Printed for C. TAYLOR, No. 108, Hatton Garden, Holborn, By Weston Hatfield and Comp. At the MILTONIAN PRESS, 20, Great New Street. 1817. LITERARY PANORAMA, AND National Register: For APRIL, 1817. NATIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES, PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE. ROYAL EDICT IN FAVOUR OF THE SICILIANS. ROYAL EDICT BY THE KING OF THE TWO SICILIES, RESTRICTING PUBLIC OFFICES IN THE ISLAND TO NATIVES. ..... the temper of the Public, the turn of reasoning, the tone of mind, the inferences and the conclusions, are all subject to the power of vicissitude. It has been at some periods the disposition of mankind to pay the greatest respect to concentrated power; to think most highly of the most absolute Sovereignty: this has been thought essential to freedom. Not so, the present inclination of popular opinion; that favours the division of power; and a well balanced Government is at this moment the desire of many nations: This, in its turn, is deemed of the very essence of that liberty, which, say some, no man can surrender; and of whieh no man ought to be deprived. Certainly, there can be no improvement without some change; and equally certainly, every change is not an im THE true Philanthropist views with satisfaction whatever tends to the amelioration of his race; whether it assumes the form of a benefit conferred, or of a disadvantage removed: For, it often happens that the removal of a disadvantage well deserves to be ranked among the greatest of benefits. The institutions of former ages may become not merely antiquated and obsolete, but also inapplicable and even injurious, to posterity. Neither can we acquit the reasonings of former ages, in all cases, from the errors of their times, arising princi-provement. pally from those imperfect views of things which circumstances then allowed; from that incomplete experience which was all that could then be obtained. How many maxims formerly thought incontrovertible, founded, as it were, on a rock, have later days seen occasion to renounce as altogether mistaken!-to be not only avoided, but the very contrary to be adopted, in practice. Such is the mutability of terrestrial affairs, and of all things under the controul of humanity. Manners change with times; customs and fashions vary; VOL. VI. No. 31. Lit. Pan. N, S. April 1. The event often deludes the anticipations of the most sagacious; and wisdom, or what was mistaken for her, looks back abashed on those very arguments by which she once supported her opinion; proved by the issue, to have been fallacious. It is among the disadvantages of modern kingdoms that they include provinces divided from each other by natural boundaries, or held by the common Sovereign by titles derived from different descents, or authorities distinct in kind and degree. But too often, do jealousies and suspicions arise between B |