DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6095#0309
SICILY AND MALTA. 291
But where there is an authority above all
laws, laws can be but of little service.
The power of the viceroy is very abso-
lute; he has not only the command of all
the military force in the kingdom, but
likewise presides with unbounded authority
in all civil tribunals; and as he is also
inverted with the legantine power, his
sway is equally great in religious mat-
ters.
He has the right of nominating to all
the great offices in the kingdom ; and con-
sirming of all dignities, both civil and ec-
clesiastical.
In visiting the prisons, a ceremony which
he performs with great pomp twice a year,
he has the power of liberating whatever
prisoners he pleases; of reducing or alter-
ing their sentences, their crimes and accu-
sations having first been read over to him.
U 2 Indeed,
But where there is an authority above all
laws, laws can be but of little service.
The power of the viceroy is very abso-
lute; he has not only the command of all
the military force in the kingdom, but
likewise presides with unbounded authority
in all civil tribunals; and as he is also
inverted with the legantine power, his
sway is equally great in religious mat-
ters.
He has the right of nominating to all
the great offices in the kingdom ; and con-
sirming of all dignities, both civil and ec-
clesiastical.
In visiting the prisons, a ceremony which
he performs with great pomp twice a year,
he has the power of liberating whatever
prisoners he pleases; of reducing or alter-
ing their sentences, their crimes and accu-
sations having first been read over to him.
U 2 Indeed,