The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-10 00:00:00

NAPLES AND SICILY.

The Ministerial crisis still continued at Naples on
the 30th ult. Prince PIGNATELLI DI STRONGOLI,
Commander of the National Guard, having been
charged with the construction of a new Cabinet, had
at first composed it of heterogeneous elements. The
Marquis DRAGONNETTI apprised the KING of this
circumstance, and, having had an interview with
Prince PIONATELLI, prevailed upon him to admit
into the Ministry General GuGLIELMO PEPE, who had
just returned from exile, GiovAisra ANDREA ROMEO,
and the Councillor of State FRANCESCO GAMBOA.
His MAJESTY, however, would not acquiesce in this
combination, and, on the morning of the 30th, ho
sent the Minister of the Interior to General PEPE,
to request his attendance, in order to form a
coalition Ministry. The result of their interview
was not yet known, and the people anxiously awaited
the return of the General from the Royal residence.
The following was the programme of the new
Ministry :-1. Full power for the Chamber of
Deputies to revise the constitution on a more liberal
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departure of a body of troops for Lombardy ; 6.
The organization of the civil, military, and judiciary
departments.

Letters of the 3 1 st state that the Ministry has been
reformed with Prince CAutyrr, as President and
General ParE as Minister at War.
The Sicilian Parliament was opened at Palermo on
the 25th ult. with extraordinary pomp in the Church
of St. Dominic. At 11, o'clock A.M. the Senate of
Palermo, the Supreme Court of Justice, the high
functionaries of the State, all the superior officers of
the land and sea forces and of the National and Mu-
nicipal Guards, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and
clergymen present in Palermo, marched in procession
to the church. There the Purligneßt, the peers And

representatives of the people, mixed together, and
the members of the Provisional Govern-
ment, having at their head RUGGIERO
SETTIMO, their energetic President, took their seats
in the centre ; the civil and military functionaries,
the diplomatic and consular agents, and a considerable
number of ladies placed themselves on the right a::(1
left, and the people occupied the aisles. After mass,
a " Veni Creator " was sung, and the " Salut" cele-
brated, amidst the ringing of bells, and the reports
of artillery, fired from the forts of Castellamore and
Garitta, and the ships of war.
When the religious ceremony was over, the Pre-
sident ascended a tribune erected in the centre of
the church, and read the opening speech, of which
the following is an abstract : after having summed
up the principal events of the late insurrecG'n, the
President said—

" The General Committee will now proceed to ex-
plain to the Parliament the negotiations entered into
with the Neapolitan Government relative to the fun-
damental laws of the kingdom. Pending the struggle
at Palermo, the Committee deemed it expedient to
apply to the illustrious English diplomatist who was
then at Rome, engaged in the pacification of Italy.
The first communication of the Committee had for
its object to explain to him the situation of Palermo,
and to demand from the British Ambassador, in the
event of an arrangement, to guarantee by his pre•
sence all the liberties which Sicily could obtain in
the negotiation. The Committee had acted timely,
for the Neapolitan Government, alarmed at the events
in Sicily, shortly afterwards solicited the mediation of
Lord Minto, who had already left Rome for Naples."
The PRESIDENT, after describing the preliminaries
of the negotiation, thus continued :
" As the decrees issued by the King on the Gth did
not give Sicily all the guarantees it had a right to
expect, the Committee declared them null and void.
Thus ended the negotiations, and the illustrious per-
sonage who had conducted them, and had already re-
paired to Palermo, made known to the General Com-
mittee, in the most explicit terms, that the basis of
all further negotiation should be, on the one hand,
the unity of the Crown, and, on the other, all the
guarantees calculated to insure the constitution and
independence of Sicily. After long discussions in the
Committee these two conditions were formally laid
down."

These articles our readers may recollect had been
reje:ted by the King of NAPLES.
" The negotiation," continued the President, " ap-
pears to be interrupted, for yesterday the General
Committee received a communication from Lord
Minto, together with a Protest of the King of Naples
against every act which took place in Sicily, and was
not entirely conformable to the decree of the 6th of
March, the fundamental statute and the Constitution
sworn to by the King. The committee responds to
that protest by the convocation of the Sicilian Par-
liament. Before its dissolution the committee will
accomplish a last act of the executive power, which
the constitution of 1812 vests in the State, but which
is in nowise represented here by any of
the successors of King Ferdinand, the third
of that name in Sicily, at the period when
the Parliament ceased to exist in 1814. The committee,
heedless of the protest signed by King Ferdinand 11.
at Naples on the 22d inst., and regarding it as con-
trary to the 17th paragraph of the chapter of the con-
stitution relative to the succession to the throne, de-
clares the general Parliament of Sicily to be legally
opened at Palermo, according to the imprescriptible
rights of the country, and invites you, gentlemen,
peers, and representatives of the Commons, to proceed
to your ordinary places of meeting, and to vote with
all possible promptitude a law on the exercise of the
executive power, adapted to circumstances. In this
manner the legislative and executive power, duly insti-
tuted may labour together to realise the reforms
necessary in the constitution and the laws. The
country shall be ruled by a solid, simple, and strong
Government, which shall enforce respect to the rights
of the island. Sicily, after the violent commotion
which always follows a revolution, will, by peace and
liberty, promote civilization, public morality, ar.d ma-
terial prosperity. May the Almighty ble-s and in-
spire the votes of the Parliament, and direct them
towards that holy end ! May He cast a favourable
glance on our island, and assign it a share in the great
destinies of the Italian people, free, independent, and
united!"

ROME.
The POPE has ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits
from Rome.

CHARTIST
DEMONSTRATION.

(THIS DAY.)

TEN O'CLOCK, A.M.
GOVERNMENT OFFICES, &c.
(FROM OUR OWN REPORTER.)

Every precaution has been made at the various
public offices to meet any disorder that may arise
out of the proceedings of this day. Somerset-house
has been packed with the household troops ; the Ad-
miralty is occupied with a detachment of the Sixteenth
and the Sappers and Miners ; while the Horse Guards
and the Home-office are taken possession of by ether
regiments of the line. The minor offices, as the
Board of Control, &c., are also defended by armed
detachments, while other measures—the closing up
of the gates, barricading the windows, and strengthen-
ing the external defences, have been extensively
adopted. The line of road from the Strand to the
new Houses of Parliament has all the appearance of
a thoroughfare in a besieged capital ; shops are
closed up, the windows and doors of the mansions of
the nobility, as the residence of the Duke of
Northumberland, at Charing-cross, Montague-house,
and the residences of Sir Robert Peel and other no-
blemen and Commoners in Whitehall-gardens, are
fastened up. Notices from the Police Commissioners,
that no carts, vans, or omnibuses are to be allowed
upon the road from Abingdon-street to Cockspur-
street after eleven o'clock, and that no delay is
to be permitted in the other streets, agitate the pub-
lic, and the appearance of patrols of mounted police,
and of single files of soldiers in the usually quiet
streets, is ominous and alarming. At an early hour
this morning above 2,000 of the Guards were sent
to the Common, and at a later hour another large
detachment of the 16th Regiment were ordered to
follow. The citizens who have during the last few
days been sworn in at the different police-offices
parade the streets in numbers, with their distinctive
badges upon their arms. These keep up a continued
correspondence with the officers of Scotland-yard, so
that they are ready at any time to concentrate their
strength where required.