wishing once more to get possession of their city, in the year 491, implor ed succor from Gelon, King of Gela, a city of Sicily. Gelon conducted himself with so much prudence, that the Syracusians unanimously elected him to be their king. His first care was to reinstate agriculture; and he worked in the fields at the head of the labourers. He augmented Syracuse, fortified it, and became afterward so powerful as to be master of all Sicily. The Carthaginians made several attempts upon this island, but were always repulsed. Gelon died in the year 476 B. c., leaving behind him the character of a great prince, and regretted by all ranks of Sicilians. He was succeeded by his brother Hieron, a man naturally morose and severe, but softened by Simonides, Pinder, and Xenophon, whom he encouraged, and always kept at his court. He died 466 B. C., and left the throne to his brother, Thrasybulus, who possessed all the vices of Hieron, without his good qualities. He was driven out for his tyranny; and Sicily was a short time free.

Dionysius rendered himself master of Sicily in 405 B. C., and reigned thirty-seven years. He was succeeded by Dionysius the tyrant, who reigned twenty-five years: being driven out by Timoleon, he took refuse in Corinth, where he set up a school. Agathocles brought the Sicilians under his yoke 317 B. C., and reigned twenty-six years. From his death Sicily was a theatre of continual war between the Carthaginians and the Romans. Not the fortifications of Syracuse, nor the machines invented by Archimides for its defense, were sufficient to prevent Marcellus from becoming master of it in the year 208 B. C. Sicily flourished under the Romans; but in the decline, or rather toward the fall, of that empire, it came under the Vandals, and afterward the kings of Italy. The Saracens were continual in their attacks upon it; and in the year 823 after Christ, the emperors of the East ceded it to Louis le Debonnaire, emperor of the West; from which time the Saracens occupied a part of it (A. D. 837), until driven out by the Normans in 1004.

Soon after the expulsion of the Saracens, the feudal system was introduced; and in 1072, earl Roger, the Norman, also established a representative assembly, or parliament, in which the nobles and clergy had an overwhelming majority, and which subsisted, notwithstanding the many changes the island has undergone, down to our own times. The Normans kept possession of the island till the establishment of the Suabian dynasty, in 1194. In 1265 Charles of Anjou became master of Sicily; but the massacre planned by John of Procida, known by the name of the "Sicilian Vespers," (March 29, 1282), put an end to the Augevines. It soon after became a dependency of Spain, and was governed by Spanish viceroys. At the death of Charles II., of Spain, his spoils became an object of furious contention; and at the peace of Utrecht, in 1711, it was ceded to Victor Amadens, of Savoy, who not many years after was forced by the emperor Charles VI. to relinquish it for Sardinia. The Spaniards, however, not having been instrumental in effecting this disadvantageous exchange, made a sudden attempt to recover Sicily, in which they failed, through the vigilance of the English admiral Byng, who destroyed their fleet, and compelled them for that time to abandon the enterprise. In 1734 the Spanish court resumed their design with success. The infant Don Carlos drove the Germans out, and was crowned king of the Two Sicilies at Palermo. When he passed into Spain, to take possession of that crown, he transferred the Sicilian diadem to his son Ferdinand III. of Sicily and IV. of Naples. While the continental dominions of Naples were held by Napoleon, Palermo was the residence of the court, the island being defended by an English fleet and garrison.

ince 1750, however, improvements of various kinds have been slowly, but gradually gaining ground; and, within the last few years, several important and substantial reforms have been introduced, that will, it is to be doped, conspire to raise this fine island from the abyss into which it has been cast by bad laws and bad government.

GENOA.

A history of the various revolutions of Genoa would be a record of coninual turbulence, but still interesting. Our limits, however, prevent us from attempting even a synopsis of them. In the time of the second Pu nic war, it was a considerable city under the dominion of Rome. Mago, a Carthaginian general, in the course of the war, attacked, took, and destroyed it. The senate thereupon sent the pro-consul Spurius, who in less than two years raised it to its former splendour. It remained under the Romans until it submitted to the Goths. The Lombards next possessed and almost ruined it. Charlemagne annexed it to the French empire Pepin, his son, gave the city of Genoa, and its dependencies, to a French lord of the name of Adhesnar, under the title of count. His descendants reigned until the end of the eleventh century, when the Genoese revolted against their count, set themselves at liberty, and chose magistrates from among the nobles. In the next century, the city was taken by the Saracens, who put all the men to the sword, and sent the women and children as slaves into Africa.

When again re-established, the inhabitants availed themselves of their fine situation, turned their attention to commerce, enriched themselves, became powerful in proportion to their riches, and erected their country into a republic. Their enthusiasm for liberty rendered this republic capable of great things. In it were joined the opulence of commerce will the superiority of arms. The jealousy and ambition of the citizens at length caused great troubles; the emperors, the kings of Naples, the Viscontis, the Sforzas, and France, successively called in by the different parties, divided the republic. In 1217, the principal Genoese, fearful of once more becoming the victims of civil war, chose as their first magisrate a stranger. In 1339, the state appeared in a somewhat more regular form, and had acquired tranquility. Simon Bocanegra, a man of an illustrious family, was elected duke, or doge, with a council composed of the chiefs of the principal families. In 1396, the Genoese put themselves under the protection of Charles VI., king of France, whom they acknowledged as their sovereign. In 1409, they massacred the French, and gave their government to the marquis of Montferrat. In 1458, Francis Sforza, duke of Milan, was acknowledged sovereign protector of the republic of Genoa; but his administration tending to despotism, they set themselves at liberty. It was at this time that they offered the sovereignty of their city to Louis XI. Louis, well acquainted with the disposition of the Genoese, unfiit either to command or obey, made this answer to their so licitations: "If the Genoese give themselves to me, I will give them all to the devil."

In 1528, Andrew Doria had the happiness and address to unite and conciliate this refractory people, and establish an aristocratic government. This form continued until the French republicans made their rapid conquests in Italy. Genoa was the scene of many hard-fought battles. At length, in 1797, a new republic was raised, under the name of the Ligurian republic; but which, like the rest of the modern French creations, was dissolved at the downfall of Napoleon, in 1815, and transformed to a dependent province of Sardinia

THE HISTORY OF SARDINIA

Sardinia is an insular and continental kingdom in the south of Europe. The continental part occupies the north-west portion of Italy, and is bounded by Switzerland on the north, the duchies of Milan and Parma on the east, the Mediterranean on the south, and France on the west. K stretches about 200 miles from north to south, and 130 from east to west. It consists at present of Piedmont, with the county of Nice; the duchy of Montferrat; part of the duchy of Milan; the territory of the late republic of Genoa; Savoy (not properly included in Italy), and the island of Sardinia, with the adjacent isles.

THE ISLAND OF SARDINIA

is divided from Corsica by the Strait of Bonifacio. The Greeks called it Ichnusa Sandaliotis, and Sardo. While it was in the possession of the Romans, it was a place of banishment; and afterward the Saracens possessed it nearly four centuries. Their expulsion could not be effected by the Pisanese, on whom Pope Innocent 111. had assumed the prerogative of bestowing it in 1132. The emperor Frederic paid so little regard to this grant, that he again reunited it with the empire; but the Pisanese taking advantage of the long interregnum, got possession of it in 1257. A difference afterward arising between them and the see of Rome, the pope again bestowed the island, in 1298, on James II. of Arragon, whose son, Alphonso IV. made himself master of it in 1324. From this time it continued under the crown of Spain, governed by a viceroy until 1708, when the English making a conquest of it for King Charles III., afterward emperor, by the title of Charles VI., it was confirmed to him by the treaty of Utrecht. In 1717, it was recovered by the Spaniards; and in 1718 the emperor exchanged it for Sicily with the duke of Savoy, who was put in actual possession of it in 1720, and took the title of king of Sardinia.

"The inhabitants of Sardinia," says Mr. Salt, "(I speak of the common people), are yet scarcely above the negative point of civilization; perhaps it would be more correct to say that they appear to have sunk a certain way back into barbarism. They wear, indeed, linen shirts, fasted at the collar by a pair of silver buttons, like hawks' bills; but their upper dress of shaggy goats' skins in the pure savage style. A few have gone one step nearer to perfectability, and actually do wear tanned leather coats, made somewhat in the fashion of the armour worn in Europe in the 15t century. With such durable habiliments, it is easy to conceive that they do not require much assistance from the manufactures of foreign countries." Another writer, whom we have frequently quoted in this work says, "Notwithstanding her extent, the richness of her soil, her position in the centre of the Mediterranean, and her convenient harbours, Sardinia has been strangely neglected, not only by her own governments, but by the European powers generally; and has remained, down to our own times, in a semi-barbarous state. A long series of wars and revolutions followed by the establishment of the feudal system in its most vexations and oppressive form; the fact of her having been for a lengthened period a dependency of Spain, and, if that were possible, worse governed ever than the dominant country; the division of the island into immense es tates, most of which were acquired by Spanish grandees; the want of leases, and the restrictions on industry, have paralysed the industry of the inhabitants, and sunk them to the lowest point in the scale of civilization

BAVARIA.

Bavaria, now one of the principal secondary states of Germany, was derived from a circle of the German empire, of the same name, bounded by Franconia and Bohemia on the north, Austria on the east, Tyrol on the south, and Suabia on the west. The earliest inhabitants of Bavaria were a tribe of Celtic origin called the Boii, from whom it received its old Latin name of Boiaria; but, about the time of Augustus, the Romans subdued it, and it afterwards formed a part of what they termed Rhætia, Vindelicia and Noricum. After the downfall of the Roman empire, Bavaria fell under the dominion of the Ostrogoths and Franks, by whom it was governed till Charlemagne took possession of the country, and committed the government to some of his counts; and on the partition of his imperial dominions among his grandsons, Bavaria was assigned to Louis the German. Its rulers bore the title of margrave till 920, when Arnold, its reigning prince, was raised to the title of duke, which his successors coninued to bear till 1623, when Maximilian I., having assisted Ferdinand 11. gainst his Bohemian insurgents, was elevated to the electoral dignity. In 1070, Bavaria passed into the possession of the Guelphs; and in 1180 it was transferred by imperial grant to Otho, count of Wittelsbach, whose descendants branched out into two families, the Palatine and the Bavarian, the former inheriting the Palatine of the Rhine, the latter the duchy of Bavaria. Few events of any importance occurred till the war of the Spanish succession, when Bavaria suffered severely from following the fortunes of France. It, however, received a great accession in 1777, when, upon the extinction of the younger line of Wittelsbach, the palatinate, after a short contest with Austria, was added to the Bavarian territory. After the adjustment of the Austrian pretensions, the electorate enjoyed the blessings of peace till the French revolution, which involved all Germany in the flames of civil discord. The elector remained on the side of the Imperialists till 1796, when the French marched a powerful army into his dominions, and concluded a treaty for the cessation of hostilities. In the following year was signed the treaty of Campo-Formio, and in 1801 that of Luneville, by which all the German dominions left of the Rhine were annexed to France, and the elector lost the palatinate of the Rhine, his possessions in the Netherlands and Alsace, and the duchies of Juliers and Deux Ponts; receiving as indemnities four bishoprics, with ten abbeys, fifteen imperial towns, and two imperial villages.

In the conflicts between France and the continental powers, Bavaria continued to maintain a neutrality till 1805, when the elector entered into an alliance with Napoleon, who shortly afterwards raised him to the dignity of king, and enlarged his dominions at the same time, by the annexation of several imperial provinces. Of all the allies of the French emperor, no country has retained more solid advantages than Bavaria. Shortly after the campaign of 1806, when Austria, to purchase peace, sacrificed part of her possessions, Bavaria received a further enlargement, by the addition of Tyrol, Eichstadt, the eastern part of Passau, and other territories; when she began to assume a more important station among the surrounding states.

At the dissolution of the Germanic confederation, and the formation of the Rhenish confederation, another alteration took place, the duchy of Berg being resigned for the margraviate of Anspach, together with the imperial town of Augsburg and Nuremburg. In 1809, Bavaria again took part with France against Austria, and again shared in the spoils of war:

but subsequently ceded some of her territories to Wirtemburg and Wurtz. burg; and by another alteration, which shortly followed, exchanged a great part of Tyrol for Bayreuth and Ratisbon.

But the friendship of the Bavarian monarch for his ally and patron was soon to be put to the test. When the thirst for military conquest induced Napoleon to march the French armies to Moscow, the Bavarian troops were among the number. Apprehending the ruin that awaited the French, but while the fortunes of Napoleon were still doubtful, the king of Bavaria seized the critical moment, and entered into a treaty with the emperor o. Austria, and joined the allies in crushing that power which had long hel so many nations in thraldom. These important services were not for gotten. Bavaria was confirmed in her extensive acquisitions by the treaties of 1814 and 1815; for though Austria recovered her ancient possessions in the Tyrol, &c., Bavaria received equivalents in Franconia and the vicinity of the Rhine. Though the inferior kingdoms and states of Germany are of too little importance to become principals in any European wars, they are frequently found very effective allies, as was the case with Bavaria. Its army during the war amounted to sixty thousand men. In the history of Greece it will be seen that Otho, a Bavarian prince, was, in 1832, elected king of that country; and that, in 1843, he consented to give his subjects a more liberal government.

HANOVER.

The kingdom of Hanover, which, until the year 1815, was an electorate was formed out of the duchies formerly possessed by several families belonging to he junior branches of the house of Brunswick. The house of Hanover may, indeed, vie with any in Germany for antiquity and nobleness. It sprung from the ancient family of the Guelphs, dukes and electors of Bavaria, one of whom, Henry the Lion, in 1140, married Maude, eldest daughter of Henry II. king of England. Their son William, called Longsword, was created first duke thereof. The dominions descended in a direct line to Ernest, who divided them, upon his death in 1546, into two branches; that of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, and Brunswick Luneburg. The possessor of the latter, Ernest Augustus, was, in 1692, raised to the dignity of an elector; before which he was head of the college of German princes. Ernest married Sophia, daughter of Frederic, elector palatine, and king of Bohemia, by Elizabeth, daughter of James I., king of Great Britain. Sophia being the next protestant heir to the crown of England, through the medium of the house of Stuart, the parliament fixed the succession upon her, on the demise of the reigning queen Anne. Sophia died a short time before the queen; and her eldest son, George Louis, in consequence, became king of Great Britain. This was in 1714 from which time till 1837, at the death of William IV., both England and Hanover have had the same sovereign.

The families set aside from the succession by the parliament on that occasion, independent of the family of King James II. by Mary of Este, were as follows: the royal houses of Savoy, France, and Spain, descend ants of Charles I., through his daughter Henrietta; Orleans and Lorraine, descendants of James I. through Charles Louis, elector palatine, eldesi