142] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



Upon chests, weighing llOlb. 

 and upwards, IS per cent. 



Upon chests, weighing under 

 llOlb. 25 percent. With reser- 

 vation, however, of the same 

 remedy as is prescribed in the 

 sixth article of the law of the 3d 

 of October 1816, in the case of 

 inadequate tares. 



We enjoin and command, &.c. 



Passed the Second Chamber of 

 the States -General, on the 16"th of 

 December 1817, with a majority 

 of 85 against 7- 



SARDINIA. 



(From the Piedmontese GazetteJ 



The King of Sardinia, by a 

 decree of the Oth of Dec. has 

 abolished — 



1. The prohibition against the 

 erection of primogenitures and feu- 

 dal rights, enacted by the 9th sec- 

 tion of the edict of the 29th of 

 July 1/97, or by any other law; 

 restricting, however, to those pri- 

 mogenitures and majorats only 

 which shall be erected in favour of 

 persons to come in terms of our 

 laws, the capacity of establishing 

 similar limitations, and in favour 

 of their descendants in the male 

 line, leaving in force the laws 

 enacted before the 29tL of July 

 1797, in sucli matters. 



2. When the peison who erect-s 

 such majorats, however, shall leave 

 four children or upwards, he shall 



» not have the power of entailing 

 more than a third part of his pa- 

 trimony ; and where he sliall have 

 less than four, he shall not be able 

 to tie up more than the half of it. 



3. It shall always Oe allowed to 

 the person who erects such primo- 

 genitures and majorats, to trans- 

 mit through them the title of no- 



bility which may be conferred up- 

 on them. 



4. It reserves to the sovereign 

 the right of enacting, with regard 

 to the Duchy of Genoa, such pro- 

 visions as he may judge convenient. 



This decree is introduced by a 

 preamble, of which the following 

 is the most important passage:' — 



"Desirous to maintain in the 

 class which, by their peculiar in- 

 stitution, stands nearest the throne, 

 and whose especial duty it is to 

 Avatch over its defence, that lustre 

 and inheritance of glory which 

 forms its noblest prerogative, we 

 have determined to return to the 

 laws that existed with regard to 

 primogeniture before 1797. But 

 for the same end, other and more 

 important provisions still are re- 

 quired, for the abuse of titles must 

 be restrained (which must ema- 

 nate from us alone); and there- 

 fore the rules of their concession, 

 transmission, and extinction, shall 

 be fixed with relation to their do- 

 tation and prerogatives." 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 



(Letter from Constantinople, 20th June. 

 Printed in the Hamburgh Mail.) 



The representations of the Rus- 

 sian minister. Count Von Strogo- 

 nofT, which were founded on the 

 most reasonable and just demands 

 of Russia, seem not to have led to 

 any thing decisive in the Divan. 

 The influence of the Grand Vizier 

 over the Rcis-Effendi and the 

 Tefterdar had hindered it. The 

 Sultan, who, on the other hand, 

 earnestly desired a good under- 

 standing with Russia, addressed 

 on the 3d of March to the Grand 

 A' izier the following energetic and 

 remarkable rescript : — 



" HALTI- 



