctioned, and do sanction as follows:

ART. I. All the Offices and Employments, Civil and Ecclesiastical, in Sicily, beyond the Straits, shall, conformably to the Capitularies of the Monarchs our Predecessors, be conferred exclusively on Sicilians, without the other Subjects of our States on this side the Straits being ever

entitled to pretend to them,-in the same manner as the Sicilians cannot advance any claim to civil and religious Appointments in our other Dominions above mentioned. We place among the number of the Appointments exclusively to be given to Sicilians, the Archbishopric of Palermo, although our August Father, Charles III, reserved the disposal of it to the Sovereign, in the great Charter which he granted to the Sicilians.

II. Our Sicilian Subjects beyond the Straits shall be admitted to all the great Diguities of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, in proportion to the population of the Island.

The population being one-fourth of that of our entire Dominions, the 4th part of the Members of our Council of State shall be composed of Sicilians, and the other 3-fourths of Subjects of our other Dominions.

The same proportion shall be observed in the Appointments of our Ministers and Secretaries of State, of the first Dignities of the Court, and of our Representatives and Agents at Foreign Courts.

III. Instead of 2 Sicilian Consultors, who, pursuant to the Concession of our August Father, were Members of the ancient Junta of Sicily, the Supreme Council of the Chancery of the 2 Sicilies shall always contain a number of Sicilian Councillors, according to the proportion fixed in the preceding Article.

IV. Appointments in our Army and Navy, and in our Royal Household, shall be conferred on all our Subjects, without regard to the part of our Dominions of which they may be Natives.

V. The Administrative Government of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies shall be always near our person. When we reside in Sicily, we shall appoint as Governor of our States on this side of the Straits, during our absence, a Prince of our Family, or some other Person of distinction, whom we shall choose amongst our Subjects.

If he be a Prince of the Royal Family, he shall be attended by one of our Ministers of State, who shall correspond with the Ministers and Secretaries of State who reside near our person, and who shall, moreover, have with him 2 or more Directors, to preside in those Sections of the Offices of the Ministers and Secretaries of State, which we shall think fit to leave on the spot to administer the Government of that part of our Dominions. If the Governor be not a Prince, he shall himself be invested with the character of Minister Secretary of State; he shall correspond directly with the Ministers and Secretaries of State whom we have with us, and shall have 2 or more Directors for that purpose.

VI. When we reside in our Royal Dominions on this side of the Straits, Sicily shall in the same manner have, as its Governor, a Royal Prince of our Family, or a Person of distinction, whom we shall choose from amongst our Subjects. If he be a Royal Prince, he shall likewise have with him one of our Ministers of State, who shall cor

respond with the Offices of the Ministers and Secretaries of State residing with us, and he shall, moreover, have 2 or more Directors, to preside in those Sections of the said Offices of the Ministers and Secretaries of State which we shall think fit to leave in Sicily. If the Governor of Sicily he not a Prince of the Royal Family, he shall himself be invested with the character of our Minister and Secretary of State; he shall correspond directly with the Ministers and Secretaries of State whom we have with us, and shall have 2 or more Directors for that purpose.

VII. These Directors, in both cases, shall be chosen indiscriminately from amongst all our Subjects, as was fixed with regard to Sicily, for the ancient Offices of Consultor, Conservator, and Secretary of the Government, whose duties will in future be performed by the said Directors.

VIII. The Law-suits of the Sicilians shall continue to be decided, even in the last resort, by the Sicilian Tribunals. There shall, in consequence, be established in Sicily a Supreme Court of Justice, which shall be superior to all the Tribunals of that Island, and independent of the Supreme Court of our States on this side of the Straits, as the latter shall be independent of Sicily, when we reside in that Island: the organization of this Court shall be regulated by a special Law.

IX. The abolition of Feudal Rights shall be maintained in Sicily, as well as in our other States on this side of the Straits.

X. We shall fix every year the portion to be borne by Sicily of the permanent Expenses of the State, and we shall regulate the manner of its application; but this annual portion shall never exceed the sum of 1,847,687 ounces, 20 tari, which was fixed in 1813 by the Parliament as the actual Revenue of Sicily. No greater sum shall, under any circumstances, be imposed, without the consent of the Parliament.

XI. There shall be deducted every year from the said portion a sum, which shall not be less than 150,000 ounces, to be applied towards the liquidation of the Debt bearing no interest, and of the arrear of interest of the Debt which bears interest, until the entire extinction of both. When these 2 Debts shall be extinguished, this sum shall be annually employed in forming a Sinking Fund for the Public Debt of Sicily.

XII. Until the General System for the civil and judicial Government of our Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies shall be promulgated, all the Departments of justice and administration shall continue on the same footing as at present.

We will and ordain that the present Law, signed by us, certified by our Councillor and Minister of State for the Affairs of Grace and Justice, countersigned by our Councillor, Chancellor, and Minister Secretary of State, enrolled and preserved in our General Chancery of the Kingdom of the 2 Sicilies, be published throughout the Kingdom, with the ordinary solemnities, by the competent Authorities, who shall register the same, and see to its execution.

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