*

nated the English armed intervention in Sic- | from the House of Commons, contained ily; an intervention which, dictated by the a summary of the policy hitherto pursued most palpable self-interest, led to the assump- towards Sicily; disclaimed the secret ambition of moral obligations towards the Sicilian tious aims attributed to the interference of people, which honor and humanity should Great Britain; and announced she had "no have rendered more permanent than the con- intention of continuing the peculiar attitude tingency that gave them rise. Diplomatists circumstances had compelled her to assume affect to ridicule the earnestness with which during the war." But as a corrective to this the Sicilians dwelt on these obligations; the declaration, and to the assurance, "that in persistence with which when evil times came the event of any prudent and temperate upon them they petitioned this country for modification of the government, England justice; and the faith they so long cherished would willingly lend that aid and support in the recognition of their claims. But what which it might be in her power to afford," Englishman, whose honesty of judgment is there came this stipulation: yet unwarped, can refuse to acknowledge in "She exacts only as a condition of her assistance the promises held out to secure their co-op- that this modification be undertaken by the parlia eration and allegiance, in the praises lavished ment itself, and accomplished in a legal and conon their patriotism, and in the unqualified ap- stitutional manner, as far removed from any diproval of Lord William Bentinck's line of con- rect intervention of overbearing authority on the duct during his two years' struggle against one hand, as any undue exertion of popular intheir sovereign, that they had ample grounds terference on the other." Finally, in reference for the belief that a definite purpose of main- to "those individuals who have supported the taining their political independence animat-measures of internal policy in Sicily during the last three years," a decided tone is assumed. ed the British government and people? "Their abandonment would be inconsistent with Bentinck's successor, as English minister the character and dignity of the British nation. at Palermo, was Mr., afterwards Sir William, It has an undoubted right to insist that no perA'Court. To this day the Sicilians apply son shall suffer, cither in his person or property, to them the surnames of two of their Nor- for the part he may have taken for the establishman kings. "William the Good" is remem- ment and support of the constitution; and the bered as the restorer of their liberties; perfect security of these individuals must be "William the Bad" as their destroyer. The considered as the sine quâ non of the continuance one threw the weight of his authority into of British protection and alliance." the popular scale; the diplomatic resources Thus much for official professions; the of the other were taxed to the uttermost to practices by which they were soon followed promote the ascendency of the crown. Ben- were of a different complexion. First came tinck had been the sheet anchor of the Liber- the dissolution of the parliament, under preals. A'Court became as speedily the coun- tence of some illegality in the election of the cillor and favorite of Ferdinand; and the deputies; but in reality to get rid of all former's energy in building up the constitu- those members who had been most conspicution, found its counterpoise in the new min- ous in advocating reform. Next the political ister's ready co-operation in overthrowing it. catechism, sanctioned by the vicar-general, It must not be imagined, however, that containing the statutes of the constitution the king at once threw off all restraint, or of 1812, familiarly explained, and by him that Mr. A'Court immediately earned a title appointed to be taught in all the public to the designation of "Il Malo." On the schools, was burned, at the king's command, contrary both started with sufficiently favora- by the public executioner. While lastly, ble indications. Notwithstanding the change under the eyes of Mr. A'Court, and without there had been in the ministry, the king's a word of remonstrance on his part, all the speech on the opening of the chambers, July, supporters of the English party, as it was 1814, was full of expressions of confidence then termed, either about the palace, or in towards the Sicilian people, while he pro- public departments, were displaced; and fessed to "regard the constitution with feel- many treated with open indignity, apprehenings of the tenderest affection." Mr. A'- sive of worse things, voluntarily expatriated Court, on his side, in the autumn of the same themselves. It being now evident that no year, presented a memorandum from Lord protection could be counted on from the Castlereagh, which was circulated through- English representative, the Prince of Belout the island, and, in spite of some hesita- monte, already mentioned as one of the leadtion and ambiguity in its wording, served to ers of the Sicilian patriots, set out with the calm the apprehension that England in- intention of following Lord Castlereagh to tended backing out of her previous engage- the Congress of Vienna, and there exposing ments. This document, which seven years the dangers which threatened Sicily. But later Lord Castlereagh saw fit to withhold he fell ill on his way; and to the irreparable *Subsequently Lord Heytesbury. loss of his countrymen, breathed his last at

Paris, without having accomplished the object of his journey.

being taken in the interval to foment such disunion and corruption in Sicily as would give a coloring of justice to the king's designs. The hereditary prince, left there with the title of viceroy (not vicar-general, which would have awakened reminiscences of a different state of things), was included in the studied system of throwing contempt on every one connected with the Bentinck era. His ministers received their instructions direct from Naples, and were the avowed tools of Medici, the king's favorite, whose animos

The events of 1815, and the imprudence of Murat, brought back Ferdinand to Naples. On Napoleon's escape from Elba, his brother-in-law thought he might strike for the throne of the entire Peninsula. The result is well known. Totally defeated by the Austrians, he passed some months in concealment in France and Corsica, till a desperate attempt to reinstate himself in the kingdom of Naples, cost him his life. Ferdinand, who had already returned to his do-ity to the Sicilians was so undisguised, that minions beyond the Straits, showed no mercy to his fallen foe.

he was heard to declare "he would leave them nothing but their eyes to weep with!" The liberty of the press was rapidly restricted till their last newspaper was suspended; and all the printers of Palermo, summoned before the president of the supreme court of justice, were admonished, under severe penalties, that nothing henceforth was to be printed without the knowledge and consent of the government. Some one present having appealed to the privileges of the constitution, the president angrily retorted "that in spite of a hundred thousand constitutions he would send them all to the galleys."

In the last sittings of the Congress of Vienna, we hear no more of "the considerations of humanity" ascribed the previous autumn to its deliberations on the affairs of Naples. The 104th article of the treaty there concluded, thus decrees the restoration of the Neapolitan Bourbons: "His Majesty King Ferdinand IV., for himself, his heirs and successors, is re-established upon the throne of Naples, and recognized by the powers as king of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There is nothing apparently remarkable in the wording Bribery and intimidation having had full of this article; nevertheless, on the altera- scope, it was now thought feasible to obtain tion of the previous title of king of the Two petitions from the different electoral comSicilies, for that of the king OF THE KING-munes, praying for a revision of the statute: DOM of the Two Sicilies, the court of Naples but to the lasting honor of the Sicilians, not founded pretensions-gravely brought for- one village even, throughout the island, sent ward in recent days-to justify the most fla- up such an address. Indeed, the most oppogrant breach of faith ever laid to the charge site results were produced by this attempt, even of Bourbon princes. Three days after which aroused the population to the sense of the general treaty had been signed, a secret impending danger. The signatures denied agreement was entered into between Austria to the satellites of the king, were rapidly and Naples. The exact words of this com- affixed to petitions to the viceroy, entreating pact, which was concealed even from Lord that the parliament, dissolved by his father Castlereagh for upwards of two years-a before his removal to Naples, might be ascompact denounced by Sir James Mackin- sembled without delay. More than forty of tosh, as a secret stab at English honor and these addresses reached the prince; one hunSicilian liberty' are as follows: "His dred others were intercepted by the local majesty, in resuming the government of his magistrates, who had been bought over by kingdom, will not admit of any innovation the crown. which is not in accordance either with the ancient monarchical institutions, or with the principles adopted by his imperial and royal majesty (the emperor of Austria), in the internal government of his Italian provinces." The Sicilian constitution could not in fairness be classed as an innovation; but of late years it had been resuscitated as it were; it had stepped into new vigor and importance; and consequently, its existence was a dangerous incentive to schemes of similar independence. It is therefore easy to understand why Austria, desirous of establishing despotism all over Italy, pronounced its

doom.

66

A year notwithstanding was suffered to pass without any overt aggression, means

Regardless of these demonstrations, in the autumn of 1816, Ferdinand of Bourbon applied for the consent of England to the suppression of the representative institutions of which she had so lately been the champion. The history of this miserable transaction is necessarily intricate and obscure. General Colletta, a celebrated Neapolitan writer, whose public career showed he was far from partial to the Sicilians, and whose testimony is therefore unsuspected, thus sums it up :

confidants of the king, formerly persecutors of the Sicilians, but in 1812 driven from powerrestored to greater power in 1815, through the desire of vengeance, ambition, and ministerial pride, urged the king to absolutism, he being

"Those ministers, those counsellors, those

already sufficiently inclined thereto, and to the the two kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were destruction of the constitution of 1812. The declared united; and the king, assuming the guarantee of England being an obstacle, they title of Ferdinand I., King of the Kingdom made use of fraud. They represented to the of the Two Sicilies, announced that he took English government," that Sicily, "discontented the whole of the government into his own with her political situation, demanded other laws. Mr. A'Court, the English minister-the confi- hands, in conformity with the 104th article dant of the king, and friend of Medici-crafty of the treaty of Vienna, which by uniting and malevolent, gave weight to these frauds, and the Two Sicilies into one kingdom, had neEngland, deceiving and deceived, abandoned cessitated these changes. Thus by one stroke Sicily." was cancelled the Sicilian constitution. The new laws of the parliament of 1812, the ancient laws which that parliament had left in force, the privileges enjoyed since the time of Count Roger, were all withdrawn; and a despotic and faithless sovereign, grasping courtiers, and a corrupt magistracy, were henceforth to have uncontrolled ascendency over Sicily.

Our Foreign Office's reply to Mr. A'Court's first intimation of the king of Naples' desire to make some changes in the Sicilian constitution, changes which he affirmed were equally desired by the parliament of Sicily, was not satisfactory to that monarch. Its tenor was much to the same effect as the memorandum of 1814, and disclaimed any wish to interfere in the internal affairs of the

state, except under circumstances where "it would be a duty." These reservations were

as follows:

Indignant protests, entreaties, lamentations, were addressed to England by the Sicilians; but the nation was sunk in the profound lethargy following a prolonged and "If those individuals who acted with the exhausting struggle, and their complaints were unheeded. A few years later, Lord British authorities during the late difficult times in Sicily, met with unkindness or persecution; William Bentinck brought their grievances or if any attempt were made to reduce the privi- before the House of Commons. He detailed leges of the Sicilian nation in such a degree as the principal features of his occupation of the might expose the British government to the re- island; the pledges entered into by Engproach of having contributed to a change of sys- land; and earnestly insisted upon the slur tem in the island, which had in the end impaired cast upon her by their non-fulfilment. Lord the freedom and happiness of its inhabitants." Castlereagh's reply was a tissue of flippancy Although Mr. A'Court had already shown and mendacity, which stung the Sicilians to himself a very lenient interpreter of diplo- the very quick,-a reply he never could have matic instructions, and a stoic in his appre- ventured upon had one-tenth part of his ciation of the harsh treatment of the Sicilian audience possessed the faintest perception of Liberals, this communication contained diffi- the past or actual condition of the people culties not to be overcome except by personal whose destinies lay in their hands. Supexplanations. Accordingly, we find him set-pressing, among the documents he laid upon ting out like Bentinck for London; and like him returning, after a rapid journey, to decide the fate of Sicily. What passed in his conferences with Lord Castlereagh has never transpired; indeed, nothing was known in England of the whole proceeding for several years. But the results speak for themselves. Invited to join in the sittings of the Neapolitan council, the representative of England, with the mockery of protecting the interests of Sicily, took part in the deliberations which consigned that ill-fated country to political annihilation, to servitude and decay. A more unblushing violation of a great nation's pledges the world has never witnessed. The memorandum of 1814 had stipulated "that no modification of the existing government of Sicily should be undertaken except by the parliament itself, and in a legal and constitutional manner:" whereas not even the semblance of a deputation from that parliament was now at hand, to point out what were the changes for which Mr. A'Court asserted it was desirous.

By the famous edicts of December, 1816,

the table, his memorandum of 1814, he proceeded to affirm that the ancient institutions described by Lord William Bentinck were all an illusion, "a mere oratorical flourish;" and that the constitution of 1812, not having been found adapted to the character of the Sicilians, it was in pursuance of an address from the Sicilian parliament that the king had issued his decrees of 1816. He then described the government of Ferdinand as paternal, wilfully ignoring the tremendous severities at that moment revenging the establishment of a constitution at Naples,and finally, threw an air of persiflage over the whole question which irresistibly decided the failure of Bentinck's motion. Notwithstanding a splendid appeal from Sir James Mackintosh, the ministers obtained a large majority; and for many years the British parliament left the misfortunes of Sicily in oblivion.

The revolutions of Naples and Sicily in 1820 were the first of that long series of insurrections and conspiracies, which from Etna to the Adriatic have ever since testified to

tion, no sympathy was shown towards the representative institutions of Sicily; and the population, on Ferdinand's second visit in 1834, by the coldness of their greeting, expressed the general disappointment. Profoundly hurt in his turn, the king now suffered a feeling of personal hostility to influence his future dealings with the island. The material benefits conferred upon the Neapolitan provinces, the draining of marshes, the construction of roads, and various monuments of public utility or embellishment, to which he delighted to appeal as evidences of his solicitude for the welfare of his dominions, were not bestowed on Sicily. It was systematically depreciated and neglected, till a singular occurrence proved the last drop to the brimming cup, and by driving some districts into rebellion, gave the crown the opportunity it had been seeking for three years of destroying what the decrees of 1816 had left of Sicilian nationality.

the fallacy and wickedness of the system imposed by the Congress of Vienna upon the Italian states; and they are memorable also as having furnished the pretext for the armed intervention Austria thenceforth insisted upon as her right in similar contingencies. The Neapolitans had obtained a constitution from the old king, ratified by a public oath of the most solemn nature; the Sicilians, dissatisfied with its provisions, were insisting on their separate parliament and charter of 1812; when an Austrian force, solicited by Ferdinand, silenced all importunity, and swept away every dream of liberty. Despotism was re-established with unsparing severity, and a disastrous sequel of executions, imprisonments, exile, and confiscations, left for a while no distinction in the common misery of the two nations. In 1825, the king's long life of profligacy and deceit closed, like that of Caroline, by a fit of apoplexy. The accession of Francis brought no improvement. The mild and conciliating vicar-gen- In 1837, the cholera broke out in Naples. eral of old times, had long ceased to be In Sicily, where, as in most southern counany thing but a puppet in the hands of the tries, it was believed contagious, strict quarJesuits. When Ferdinand II., in 1830, at antine laws were established by the focal the age of twenty, ascended the throne, no authorities. Resolutely violating these laws, prince ever had a fairer field for playing a the Neapolitan government insisted on the great part. The redress of some of the most admission into the harbor of Palermo of a crying abuses of his father's and grandfath- ship freighted with the accoutrements and er's administration, and the announcement clothing of soldiers who had died of the that "he would heal the wounds of Sicily," dreaded malady. Almost simultaneously led his subjects to the belief that their young it appeared in the island, and in Palermo, sovereign was only biding his time to enter out of a population of 170,000, 30,000 were upon those political reforms authorized, or carried off. The people believed that the rather necessitated, by the recent examples king had deliberately introduced the disease of Greece, France, and Belgium. He at once in order to decimate them and render insursent his brother, the Count of Syracuse, as rection impossible. The result was, that an viceroy to Palermo, with a court and sepa- insurrection broke out in Catania and Syrarate ministry; and the Sicilians, interpret- cuse: officials were murdered; statues of ing these measures as preliminary to the the Bourbons were thrown down; and a cry restoration of their rights, gave Ferdinand for the constitution was raised again. À an enthusiastic reception when he shortly bloody "pacification," by Swiss regiments, afterwards came amongst them. But he was under the orders of the Marquis Del Carvery far from contemplating the revival of retto, followed; upwards of one hundred perthe constitution. He had already made sons were executed; a much larger number his profession of faith. In a letter only re- were imprisoned; and the Law of Promiscently brought to light the world now knows cuous Government completed Sicily's chashow haughtily he replied, soon after his ac- tisement. Nominally, this law was to effect cession, to the counsels of Louis Philippe. a fusion of Neapolitan and Sicilian interests, The citizen king urged his nephew to comply by throwing open the offices of each country with the spirit of the age, and give large con- to the natives of the other; really it was incessions. Ferdinand answered, "that liberty tended to fill Sicilian offices with Neapoliwas fatal to the family of the Bourbons, and tans; this it effected, and, of course, fomented he was decided at any cost to avoid the fate the spirit of discord between the two nations. of Louis XVI. and Charles X.: that in all A horde of Neapolitans, comporting themconcerning the political system of Italy he selves with intolerable arrogance, soon filled inclined to the ideas of Metternich, that his every place of emolument in the island; people had no necessity to think for them- while the Sicilians permitted to hold office selves. He charged himself with their pros- in Naples were men of no character or standperity and dignity, but would himself being, in whom self-interest had extinguished king alone, and always king. every sentiment that could render them obSuch being his preconceived determina-jectionable. The episcopal sees were also

ration, any testimony of respect to the memory of a Sicilian, became treasonable. It was forbidden to raise a monument to Jaci, a celebrated mathematician; the corpse of Bellini was not allowed a resting-place on his native shores. Vice only received sanction as a potent auxiliary to national debasement.

occupied by Neapolitans, all tools of the court, who endeavored to mould the parochial clergy to a system of espionage, in which even the sanctity of the confessional was not respected. The once coveted post of viceroy was so degraded in public estimation, that even among the Neapolitans, with their notorious lust for gain, none of any eminence would accept it. As if in mockery of Such was the condition of Sicily for ten the duties he was deputed to fulfil, the long years-a condition to which that of the wearer of the title resided for the most part sister kingdom, though sufficiently deploraof the year at Naples, whence he issued proc- ble, is allowed on all sides to have borne no lamations signed and dated as if from Pa- comparison. The events connected with its lermo. Martial law became a permanent in- rising in 1848 must now be glanced at. stitution; and the unrestrained insolence The election of Pius IX. to the papal chair and brutality of the soldiery, who occupied in June, 1846, found Italy ripe for insurrecSicily in the light of a conquered country, tion. Men felt that the despotic policy raised the hatred with which every thing ap- which had guided the Italian sovereigns pertaining to Naples was regarded to a pitch ever since the treaty of Vienna, could no which the worst times of Caroline's oppres- longer be endured; and in spite of the sion never surpassed. vigor displayed in checking all discussion or inquiry, and in punishing every desire for innovation, it was plain that a great crisis was at hand.

The national taxation, which had long exceeded the maximum stipulated for, "without the consent of parliament," by Mr. A'Court, was now raised to the enormous The amnesty to all political exiles and amount of 2,318,000 ounces : no question, it prisoners with which the pope inaugurated is superfluous to remark, "of the keystone of his reign, the reforms in various departBritish consistency," ever being mooted by ments of the pontifical government by which the English government. Once only, in it was followed up arrested the impending 1840, did it remember "its ancient ally's" outbreak. The Grand Duke of Tuscany existence, when the Sicilian sulphur trade and the King of Sardinia speedily followed was converted into a monoply of the crown. his example; and the peaceful regeneraThis measure not only brought great losses tion of Italy was confidently expected. But upon the island, but-what was much more while its central populations were thus bento the purpose-it closely affected the inter-efited, their brethren in the northern and ests of English commerce. The king was southern states were denied the smallest therefore remonstrated with and threatened till it was annulled.

Of the vast sums thus yearly levied on a population of two millions, impoverished and unemployed, more than half found their way to Naples, to fill the private treasury of the king, or stimulate the rapacity of his minis

ters.

concessions. In Lombardy and the Two Sicilies, every manifestation of enthusiasm for the pope, or approval of his measures, was strictly forbidden. At the moment when all Europe rang with his praises, it was a crime at Naples to possess his picture.

The prince who had authorized a political No remonstrance could obtain a hear- catechism for the lower orders which taught ing. Each official underling was a tyrant, that "Liberals, even if not all equally wicked, and secure of impunity, trampled underfoot followed the same road and reached the every appeal for justice. An all-powerful same prison;" and that "the king was free police enveloped the whole country in a vast not to keep his oath to a constitution;" network of extortion, bribery, and violence. could scarcely survey with equanimity the The results of such a system scarcely require startling transactions at his very frontiers. description. Agriculture, trade, manufac- Encouraged by the Austrian ambassador, tures, all languished. A fourth part of the Prince Felix Schwartzenberg, in his anger island remained uncultivated. The high- and distrust, Ferdinand refused to make the ways along the coast were almost impracti- most trifling modifications in the governcable from banditti; the interior inaccessi- ment; and imposed silence by an ominous ble, moreover, from want of roads; the frown upon his ministers if they ventured to towns falling into ruin. In Palermo, the hint at the threatening aspect of affairs. press, under the double censorship of the ec- But notwithstanding the vigilance of the poclesiastical authorities and the police, often lice, and the interdiction of newspapers, the was not allowed the faculty of republishing contagion reached his people. Whatever books permitted at Naples. Education was passed in the three reformed states was systematically discouraged; even infant known and rapturously commented on, in schools prohibited. Any public commemo- every part of his dominions.