save in its unqualified restoration; is duly | taxes levied in the island should not, withrecorded in the dreary pages of the Blue out the consent of parliament, be raised Book. Few Englishmen we suspect arc fa- above a stipulated limit. This dexterous miliar with the long and perplexing corre- use of Mr. A'Court's "keystone of British spondence on the affairs of Sicily therein consistency," joined to the rapid spread of embalmed; whereas Italian writers have the constitutional movement throughout only too successfully searched them for fresh Italy, apparently produced the desired result, evidence of England's favor in sunshine, and and Lord Minto wrote sanguinely to Palermo, abandonment in the storm. Allowed on all that all was progressing favorably. But the sides to have been thoroughly sincere in his very day following that on which he had advocacy of Sicilian liberty, Lord Minto's been authorized to make this communicapartiality was perhaps a bar to his success- tion, the king covered the English ambassaful intervention. His strongly expressed dor with confusion by publishing the articles sympathies misled the insurgents as to the of the constitution of the 29th of January, lengths to which his government would go in which-in defiance of the positive refusal on their behalf, supported as they were by of the Sicilians to such an arrangementthe declarations of Lord Napier, the resident one parliament was established for the Two British minister at Naples. Even before the Sicilies, and any reference to the pre-exist29th of January, this diplomatist had not ing institutions of the island sedulously hesitated to warn the Neapolitan court that avoided. It was in his remonstrances on he had no hope of proving useful, unless the this breach of faith, that Lord Minto roundly constitution of 1812 were given back to the qualified "the suspension of the constitution Sicilians; and when Lord Minto, on his of 1812, and the re-establishment of absoarrival early in February, laid down the lute government in Sicily, as an illegal usursame basis for his negotiations, they may pation, which the Sicilians were justified in be pardoned for believing that England resisting; adding that, at that moment, acwould not a second time support their pre-cording to the strict letter of the law, they tensions only to leave them in deeper abase- had a right to exercise that constitution, and could not be looked upon as rebels to legal authority." + ment. * At the opening of his mission, and while the envoy labored to demonstrate the vital ne- Intimidated by this language, the ministry cessity of securing peace before the revolu- hastened to explain that this decree was tionary spirit had time to spread in Italy, the solely to be applied to Naples, in what reking's religious respect for the sanctity of garded the parliament; that a separate partreaties was adduced as an insuperable ob- liament was designed for Sicily, and that its stacle to the claims of Sicily. His conscience ancient rights, and the constitution of 1812, forbade him to violate the 104th article of would be referred to in any forthcoming dethe treaty of Vienna, which clearly estab-cree for the convocation of the Sicilian parlished the union of the two portions of his liament. Once more confident that all would state, and interdicted him from separating go smoothly, Lord Minto transmitted a retheir form of government. To these objec- port of these official rectifications to Palermo ; tions it was argued that the article in ques- and announced to Lord Palmerston, that the tion simply confirmed the restoration of king accepted his conditions. Scarcely, howKings Ferdinand III. and IV. to the throne ever, had his despatches left Naples, when of Naples; but that the change of title from the king's scruples relating to the 104th King of the Two Sicilies, to King of the article of the treaty of Vienna revived, and Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, implied no a fresh memorandum was drawn up, much fusion of political institutions. Had this more restricted in its application, ignoring been contemplated, the representative form the island's previous representative polity, of government in Sicily would either have been extended to Naples on the sovereign's resumption of his authority beyond the Straits, or formally and openly abolished. Far from this, however, not a single public act, then or subsequently, indicated the slightest modification in the purely monarchical system of Naples; while, on the other hand, there were irrefragable proofs that the Sicilian constitution still subsisted, and was recognized by the royal decrees of 1816, wherein it was expressly set forth that the *Lord Napier to Viscount Palmerston, 27th of January, 1848. and describing the measures about to be introduced as springing from the spontaneous goodness of the king. In vain did the harassed mediator forewarn the ministry, that this last step would only generate aversion, and retard any chance of an accommodation.‡ The suspicions rooted in the Sicilians, and very widely entertained at Naples, at length forced themselves upon his mind; and he *Lord Napier to the Duke of Serracapriola. Naples, 10th of February, 1848. f Lord Minto to Viscount Palmerston, 11th of February, 1848. The Earl of Minto to the Duke of Serracapriola, 17th of February, 1848. confessed to the belief that there was no serious intention on the part of the court to come to a friendly understanding, and that all that was doing was solely to gain time to prepare for hostilities, or to procure an Austrian intervention.* The almost continuous bombardment of Messina might have been cited to corroborate the first part of this assertion. It is not likely that a prince, honestly desirous of a peaceful adjustment, would have permitted the citadel to keep on harassing this town, while he was treating with the provisional government. No credit was ever attached to the assertion, that repeated orders had been sent to the commandant to desist. The excuse was too transparent when a few hours would have sufficed to transmit more peremptory commands, or summon the recusant to account for their evasion. self the love and confidence of his people." Ferdinand was inflexible, until the intelligence of the French Revolution, the flight of his uncle, Louis Philippe, and the proclamation of the republic, fell on him like a thunderbolt. A cabinet council was at once summoned, at which Lord Minto was invited to take part. After a discussion of eight hours, his recommendation that the king should place himself at the head of the Sicilian constitution by legalizing the parliament about to open at Palermo, was adopted. Six articles, called the concessions of the 6th March, were drawn up and consigned to him as the royal ultimatum. In every respect but one they were ample enough to satisfy the most exacting. The king recognized the statute of 1812 by adopting, as his own, the provisional government's act of convocation, based upon it, merely adding these words, "the entirety of the monarchy still remaining vested in the single person of the king;" named Ruggiero Settimo royal-lieutenant in Sicily, with authority to open the chambers on the 25th of March. Appointed the Prince of Butera, the Marquis Torre Arsa, Pasquale Calvi, and Mariano Stabile-members of the provisional government—as his ministers; and Gaetano Scovazzo, a Sicilian, but lately in the Neapolitan cabinet, as resident minister Prescribed At this juncture a fresh cause of irritation was furnished to the Sicilians, by the discovery that royal emissaries were dispersed over the island to promote internal disorders, and endeavor to stifle liberty in anarchy. In order to ward off this danger, by giving a more settled form to the government, Ruggiero Settimo and his colleagues now intimated that they must convoke the parliament according to the law of 1812, and the elections were at once set on foot. The king, dreading lest the first act of the chambers should be to pronounce his deposition-in at Naples for Sicilian affairs. imitation of the hateful example set by Eng- the oath to be taken to the constitution; land in 1688, with which the insurgents were and lastly, in the clause that "the two pardistractingly familiar-once more professed liaments of Naples and Sicily would come himself amenable to Lord Minto's arguments. to an understanding on all that regarded But they speedily came to issue on a ques- their common interests," left a wide margin, tion which the Sicilians considered indis- so Lord Minto flattered himself, for settling pensable to carry out the spirit of the con- the momentous question of the army. Unstitution of 1812. This was the stipulation fortunately, at the council he had forborne that no Neapolitan troops should be sta- to insist again upon it, and even allowed it tioned in the island without the authority of to remain in silence, † under the delusion, the Sicilian parliament: a contingency not it is conjectured, that it would gratify the specially provided for in 1812, as Naples, at king to have the faculty of bestowing this that time, no longer formed part of the royal crowning concession as of his own free will. dominions. Unreasonable and extravagant Lord Minto was himself the bearer of these as this demand appears, it had a traditional decrees to Palermo. But the provisional precedent,-not even Spain had placed for- government had no sooner learnt that they eign garrisons in Sicily,-and furthermore left the condition respecting the army unfulit was justified, according to Lord Minto's filled, than they were unanimously rejected own admission, by their experience of their as 'opposed to the constitution of 1812." Bourbon princes, and the undeniable fact To preserve the union of the two crowns that nothing existed in the character or con- now became his sole object; and professing duct of the actual government to entitle it that he had carte blanche from the king to to confidence.t treat on his behalf, he invited the insurgents to entrust him with their propositions. Not without a struggle in the council-room, not without a threatening of commotion in the city, were these last overtures determined Vainly, however, did Lord Minto urge the king to yield, to remove the last obstacle to the pacification of his states, put an end to a sanguinary struggle, and secure to him*The Earl of Minto to Lord Mount Edgecombe, 22nd of February, 1848. † Lord Minto to Viscount Palmerston, 1st of March, 1848. 66 * Lord Minto to the Duke of Serracapriola, 26th of February, 1848. † Lord Minto to Viscount Palmerston, 7th of March, 1848. on. The intensity of the hatred felt against to proclaim Ferdinand's deposition,-an anFerdinand by all classes made a deep im- nouncement celebrated for three days all pression on Lord Minto; and believing that over the island with the most fervent rejoicin the actual state of Europe they had noth-ings. ing to fear from a foreign intervention, he Public opinion in England did not conascribed his success in inducing the provi- demn this exultation as ungrounded. No sional government "to accept the sovereignty moment ever seemed more propitious for the of a man so universally detested," to the assertion of independence. Men believed desire of maintaining the friendship and that the knell of despotism had sounded. protection of England which possessed all The French Revolution had given an electric the leading Sicilians. He professed him- shock to Germany; Berlin and Vienna were self satisfied with the terms submitted to in revolt. Italy leaped up as a giant from him, and promised that before twice twenty-sleep; Milan and Venice drove the Ausfour hours they would be accepted by the trians from their walls; and Charles Albert, king of Naples. But he had either over-crossing the Ticino, was already victorious stepped his instructions, or was the dupe of at Pastrengo. The call to arms echoed to Ferdinand. Four, eight, ten days passed the furthest limits of the peninsula; even without the expected ratification; and when Ferdinand of Bourbon was compelled to at length, on the 24th of March, a royal yield to popular ferment, and sullenly consteamer appeared before Palermo, it was to sented to furnish a contingent of 20,000 men convey a positive refusal from the king, and to the national war in Lonbardy. The flower a protest against any act which might hence- of the royal forces thus employed, Sicily had forth take place in Sicily. The die was now no cause to apprehend a Neapolitan invacast. After a fruitless attempt to induce sion; and England's only anxiety was, lest Ferdinand to cede the crown of Sicily to one intoxicated by the sudden acquisition of libof his children, Lord Minto renounced all erty, her people should renounce constitufurther arbitration, proffering in his farewell tional monarchy, give a fatal example to the letter to the Sicilians the earnest recommen- rest of Italy, and an undue predominance to dation that they would not suffer themselves France, by adopting a republican form of to fall into the calamities of a republic. government. As early as the 6th of April, Our fast narrowing limits forbid us to before the Sicilian parliament had voted the dwell on the transactions in Sicily which fol- forfeiture of the crown of Sicily by Ferdilowed the breaking off of the mediation, nand and his heirs, we find that Lord Napier further than is requisite to elucidate the pro- had communicated to Lord Palmerston his ceedings of England. On the 25th of March ideas relative to the election of a new king, the parliament opened. It was no turbulent a member of the House of Savoy, and of or revolutionary assembly. Archbishops, the necessity of hastening this measure to bishops, mitred abbots, peers whose ances- forestall the proclamation of the republic.* tors seven centuries back had sat in the Very shortly afterwards, Lord Palmerston, magna curia of Roger II. composed its up- as if to rivet his claims to have a paramount per chamber. The commons had been influence in the affairs of Sicily by his warm elected from the younger branches of the patronage of her rights, made a declaration nobility, the general body of the clergy, pro-to the Neapolitan cabinet which did not fail fessors of the universities, and landowners. to travel across the Straits. It having come On this solemn occasion both bodies were gathered in the vast church of St. Dominic, where Ruggiero Settimo presented himself before them at the head of the members of the provisional government, and in presence of an immense concourse of spectators of every degree. The venerable old man, loved and reverenced by the Sicilians in his simplicity and rectitude as the personification of their revolution, now read aloud a statement of the labors of himself and his colleagues from the day on which they had been called to power; then in his and their names delivered up that power to the parliament. Its first and unanimous act was to invest him with the regency or presidentship of the kingdom; its second, on the 13th of April, to the knowledge of the Foreign Office that The Sicilians, meanwhile, showed no dispo- 1849. Despatch to Prince of Castelciale, 10th of April, sition to run into the excesses so dreaded by their English friends. The parliament was steadily bent on calling an Italian prince to the vacant throne, as soon as it had completed its adaptation of the constitution to the wants of the present times. Its choice lay between the Duke of Genoa, second son of Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, and the second son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, a child only nine years old. The first was most acceptable to England; France would have preferred the election of the latter, but hinted at the same time that the regal title 'could not be more worthily bestowed than on Ruggiero Settimo. The noble president, however, proof to all the promptings of ambition, dismissed the suggestion as unworthy of a thought. Louis Napoleon offered himself as a candidate, but the addresses circulated by the obscure exile of London failed to secure him a single partisan. Soon after the vote of the 13th of April, commissioners were sent to the pope, the king of Sardinia, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to obtain the political recognition of Sicily, with private instructions to investigate the qualifications of the two princes, without manifesting any bias for either; and ascertain which court was most disposed to accept the offer. Their reception from Charles Albert at his head-quarters in Lombardy, in the flush of his early successes, may readily be conceived; though he refrained from all allusion to the approaching election, his repeated and enthusiastic praise of the Sicilian Revolution sufficiently demonstrated no opposition need be apprehended from him should a descendant of Victor Amedeus be invited to reign in Sicily. The grand duke was equally cordial. Leopold apparently forgave a revolution which had taken a crown from his brother-in-law, in the hope that it might rest on the brow of his son. His ministers promised to act in concert with Piedmont for the speedy recognition of the new state. The language held by Pius IX. to the deputation has often been quoted as a proof of profound duplicity or pitiable weakness. He excused himself for not taking the initiative in recognizing Sicilian independence, on the plea of his vicinity to Naples; but promised to follow in the wake of other governments. He praised the humanity and generosity of the revolution, admitted its justice, and censured the conduct of the king of Naples. When asked for some token of his sympathy and adhesion, he answered, "What better token do you desire than this? I receive you, I embrace you, I bless you, and with you the whole of Sicily." Six months later, his hands were uplifted to invoke a blessing on the banners of Ferdinand, dyed in Sicilian blood. But no foreboding of possible reverses crossed the minds of the Sicilian people. England's solicitude to consolidate their political system attested her belief in its durability. At the beginning of May, Sir Ralph Abercromby, British minister at Turin, was instructed to give assurance to that court, that should the Duke of Genoa accept the crown, he would be recognized as king of Sicily as soon as he entered into possession.* At the same time a copy of this despatch was forwarded to Mr. Goodwin, the consulgeneral at Palermo, evidently with the intention it should at once, be non-officially communicated to the president; unused, however to such diplomatic subtleties, this functionary awaited more positive instructions. It was not therefore till the 9th of June that he presented himself to Ruggiero Settimo, authorized to state that Great Britain would recognize the new king of Sicily when in possession of his throne, and adding, that a similar declaration, in the contemplation of the Duke of Genoa's election had been made to the court of Turin. Coming as did this communication close upon the events of the 15th of May in Napleswhen the king had suffocated in blood the constitution of the 29th of Jannary, and recalled the army still on its march to the scat of war-it acquired peculiar importance. Another fact, yet more significant, speedily transpired. The forces Ferdinand had regained, he was not allowed to employ against Sicily. An English squadron was stationed in the Bay of Naples to prevent the departure of any hostile expedition. Secure under England's ægis, the Sicilian parliament leisurely completed the revision of the legis lature, so as to leave nothing indefinite in the statute to be laid before the future king; nor was it until the 11th of July that, without one dissentient vote, Albert Amedius of Savoy, Duke of Genoa, was called to the most ancient constitutional monarchy in Christendom. The English squadron, under Sir W. Parker, at anchor in the harbor of Palermo, according to the orders of the Foreign Office, now saluted the Sicilian flag: and H.M.S. Porcupine conveyed a courier from the Sicilian cabinet to Genoa, to announce the intelligence to the court of Turin. The French squadron before Palermo also joined in this recognition of Sicilian independence; and the war-steamer Descartes was the bearer of the deputation charged to make the formal offer of the crown. The young duke, a gallant soldier and an accomplished prince, was in command of a division of the Piedmontese army, and absent from the royal head-quarters when, on Viscount Palmerston to Sir R. Abercromby. Despatch of 4th of May, 1848. the 21st of July, the deputation presented For eight months had this city displayed themselves to Charles Albert. The king a courage and endurance to which history as promised that he would summon his son on yet has barely done justice. The truce conthe morrow to his side, to give them an of- cluded in the month of March ceased with ficial reception. All indicated a speedy and the failure of Lord Minto's mediation; since favorable conclusion. But the morrow never when, as before, scarce a day or an hour came. The Sardinian lines were surprised may be said to have passed in which lives at various points by Radetsky, and that se- were not sacrificed or buildings destroyed by ries of rapid reverses commenced which the citadel's fire, though hostilities had not ended in the capitulation of Milan, and the been undertaken against any other portion total defeat of the Piedmontese. The duke of the island. On Good Friday, the inhabisaw himself compelled to renounce all aspi- tants, confiding in the sanctity of the day, rations to the prize so nearly within his grasp, thronged the streets, not excepting the most and Sicily awoke from her fatal delusion to exposed localities, in order to visit the find that England, her fancied pillar of churches. The batteries suddenly opened, strength, was as Egypt of old to all that and continued firing until nightfall. But trusted on her. She had leaned on a bruised the spirit of the Messinese was not to be reed, and it now pierced her through. The thus conquered. It grew higher as danger unexpected rout of Charles Albert overthrew became more familiar, till it was at last comall the calculations of the English govern- mon for divine service, or popular assemment. Austria was once more in the ascen- blages of any description to close with the dant; the king of Naples might rely upon defiant shout, "Perish Messina, so long as her for help. Any longer openly to support liberty is saved!" They were not false to the Sicilians against his authority would be this terrible invocation. A fierce, despairincompatible with the neutrality to which ing resistance was maintained from the 3d every consideration of honor or consistency was to be subordinate. to the morning of the 7th of September, notwithstanding the combined fire of the citadel At a cabinet council held shortly after the and the Neapolitan fleet* caused havoc such tidings of the armistice between the king as beggars all description. Their ammuniof Sardinia and Radetsky reached London, tion failed at last, and their batteries ceased it was decided that the departure of Ferdi- to return the enemy's fire; nevertheless, nand's expedition against the island should General Filangieri kept up the bombardment no longer be opposed. The very men whose for eight hours longer, while the royal troops applause had been so freely given to the Si- forced their way into the city, throwing comcilian movement, coolly handed over this peo-bustibles in every direction. Unsparing and ple, comparatively speaking, unarmed and uncontrolled in their brutal fury and licendefenceless-for their blind reliance upon tiousness, even the sanctuary of the churches England had rendered them careless of war- was violated. Women were dishonored on like preparations-to the vengeance of Na- the altar steps; the blood of gray-haired ples. The answer given shortly before the priests mingled with the sacrifice. Three reverses in Lombardy, by Mariano Stabile, days of pillage and flames inaugurated the one of the Sicilian ministry, to the angry royal victory, during which, strict in their warnings of La Masa, one of the very small observance of neutrality, the English and minority of public men who, distrusting their French ships of war belonging to the squadpowerful ally, advocated more solicitude in ron, which two months before had saluted military affairs, strikingly exemplifies the the election of the king of Sicily at Palermo, boundless confidence that prevailed. "Rest passively witnessed the almost total destrucassured," he said, “all will go well. Eng- tion of this beautiful city. It was not till land sustains our rights; not a shot will be after two miles' extent of buildings, comprefired." It was not thought possible that a hending the most sumptuous palaces and nation which eight years before, on a mere churches, had been burnt down; not till question of commercial interests, had sent a scarcely one house was left uninjured, that, fleet to threaten Ferdinand in his own cap-on the 10th of September, their commanders ital, and whose language, in assertion of the Sicilians' claims through all the diplomatic transactions of the spring, had been so dictatorial, would fail in resolution when British honor and consistency were at stake. Even the rumors from Naples did not shake the universal credulity. It was not till the royal armament appeared before Messina that the Sicilians realized to themselves that they were abandoned. called upon General Filangieri, in the name of humanity, to desist from this war of extermination. When these details became known, even diplomacy could not stifle a sense of horror at their enormity. An armistice was proposed to Ferdinand by England *Consisting of three sailing frigates, thirteen forty transports. The land forces amounted to steam frigates and corvettes, twenty gun-boats, and 24,000 men. |