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THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1755 |
The General Diet of the people of
Corsica, legally the boss of himself, summoned
by the General according to the modalities
established in the town of Corti these days
of 16,17,18 in November, 1755.
Having reconquerred his freedom,
wanting to give to his government a durable
shape and permanent, by transforming him into
a constitution appropriate to assure bliss
of the nation.
The Diet enacted, and enact the establishment
of a Council of state to which it conferred,
and confer, the supreme authority as well
in the political domain that military and
economic, wanting that it is composed of a
general who will be its leading chief of it,and
of thirty-six preside the first class, and
hundred eight advisers of the second class.
Two third among them will be of it Comune
di, and the provinces of Balagna, of the Nebbiu
and of Capu-Corsu including the cities of
Bastia and Calvi, and the other third will
be provinces of the With-beyond-of-Mounts.
They will be divided into three rooms forming
three magistratures; each one will have twelve
presidents and trente-six advisers and will
be charged with one of the essential parts
of the government. Thus that which will be
in charge of the political businesses will
call rooms of justice, that which will take
care of the military businesses the rooms
of war, and that which will be in charge of
the economic affairs the room of finances.
Waited until the constant meeting
of these three rooms would not involve less
expenditure than of disadvantages to the nation,
and more would bring few slownesses in the
businesses, this meeting will be made only
twice per annum to deliberate on the most
important businesses on the government and
to represent the Council of State in its plenitude.
The remainder of time the Council will
be represented with same competence and energy
by the General, as chief, or by the general
president, and three presidents only, one by
advising to change each month, and an adviser
to change in turn every ten days in the three
respective rooms, and by the Secretaries of
State.
The petitions which will be made
with this Council will be addressed to the
General who, according to the importance and
the membership of the matters, will pass them
to the president of the room on which they
will depend. This one, them having studied
all, will present them at the Council, where
a decision will be made on their subject in
the majority of the votes. Each president
and adviser will have a vote, and the General
will have two of them.
First A to vote will be the adviser.
After the presidents, one will vote after the
other, and then the General. In the event of
parity of vote, the secretary will have to vote
so that the decree or the decision is made in
the majority.
In the businesses of the war the vote
of the General will be decisive. It will also
be able, of itself, independently of the Adviser,
to order consult, of the steps, the general
and particular congresses. All the members of
the council will remain in their functions leu
life during and will be elected by the people
in the Diet.
General diet
One will have to convene the General
Diet per annum once at the place which seems
most convenient to the General, In this place
any magistrate and civils servant of the nation
will be held to return account of its control.
To this end the General will speak first during
the day to account for his, and will await with
tender the judgement of the people. The other
magistrates and civils servant will be subjected
to the sindicatu of four members elected with
the Diet in company of the General.
Court and judges of the
pieves.
The abundance of the businesses of State
and the contingencies of the war which must
constantly occupy the Council so that it brings
a fast remedy for any thing requiring it do
not make it possible him to await and treat
the civil actions. To this end a court will
be elected, composed of three judges legists
and an eligible chancellor by the Council in
front of whom all the causes will be carried
exceeding the sum of fifty books. Its sentences
will be without call up to hundred books inclusively,
and those which exceed this sum will be appealable
in second authority, and last authority with
the Council of State.
The causes which will not exceed fifty
books will be decided by eligible judges at
a rate of one per pieve; their judgement will
be without call until the sum of one hundred
books inclusively, and starting from hundred
books exclusively will be appealable in second
authority, and last authorities with the civil
court.
Each judge will have to choose a notary
as chancellor who will owe beings approved by
the Council of State. So that the judges of
the civil court and those of the pieves have
what to live on their premises, it will be allowed
to them to take the fees which are said, according
to the following tariff:
- Of 15 pounds up to 25 pounds inclusively,
12 pennies. - Of 25 pounds
exclusively and to 50 inclusively, 1 book
and 4 pennies.
- Of 50 books exclusively and up
to 100 pounds inclusively, 2 books, 10 pennies.
- Of 100 pounds exclusively to any
sum, 5 books.
Police chiefs of the pieves and captains
and lieutenants of weapons of each pieves.
The parity necessary to ensure the respect
of the orders as well as the discipline that
our armies will have to observe in the steps
or other military forwardings make essential
the appointment of a police chief by pieve,
and a captain and lieutenant of weapons for
each parish.
Just as best and the zélés
patriotic ones of the pieves will have to be
police chiefs, and their election will belong
to the General and to the Council of State,
in the same way the captains and lieutenant
of weapons will have among to be respected parish
and their election will depend on the arbitration
of the community, and will be valid when it
receivesconfirmation of the General and the
Council of State. To the police chief the circulars
and other orders will be addressed as well to
the General as of the Council, of which they
will take care of the prompt execution. To this
end it is necessary that the police chief is
recognized as immediate chief of the troops
of the pieve to which each captain of the pieve
will have to provide the list of people suited
to the steps and those of the weapons which
exist in its parish, so that gathering the number
of necessary man armed by the General and the
Council of State it can act in consequence and
with such an exactitude that nobody is importuned
by it.It will keep near him a copy of these
lists and will address the originals to the
General, certified by his signature. It will
be however held, as well as the captains, to
take care that these details are consigned on
paper, and carefully, since it must be recorded
with the files. In the steps it will be always
at the head of people of its pieve to carry
out the orders and the provisions of that which
will order walk as a chief, with which it will
show the reportconcerning the required men,
so that it is possible to continue the absent
ones with the sorrows suitable and imposed by
the General. It will fix, in the places where
it will have to go, a locality where they will
have to join to him, under penalty of a fine
of 20 pennies for each absent which one will
distribute between those which will take part
in this forwarding. Will incur the same sorrow
those which during the steps, without the permission
necessary, will move away from their police
chief at such a distance that they will not
be any more with range to carry out his orders.Instruction
particular will be given to the captains of
weapons, and in their absence, with the lieutenants,
to carry out the functioning orders and others
which will be given by the government, whose
specimen will be sent to the Police chief. If
brawls or other evils will occur, they will
have to run immediately with the force armed
to stop the instigators and the culprits, and
to make an inventory of their pieces of furniture
and their goods by notarial acts. It will inform
police chief promptly of all, so that this one,
having put the government at the current, can
go there without delay to carry out what will
be prescribed to him, under sorrow, for one
like the other, to be private of office and
to pay into clean the equivalent of the sum
which would be wasted because of their negligence,
and to be subjected to the same sorrow as the
culprit if this one, by their incurie, would
not be stopped. The police chief will exert
his employment with the discretion of the General
and the Council. The captains and the lieutenants
of weapons will have to be changed each year.
Podestats, fathers of the commun run
and estimators.
The election of podestats and the
fathers of the commun run and the estimators
of each parish will be made each year according
to the provision of the Statute of Corsica,
in chapter 8 and each podestat will have to
hold the government informed without delay
of all that occurs to its people, so that,
as much by his report/ratio that by that transmitted
by the captain of weapons by the intermediary
of the police chief, the government can take
care more exactly of the good order so that
the laws are respected.
Criminal laws.
That which will make
voluntary manslaughters, or will wound seriously
with any weapon, will be guilty to have given
death, and as such, if it falls to the hands
from justice, will have passed by the weapons
like enemy of the company. It will not enjoy
its goods, and consequently will be able to
have any more no thing which belonged. Its
property will be destroyed as far as possible.
All its movable goods pass to the capacity
tax department which, if it by the way considers
it suitable and for the State, will be able
in certain particular cases to stop the destruction
of its property, while allocating, with the
movable goods, to perpetuity to the room of
finances. That which will kill, or by any
particular action will try to kill its enemy
following former offences after the establishment
of peace, not only will be declared guilty
of voluntary manslaughter, but on the site
of his house, which will have to be irremediably
destroyed, one will set up a column of infamy
on which will be indicated the name of the
culprit and his crime. That, with premeditation,
apart from the two above mentioned cases of
transverse revenge or rupture of peace, will
wound slightly while drawing from the blows
of arquebus or with any weapon, will be condemned,
if it compared, from three to six months of
prison, to the discretion of the Council,
and the kind of offence, and will be obliged
to pay 20 pennies for the guard [ of the prison
]. If it does not appear, and is shown disobeying,
it will be condemned according to the regulation
of the statute of Corsica. That which apart
from the above mentioned cases, will draw
with premeditation a blow from arquebus with
an aim of killing, but without making of evil,
or with others weapons will make death threats,
instead of killing, will be condemned to two
years or four months of prisons, and to the
payment of 20 pennies per day for the guard,
taking into account the kind of offence, and
the discretion of the Council.If it is contumacious
its family will be imprisoned, and in the
absence of its family her next of kin, until
him, the culprit, do not fall to the capacity
from justice. That which will wound slightly
in a brawl will be condemned of one to two
months of prison, and to pay 20 pennies per
day for the guard, with the discretion of
the Council, and if it is contumacious, its
family will be imprisoned, or if it does not
have a family, his/her next of kin until A
than, to him it guilty found. That also which
in a brawl will strike somebody with a stone
or stick, or only will carry reached with
any weapon, will be condemned from 15 to 20
pennies per day for the guard, with the discretion
of the Council and if it is contumacious,
then falling to the capacity from justice
it will be condemned to the double.
Those which will make justice them same.
That which will employ the force to
take some object with that which would not have
stolen it, but possèderait it like belonging
to him into clean, and in good faith, and would
take it by force under pretext which it was
his, even if this object really belonged to
him, that it is private of any justification
that it could have, and moreover than it is
condemned to pay from 25 to 50 books, or not
being able to pay, than it is condemned to three
months of prison. But if the force had been
exerted against somebody, to take some movable
object under pretext who it was his, and although
it did not have any justification, in addition
to the restitution of the thing taken to the
owner, with the damages that this one would
have undergone that it is condemned to pay from
100 to 200 pounds, and not paying, or not being
able to pay, with the prison from 3 to 6 months.So
then, it happened that these goods taken by
force were seized without the intruder being
able to have any justification or pretexts,
that he is condemned to the sorrows prescribed
in the criminal statutes. If, then, the force
were employed so that somebody, of his own authority
and without mandate legitimates of the judge,
entered of force in possession of any real goods
that others have in all good faith, even if
it were proven that the force was legitimate,
the intruder must be constrained not to enter
in possession of the known as goods, and with
the restitution of the fruits which it would
have taken, and moreover he must be condemned
from 100 to 200 pounds, and three to five months
of prison, taking into account the condition
of the person and the quality of the properties
occupied by force.
About all the offences which, by preoccupation
with a brevity, one did not make mention in
these decrees, that one respects the civil statutes
of our kingdom, taking into account however...
if somebody removed some girl, transporting
it against his own will or that his parents
of a place to another with an aim of violating
it, that it incurs the death penalty, and that
which would begin some to some woman on Al public
highway under pretext to marry it of, that it
still the prison sentence during one year, and
moreover the payment of 20 pennies per day during
this year not with the call of the government,
that it is exiled kingdom during three years.
Provisions for the provinces of Balagna
and Nebbiu.
To compensate the populations for the
disadvantages which they would have to undergo,
considering the distance, in their recourse
to the Supreme Council of State, each one of
these provinces will be controlled by a magistrature
provincial depending on the Supreme Council,
and which will have to be made up of a president,
renewable each month, and four advisers who
will have to exert during fifteen days and then
will be changed, and a chancellor who will have
to be approved by the Supreme Council know-indicated.
These magistrates must have the faculty not
only translated into justice, also to condemn,
and carry out their sentences in the minor criminal
businesses for which one cannot impose the death
penalty or the exile of the kingdom, with the
obligation, however, to warn each month the
Supreme Council of State of these causes. But
for the crimes involving the capital punishment
or the exile, it is necessary that they can
only inform until the sentence, without applying
it, and that they are held to communicate it
to the Supreme Council with their deliberative
opinion, and to await the sentence and the order
for its execution. The
civil actions in the provinces know-indicated
must be examined and settled by a general
judge who will have faculty to return justice
up to 400 pounds. If the business were only
25 pounds, that it is without call. In the
businesses from 25 to 30 books, that there
is the remedy to resort to aforesaid and respective
magistrates, and from 50 to 400 pounds, that
it is allowed to call upon the civil court.
One must pay fee with the aforesaid judge
according to the tariff mentioned above, which
must be added for the benefits due to the
chancellor: that one divides the whole per
half. The aforesaid judge will have to reside
in the same place as the magistrature.
Gangsters.
The
culprits of homicides or other offences made
before the 15 of last July, will be graciés
if the peace were obtained offended part,
provided that is produced in front of the
General and the Supreme Council the instrument
of peace by notarial act, or joined to the
certificates of the priests, podestats and
fathers of the commun run of the respective
places, in condition, however, that each gangster
aforesaid has initially to pay 25 pounds,
intended for the room [ of justice ], and
25 pounds for the acts of the chancellor.
For those then which would have made an offence
after the known as day of July 15, and after
the election of the new General, it left with
the discretion of this same General in certain
cases the possibility of giving discharge
to the culprits by acts of grace, with pecuniary
sorrow which he will estimate to be appropriate
best provided that it does not become exemplary.
Signé
PASQUALE PAOLI
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