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 resounded 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 hor rors 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 Na. ples 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.

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 de. tected, 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

year; but from having the proceedings of the Society for two years to compress into little more than the space usually allotted for one, we are under the necessity of omitting the list of

names.

On the 13th of January, 1820, Mr Herschell's paper "On the Action of Crystallized Bodies on Homogeneous Light, and on the Causes of Deviation from Newton's Scale of Tints, which many of them develope on exposure to a polarized Ray," the reading of which had commenced at a previous sitting, was concluded. When the work of Malus on this subject appear ed, the number of doubly refracting crystals known to philosophers, was very limited; and as the most remarkable of these possessed only one axis of double refraction, Huygen's law, applicable to that one, was presumed to hold good in all. But the discovery of crystals, with two axes of double refraction, has shewn the fallacy of this conclusion, and rendered new, and more accurate investigations necessary. There are two modes, the author observed, of conducting observations on double refraction and polarization; one founded on the immediate observation of the angular deviation of the extraordinary pencil; the other depending upon the separation of a polarized ray into complementary portions, by the action of crystallized lamina. The author preferred the latter method; and, after pointing out its advantages, remarked, that to render observations on the tints developed by polarized light available, they must be capable of being compared with one another; and hence the importance of knowing the existence and tracing the laws observed by the causes which disturb their regularity. In the author's first inquiries into the subject of the polarization of light, he was struck by the great deviation from the succession of colours in their laminæ,

which many crystals exhibited when cut into plates perpendicular to one of their axes, as observed by Newton; and finding this phenomenon unconnected with irregularities in their thickness and polish, and uniformly repeated in different and perfect specimens, he was induced to inquire into its cause, especially as it appeared to form an unanswerable objection to M. Biot's theory, which explains perfectly the tints in crystals with one axis. In the several sections of this elaborate paper, the author gave a detailed description of the phenomena, which are all reducible to one general fact; namely, that the axes of double refraction differ in their position in the same crystal; for the differently coloured rays of the spectrum being dispersed in one plane, over an angle more or less considerable, according to the nature of the substance employed, a new element is thus developed, which must in future enter into all rigorous formulæ of double refraction; while, from the complete explanation this principle affords of the perplexing anomalies of the tints, the theory of oscillation is relieved from every difficulty, and may be considered as adequate to the representation of all the phenomena of the polarized rays, and entitled to rank with the fits of easy transmission and reflection, as a simple and general physical law. At this meeting, also, a paper, by Dr Granville, was read, entitled, "An Account of a Case of Ovario-gestation," illustrated by beautiful drawings made by Mr Bauer.

On the 17th of February, Mr E. Davy's paper on some new combinations of platinum, part of which had been read at the meeting of the 20th of January, was concluded. The principal object of this paper was to describe a peculiar compound of platinum, obtained from the sulphate, by boiling it in alcohol.

On the 24th, a paper, by Dr Wol