The Sun.
London, England, 1825-11-14 00:00:00

quence attracted a multitude of clients from the provinces of
the terra firma, and procured for nearly 1,000 families comfort
and riches;—all these were resources which ceased on a sudden
with the changes in our political existence.
" All these families from that moment saw their fortunes
change, and from being able, with their superfluities, to relieve
the poor, always numerous is a city celebrated for its charities,
they were at once precipitated into the class of the indigent, and
were numbered with those reduced to implore succour.
This real and unexaggerated picture, which, as President of
the General Commission of •Benevolence, I presume to lay
before your Majesty, a'. the same time that, according to the
commands contained in your royal order of the 22d of De-
cember, 1823, I lay at your Majesty's feet the general state-
ment of the accounts to the 31st of Deceraber, 1823, has no
other object than that of supplicating your merciful considera-
tion in favour of our unhappy but virtuous people, who at the
first view may appear slothful and idle, bat who, in reality,
can be accused of nothing but misfortune, arising from a most
rapid change in circumstances.
Should your Majesty, on the representation of these too
real and unvarnished facts, desiam to give them consideration,
your Majesty will cease to be surprised how this population,
once so flourishing from commerce and manufactures, should
he at this day reduced to 100,000 souls, t of which barely one-
third part can be considered, I will not say affluent, but pos-
sessing a sufficiency—calculating that in this third part are
included those individuals in your Majesty's service, or those
enjoying pensions (both forming a principal branch of re-
source), while the remainder is reduced to the necessity of im-
ploring from the munificence of your :',lajesty, and from the
charity of others, precarious means of subsistence.
Far from describing to your Majesty with fallacious and ex-
aggerated expressions the daily decay of the population, I
feel it my duty to submit to your Ma iesty, sitting daily as Pre-
sident of the General Commission o'd Benevolence, and there-
by having the means of seeing closely, and in all their reality,
the urgent and real Wants of the population, that indigence
increases as rapidly as commercial activity diminishes, and that
many of those meritorious individuals, originally contributors
to, and supporters of, the above charitable institution, have
been reduced to the necessity of imploring and receiving as-
sictance from it.
Such, Sire, and so great is the want Of resources and of occu-
pation in this city, once so prosperous, that every day that the
charitable society co-operates with the ministry of the police,
(which has always displayed the greatest activity and desire to
do good), nothing is heard but the lamentations of merchants
fallen into extreme indigence—of mercantile captains com-
plaining of want of employment—of seamen, manufacturers,
artists, and boatmen, dismissed by their employers, without
knowing where to apply, or what employment to seek, to pro-
vide for the wants of their numerous families.
If, in the midst of these afflictions, the General Commis-
sion has been able, in the space of the last seven years and a
half, to extract from the few prosperous inhabitants a sum of
1,600,000 Austrian livres (about 55,0001. sterling) for the re-
lief of the indigent, (as your Majesty may observe from the
accounts of the administration of the funds of this Society,
without including other numerous and unavoidable contribu-
tions to support the orphan asylums and religious institutions,
and to keep the churches in a state of repair), this is attribu-
table only tolhe naturally charitable character of the Venetian,
who has always shewn himself more ready to restrain his own
wants, than to deprive his unfortunate fellow-citizens of succe ur •
But the inclination to do good, Sir, yields to the imperious
necessity of circumstances ; and I should be wanting in justica
to myself and to the duties imposed upon me by my office of
President, if, after having tried every resource, and exhausted
every mode of meeting the demand's on the institution (in-
creased of late by the applications of those persons, until lately
employed in the printing and Chancery offices, lately abolish-
ed for the sake of retrenchment), I did not submit to the gra-
cious consideration of your Majesty, the urgent situation of our
pious institutions, and the means of preserving it.
The late Italian Government, in the decree of the 18th of
June, 1807, vol. 1, article 26, page 312, declared the property
of the religious societies to tie forfeited to the Board of Revenue,
assigning at the same time an annuity on the Mont dc Piete,
in compensation of the capital at that time remaining in the
Mint and the Bank of Venice.

This measure, whicli stripped the religious societies of their
capitals, the united interest of which very touch exceeded the
sum assigned, by a decree of the 7th of December, 1807, vol. 3,
article 43, page 1197, published the system of spoliation still
further, by assuming the right of superseding those testamen-
tary dispositions made anterior to the publication of the said
decree where the parties have not established their claim, re-
serving to the Mont de Fide the exclusive privilege of assum-
ing the rights of the religious fraternities, for the purposes con-
templated by the first decree of the 28th of July, 1806, vol. 2,
page 821.
Nor did the operations of the Board of Revenue stop here ;
for after carrying away the books and papers belonging to the
religious fraternities, it possessed itself of much property,
which, according to the strict interpretation of the law, they
were not authorized to possess themselves of.
The administration of the religious fraternities being after-
wards confided to the society, called the New Congregation
of Charity, it did not possess the' means, or perhaps the ne-
cessary vigour to resist this spoliation, and to re-establish the
rights of the fraternities, which were allowed to exist accord-
ing to their ancient regulations, even under the late Govern-
ment.

In 1817, the claim on the part of the poor of St. Lucia (now
the diltrict of St. Geremia) to an annuity of 918.97. (Austrian
livres), left by an Albanese, named Dante, secured upon a
paper-manufactory at Frenza, was recognized and admitted.
The Voard of Revenue endeavoured to take this sum under its
controul, but the General Commission of Benevolence opposed
the attempt, on the ground of this sum being derived from the
Papal States. The_Poard of Revenue was obliged to yield,
and on a representation made to his Holiness of the right of
the poor to this sum, the possession of it was fully confirmed
to them by a Decree of Nov. 22, 1823.
The poor of the religious fraternity of St. Cassan, in whose
favour the interest of a capital standing in the books of the
Mont de Picte was Inscribed after the death of the annuitant
Astori, were not equally fortunate, for the Prefect of the Mont
refused to accept the transfer of the annuity of 902. 30. (Aus-
trian livres), with the intentionof annulling the capital under
the authority of the aforesaid article No. 43, although the title
of the poor attached to the said fraternity was only made good
after the death of the annuitant Astori, which occurred in 1822
and without the said capital having been included in the gene-
ral sequestration of 1807. The Board of Revenue has never
given this fraternity any compensation. -
Your Majesty will perceive from this statement, that it is in-
tended to deprive tire poor of the religious fraternities of this
city of that property which has been bequeathed for their bene-
fit by certain pious and charitable individuals, under the pre-
tence that the original dispositions in their favour were made
before the,decree of the 7th of December, 1807, although the
right of possession did not come to them till long after they
came under the religidus and pious guardianship of your Ma-
, jesty.
I, or the relief of the wretched inhabitants of this city, and for
the maintenance and support of the charitable institution upon.
which devolves the duty of succouring so many indigent indi-
viduals, I invoke your Majesty's attention and clemency to the
-.following objects :-
Ist. That all capitals and annuities, arising from testamen-
tary dispositions, the claims to which have been verified since
the decree of the Bth of December, 1807, and which have not
been seized by the late Covernment up to the 20th of April,
1814, the day on which the late Government ceased to exist, as
in the above cited cases of Dante and Astori, should he placed
at the disposition of the respective religiods rateraities, as, in-
tended by the pious testators.
2. That as regards the compensations for the .property un-
jUstly.confisCated by the Board of Revenue under the late Go-'
.vernment, and which was alienated by it during its existence,
they may be considered as coming within the operation of the
article No. 20, of the regulation of the 26th of June, 1822,
made by the Diplomatic Commission at Milan: But for that
portion which still exists under the controul of the Board of
Revenue, represented'as legal seizure, that it may be restored
in virtue of the dispatch of .the Aulic-Chamber, No. 32,612,
addressed to the legate Tani, in favour of the poor of St. Ger-
vasio and St. Protasio.

3. That this restitution, in consequence of the books and
papers of the religious fraternities having been seized, should
be made through a commission or committee united to the ge-
neral commission of benevolence which represents the poor of
all_the religious fraternities.

This is what I supplicate from the justice of your Majesty,
for the benefit of the indigent portion of this miserable popula-
tion, which asks nothing but the restitution of its own property,
of Which it never could have been deprived but by the effect of
the late political vicissitudes.

Should it please your Majesty, by this concession, to en-
courage the pious labours of the Society over which I preside,
aid which, by its indefatigable exertions and pecuniary &len-
fices, has repeatedly received your Majesty's approbation, and
also to grant it some permanent succour, then I may not only
be able courageously to re-animate its exertions, but also to.preit
serve 11 those advantages which this provident Institution se-
cures to morality and religion.
LADISLAUS PIJAKER, Patriarch, President.
Venice, July 1, 1£125.