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.

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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 argumen

tation.

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 incompetent 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

ture has been communicated from Berlin; we only learn, that the new constitution remained unsettled at the end of the year, but that a promise has been given by his Majesty, that it shall make its appearance early in the ensuing year.

A remarkable example of that spirit of sound sense and plain dealing, which is probably now making a steady progress through Germany, appeared in March, in a memorial presented to the assembled States of the Electorate of Hesse, from the districts on the river Diemel, and signed by a hundred of their chief magistrates. Its translation runs thus:

"As our gracious Sovereign has again called the States together, to deliberate on the distresses of the country, and, if possible, to relieve them, we take the liberty urgently to lay before our Deputies chosen for the present Assembly, the following desire:-The taxes which we have to pay are intolerably heavy. The French times were bad; but the present, if all the money paid is reckoned together, are still worse; and were it not for our own dear Elector, who is a Hessian as well as ourselves, the country would not have been silent so long: for the money is demanded without intermission, and yet there is no trade, no business; and when the money is once out of our hands, it never comes back any more. We know that we are bound to give what is necessary for the support of the State, and we will do it with pleasure as long as it is possible; but the misfortune is, that we do not know how much the country pro

perly requires. However, as our most gracious Prince has called his States together, to consult with them on the economy (the German word means the housekeeping) of the country, it is to he hoped, that every body will learn what is necessary, and what is too much. We hoped that this would be done last year; but as it was not, and as our burthens have since become still greater, we beg our Deputies, 1st, To ascertain what part of the large outstanding sums of money, which they say the country of Hesse demands, belongs to the country, and what part of the public property which we already have, belongs to the country, and what to the Prince. When this is ascertained, we beg them to examine, 2d, Whither (that is, into what coffers) the large sums of money flow, which we have to pay annually, and for what purposes it is employed. And then, 3dly, To seek for ways and means by which the existing taxes may be diminished, and placed on a more moderate footing. And that this mild, reasonable rate of taxation may not be altered arbitrarily, we beg our deputies, 4thly, To provide that an established constitution may be given to the country, so that, without the consent of the States, nothing may be demanded or imposed, because it is just and reasonable, that he who is to give, be asked how much he can give. These are our wishes, our necessary desire. We should not have spoken, if it had been to be borne; but it is too bad, and it grieves us that our good Prince loses the love of the people in the country, be

cause

cause he does not forbid evil counsellors to approach him; therefore we beg our deputies to speak the truth openly, and not to dissemble: for we Hessians mean it honestly both with our Prince and our country, and wish that the ancient order in the country, and the ancient love to the Prince, may return. Then we shall all be helped!"

The differences between the King and the States of Wurtemberg, which occupied a considerable place in the political transactions of Germany in the last year, were renewed early in the present, with unabated contention. In April was published a rescript of the King's ministry to the Assembly of the States, on an address of the latter in January, relative to the tax-executions (as they are named) issued with his Majesty's approbation. It consists of detailed reasonings concerning the obligations of paying the taxes imposed, in which a statement is given of the reductions made in the expences of the state, a large proportion of which is in the military establishment. The paper concludes with an admonition, that as long as the present provisional state of things continues, the assembly can only be regarded as a body convoked to deliberate upon a constitution, and that it has no claim to co-operate as states of the kingdom, which can only be conferred by a future constitution.

On April 20th there was published at Stuttgard, a royal monition, which is an important document respecting the liberties of Germany. The King, it is

affirmed, has received clear proofs, that several of the Princes and Counts, formerly states of the empire, and now his subjects, have not only entered into an union among themselves, and with other formerly immediate states of the empire, but have applied to foreign courts, and attempted to procure their interference in determining their political relations to the state; they are therefore reminded that such conduct can be regarded in no other light than as a crime against the state, to be punished with the utmost severity of the law; and besides the legal proceedings to which they will expose themselves by future criminality, they are threatened with the immediate sequestration of all estates belonging to them in his Majesty's dominions. This notification appears to have been sent individually by the minister of the home department to the persons concerned.

The States of Wurtemberg, persisting in their resolution of regarding themselves as partakers of the national authority, presented to the King, on June 12th, a protest against the levying of taxes by the Crown, without the joint consent of the States. This measure produced on the part of the King a rescript, in which he declared, that he should be justified in dissolving an assembly which indulged it-elf in language contrary to all principles of order; but that not to disappoint the expectations of his people respecting a consti.ution, he refrains from taking such a step. He however positively assures the states, that he will in future at

tend