course which such States might think fit to adopt, with a view to their own security, provided only that they were ready to give every reasonable assurance that their views were not directed to purposes of aggrandisement, subversive of the territorial system of Europe, as established by the late treaties.

Upon these principles the conduct of His Majesty's Government, with regard to the Neapolitan question, has been, from the first moment, uniformly regulated; and copies of the successive instructions sent to the British authorities at Naples for their guidance have been from time to time transmitted for the information of the Allied Governments.

With regard to the expectation which is expressed in the Circular above alluded to, of the assent of the Courts of London and Paris to the more general measures proposed for their adoption, founded, as is alleged, upon existing treaties: in justification of its own consistency and good faith, the British Government, in withholding such assent, must protest against any such interpretation being put upon the treaties in question, as is therein assumed.

They have never understood these treaties to impose any such obligations; and they have, on various occasions, both in Parliament and in their intercourse with the Allied Governments, distinctly maintained the negative of such a proposition. That they have acted with all possible explicitness upon this subject, would at once appear from reference to the deliberations at Paris, in 1815; previous to the conclusion of the Treaty of Alliance, at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1818, and subsequently in certain discussions which took place in the course of the last year.

After having removed the misconception to which the passage of the Circular in question, if passed over in silence, might give countenance; and having stated, in general terms, without however entering into the argument, the dissent of His Majesty's Government from the general principle upon which the Circular in question is founded, it should be clearly understood, that no Government can be more prepared than the British Government is to uphold the right of any State or States to interfere where their own immediate security or essential interests are seriously endangered by the internal transactions of another State. But as they regard the assumption of such right as only to be justified by the strongest necessity, and to be limited and regulated thereby, they cannot admit that this right can receive a general and indiscriminate application to all revolutionary movements, without reference to their immediate bearing upon some particular state or states, or be made prospectively the basis of an alliance. They regard its exercise as an exception to general principles, of the greatest value and importance, and as one that only properly grows out of the circumstances of the special case; but they at the same time consider, that exceptions of this description never can, without the utmost danger, be so far reduced to rule as to be incorporated into the ordinary diplomacy of states, or into the institutes of the law of nations.

As it appears that certain of the Ministers of the three Courts have already communicated this circular dispatch to the Courts to which they are accredited, I leave it to your discretion to make a corresponding communication on the part of your Government, regulating your language in conformity to the principles laid down in the present dispatch. You will take care, however, in making such communication, to do justice, in the name of your Government, to the purity of intention, which has no doubt actuated these august Courts in the adoption of the course of measures which they are pursuing. The difference of sentiment which prevails between them and the Court of London on this matter, you may declare, can make no alteration whatever in the cordiality and harmony of the alliance on any other subject,

or abate their common zeal in giving the most complete effect to all their existing engagements.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

THE AUSTRIAN DECLARATION.

CASTLEREAGH.

AFTER a long series of political storms, the kingdom of Naples was, in the year 1815, restored, by the assistance of the Austrian arms, to the paternal Government of its legitimate King; the two portions of the Sicilian Monarchy which had been so long separated, were again united, and the wishes of all well-disposed persons were gratified by the happy prospect of durable repose. The later period of the foreign Government had, however, revived an internal enemy, more dangerous than any other to the repose of the Italian peninsula. There existed in the kingdom of Naples, as well as in other States of Italy, a sect, working in darkness, whose secret chiefs continued to meditate the overthrow of all the Italian Governments, as the first step towards the execution of the extravagant plans in which they were engaged.

At the moment when Murat, in order to support his tottering throne, conceived the desperate project of conquering Italy, despair inspired him with the idea of calling to his aid those same Carbonari whom he had more than once combated, and whose criminal intrigues acquired from that time an influence, which, without the assistance of this unlooked for alliance, they would perhaps never have obtained.

The vigilance of the Royal Government, the zeal with which it employed itself in promoting essential improvements in all the branches of the Administration, the general affection borne to the Sovereign, whose paternal goodness had gained to him the hearts of his subjects, rendered abortive all the enterprises of this sect during the first years which followed the restoration; and perhaps, like so many other secret associations, it would have insensibly become powerless and have fallen into oblivion, if the events which took place in the kingdom of Spain, at the commencement of the year 1820, had not given to it a fresh impulse. From this moment its audacity redoubled, and, assisted by the contagious fanaticism which it excited, it soon increased so much in numbers and in influence, that the laws and the authority of the executive were no longer sufficiently powerful to suppress it. It disseminated with indefatigable industry, amidst all classes of the people, till then tranquil and moderate in their desires, a spirit of discontent and bitterness, dispositions hostile to their Government, and a passionate desire for political innovation. It succeeded at length in corrupting a portion of the army; and, assisted by this most criminal of all its measures, this sect caused the revolution to break out in the first days of the month of July. It is impossible to give a more exact or authentic account of this explosion, than that which is contained in the Circular Dispatch, addressed by the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, on the day on which he entered upon his functions, to the Diplomatic Agents of Naples at Foreign Courts;

"On the nights of the 1st and 2d (it is stated in this dispatch) the greatest part of the Royal Regiment of Cavalry of Bourbon quitted its quarters at Nola, and raised a tri-colored standard, with the inscription-Long live the Constitution! The colors were those of the sect of the Carbonari, which for some time past had kept up a fermentation in the kingdom, and had demanded with earnestness a constitutional form of Government. This sect had made so many proselytes in the army of the King, that the troops sent to reduce to submission those who had deserted at Nola, made common cause with them. The desertion of these troops, and of some regiments of the garrison of Naples, some simultaneous movements in the provinces, VOL. XVIII. NO. XXXV. C

Pam.

and lastly, the insubordination of some Chiefs of districts, proved to His Majesty that the wish of the people' was to obtain a Constitutional Government. In consequence whereof the King published a Proclamation, announcing, that in eight days he would make public the basis of a Constitution."

This first advantage was only the prelude of a more decisive attack. On the next day the Chiefs of the Revolt forced the King to proclaim the Spanish Constitution; and without any other preparatory measure, they caused His Majesty, his Ministers and functionaries, and his troops, to take a solemn oath to that Constitution, which, in the midst of disorders and terror, they declared to be the fundamental law of the kingdom.

In signing his first promise, the King had made a great sacrifice to the agitation which prevailed; and although His Majesty could not but be aware how inconsiderate and inexcusable was the project of forming a Constitution in eight days, there remained to him at least the hope, that more calm and wiser resolutions would succeed to the effervescence of the moment. But every appearance changed, when, after this first concession, a constitutional Act was offered for the immediate acceptance of the King, drawn up eight years before in a foreign country, under auspices particularly difficult and disastrous. An act of which neither the King nor his Ministers, nor any Neapolitan, with the exception of a few conspirators, had any knowledge, except by extracts from newspapers, and of which, at the moment of its proclamation, there did not exist even a translation at Naples.

This step bore too clearly the marks of its origin, and of the criminal means which could alone insure its success, for the least doubt to remain as to the position of the Monarch or of the State. Such a concession, committing equally the dignity of the Sovereign, and the destinies of the country, could not be wrung from His Majesty by other means than those of violence and menace. The desire of avoiding greater evils, and of preventing the commission of dreadful crimes, could alone induce the King to consent at the moment to so fatal a measure. This explanation of an event, inexplicable in any other sense, would carry with it its own confirmation, even were it not otherwise established by irrefragable proofs.

The great blow being thus given, and the Royal Authority entirely destroyed, the chiefs of the sect of their principal associates in the first scenes of the revolt, immediately took upon themselves exclusive dominion. The resistance which the kingdom of Sicily opposed to their arbitrary enterprises, was crushed in blood and in ruins. In order to give to their usurpation a color of legality, they soon created, under the title of a National Parliament, an instrument by means of which, in the space of a few months, they overturned all existing rights, and all the bases of public order; and through which, without any other power but their arbitrary will, they substituted, in the room of the ancient civil and political laws of the two kingdoms, institutions perfectly unknown, sanctioned by no experience, and which were no less in contradiction to the character than to the wants of the nation.

The King, unable to consider a state of things so unnatural as likely to be of long duration, persuaded at the same time that untimely opposition would only draw down new perils upon his person, his family, and his country, supported with resignation this cruel lot, which he had in no wise merited. All the enlightened inhabitants of the country, the greatest part too of those who, seduced by the vain hope of a more fortunate termination, hal at first favored the Revolution, but who had subsequently become convinced of the pernicious effects of a system, which the ruling party had established as most suited to their particular interests alone, without reference to the interests of the country-all these were condemned to silence.

The mass of the people soon recovered from their ephemeral enthusiasm, and grieved to see their hopes deceived; and, discouraged by vague forebodings of the calamities which menaced them, they awaited in silent uneasiness the final issue of the crisis. Thus is to be explained that apparent tranquillity under cover of which the Parliament, powerless in itself and subject to the control of a small number of despots ready to attempt every thing, conducted the kingdom towards inevitable dissolution; a tranquillity which did not prevent the most unbridled anarchy from swallowing up the last remains of public prosperity, and the true character of which could not be misunderstood by any Foreign Government.

The events of Naples had produced a strong sensation throughout the whole of Italy. A Revolution plotted by obscure finatics, and completed by perjured soldiers, who in a few days deprived a King of his power and of his liberty, and plunged two kingdoms in the abyss of disorder, necessarily inspired, whatever its ulterior developement might be, the most serious apprehensions in all the neighbouring Governments. The maxims loudly proclaimed by the authors of this Revolution; the facility with which these maxims were circulated, by words and by writings, in all parts of Italy; the daily conversation of their foreign accomplices; all these things tended to augment the pressure of these apprehensions. No Italian sovereign could conceal from himself that the internal peace and prosperity of his States were menaced equally by the example and the results of an overthrow which attacked the social edifice in its deepest foundations.

The Emperor was aware from the first moment, that there would be an end of order and tranquillity in Italy for a length of time, if the chiefs and fomenters of a revolt, which nothing could justify and nothing could excuse, were permitted with impunity to sacrifice the Monarchy of the Two Sicilies to their insane projects. His Imperial Majesty, penetrated with a sense of what he owed to the preservation and security of his own Empire, to the protection of his faithful and happy people, to his amicable relations with the Princes of Italy, and to his position in the general political system of Europe, hastened to take measures for stopping the further progress of the disorders, and to make manifest at the same time, without reserve, the line which he had decided to follow with respect to the Revolution of Naples. However painful it was to his Imperial Majesty to impose an unexpected and considerable charge upon his finances, at a moment when he had hoped to have been enabled to turn his whole attention to interior amelioration, and when the continued execution of the plans formed by the Administration promised the most beneficial results-all secondary considerations gave way to the execution of the most sacred of his duties."

In the situation in which affairs were, the assembly of a "corps d'armee” in the Italian provinces was a measure of the highest necessity; it was acknowledged as such by every well thinking man in Austria and in Europe. The salutary effect which this measure has had in tranquillizing the neighbouring States-that which it has produced even at Naples, in encouraging the friends and disconcerting the enemies of order, is now unanimously felt in the whole extent of the Italian peninsula.

His Majesty at the same moment repaired to Troppau, to deliberate in person with his august Allies, upon a question of the greatest importance, not only in Italy-not to the Austrian Monarchy alone, but to the common safety of Europe. These deliberations did not happily leave any doubt as to the manner in which the Allied Courts regarded the origin and character of the Revolution of Naples, and the dangers with which it menaced other States.

With respect to the Resolutions which such a state of things called for,

if particular and weighty considerations induce the British Government not to take part in those of the other Courts, and caused the Cabinet of France to acce-le to them only under certain restrictions, the Emperor had the satisfaction to find himself perfectly in unison on every question with the Sovereigns of Russia and of Prussia; and to convince himself at the same time that differences of position and action between the Powers of Europe would not give rise to any difference as to the basis of their alliance, and as to the general uniformity of principles and views.

The Sovereigns assembled at Troppau, though decided not to acknowledge the changes which force and revolt had operated at Naples, and to put an end by a common effort to the result of these changes, were nevertheless sincerely animated with the ardent desire of obtaining these objects by pacific means, and with all the indulgence due to a country already distracted by so many convulsions and calamities. It was in this spirit that they invited his Sicilian Majesty to meet them at Laybach, in order to deliberate with them upon the situation, present and future, of his kingdom. This invitation was supported by his Majesty the King of France.

According to an article of the Foreign Code, which was to become that of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Monarch cannot pass the frontiers of his States without the consent of the Parliament. The King, looking upon the invitation of the Sovereigns as a blessing of Providence, submitted to this humiliating necessity. The Parliament consented, but it attached to its consent a condition, to the effect of which the instigators of this measure could not be blind, and which destroyed beforehand the prospects and the hopes of moderate men.

The Parliament, although completely acquainted with the principles of the Allied Cabinets, imposed upon the King the command, to insist upon the maintenance without modification, of the Constitution at present established at Naples-and to put that condition forward as the sole object, and only basis, of his explanations with the Allied Powers. It is under such auspices as these, and having nothing to rely on but the justice and the wisdom of his august friends, that the King of Naples came to Laybach. From the moment of his arrival in that place, his Majesty had reason to feel convinced that it would be vain to attempt to found any proposition upon a basis irrevocably rejected by the Allied Sovereigns.

The Sovereigns declared in effect to his Majesty, their firm determination not to allow the continuance of a system which had been forced upon the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, by a faction without a name and without authority, and by means the most criminal; a system incompatible with the security of the neighbouring States, and with the preservation of the peace of Europe.

That if this state of things did not end, as their Majesties earnestly and sincerely hoped it might do, by a spontaneous disavowal on the part of those who exercised the power at Naples, it would be necessary to have recourse to arms; that as soon as by either of these means this great obstacle to the peace of Naples and of Italy should have disappeared, the Sovereigns would look upon their task as accomplished. That it would be then for the King alone, enlightened by the counsels of the most honest and able men of his Kingdom, to provide for the strength and stability of his Government upon a just and wise system, in conformity with the permanent interests of the two people united under his sceptre, and which Government, from this very circumstance, should hold out to all the neighbouring States a sufficient guarantee of their safety and tranquillity.

After such precise declarations the King of Naples could not dissemble to himself that as every other question was irrevocably set aside, he had, as