GENERAL HISTORY. 



[8, 



Genoa to give up the government 

 to the person commissioned by the 

 Sing of Sardinia to receive it, and 

 to consider his corps as auxiliary 

 to that sovereign. With resi)ect 

 to this disposition, the following 

 extract from a dispatch of Lord 

 Castlereagh to Colonel Dalrymple, 

 commander of the British troops at 

 <jenoa, has been published as by au- 

 thority : — •' I exceedingly regret, 

 as well as do all the ministers, the 

 not being able to preserve to Ge- 

 noa a separate existence without 

 the risk of weakening the system 

 adopted for Italy, and consequently 

 exposing its safety ; but we are 

 persuaded that by the mode adopted 

 we have provided much more 

 strongly for the future tranquillity 

 of Genoa, and the prosperity of her 

 commerce. The generous disposi- 

 tions of the king of Sardinia, 

 whose ardent desire it is to fulfil 

 as much as possible the wishes of 

 the Genoese, will be to them the 

 most certain pledge of their being 

 placed under the protection of a 

 paternal and liberal government. 

 I have no doubt, that under these 

 circumstances, the Genoese of 

 every class will receive this deci- 

 sion as a benefit, and will conform 

 with pleasure to arrangements 

 which conciliate their own in- 

 terests with those of the rest of 

 Europe." 



Thus has another state been 

 transferred to a new master 

 without considering its consent as 

 in the least necessary to the vali- 

 dity of such an act; and from 

 these examples, a conclusion may 

 be formed of the nature of that 

 principle, which is to regulate the 

 decisions of that congress which 

 has so long held all Europe in a 

 •tate of anxious expectation. 



The annexation of all the other 

 districts in the North of Italy to 

 the Austrian dominion appears to 

 have been a further measure equally 

 determined upon in the councils of 

 the allied powers before they as- 

 sembled in congress. In an arti- 

 cle of intelligence from Venice, 

 we are told that the Emperor, by 

 a note in his own hand-writing, 

 dated May 13th, informed the 

 Grand Chancellor of Bohemia, that 

 the union of all Lombardy, and 

 the Ex-Venetian states, to the Aus- 

 trian monarchy had been defini- 

 tively settled ; which important 

 news was immediately communi- 

 cated to the prince of Reuss- 

 Plauen, civil and military go- 

 vernor for the Emperor in Italy. 



From Milan, the principal seat 

 of the imperial government in 

 Lombardy, accounts have occa- 

 sionally been transmitted, of dis- 

 orders which, though perhaps ex- 

 aggerated, sufficiently denote the 

 existence of discontents in that 

 quarter ; and indeed, it is well 

 known, that the principle of poli- 

 tical independence has many zea- 

 lous advocates in those parts of 

 Italy, which from ancient times 

 have been accustomed to local and 

 popular authorities, and have al- 

 ways regarded as an usurpation 

 the yoke of foreign dominion. A 

 proof of the jealousy entertained 

 on this head was given by the 

 publication of a decree, in conse- 

 quence of orders from the Aus- 

 trian court to the provisional re- 

 gency of Milan, rigorously prohi- 

 biting all secret societies, such as 

 lodges of free masons, and other 

 associations, whose objects are not 

 precisely known, and whose disci- 

 pline and procedings are enve- 

 loped in mystery. 



