It at once narrowed the franchise, declaring citizenship to be dependent on a property-qualification, which was to be fixed by the legislature; but this right carried, by itself, not a particle of political power. The elective functions were vested exclusively in three colleges and a board of censors, which were to be convoked once at least in two years, for short sessions. The college of the possidenti or landholders was composed of three hundred citizens, rated for the land-tax on property worth not less than 6,000 Milanese livres, or about £170. It was self-elected, and met at Milan. The college of the dotti or savants contained two hundred citizens, eminent in art, theology, ethics, jurisprudence, physics, or political science. It sat at Bologna. The college of the commercianti or merchants consisted of two hundred citizens, elected by the board itself from among the most distinguished mercantile men or manufacturers. Its seat was Brescia. Members of all the colleges held their places for life. The censors were a committee of twenty-one named by the colleges at every sitting. This commission, assembling at Cremona, nominated the council of state, the legislative body, the courts of revision and cassation, and the commissaries of finance, all from lists submitted by the colleges. It was likewise authorised to impeach public servants for malversation in office.
[1802-1804 A.D.]
The administration was vested in a president (who could name a vice-president), a council of state, a cabinet of ministers, and a legislative council. The president was elected by the first of these bodies, and held his office for ten years. He possessed the initiative in all laws, and in all diplomatic business, and also the whole executive power, to be exercised through the ministry.
The council of state was particularly designed for advising in foreign affairs, and for sanctioning by its decrees all extraordinary measures of the president. The ministers lay under a broad personal responsibility, both for acts and omissions. The legislative council, chosen, like the ministry, by the president, had a deliberative voice in all drafts of law; and the preparation and carrying through of bills were to be mainly intrusted to it.
The legislative body, which possessed the functions indicated by its name, consisted of seventy-five members, one-third of whom were to go out every two years. It was to be convoked and prorogued by the government; but its sittings were to last not less than two months in every year.
The Catholic clergy were recognised as the ministers of the national church, and as entitled to possess the ecclesiastical revenues. The administration named the bishops, who again appointed the parish priests, subject to the approval of the government. An unqualified toleration was promised to all other creeds.
The tenor of this charter, and the position which Napoleon held in virtue of it, made it more natural than usual that he should, as his countrymen had invariably done in similar cases, nominate for the first time all the members of the government. The choice was in general wise and popular. Melzi d’Eril was vice-president.
Under this new order of things, while the Neapolitan government ruled with jealousy and little wisdom, and the court of Rome with kindness but feebly, the remainder of the peninsula was subject, either in reality or both in reality and in name, to the French Republic. Sustained by foreign influence, the northern and central regions of Italy began to enjoy a prosperity and quiet to which for years they had been strangers. The new commonwealths were as far as ever from being nationally independent; some parts of the country were avowedly provinces of France; and everywhere the political privileges of individuals had, as we have seen, shrunk far within the limits to which they had stretched immediately after the Revolution. But the absence of national independence, although a great evil, was counterbalanced by many advantages; and the curtailment of public rights, as bitter experience had proved, was a blessing both to the state and to its citizens.
NAPOLEON MAKES ITALY A KINGDOM
[1804-1805 A.D.]