Reported This Week 280 Years Ago (Jan 2 1739): Corsican peace deal terms; new store owner Belfast; Drumbeg trees for sale

Paris, Dec. 17. N.S. [N.S. means New Style, ie the current Gregorian calendar which was not then formally adopted but used increasingly]

The following are precisely the Articles which have been publish’d in Corsica, relating to the Accommodation concluded between the Genoese and Corsicans by the King’s Mediation.

I. A general Amnesty, with Repeal of outlawry, and even the Gullies, for all Persons that have incurred those Penalties on Account of the Rebellion, of which no farther Mention shall be made; every Person being to be restored to his Effects and Honours, provided he does accept the Amnesty and submit to the Regulation.

II. A general Disarming, under Pain of Death of all Persons that shall afterwards be found to have Arms.

III. The Taxes, Subsidies and Gabelles that have not been paid during the Revolt, shall be forgiven, and nothing shall be demanded from any Body on that Account; any other Right of the Prince shall commence only from the first of October last.

IV. The Commissary General of the Island shall not as formerly, have Power to send to the Galleys ex informata Conscientia; but shall only cause the Criminal to be taken up, bring him to a Trial, and send it over to Genoa, to the end that it may be there decided, according to the Forms of Justice.

V. The Supream Tribunal of Corsica shall be composed of three Foreign Auditors, who are to be neither Corsicans nor Genoese; the inferior Judges shall be Corsican, and be allowed to judge without Appeal in all Law Suits, wherein not above the Value of 500 Livres is depending, whereas they were formerly limited to Causes not exceeding 25 Livres.

VI. Colleges and Schools shall be established for educating Youth; the Corsicans shall be raised to the Episcopal Dignity equally with the other Subjects of the Republick, who promises to recommend the Natives to the Pope, when any Bishopricks become vacant in the Island.

VII. The Republick shall every Year, during five Years successively, confer Nobility on four Corsican Families, who shall enjoy all the Honours and Prerogatives attached to that Dignity.

VIII. For the Future, Murders shall be punished with Death without Remission, and the Republick binds herself not to grant either Reprieve or Asylum for such Crimes.

The King and the Emperor are Guaranties for the Execution of these Articles, and the Regulation has been signed by M. Amelot in the King’s Name, and the Prince de Lichtenstein in the Name of his Imperial Majesty.

[Corsica was owned by the Republic of Genoa at this time, but for a decade there had been a rebellion by an independence movement. This peace deal, which has in its clauses echoes of peace deals centuries later including the 1998 Belfast Agreement, did not hold. There continued to be horrendous violence on the island, which later achieved independence, before being conquered by France, around the same time that Napoleon was born there in 1769]

HENRY AGNEW, having just opened Shop at the four SugarLoaves in Belfast, lately possess’d by James Young Junior; sells several Sorts of Grocery Goods either by Wholesale or Retail as Cheap as any in the Place.

Advertisement.

THAT there is to be Sold at Drumbeg, by publick Cant to the highest Bidder, on Monday the first Day of January next, exactly at Twelve of the Clock in the Forenoon, fifty fine full grown Ash Trees, fit for broad Hoops, Cars, Wheel-Wrights, or any other Uses. Three Months Trust, giving Security. The said Timber may be shewn by James Hamilton Maxwell, at any Time.

This Day is publish’d, by the Printer hereof,

A LETTER

FROM A

MERCHANT

Who has left off Trade,

TO A

Member of PARLIAMENT.

In which the CASE of the British and Irish Manufacture of Linen, Threads, and Tapes, is fairly stated, and all the Objections against the Encouragement proposed to be given to that Manufacture fully answered.