blished at the very first conferences have been invariably followed during the whole course of a meeting rendered memorable by the most remarkable results. This meeting, transferred to Laybach, assumed a more decisive character by the presence and the co-operation of the King of the Two Sicilies, and by the unanimous concurrence with which the princes of Italy acceded to the system adopted by the allied cabinets. The monarchs were convinced that the governments most closely interested in the destinies of the Peninsula, rendered justice to the purity of their intentions; and that a sovereign, placed in a most painful situation by acts with which perfidy and violence had contrived to associate his name, yielded with entire confidence to measures which would at once terminate this state of moral captivity, and restore to his faithful subjects that repose and that well-being of which they had been deprived by criminal factions. The effect of these measures soon manifested itself. The edifice which had been reared by revolt-fragile in its superstructure, and weak in its foundation; resting only on the cunning of some, and upon the momentary blindness of others; condemned by an immense majority of the nation, and odious even to the army which was enrolled to defend it-crumbled to dust at the first contact with the regular troops selected to destroy it, and who at once demonstrated its nothingness. The legitimate authority is restored; the factious have been dispersed; the Neapolitan people are delivered from the tyranny of those impudent impostors, who, deluding them with the dreams of false liberty, in reality inflicted upon them the most bitter vexations; who imposed upon them enormous sacrifices, solely to gratify their own ambition and rapine; and who were rapidly accelerating the ruin of a country, of which they incessantly proclaimed themselves the regenerators. This important restoration has been completed, as far as it could, and as it ought to be, by the counsels and acts of the allied sovereigns. Now, when the King of the Two Sicilies is again invested with the plenitude of his rights, the monarchs will confine themselves to the most ardent good wishes for the plans which this sovereign is about to adopt to re-construct his government upon a solid basis, and to secure, by laws and by wise institutions, the true interests of his subjects, and the constant prosperity of his kingdom. During the progress of these great transactions we saw burst forth, on more than one side, the effects of that vast conspiracy which has so long existed against all established power, and against all those rights consecrated by that social order under which Europe has enjoyed so many centuries of glory and happiness. The existence of this conspiracy was not unknown to the monarchs; but in the midst of those agitations which Italy experienced after the catastrophe of 1820, and of those wild impulses which were hence communicated to every mind, it developed itself with increasing rapidity, and its true character stood revealed in open day. It is not, as might have been supposed at an earlier period-it is not against this or that form of government, more particularly exposed to their declamations, that the dark enterprizes of the authors of these plots, and the frantic wishes of their blind partisans, are directed. Those states which have admitted changes into their political system are no more secure from their attacks than those whose venerable institutions have survived the storms of time. Pure monarchies, li mited monarchies, federative constitutions, republics, all are comprehended, all are ingulfed, in the proscriptions of a sect who brand as an oligarchy everything, of whatever kind, that rises above the level of a chimerical equality. The leaders of this impious league, indifferent as to what may result from the general destruction they meditate, careless about all stable and permanent organization, aim merely at the fundamental bases of society. To overthrow what exists, for the chance of substituting whatever accident may suggest to their wild imaginations, or to their turbulent passions-this is the essence of their doctrines, the secret of all their machinations. The allied sovereigns could not fail to perceive that there was only one barrier to oppose to this devastating torrent. To preserve what is legally established-such was, as it ought to be, the invariable principle of their policy, the point of departure, and the final object of all their resolutions. They were not to be deterred in their purpose by the vain clamours of ignorance or malice, accusing them of condemning humanity to a state of stagnation and torpor, incompatible with its natural and progressive march, and with the perfecting of social institutions. Never have these monarchs manifested the least disposition to thwart real ameliorations, or the reform of abuses which creep into the best governments. Very different views have constantly animated them; and if this repose, which governments and nations were justified in supposing secured by the pacification of Europe, has not operated all the good which might have been expected to result from it, it is because governments have been compelled to concentrate all their energies in the means of opposing bounds to the progress of a faction, which, disseminating everywhere error, discontent, and a fanaticism for innovation, would soon have rendered the existence of any public order whatever problematical. Useful or necessary changes in legislation, and in the administration of states, ought only to emanate from the free will and the intelligent and well-weighed conviction of those whom God has rendered responsible for power. All that deviates from this line necessarily leads to disorder, commotions, and evils far more insufferable than those which they pretend to remedy. Penetrated with this eternal truth, the sovereigns have not hesitated to proclaim it with frankness and vigour; they have declared that, in respecting the rights and independence of all legiti mate power, they regarded as legally null, and as disavowed by the principles which constitute the public right of Europe, all pretended reform operated by revolt and open hostility. They have acted conformably to this declaration, in the events which have taken place at Naples, in those of Piedmont, and in those even which, under very different circumstances, though produced by combinations equally criminal, have recently made the eastern part of Europe a prey to incalculable convulsions. The monarchs are so much the more decided not to deviate from this system, because they consider the firmness with which they have maintained it in so critical an epoch, as the true cause of the success which has attended their efforts towards the re-establishment of order in Italy. The governments of the Peninsula have acknowledged that they had nothing to fear, either for their political independence, the integrity of their territories, or the preservation of their rights, in claiming the assistance which was afforded to them upon the sole condition that it shall be made available only to the defence of their own existence. It is reciprocal confidence which has saved Italy; it is that which has extinguish ed, in the space of two months, a conflagration, which, had it not been for the intervention of the allied powers, would have ravaged and ruined the whole extent of that beautiful country, and long have menaced the rest of Europe. Nothing has more efficaciously demonstrated the strength of this moral agency, which united the salvation of Italy with the determination of the allied powers, than the prompt and auspicious termination of the revolt which had broken out in Piedmont. Conspirators, some of whom were foreigners, had planned this great crime, and had put in motion, to insure its success, the most detestable of all revolutionary means-that of exciting against authority the very armed force which is only created to obey it, and defend public order. The victim of a treason, inexplicable-if anything can be so, while political crimes find in Europe voices which dare to defend them a sovereign, enjoying a just title to the respect and affection of his subjects, saw himself compelled to descend from a throne which he adorned by his virtues; a considerable portion of the troops were hurried into the revolutionary abyss by the example and intrigues of a small number of ambitious partisans; and the murderous cries of an anti-social faction resound ed from the capital to the provinces. The monarchs assembled at Laybach did not delay to meet this state of things. Their union was one of those which acquires strength and energy from the magnitude of the danger. Their voice was heard. Instantly the faithful servants of the king, feeling that they were not abandoned, employed what resources remained to them to combat the enemies of the country and the national glory; the legitimate power, although limited and paralysed in its action, was not less active in sustaining its dignity and rights; and assistance arriving at the decisive moment of the crisis, the triumph of the good cause was very soon complete. Piedmont was delivered in a few days; and of this revolution, calculated upon the overthrow of more than one government, there only remains the infamous remembrance by its guilty authors. It is thus, by following without deviation the established principles and the line of conduct traced at the first period of their union, that the allied monarchs have succeeded in the pacification of Italy. Their direct object is attained. Not one of the steps which have been taken in furtherance of this issue has belied the declarations that truth and good faith had dictated. They will continue faithful to them in whatever new trials Providence may yet reserve for them. Called more than ever, as well as all the other sovereigns and lawful powers of Italy, to watch over the maintenance of the peace of Europe-to protect it not only against the errors and passions which may compromise it in the intercourse between one power and another, but more particularly against those disastrous attempts which would spread the horrors of universal anarchy over the civilized world-they would consider it a profanation of so august an object, to be guided by the strict calculations of a vulgar policy. As all is simple, open, and frankly avowed, in the system which they have embraced, they submit it with confidence to the judg ment of all enlightened governments. The Congress (re-union) which is about to close, will meet again in the course of the next year. Then will be taken into consideration the fixing of a term to the measures which, from the acknowledgment of the courts of Italy, and particularly of those of Naples and Turin, have been judged necessary to consolidate the tranquillity of the Peninsula. The monarchs and their cabinets will bring to the examination of this question the same mind which has hitherto directed them. Motives of incontestable weight, and fully justified by the results, determined the sovereigns to interfere in the affairs of Italy; but they are far from wishing to prolong this interference beyond the limits of strict necessity, desiring most sincerely that the circumstances which have imposed upon them this painful duty may never again occur. We have thought it useful, at the moment that the sovereigns are about to separate, to recapitulate in the preceding exposition the principles which have guided them in the late transactions. You are, in consequence, charged to make a communication of this despatch to the minister for foreign affairs of the court to which you are accredited. You will also herewith receive a declaration, conceived in the same spirit, which the cabinets have caused to be drawn up and printed, to convey to the knowledge of Europe the sentiments and principles with which the august sovereigns are animated, and which will constantly serve as the guide to their policy. Receive, &c. No. IV. PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.-1820-1821. THE sittings of the Royal Society were resumed on the 4th of November, 1819, at which meeting the Croonian Lecture, consisting of a further investigation of the constituent parts of the blood, was read by Sir Everard Home. On the 11th and 18th of the same month, Mr Brande read the Bakerian Lecture, "On the Composition and Analysis of the Inflammable Gaseous Compounds, resulting from the destructive Distillation of Coal and Oil; with Remarks on their relative heating and illuminating Powers;" and in which he detailed a series of experiments, analytical and synthetic, which led him to infer, that, except olefiant gas, there exists no other definite compound of hydrogen and carbon; and that what has usually been termed light hydro-carbonate, is merely a mixture of olefiant and hydrogen gases. The sulphureous odour frequently perceived during the combustion of coal gas, in which no sulphureted hydrogen has yet been detected, Mr Brande ascribed to the pre sence of sulphuret of carbon.-A paper, by Dr Carson, "On the Elasticity of the Lungs," was read on the 25th. After a number of introductory remarks, it proceeded to detail a number of experiments performed by the author for ascertaining the force of the elastic power of these organs. For this purpose he connected with the trachea of several animals a glass syphon, so placed as to admit of a column of water it contained exerting a pressure on the lungs. An opening was then made into the cavity of the chest on both sides, and the height of the column of water in the tube considered as equivalent to the pressure exerted by the elastic power of the lungs. In this way the resilience of the lungs of an ox was ascertained to be equal to a column of water, rather more than a foot and a half high; and in a still more satisfactory experiment made on the lungs of a dog, the column stood at ten inches. On the 30th, being St Andrew's day, the Society met for the election of officers for the ensuing |