The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-14 00:00:00

ROMAN STATES.

The Roman government has issued a decree, dated
the 3rd, ordering the sale by auction of the remaining
domainial posseseions situated in the provinces of
Urbino, Pesaro, Ancona, Macerate, Fermo, Ascoli, and
Camerino.

The Pope has pardoned MM. Pietro and Paolo Pa-
lombo, who had commanded some of the troops of
the late Roman republic.

PIEDMONT.
TURIN, MAY •
I informed you, at the time of its publication of the
" Episcopal Circular," addressed by the Archbishop of
Turin to the clergy of his diocese, in which he pre-
scribed to them the conduct they were to hold whea-
-1 ever • priest should be called on to appear before •
lay tribunal, in civil or criminal causes. I mentioned
to you, also, that by this circular Monsignor Fransoci
committed an act of provocation to a revolt against
the application of the law, by commanding the priests
I not to obey the summons of the lay judge without
having first obtained the episcopal authorisation, and
by ordaining that, even when there was not time to
obtain such authorisation, they were formally
to protest that, in responding to the judicial summons
they did so, only as yielding to necessity, and without
admitting that from this fact any argument or pre-
cedent could be inferred.sgainst the integral right of
the ecclesiastical inimantues. I told you how much
this °Deduct of Monsignors, the Archbishop, bad irri-
tated the population of the country, on account of the
persuasion universally held that he was only an in-
strument in the hands of the darlmome Austro-
Jeenitical conspiracy, which endeavours constantly to
sow dissension and disorder in Piedmoct. I also in-
formed you that the ministry, while it .scrupulously
defeated the safety and personal dignity of Mon-
signors Fransosi against the insults or in-
jury that might have awned to his detri-

meat, in consequence of the popular irrita-
tion, °mild not, on the other hand, decline to give
a just satisfaction to public opinion in seisiog and
stopping the publication of the archbishop's circular,
and in ordering proceedings to be instituted against
him, according to the forms established. This
conduct on the part of the ministry was the more
applauded by all esasible men, as every day shows
more plainly the disposition of a portion of the high
clergy to resist the /eider application of the law. A
priest of the diocese of &loss*, availing himself of
the common right he holds in virtue of the recently
made filmier& law (the very one in question, the
object of the archbishop's circular), summoned before
a lay tribunal another priest, his debtor, to obtain the
payment of what he owed him. Upon this, M.
°Menotti, bishop of that diocese, intimated to him
the order that he was immediately to desist from the
prosecution of the suit begun ; threatening him, in
case of disobedience, to suspend him forthwith a diri-
nit, which means to interdict him from the exerciee of
his clerical functions. On witnessing so much impu-
dence, ministers have become the more convinced of
the necessity of proceeding vigorously against these
lords of the mites and crosier, that they may be made
to understand, once for all, ;hat we are in the 19th
century, and no longer in the middle ages; and that
in these our days, the civil authority has the faculty,
right, and power, to compel all, including even
bishops, to the obedience due to the laws. In con-
sequence the ministry enjoined the Attorney-
general to carry on regularly the proceedings against
Archbishop Franzooi, to whom it was intimated that
he had to appear before the ordinary tribunal, to be
interrogated in the legal forms. Toe Archbishop
replied that he was cited to appear in virtue of a law
which, in his opinion, violated the rights and immu-
nities of the church ; that, having himself ordered
the ecclesiastics under his authority not to yield to
the summons of the lay judges, until they should have
first applied for the permission of the superior eoclesi-
astical authorities, he could not be the first to pursue a
different line of conduct ; that he had therefore
written to the Supreme Pontiff to implore of him
the necessary instructions ; and that he did not
intend to appear before the tribunal until he should
have received it. NaT, more, not satisfied with having
I thus manifested his intention to resist the regular en-
forcement of the law, his episcopal krdehip allowed
this his answer to be published in the Armenia, •
newspaper which is the avowed organ of the Austro-
Jesuitical sect, evidently with the intention of in-
citing and encouraging the clergy to imitate the illus-
trious example of their chief. Now, as, by the crimi-
nal laws of the country, wh any one is called
upon to appear before a judge, and lets three days pass
without obeying the summons, the order to appear in
court is changed into one of arrest, the ar..hbishop has
placed himself in the position of a defaulter; so that
yesterday, at 12 o'clock in the day, an officer of the
Carabinieri (gendarmes) presented himself at the
archicpiecopal palace, and exhibiting to his Orace
,Monseigneur Franzooi a regular order of capture, in-
timated to him in the most polite terms and respectful
manner that he must have the goodness to accompany
nun to the citadel; to which, in fact, he was con-
ducted, with all possible regards due to the high
rank with which be is invested.

GERMANY.

PRUSSIA.

Count Below left here yesterday for Copenhagen,
bearing the Prussian ultimgam, and also an auto-
graph letter from the king.

BERLIN, MAT 11.
Authentic accounts of the proceedings of the con-
gress are still wanting. The princes held another
confidential sitting this morning in the palace. Some
slight details of the meting of the ministers and
plenipotentiaries last night have leaked oat. It
seems that Herr von Hassenpfiug. who, in his capacity
as prime minister in Hesse Coma, had appointed him-
self plenipotentiary to the Verwaltangs-Rath, opened
the proceedings list night by expressing his surprise
at the presence of certain parties other than the re-
sponsible ministers of the respective sovereigns who
were aloneauthorised to attend. The pretence of the
members of the Verwaltungs-Rath. to whom thisob-
jection applied, wee, however, defended by the Prus-
sian minister, and, being supported by the other
ministers present, the objection of Hanonpflog was
overruled. The representatives of Prussia then de-
clared that the government considered the proposals
of the Erfurt parliament as improvements in the con-
stitution, bat that the promulgation of the constitu-
tion with these improvements required the consent of
the sovereigns belonging to the Inion. The majority
of the plenipotentianes and ministers at onee declared
the consent of their governments to the proposals.
Baden and Stthammburg Lippe reserved their
consent, as they had not yet received the documents
from the Verwaltungs-Hath. Mecklenburg considered
the proposed alterations improvements, but desired
still further alterations. With regard to the Hessian
principalities, it seems clear that they will withdraw
from the union. Herr von Iwpel, the plenipotentiary
of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, has not taken any part
in the recent proceedings of the Verwaltung*.
Rath, a step which is held to be tantamount
to a withdrawal, while the Elector of Hesse, accord-
ing to report, was the only one of the princes in the
congress who opposed the otherwise unanimous reso-
lution of maintaining unaltered, and through all
dangers, the narrower union in its present shape.
The Constitutional says that the Elector of Hesse
desires to play the part of mediator between the union
and the Munchen Four Kings' League.