March 18, 1859, as inscribed on the lists possessed by the Ministry of Grace and Justice, are released from the remainder of their punishment.

II. Our President of the Council of Ministers, our Provisional Director of the Department of Grace and Justice, &c., are charged with the execution of the present Decree.

PRINCE OF SATRIANO, Councillor,

Minister Secretary of State, President of

the Council of Ministers.

FRANCIS.

Decree, removing Disabilities for Political Offences.

FRANCIS II, &c.

Capodimonte, June 16, 1859.

Wishing to mark by an act of clemency our accession to the Throne of the Two Sicilies, and to take into our kind consideration those of our subjects who, in consequence of the political troubles of 1848 and 1849, are included in the lists of "attendibili," we have resolved to decree, and decree as follows:

ART. I. Henceforth, the "attendibili" above mentioned are relieved from all impediments in the way of their obtaining travelling passes, and the credentials necessary to enable them to rise to Doctor's degrees; they are, moreover, eligible for public offices. II. Our President of the Council is charged, &c. PRINCE OF SATRIANO, Councillor,

Minister Secretary of State, President of

the Council of Ministers.

Decree, commuting the Sentences of Criminals.

FRANCIS II, &c.

FRANCIS.

Capodimonte, June 16, 1859.

With reference to our Decree of this day's date:

Being desirous that those condemned for ordinary offences should participate likewise in our sovereign clemency;

We have resolved to sanction, and sanction the following Sovereign Act:

ART. I. The term of punishment is reduced by 3 years for all those sentenced to irons, whether in bagnes or in garrison, imprisonment with hard labour, transportation to an island, and to the police punishments of confinement in a house of correction, and of banishment within the Kingdom.

II. The fines are remitted.

III. All those sentenced to short terms of imprisonment, domiciliary arrest, and fine, for misdemeanours, are pardoned.

IV. This sovereign indulgence extends to all those whose sentences to the punishments above enumerated, have been pronounced up to the present date.

In cases where the sentence or verdict should not have been irrevocably determined, the condemned will nevertheless have the benefit of the reduction or remission of punishment, unless within the term of one month they declare before a competent magistrate, and in the legal form, that they prefer, in their own interest, to have the matter of the charge discussed before a court of appeal.

V. Are released from their penalties all those convicted of simple contraventions, punishable according to Article XXXVI of the Penal Statutes, and for offences which are of their own and primary nature punishable with the two degrees of confinement with labour, with banishment within the Kingdom, and police. banishment, or fine, provided that the offences have been committed before the present date.

VI. Are excluded from the benefits of this act of clemency all accused or convicted of robbery, forgery, according to the cases contemplated by title 5, book 2, of the Penal Law, simple or qualified fraud, simple or fraudulent brankruptcy; likewise all those guilty of offences for the second time.

VII. All our Ministers of State, &c., are charged with the execution of the present Decree, as regards the portion of it which concerns each.

PRINCE OF SATRIANO, Councillor,

Minister Secretary of State, President of

the Council of Ministers.

FRANCIS.

Decree for the Redemption by the Government of Articles pledged by the Poor in the Mont de Piété.

FRANCIS II., &c.

Capodimonte, June 15, 1859.

Wishing the necessitous classes of our most beloved subjects to participate in our sovereign munificence on the occasion of our accession to the throne:

We have resolved to decree, and decree as follows:

ART. I. All articles of woollen stuff, and cloth, and of ordinary metal, up to the value of two ducats for each person, which have been placed in pawn up to the 15th June instant in the "Mont de Piété" of our Royal Bank of the Two Sicilies shall be paid for, with interest, by our Royal Treasury and are to be returned gratis to those who pledged them.

II. Our Director of the Ministry of Finance is charged with the execution of the present Decree.

PRINCE OF SATRIANO, Councillor,

Minister Secretary of State, President of

the Council of Ministers.

RAIMONDO DE LIGUORO, Director of Finance, &c.

FRANCIS,

SIR,

No. 6.-Lord J, Russell to Mr. Elliot.

Foreign Office, June 23, 1859. I HAVE received and laid before the Queen your despatches of the 16th and 17th instant, and I have the satisfaction of conveying to you Her Majesty's gracious approval of your proceedings as reported in those despatches.

With reference to your despatch of the 17th instant, inclosing the Decrees announcing an amnesty to the political offenders of the years 1848 and 1849, and the pardon of the persons subjected to the surveillance of the police, I have to state to you that Her Majesty's Government concur in your observations upon the omissions in those Decrees, and desire that you should urge General Filangieri to extend the terms of the amnesty for political offences so as to include those persons exempted from the operations of the present Decree. I am, &c.

The Hon. H. Elliot.

J. RUSSELL.

No. 7.-Mr. Elliot to the Earl of Malmesbury.—(Received June 28.) (Extract.) Naples, June 20, 1859.

I HAVE the honour to forward to your Lordship herewith a letter, together with its translation, which I have received from some of the unfortunate prisoners confined in the gaol of Sta. Maria Apparente, of whom the total number is 48; 16 of them being accused of being accomplices of Milano, who attempted the late King's life. Your Lordship will observe that this letter is couched in the most moderate language, and that the petitioners confine themselves to the prayer that they may either be brought to trial or set at liberty.

I considered that I should best advance the interests of these ill-used people by letting both M. Carafa and Prince Filangieri know that I had received the petition, and by allowing them to read a copy of the letter to which the signatures were not attached. I regret, however, to have to report that I was not able to extract anything which will justify me in holding out to the friends of the prisoners the expectation of an immediate release. Both of the Neapolitan Ministers, indeed, at once admitted that the petition was moderate and unexceptionable, and that it asked for nothing more than what the prisoners had a strict legal right to demand; and on my insisting that their detention was a gross violation of the law, they both of them allowed this to be the case.

In most countries an admission of that nature might be considered nearly equivalent to a determination that justice should be done; but the law has here been so systematically violated and disregarded, that I am afraid of being too sanguine.

The Earl of Malmesbury.

HENRY ELLIOT,

No. 9.-Mr. Elliot to the Earl of Malmesbury.-(Received June 28.) (Extract.) Naples, June 21, 1859.

I HAVE already made your Lordship acquainted with some of the objections which were almost immediately taken to the late Royal Decrees respecting the amnesty and the "attendibili;" and I regret to have now to report that these objections have been more and more gaining ground till the first feeling of satisfaction which was excited on the appearance of the measures, has given way to an almost universal disappointment at their not being more complete.

I did not conceal from General Filangieri my regret that the amnesty should have been limited to the persons implicated in the events of 1848 and 1849, whom I understood to be few in number, while those imprisoned in the following years are said to be extremely numerous; and I added, that the omission of all mention of the exiles had produced an unfortunate effect. His Excellency said that the persons who would benefit by the amnesty were more numerous than I seemed to imagine, and amounted to about 180; but he admitted that the measure would be incomplete without another, relative to the exiles, which must certainly follow.

I likewise called his attention very particularly to the Decree respecting the "attendibili," according to which also it would appear that it was only those implicated in 1848 and 1849 who were to benefit by it.

From this interpretation of the Decree, General Filangieri expressed the most entire and absolute dissent, and he gave himself the greatest pains to show that it applied to the whole of those who had never been placed upon the list; and although the wording of the Decree is equivocal, it can certainly be made to bear the construction he puts upon it, and which he declares to have been the one intended by the King.

The explanation which General Filangieri gives is, that previous to 1848 and 1849 the "attendibili" did not exist, but that a list of them was then made which has been constantly added to; and the Decree, which restores to their civil rights all the persons who had been ranked among the "attendibili," created by the events of the above-mentioned years, applies to the whole of those who are upon

the list.

Nothing, in short, could be more complete or unmistakeable than General Filangieri's assurance that the measure was of the most universal application. The Earl of Malmesbury.

HENRY ELLIOT.

No. 12.-Mr. Elliot to Lord J. Russell.—(Received July 5.) MY LORD, Naples, June 27, 1859. WITH reference to my telegraphie messages of yesterday's date, giving the substance of the edict with reference to the exiles, I have now the honour to transmit to your Lordship, in original and translation, the edict itself, as it appeared, in extenso, in the "Gazette" of last Saturday. I have, &c.

Lord J. Russell.

HENRY ELLIOT.

(Translation.)

(Inclosure.)-Edict.

Capodimonte, June 16, 1859.

FRANCIS II, by the grace of God, King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, &c.

Being desirous upon the occasion of our accession to the Throne to make those of our subjects participate in our sovereign indulgence, who, in consequence of the conduct followed by them during the disorders of 1848 and 1849, find themselves in foreign parts;

We have resolved to decree, and do decree as follows:

ART. I. Permission to return to their country is granted to our subjects, exiles in foreign parts, whose names are herewith annexed: [Here follow 137 names of exiles.]

II. We, however, reserve to ourselves to provide for those others of our subjects, exiles in foreign parts, and not comprised in this sovereign act of ours, who shall send in their petitions to us, and who shall promise to live within the shadow of our laws, as for every honest subject is meet and right.

III. Our Councillor, Minister Secretary of State, President of the Council of Ministers, our Lieutenant-General in Sicily, our Minister Secretary of State for the Affairs of Sicily, near our Royal person; the Chargé du Portefeuille of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Provisional Administrator of the Ministry of General Police, are severally charged with the execution of the present Decree, as each is for his part concerned therein.

PRINCE OF SATRIANO, Councillor,

Minister Secretary of State, President of

(Extract.)

the Council of Ministers.

No. 14.- Lord J. Russell to Mr. Elliot.

FRANCIS.

Foreign Office, July 6, 1859.

You will press strongly on the Principal Minister of the Crown the necessity of abolishing, as soon as possible the despotism of the police.

Men may differ about the merits of Representative Constitutions, and the form and time in which they should be put in force; but there can be no difference of opinion among enlightened men