KINGDOM OF THE TWO.

The whole of this kingdom, denominated in Italian the Regno delle Due Sicilie, has an area of 32,530 geographical square miles, and a population, in January 1855, of 9,088,377 inhabitants. It extends in N. Lat. from 36° 38' to 42° 55', and in E. Long. from 12° 25' to 18° 30'. Some of the smaller islands, however, extend far beyond these limits. It is bounded on every side by the sea, except on the N.W., where it comes into contact with the Papal States. Being situated on both sides of the Straits of Messina, it is naturally divided into two portions, which are distinguished by the official appellation, Naples, or the continental part, of Domini al di qua del Faro; and Sicily, or the island part, of Domini al di là del Faro.

The continental part, or Domini al di qua del Faro, called also Regno di Napoli, comprises the southern and most beautiful half of the Italian Peninsula. It forms the ankle, spur, heel, and foot of the boot (lo Stivale) to which the configuration of Italy is often compared. It extends in N. Lat. from 37° 55' to 42° 55', and in East Long. from 13° 15' to 18° 30', and has an area of 24,971 geographical square miles, and a population (in January 1855) of 6,857,357 inhabitants. It is bounded on the N.W. by the States of the Pope, on the W., as far down as the Straits of Messina, by the Tyrrhenian, on the S.E. from the Straits to the Cape of Leuca, by the Ionian, and on the N.E. by the Adriatic Sea. The frontier line on the N.W., nearly the same as it was at the foundation of the monarchy in 1130, is, with its windings, about 185 miles, and in a direct line 105 miles long. It extends from the north bank of the river Tronto, on the Adriatic, across the chain of the Apennines, to the small stream of San Magno near Portella, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, 2 miles east of Terracina.

The length of the kingdom from the Tronto to the Capo dell'Armi, following the curved line of the Apennines, is 350 miles; and its greatest breadth from the Punta della Campanella, opposite the Island of Capri, to Brindisi, on the Adriatic, from W. to E., is about 200 miles. South of that line it becomes very narrow; from the mouth of the Crati, on the Ionian, to Cirella, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is not more than 29 miles; and only 16 miles between the gulfs of Sta. Eufemia and Squillace, farther south.

The physical geography of the country is chiefly determined by the chain of the Apennines, which, by their numerous ranges, offshoots, and valleys, cover most of its surface, and greatly contribute to its variety and picturesque beauty. These mountains, which have already been described in this work under head Italy, on entering the kingdom on the N.W. from the papal territory, branch into two lofty ranges, one of which, keeping so near the Adriatic as to leave only a narrow strip of lowland along the shore, attains the greatest elevation of the whole chain in Monte Corno, called also the Gran Sasso d'Italia, 10,154 English feet, and Monte Amaro, the highest peak of the Maiella group, 8956 feet above the level of the sea. The western range, sweeping round the sources of the Aterno, forms the high peaks of Monte Velino, 7780 feet, and Monte Greco, 7875 feet, and unites again with the other in the high table-land of the Piano di Cinquemiglia, whence the main chain keeps more in the centre of the Peninsula, and at La Meta swells to an elevation of 7480 feet. From this point the main chain, in its progress southwards, keeps constantly in the centre of the Peninsula, but scatters in a confused and irregular mass over a great tract of country, and sends important offshoots east and west, till it forms the lofty central group of the Terminio, in Lat. 41 and Long. 15° 25'. The Terminio is at once the boundary of the provinces of Principato Ultra, Principato Citra and Capitanata, and the watershed whence four of the most important rivers in the kingdom—the Sele, the Calore, the Sabato, and the Ofanto—begin their course. The highest peaks of this part of the chain are Monte Miletto, in the Matese group, 6745 feet; and the Terminio itself, 5680 feet.

From the Terminio the Apennines take an eastern direction, and form the lofty group between Rionero and Potenza, which divides the basin of the Ofanto from those of the Bradano and the Basento, and from near Lagopesole send south-east an offshoot, which encloses the Apulian plain, and gradually diminishing in height, ends at the Cape of Sta. Maria di Leuca. From Potenza they take a southern course, and approaching the Tyrrhenian Sea at the head of the Gulf of Policastro, swell into the high table-land of Campotenese, and the lofty group of the Pollino, which in Dolcedorme, its highest peak, attains an elevation of 6875 feet. From that group the chain, scarcely receding from the sea-shore, rises at Monte Cocuzzo to 5620 feet, forms the high table-land of La Sila, and sinks abruptly south of Tiriolo to such an insignificant elevation between the Gulfs of Squillace and Sta. Eufemia, as to have often suggested the idea of a canal across the low neck of land that separates them. Immediately to the south of that neck the mountains rise again, and form the lofty group of the Aspro- monte, which in Montalto, its highest peak at the toe of Italy, attains an elevation of 4380 feet.

Totally detached from the chain of the Apennines, from whose nearest slopes it is separated by an extensive plain, called the Tavolieri di Puglia, rises the isolated group of Monte Gargano (Garganum), a lofty promontory, boldly projecting east for the length of 35 miles into the Adriatic, between the mouth of the Fortore on the north-west and the Gulf of Manfredonia on the south-east. Its highest peak attains an elevation of 5120 feet above the level of the sea.

The Apennines, as well as the Gargano, which belongs to the same geological formation, consist chiefly of limestone; primary rocks crop out; but to no great extent, in the Maiella group, among the mountains of Montecorvino, in the Pollino, &c. The group of the Aspromonte, however, is chiefly a granite mass, and in its geological character is more like the Madonìa Mountains on the opposite coast of Sicily than like the Apennines.

Enclosed or in part surrounded by the Apennines, but totally distinct from them both in their geological formation and physical character, are the volcanic districts of Campania and Apulia. The former consists of the three groups of Roccamontina, the Flegrean Fields, and Vesuvius; the latter of Mount Vulture.

The volcanic hills of Roccamontina rise 4 miles northeast of the towns of Sessa and Teano, nearly midway between the Volturno and the Garigliano. The outer edge or circular ridge of their great crater encloses a space of 9 miles in circumference, within which are two smaller cones, the highest of which, called Montagna di Sta. Croce, is 3200 feet above the level of the sea. The lavas of Roccamontina are easily distinguished by their colour, and their large crystals of leucite. The volcanic tufa, which is found in large deposits along the banks of the Garigliano and the Volturno, and in some of the lower valleys of the Apennines on the frontier of Terra di Lavoro, is supposed to have been emitted by this volcano. Roccamontina has shown no signs of activity in historical times.

The Flegrean Fields comprise the country between the banks of the Lagno and the Sebeto, as well as the adjoining islands of Nisida, Procida, and Ischia. They contain numerous large and small craters, and several cones, the highest of which are—Monte San Nicola (Epomeo) in Ischia, 2610 feet; Monte Barbaro (Gaurus), 1860 feet; and Camaldoli, 1488 feet. Monte Barbaro, composed of beds of loose scoriae and pumiceous tufa, has a deep crater of 3½ miles in circumference, enclosing a plain of great fertility, which is entered by a break on the east wall of the crater. A larger crater is that of the Astroni, which is 4½ miles in circumference, and quite unbroken. Its interior is covered with large ilexes and oaks. The Flegrean Fields, in which are the Fusaro, Lucrino, Averno, and Agnano lakes, have been active in historical times. From the south-east wall of the Saltatara crater, midway between Pozzuoli and the Lake of Agnano, a stream of lava poured forth in 1198, which crossed the ancient Via Puteolana, and reached the sea. Even at present, from the crevices within the Solfatara, steam and noxious gases constantly exhale, and flames are occasionally seen at night. From the flanks of Mount Epomeo, in Ischia, a stream of lava containing a large quantity of felspar, issued in 1302, and descended to the shore, 2 miles off. And in 1538, after a succession of violent earthquakes, on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of September, the country round Pozzuoli was convulsed by eruptions of steam, pumiceous ashes, lapilli, scoriae, and black mud, which elevated the whole coast from Miseno to Cape Coroglio, and raised, 1½ mile west of Pozzuoli, a conical hill called Monte Nuovo, 440 feet high and 1½ mile in circumference, on the spot where the village of Tripergola and part of Lake Lucrino stood. The tufa hills, on the slopes of which the city of Naples is built, belong to the Flegrean group.

Mount Vesuvius, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, an account of which will be found in this work under head Vesuvius, rises to the east of Naples, between the shore of the bay, on the south, and the Apennines, on the north and east. It is 30 miles in circumference, and at a certain height divides into two points; the Somma, whose highest peak, the Punta del Nasone, is 3747 feet above the level of the sea, and Vesuvius proper, which, at the Punta del Palo, on the north brim of the crater, attains an elevation of 3949 feet. The height of the eruptive cone is subject to great variations; in March 1850 it was 4235; and in June 1858 it had been lowered to 4075 feet. At the commencement of the Christian era Vesuvius was considered as an extinct volcano, and no records existed of its having burned in historical times. But under the reign of Titus, in A.D. 79, on the 24th of August, after a succession of earthquakes, which had begun some years before, a tremendous explosion took place, which is memorable as the eruption that destroyed Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabiae, and several smaller villages on the slopes of the mountain, and caused the death of Pliny the naturalist, whose nephew, Pliny the younger, has left us an interesting account of the event. Since that time Vesuvius has not ceased to be more or less active, and till 1858 more than fifty-six great eruptions, not to count smaller ones, had taken place, of which there are historical records.

Mount Vulture rises at the west end of the Apulian plain, on the frontier of Basilicata, out of the cretaceous magmatic formation of the Apennines, which surround it almost on every side. It has shown no activity in historical times; and the absence of streams of lava, coupled with the beds of travertine resting in several places on the volcanic formation, prove its very great antiquity. Its inner regions are clothed with forests, and within its widest crater there are two small lakes. It has several cones, but the central and highest peak, called Il Pizzuto di Melfi, attains an elevation of 4357 feet above the level of the sea.

The surface and physical character of the provinces vary very much. The three provinces of the Abruzzi and the adjoining province of Molise, are almost entirely covered by mountains, and high table-lands and valleys, which give them a pastoral more than an agricultural character. Some of the valleys are of great fertility, especially the beautiful valley of Sulmona, watered by the Gizio and the Sagittario; but in general they have a cold climate, and southern plants do not thrive well. Between the valley of Sulmona to the north, and the valley of the Sangro to the south is the Piano di Cinquemiglia, a high table-land about 4300 feet above the level of the sea, and surrounded by higher mountains, which enjoys the privilege of being the most wintry spot in Italy. The high road from Naples to the Abruzzi is carried through it; but the sudden snowstorms and strong winds to which the table-land is exposed make it dangerous, and often impassable in winter, and sometimes even late in the spring. On its southern end is Roccarasa, the most elevated village in Italy, being 4370 feet above the level of the sea. To the east, along the shore of the Adriatic, there is a plain extending from the slopes of the Apennines to the sea, varying from 1 to 13 miles in breadth. This strip of lowland has a mild temperature, favourable to the growth of the olive-tree, and, in some more sheltered situations, even of the orange.

The province of Terra di Lavoro is covered to the east by the lofty groups of the Mainardi, the Matese, and the Taburno, part of the main chain of the Apennines; to the north-west by an offshoot, which descends to the sea between Terracina and Gaeta; and that of Naples to the south-east has a lofty offshoot, which forms the mountains of La Cava Castellammare and Sorrento, and enclosing the Bay of Naples to the east, ends opposite the island of Capri. Within those boundaries is the great Campanian plain, celebrated in ancient as well as in modern times for its inexhaustible fertility. Strabo calls it the richest plain in the world. Its uniformity is broken by the two volcanic groups of the Flegrean Fields and Mount Vesuvius. It has a volcanic soil, but near the foot of the mountains it is covered by a detritus of gravel, washed down by the heavy rains. The small state of Pontecorvo, belonging to the Pope, is inclosed in the Terra di Lavoro.

Principato Ultra is traversed by the range of the Apennines, which, with their offshoots, cover most of its surface. The large valley, in the midst of which the city of Avellino, the capital, is situated, is of considerable fertility; but as a whole it is a poor district. In the heart of this province is Benevento, the capital of a territory of 45 square miles belonging to the Pope. Napoleon conferred it on Talleyrand, but the Congress of Vienna restored it to the Holy See.

In Principato Citra, on the south-west, bordering the Gulf of Salerno, is a vast plain, 28 miles long, and from 2 to 12 miles broad. It is surrounded by the Apennines on all sides, except on the west, where it is bounded by the sea. To the east is the great mass of the classic Alburno (Alburnus), the lower buttresses of which are washed by the Sele. Four miles from the left bank of this river towards the south end of the plain, are the ruins of Paestum, already described in this work. The plain is at present little cultivated, and visited by malaria. The surface of the rest of the province is of a mountainous character.

Basilicata is in great part covered by the main range and numerous offshoots of the Apennines, except on the south-east, where a large and rich tract of flat country extends from the foot of the mountains to the Gulf of Taranto. This plain is watered by the Bradano and the Basento, and though at present in great part a waste, in ancient times it was the source of the wealth and prosperity of Metapontum. To the south-west there is a smaller plain, on the Gulf of Policastro, near the site of ancient Velia. The centre of Basilicata is the wildest, least civilized, and poorest district in the kingdom.

Nearly two-thirds of the area of the three provinces into which Calabria is divided are also of a mountainous character, especially on the western side. On the eastern shore there is a large extent of low country, a continuation of the great plain of Basilicata, watered by numerous streams, and possessing great fertility and a very mild temperature. Sybaris, Thurium, Croto, and other cities of Magna Graecia, flourished on this plain, which now is in great part deserted. In the heart of Calabria there is a vast mountain table-land called La Sila (Sila), about 40 miles long and from 16 to 20 miles broad, which extends through the greatest part of Calabria Citra and enters Calabria Ultra II. Its highest peaks are clothed with magnificent firs (Pinus sylvestris), and the lower ones with oak, beeches, and elms. It is intersected by numerous ravines, and well watered by several streams, which give it excellent pasturages in summer. The forests of La Sila were well known to the ancients, and to this day supply the greatest amount of timber to the royal navy of Naples. The Piana di Monteleone, and the plain of Gioia, on the west shore of Calabria Ultra I., offer extensive tracts of rich lowland, covered chiefly with olives, oranges, and other trees of southern climates.

Capitanata, Terra di Bari, and Terra d'Otranto, which are known by the general denomination of Puglia (Apulia), are almost an unbroken level country, stretching from the slopes of the Apennines to the shores of the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea. The northern part of Puglia, called Puglia Piana, forming the province of Capitanata, and extending from the Tiferno to the Ofanto River, consists of a great plain called the Tavoliere di Puglia which slopes gently from the mountains to the sea, where it is bounded by the isolated group of Mount Gargano. The Tavoliere, which is about 80 miles long and 30 miles broad, belongs almost entirely to the crown, and is chiefly laid out in pasture. Its surface is covered with wild capers, and the only trees to be seen are, here and there, some wild pears. From October to May it is enlivened by about 2,500,000 sheep, which descend from the mountains of the Abruzzi and Molise, where they pass the summer months.

The south part of Puglia, called Puglia Pietrosa, and including Terra di Bari and Terra d'Otranto, has, on the south-west, a chain of low rocky hills, called Le Murgie (an offshoot of the Apennines, from which they branch off near Venosa), which divide it from Basilicata, and gradually sink into insignificance as they descend south-east to the Cape of Sta. Maria di Leuca. The flat country continues between the Murgie and the sea for more than 56 miles from the Ofanto to Monopoli, where the Murgie come so near the Adriatic as to leave only a narrow strip of lowland till near San Vito, whence to the Cape of Leuca it is but an undulating plain, with some rising ground in the centre. On the Gulf of Taranto the surface of Terra d'Otranto is also generally flat, and joins the plain of Basilicata near the banks of the Bradano.

The Neapolitan rivers, owing to the absence of tides, have no harbours of any use at their mouths, except for small boats; but they greatly contribute to the fertility of the country, and would do more so if, instead of letting them, by their overflowing, flood the country and produce marshy plains and malaria, the natural advantages they offer for a vast system of embanking and irrigation were properly turned to account. The most important of them are—

On the western coast, the Liri or Garigliano (Liris), which drains the valleys west of Lake Fusino, and an extensive district of the Papal States. It rises in several distinct springs from the side of a conical hill, below the village of Cappadocia, in the midst of a most wild and picturesque scenery, in the Abruzzo Ultra II. It flows at first in a south-east direction through the alpine valleys of Nerfa and Roveto, receiving several small mountain-streams, till it emerges into the open country, at Sora, where it takes a turn to the south-west, and forms a series of small cascades (le Cascatelle), below the Insula Fibreni of Cicero. On being joined by the Fibreno (Fibrenus), a small clear stream which issues from the Lake of Posta, it forms, 4 miles below Sora, the Falls of Isola, about 100 feet high, one of the most remarkable waterfalls in Italy. Below Isola the Liri again bends its course to the south-east, and soon after passing Ceprano receives the Sacco or Tolero (Trerus), its most considerable tributary; the sources of which are 40 miles higher up, in the elevated district between the Palestrina and the Lepini mountains. After this junction it takes the name of Garigliano, and on receiving, 5 miles lower down, the waters of the Melfìa (Melfis), which rises in the flanks of the Meta, it resumes abruptly a south-west direction, and after a course of 60 geographical miles, enters the sea near the site of ancient Minturnae, in the Bay of Gaeta. In the lower part of its course it is navigable for boats; and near its mouth it has a suspension-bridge, over which the high road from Rome to Naples is carried.

The Volturno (Vulturum), which drains great part of ancient Campania and Samnium, rises among the Samnite Apennines 5 miles south of Alfedena, and emerging into the Campanian plain below Venafro, follows a south-east course till it is joined by the Calore. Turning thence to the west-south-west, it flows round the walls of Capua (the ancient Casilinum), and after a course of 100 miles, Sicilies, falls into the sea 20 miles below that city, near the village of Castel Volturno, midway between the mouth of the Garigliano and the site of ancient Cumae. It is a deep, rapid, and turbid stream, and subject to sudden and great overflows of its banks.

The Calore (Calor) rises in the group of the Terminio, and flowing first north and then west, after a course of 60 miles, unites with the Volturno near Caiazzo. Its two principal tributaries are the Tamaro (Tamarus), which rises near Boiano, in the province of Molise, and joins the Calore 5 miles above Benevento; and the Sabato (Sabatus), which also rises in the group of the Terminio, and taking a different course, unites eventually with the Calore, just below Benevento.

The Sarno (Sarnus), which drains the plain east of Vesuvius, springs as a clear and abundant stream from a perpendicular rock behind the town of the same name, and after a course of about 20 miles, falls into the Bay of Naples, 3 miles north of Castellammare. In ancient times it flowed under the walls of Pompeii, and entered the sea close to its gates. The great eruption of Vesuvius of A.D. 79, by filling up an arm of the sea, changed the course of the Sarno, whose mouth at present is two miles from Pompeii.

The Sele (Silarus) drains the province of Principato Citra, and has a course of 64 miles. It rises near the town of Caposele, in the group of the Terminio, not far from the sources of the Ofanto, and flows south till it receives the Tanagro (Tanager), a considerable stream which rises in the mountains of Lagonegro, drains the broad valley of Diano, and after a course of 30 miles, unites with the Sele, north of Mount Alburno. The Sele takes thence a southwest direction, skirts the north-west basis of the latter mountain, traverses the plain of Paestum, where it receives the Calore, which rises among the mountains of the Cilento, and falls into the Bay of Salerno, 5 miles north of the site of Paestum.

From the mouth of the Sele to the Straits of Messina, the range of the Apennines coming too near the Tyrrhenian shore, there are no rivers, but numerous mountain-torrents, each draining its own valley, and often dry in summer. The most important of these streams are, proceeding from north to south, the Alento, the Molpa (Melpes), the Mingardo, the Basento, the Lao (Laws), which fall into the Gulf of Policastro, the Savuto (Ocinarus), and the Lamato into the Gulf of Sta. Eufemia; and the Mesima and Marro (Metaurus), which drain the plain of Gioia and the Piana di Monteleone, and fall into the Gulf of Gioia.

The principal rivers that flow into the Adriatic are—the Tronto (Truentus), which divides Naples from the States of the Pope, and drains both frontiers. It rises among the mountains of Amatrice, and is navigable for boats only a few miles above its mouth. The Tordino, the sources of which are near those of the Tronto, and the Vomano (Vomanus), which rises in the lofty group of the Gran Sasso, empty themselves at a short distance from each other. The Pescara, which in the upper part of its course preserves its ancient name of Aternus, drains the whole valleys of Aquila and Sulmona, and the south-west slopes of the Gran Sasso. It rises near S. Vittorino, in the Abruzzo Ultra II., and flows south-east through a broad elevated valley more than 2000 feet high, from which it escapes into the lower valley of Sulmona, by a narrow gorge in the mountains, through which the ancient Via Valeria was carried. At Popoli the Aterno unites with the Gizio and the Sagittario, which descend from the Maiella group and drain the valley of Sulmona, and taking the name of Pescara and a north-east course, falls into the sea at the fortress of that name.

The Sangro (Sagrus) rises in the group of mountains that enclose the basin of Lake Fucinus on the south-west, and follows a south-east direction through an upland valley shut in on the north by the lofty Monte Greco. From this upper basin it emerges through a narrow gorge into a lower valley, passes under Castel di Sangro, and turning abruptly to the north-east, after a course of more than 70 miles, falls into the sea midway between Ortona and Vasto. The Trigno (Trinum), which has a course of nearly 60 miles from west-south-west to east-north-east, rises among the mountains of Agnone, and falls into the sea 7 miles south of Vasto. The Biferno (Tiferus) rises near Boiano, on the north slope of the lofty group of the Matese, and after a course of more than 60 miles from south-south-west to east-north-east, falls into the sea 4 miles south of Termoli. The Fortore (Frento), about 50 miles long, has its sources in the mountains of La Riccia and Basilice, and its mouth north of the Lake of Lesina, in Capitanata, opposite the group of the Tremiti Islands. The Cervaro (Cerbalus) and the Carapella have their sources at a short distance in the mountains of Ariano and Trivico, traverse parallel to each other the Apulian plain, and fall, the former into the Pantano Salso, and the latter into the sea, south of Manfredonia. The Otanto (Aphidas), the largest of the rivers of this part of Italy, rises in the lofty group of the Terminio, about 24 miles from the Tyrrhenian Sea, and after a course of more than 80 miles, discharges itself into the Adriatic, 6 miles north of the city of Barletta. At first it flows south-east, but, checked in its course by the volcanic group of Mount Vulture, by a sudden turn north-west, sweeps round the foot of that mountain, and emerging into the Apulian plain, traverses it from south-west to east-north-east, as far as the sea, passing a mile below Canosa, and by the site of ancient Cannae.

From the mouth of the Ofanto to that of the Bradano, a coast line of nearly 300 geographical miles, there are no rivers, and scarcely any torrents which are not dried up in summer.

The Bradano (Bradanus), which separates the provinces of Basilicata and Terra d'Otranto, issues out of the small Lake of Pesole, 5 miles south-east of Atella, and draining an extensive hilly tract of Basilicata, falls into the Ionian Sea north of the site of ancient Metapontum. The Basento (Casuentus), the sources of which are near those of the Bradano, the Salandra (Acantharius?), the Agri (Aciris), and the Sinno (Siris), all rise on the east flank of the Apennines in their progress from Potenza towards the Gulf of Policastro, and flowing nearly parallel to each other from north-west to south-east, especially in the latter part of their course, discharge themselves at a short distance of each other into the Gulf of Taranto.

The Crati (Crothis), the largest river of Calabria, rises in the table-land of La Sila, a few miles south of Cosenza, under the walls of which it flows, and after a course of 64 miles, discharges itself into the Gulf of Taranto, midway between Capo Spulico and Capo del Trionto, to the south of some ruins which mark the site of Thurii. At first it flows due north, but after its junction with the Microne, which drains the western Sila, it turns abruptly to the north-east, and finally due east till it falls into the sea. Three miles above its mouth it receives the waters of its principal tributary, the Coscile (Sybaris), a considerable stream that rises in a wooded dell below the west flanks of the Pollino, and drains the north frontier of Calabria. In ancient times the Sybaris had a separate outlet into the sea. South of the Crati, the Neto (Neathus), remarkable for the rich pastures of its banks, is the only other stream of any consequence as far as the Straits of Messina. It rises in the east flank of the Sila, and falls into the Ionian Sea 9 miles north of Cotrone.

The Lake Fucino (Fucinus), called also Lake of Celano, from the city of that name on its north-east shore, is the largest lake of the kingdom. It is embosomed in the high Apennines of the Abruzzo Ultra II., at an elevation of 2250 feet above the level of the sea, and has a circumference of 35 miles, and an area of 36,315 acres. Its deepest point in 1853 was 53 feet, but it is subject to great rises and falls. Its shores are often frozen in winter, but the lake itself is known to have been frozen only five times since the twelfth century. Numerous small streams flow into it, but there is no visible outlet. The Romans made several attempts to relieve the towns on the shores from its destructive inundations; till at length the Emperor Claudius caused an emissary to be constructed at his own expense, on condition of getting from the Mori the land reclaimed by the drainage. To this effect a tunnel 3 miles and 788 yards long was cut under Mount Salviano and the Campi Palentini, partly through a solid calcareous rock, and partly through a loose slaty marl, by means of which the waters of the lake were conveyed into the Liris, at the head of the valley of Roveto, below the modern village of Capistrello. This tunnel was aired by numerous perpendicular shafts along its course. Having been choked up during the middle ages, the Neapolitan government in 1826 undertook to repair it; but the works had little advanced in 1852, when the government granted all the lands that can be reclaimed by drainage to a company, who are now carrying out the works, the estimate of which is set at £217,000.

The Lake of Scanno, situated among the mountains that enclose the valley of Sulmona on the west, in the Abruzzo Ultra II., is about 5 miles in circumference, and one of the most sequestered and finest lakes in Italy; it discharges its surplus water by means of the Sagittario, a tributary of the Pescara. The Lake of Fondi (Locus Fundanus), between the town of that name and the sea, in the Terra di Lavoro, near the Papal frontier, is about 7 miles in circumference, but very shallow and marshy. The small lakes of Matese and Telesio are in the same province; the former, on the summit of the Matese mountains, is 3 miles in circuit, and well stocked with trout; the other, at the south-west foot of the same group, is a pool, which renders the neighbourhood unhealthy by the exhalation of sulphuretted hydrogen.

In the district of Pozzuoli, near Naples, are several small lakes which, with the exception of Patria and Licola, are evidently of volcanic origin. The Lake of Patria (Litterna Palus), a lagoon near the shore, 7 miles south of the mouth of the Volturno, is formed by the Lagno (Clanis), a sluggish stream which rises near Avella, and drains part of the Campanian plain. On its shore was Litternum, where Scipio Africanus had a villa in which he died in voluntary exile 184 B.C., ordering that on his tomb should be inscribed, "Ingurat Patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes." The name of Patria was derived from a fragment of this inscription built into the walls of a martello tower, hence called Torre di Patria. On the same shore, a few miles south, is Licola, a small marshy lake, supposed to have originated with a canal begun by Nero to connect Lake Avernus and the Tiber.

The Lake Fusaro (Acherusia Palus) between Cape Miseno and the site of Cumae, of which it was once the port, is supposed to be the crater of an extinct volcano. A sandy bar separates it from the sea, with which it communicates by a canal. It has brackish water, and is now famous for its oysters. Two miles from the Fusaro, at the bottom of the Bay of Baiae, is the Lucrino (Lucrinus), now a narrow marsh filled with reeds, and protected from the encroachments of the sea by a dyke of remote antiquity. Formerly it was larger and deeper, and supplied the Roman epicures with oysters and mussels—

"Morio Balano melior Lucrina peloris, Ostrea Circinis."—Horn. Sat. ii. iv. 32.

But the volcanic eruption of September 1538 filled up one Sicilian half of it by the formation of Monte Nuovo. About half a mile from the Lucrino, and west of Monte Nuovo, is Lake Averno (Avernum), 1½ miles in circumference, 4 feet above the level of the sea, and about 250 deep. It is clearly the crater of an extinct volcano, and is embosomed among steep hills of volcanic tufa on all sides except the south, where it communicated formerly with the Lucrino by a canal cut by Agrippa, who converted the two lakes into a port (Portus Julius) for a portion of the Roman fleet, which gave in it a representation of the naval battle of Actium, in the presence of Augustus. This canal was also filled up by the eruption of Monte Nuovo, but since 1857 the government has begun to re-open it with a view of converting Lake Averno into a great wet-dock, in which part of the royal navy might be safe from an attack. The poisonous qualities ascribed to Lake Avernum no longer exist.

"Quam super hanc illam poterant impune volantes Tendere iter penalis. Tali sece halitus atris Fauclibus effundens, supera ad convexa ferebat: Unde locum Graii dixerant nomine Avernum."

—Virg. Ecl. vi. 239.

Water-fowl are seen upon it in winter, and its fresh waters, in which men bathe with impunity, are well stocked with tench and other fish. On its shores there are several remains, the most interesting of which are—on the east side, a large ruin, octangular externally and circular within, more than 100 feet in diameter, and called the Temple of Apollo, but supposed to have been a Hall of Baths; on the south side, a tunnel called the Cave of the Sibyl (Grotta della Sibilla), cut through the tufa cliffs, probably by Cocceius under Agrippa's orders, to open a shorter and covered communication between the Lucrino and the Averno.

The Lake of Agnano, 2 miles north-east of Pozzuoli, is 3½ miles in circumference, and enclosed by volcanic hills. It is a source of malaria to the surrounding district, especially in summer, when large quantities of hemp are steeped in its waters. As neither the lake, nor the crater in which it is placed are mentioned by any of the Roman authors, it is thence inferred that they must have been formed by some volcanic changes during the dark ages. On the south-east bank of the lake is the celebrated Grotta del Cone, so well described by Addison, who visited it in the beginning of the last century. It is a small aperture at the foot of the hill, resembling a cellar, from the floor and sides of which there is constantly exhaling carbonic acid gas, which from its greater specific gravity rises only to a certain height, leaving the upper part of the cave free from its effluvia. Addison found that a pistol could not go off at the bottom of the cave, and that animal life of any kind was extinct in a few minutes. The grotto has received its name from experiments being generally practised upon dogs.

The lake, or rather pool, of Ansanto (Amantur) is worth noticing merely for its celebrity—

"Est locus, Italica in media sub montibus altis, Nobilis, et fama multa numeratus in oris, Amansci valles."

—Virg. Ecl. vii. 563.

It is placed in a deep crater-like valley, among limestone hills, 2 miles S.E. of Frigento, in the province of Principata Ultra, and consists of two ponds, the largest of which is only 160 feet in circuit, and 7 feet deep. The water is dark and muddy, and from the carbonic acid gas and sulphuretted hydrogen that is constantly escaping, it appears to be in violent ebullition, though its temperature little exceeds that of the surrounding atmosphere. Near it are seen bones of birds, arrested on their wings in crossing the valley by the noxious exhalations.

The Lake of Lesina, at the N.W. foot of Mount Gargano, close to the right bank of the Fortore; the Lake of Varano, at the N. foot of the same mountain; the Pantano Salso, close to the sea-shore, 3 miles S. of Manfredonia; and Lake Salpi, 5 miles further S.E. along the coast, all in the province of Capitanata, are the other lakes of any size. The Lake Salpi (Palus Salapino), 11 miles long and 2 broad, is of salt water, and has an artificial outlet by a canal through the low sandy bank that separates it from the sea. On its western shore stood Salapia, an important city of Apulia, of which the lake is supposed to have been the port. The lakes of Posta, 4 miles E. of Sora, in the Terra di Lavoro; Dragne, near Volturara, in Principato Ultra; and Pesole, and Serino (Lacus Niger), in Basilicata, are so small as to require no particular notice.

The Two Sicilies possess a larger extent of sea-coast than, with the exception of Great Britain, any other country in Europe. The most productive parts of the kingdom, as well as the most densely inhabited, are near the coast; and in surveying it the most interesting recollections of classical history are revived. In the continental part there are 1134 miles of coast, of which 392 are washed by the Tyrrhenian, 374 by the Ionian, and 368 by the Adriatic Sea.

The whole Tyrrhenian coast is for the most part bold and rocky, and though ill furnished with good harbours for large vessels, has several projecting headlands, deep indentations, and capacious bays affording a good anchorage. Of these bays the most northern is that of Gaeta (Sinus Coetanum), shut in on the north by the projecting headland on which the city and fortress of Gaeta are situated. It is spacious, with good anchorage ground at a depth of from 12 to 14 fathoms at the north-west end of the citadel. Gaeta is the strongest fortress in the kingdom; in 1798 it was disgracefully surrendered by the Swiss General Tschudy to the French, who, in their turn, surrendered it to the Bourbons in 1799. In 1806 it sustained a memorable siege, well known from the operations of our navy in support of the besieged against the French. Since 1848 its fortifications have been so much extended and strengthened as to render it one of the strongest places in Italy.

South and south-west of Gaeta, at a distance from 28 to 36 miles, are the small islands of Palmarola (Palmaria), Ponza (Pontia), Zannone (Sinonia), Ventotene (Pandataria), and San Stefano. They are all of volcanic origin, except Zannone, which is of limestone, covered by trachyte. Ponza, the largest, is 12 miles in circumference. At San Stefano, the smallest, there is the Ergastolo, or prison for life, for state as well as common criminals.

The next bay to the south is that of Naples, generally considered as one of the most beautiful and interesting in the world. The Greeks called it Crater, on account of its form, a name still given to it by the local hydrographers. At its entrance are the islands of Ischia and Procida to the north-west, and the island of Capri to the south-east, which are all described under their respective heads. Its width from Ischia to Capri is 14 miles, and its depth from W. to E. 16 miles; its circuit from the Capo della Campanella on the S.E., to the Capo di Miseno, on the N.W., is more than 30 miles, and nearly 48 if the islands are included. The head of the bay washes the foot of Vesuvius. On its west side, the low range of volcanic hills which end in the promontory of Posilipo, form the two inner bays—of Naples on the east, and of Pozzuoli on the west. The latter includes the smaller sheltered Bay of Baiae, and is bounded to the south-west by the Cape of Miseno. The Bay of Baiae has a hilly and sterile coast of volcanic tufa, and being subject to malaria, is nearly deserted. Yet in ancient times all its shores were thickly inhabited, and covered with towns and magnificent villas belonging to the wealthy Romans, who preferred Baiae to any other residence in the world.

"Nullus in orbe sinus Bals pretiosam amavit."—Her. Ep. i., 1, 83.

The whole shore is covered with ruins, in several places advancing into the sea, upon which the Patrician villas had encroached.

"Mareique Bals obstrepentis urges, Summovere littora, Parum locuples continente ripa."—Her. Od. ii., 17, 17.

In the tufa of the promontory of Miseno are excavated vast caverns, supposed to have been magazines for the Roman fleet stationed in a port sheltered by the Cape, three piers of which are still to be seen under water on the opening into the inner basin called Mare Morto. On the Cape itself are vast remains of a theatre and other buildings. The Bay of Baiae offers very safe and sheltered anchorage.

In rounding the small island of Nisida and the Cape of Posilipo, the inner Bay of Naples opens to the eyes with its shores thickly dotted with buildings and gardens. The city of Naples presents itself rising in the form of an amphitheatre from the sea-shore to the slopes of the surrounding hills, and, beyond the city, a vast plain, richly cultivated and watered by the winding little stream Sebeto. On the eastern side of the bay, Vesuvius, with its double summit, rises in majestic solitude from the plain, clothed with rich vegetation to about one-half of its height, and the other half barren and furrowed by streams of basaltic lava. Along its base and on its sides are scattered numerous villages and villas built on streams of lava, which successive eruptions of ashes and pumiceous fragments have covered with the most fertile of soils. On the sea-shore, at the south-west foot of Vesuvius, 4 miles from Naples, are the large villages of Portici and Resina, built over ancient Herculaneum; 6 miles further east was Pompeii. Both cities being described in this work under their respective heads, we abstain here from any further notice of them. The harbour of Naples is three or four fathoms in its deepest part; it is protected by a mole that makes it safe for ships once within it, but after a S.W. gale it is not easy to enter it. The anchorage of men-of-war is outside the mole, about 1 mile S.S.E. of the light-house, where there is a depth of from 25 to 38 fathoms. Ships can be conveniently supplied with water at the mole.

At the furthestmost eastern recess of the bay, where the coast suddenly bends west, is the town of Castellammare, built on the lower slopes of Monte Santangelo, and along the sheltered beach of a small bay, bounded on the N.W. by Capo Bruno, and on the S.W. by Capo Orlando. It arose from the ruins of Stabiae, which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius of A.D. 79. The port, with four fathoms of water, and protected by a mole, is secure, and contains the dockyards in which the largest ships of the royal navy are built. The S.E. boundary of the Bay of Naples is formed by the mountains that from Castellammare extend to the Capo della Campanella, which is divided from the island of Capri by a canal 4 miles broad, and from 60 to 80 fathoms deep, but exactly in the midst of which there is a sunken rock. The highest peak of this range is Monte Santangelo, south of Castellammare, 4722 feet. The town of Vico, Sorrento with its orange and citron groves, and numerous other villages, are on the north slopes of this range.

After passing to the south the island of Capri, we find the Gulf or Bay of Salerno (Sinus Pectenatus), which extends from the Punta della Campanella to the Punta di Licosa (Promontorium Posidonium), about 46 miles across, and has a depth of 30 miles. From Campanella to Salerno, a distance of about 20 miles, the coast is bold and rocky, and dotted by numerous villages, of which the largest are Positano and Amalfi. The latter place was once celebrated for the trade of the Levant, which made it populous and wealthy. It was the birth-place of Flavio Gioia, who, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, either invented or perfected the mariner's compass. It is now a poor town of about 5000 inhabitants; but nothing can surpass the romantic beauty of its situation on the sea-shore, at the entrance of a narrow gorge between high mountains, crowned by the ruins of its former castles. Salerno, which gives the name to the bay, stretches along the beach, with a ruined castle on a hill behind it. The road is much exposed to south-westerly winds; but there is a mole, behind which small vessels may find shelter. From Salerno the coast continues with a smooth sandy beach, and almost in a straight line south, bordering the plain of Paestum to Agropoli, where the hills of the Cilento approach the sea and form the headland of Licosa, the southern boundary of the bay, opposite to which, separated by a narrow channel, is a small island of the same name (Lescosia).

From Licosa the coast trends towards the south-east, with no good port till it reaches the safe anchorage formed by the headland which, by the name of Palinuro, reminds us of the pilot of Æneas:

"Et statuit tumulum, et tumulo solemnia mittent; Aeternaque locus Palinuri nomen habebit." — Æn., vi., 380.

Midway between Licosa and Palinuro, 2 miles from the mouth of the Alento, are the scanty remains of Velia, where Zeno founded the eleatic school of philosophy. The mildness of its climate attracted the Romans; Paulus Æmilius was ordered there for the sake of his health. S.S.E. of Cape Palinuro the coast continues bold to Capo degli Intreschi, where it opens into a gulf (Sinus Lamos), which takes its name from Policastro (Buxentum), situated on its north shore, once a place of importance, but since its sack by the Turks in 1544 a miserable village. Eight miles S.E., at the head of the gulf, is the small anchorage of Sapri (Scidra), from which the coast, descending south, becomes bolder and more picturesque, and is clothed with vineyards, olives, mulberries, and orange groves, and scattered with villages and towns, of which the most important are Scala, Diamante, Belvedere, Paola, and Amantea. At Cape Sperone (Lampetra), it opens into the Gulf of Sta. Eufemia (Sinus Terinaeus), and becomes flat and marshy, and infested with malaria. A few miles east of the mouth of the Lamato, on a small isolated hill, is the town of Maida, the scene of the victory gained by our arms under Sir John Stuart over the French, under General Regnier, on the 4th July 1806. At Pizzo the coast rises again, and continues rocky and inaccessible round Cape Zambrone and Cape Vaticano, till it sinks into the low coast that encloses the Gulf of Gioia (Sinus Bruttius), on the N. and E. The lower spurs of the Aspromonte come near the sea at Palmi, whence the coast continues lofty and bold almost the whole way round the toe of Italy. At the southernmost end of the Gulf of Gioia is the town and rock of Scylla, where the celebrated straits called Faro di Messina are entered.

Scylla is situated on a small promontory, and is built in a series of terraces rising one above the other from the sandy bays on either side of it towards the castle, which stands on the bluff cliff at its extremity. It suffered awfully from the earthquakes of 1783, the first shocks having almost totally destroyed it. Afraid of a repetition, the old Prince of Scylla and most of the inhabitants, on the evening of the 5th February, took shelter in boats on the west beach. Towards dusk, however, another violent shock rent part of its promontory, and throwing it into the sea, caused the waters of the straits to rush back with overwhelming force on the beach, and sweep away 2500 persons. On the 6th of February more corpses were thrown back on the shore than there remained inhabitants at Scylla.

The Faro channel was depicted by the poets of antiquity in most terrific colours, but as the Athenians, the Syracusans, the Locrians, and the Rhegians, fought in it, it could not have been considered so horrible by ancient sailors as by ancient poets; though the passage through it might have been an affair of some moment with their small vessels and inexperienced seamen. Its horrors, however, have been much overcome by the progress of nautical science. Admiral W. H. Smyth, long occupied in surveying the Mediterranean, took accurate measurements by theodolite angles of the distance across this passage, at four different points. The shortest distance, from the village of Ganziri to Point Pezzo, is 3972 yards; the next in length is from Messina light-house to Point dell' Orso, 5427 yards; the next from Faro Point to the Castle of Scylla, is 6047 yards; and the last, from Messina light-house to the cathedral of Reggio, is 13,187 yards.

The currents in the straits are numerous and various. In settled seasons there is a central stream running north and south, at the rate of from 2 to 5 miles an hour, and which, though properly speaking only a current when uninfluenced by strong winds, is governed by the moon. On each shore there is a counter or returning set at uncertain distances from the beach, often forming eddies to the central current; but in very fresh breezes the lateral tides are scarcely perceptible, whilst the main one increases so as to send at intervals slight whirlpools to each shore. There is an uncertain rise and fall of a few inches in the tide, but at the vernal equinox it amounts to 18 or 20 inches. There is usually an interval of from fifteen to sixty minutes between the changes, and the tide runs six hours each way. In light breezes the current may be stronger than the ship's effort, and, by turning her round, often alarms a person unacquainted with the phenomenon, although there is no actual danger. The greatest risks, however, are occasioned by the heavy gusts of wind which at times, from the mountainous nature of the coasts, rush down the torrent-beds and prove dangerous to small vessels.

Nelson with his fleet passed through this channel; but, in attributing to him the merit of first attempting it, his biographers have overlooked, not only Ruggiero di Loria, who often passed through it, but our own Byng and the gallant Walton, who had, nearly a century before, also achieved the passage.

Charybdis, which is on the Sicilian coast, will be noticed hereafter.

There is a curious aerial phenomenon in the Strait of Messina, noticed by the ancients, and called Fata Morgana by the Sicilians. Most extraordinary accounts of this singular phenomenon have been given by those who have witnessed it from the city of Reggio, but the best description of it is that given by the Dominican Minasi, towards the end of the last century, who had seen it three times in its most perfect state:—"When the rising sun shines from that point whence its incident ray forms an angle of 45° on the sea of Reggio, and the bright surface of the water in the bay is not disturbed either by the wind or the current, the spectator being placed on an eminence of the city, with his back to the sun and his face to the sea, on a sudden he sees appear in the water, as in a catoptric theatre, various multiplied objects, i.e., numberless series of pilasters, arches, castles well delineated, regular columns, lofty towers, superb palaces with balconies and windows, extended alleys of trees, delightful plains with herds and flocks, &c., all in their natural colours and proper action, and passing rapidly in succession along the surface of the sea, during the whole period of time that the above-mentioned causes remain. But if, in addition to the circumstances before described, the atmosphere be highly impregnated

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1 This was the officer who, after the action between Sir George Byng and the Spanish fleet, was detached in pursuit of six sail of the line and some smaller ships, and reported his success in the following terms:—“Sir,—We have taken or destroyed all the enemy's ships and vessels on the coast, as per margin. 16th Aug. 1718,” &c. with vapour and exhalations not dispersed by the wind nor rarefied by the sun, it then happens that in this vapour, as in a curtain extended along the channel to the height of about 28 feet and nearly down to the sea, the observer will behold the scene of the same objects not only reflected from the surface of the sea, but likewise in the air, though not in so distinct and defined a manner as in the sea. And again, if the air be slightly hazy and obscure, and at the same time dewy and adapted to form the iris, then the objects will appear only at the surface of the sea, but they will be all vividly coloured or fringed with red, green, blue, and the other prismatic colours."

Admiral Smyth, however, doubts the accuracy of the description, and thinks that the imagination strongly assists these dioptric appearances, having never met a Sicilian who had actually seen anything more than the loom or mirage consequent on a peculiar state of the atmosphere, which he here observed many times to be unusually strong.

In the Faro of Messina, the only place of importance on the continental side is Reggio, the capital of Calabria Ultra L, well built, in a healthy spot, and surrounded by most beautiful scenery. Its climate is favourable to the cultivation of plants of both hemispheres. The environs abound in oranges, citrons, mulberries, grapes, figs, and a great variety of other fruits; the date-palm bears fruit, the caster-oil plant attains a great size, and the American aloe and cactus border the roads and supply the place of hedges.

On clearing the Faro and proceeding round to the Ionian Sea, Cape Pellaro (Bruttium Prom.), Capo dell'Armi (Leucopetra) and Capo Spartivento (Promontorium Herculis) are passed; the latter being the southernmost continental spot in Italy, in N. Lat. 37° 56'. From thence to Cape Rizzuto the coast, always bold and rocky, forms two irregular concavities divided by a projecting offshoot of the Aspromonte, on which is the town of Stilo. In the centre of the south concavity, near the shore, are the ruins of Locri Epizephyrii, one of the most ancient cities of Magna Graecia, which had Zaleucus for her legislator, and was praised by Pindar for the hospitality, justice, and wisdom of her citizens. The town of Gerace, on a rising ground 5 miles inland, sprang from it. The north concavity, called the Gulf of Squillace, from a small town of that name (Seylaccum) standing on a steep rock, has several small villages and towers near the coast, but no harbour or anchoring place, except with the wind off land; the water is very deep close to the shore, but there is no secure part where vessels can find shelter, in case of finding themselves on a lee-shore with a strong gale of wind. Hence the ancient appellation of navifragum Seylaccenum given to the gulf.

Rounding the Capes Castella, Rizzuto, and delle Cimini (the Tria Iapygum Promontoria of Strabo), we find Cape Nau (Prom. Lacinium), called also Capo delle Colonne, from the ruins of the famous temple of Juno Lacinia that stood upon it.

"Hinc [the east entrance of the gulf] sinus Herculei, si vera est fama Tarentin."

Centurius. Adolitit se divae Laciniae contra, Cautionisque acres, et navifragum Seylaccenum."—En. iii., 551.

Six miles N.W. of Cape Nau are the port and town of Cotrone, surrounded by an unhealthy district, and remarkable only as standing on the site of Croton, once one of the most flourishing cities of Magna Graecia, the residence of Pythagoras, and the chief seat of his school.

Further east opens the great Gulf or Bay of Taranto, which, from the extreme points of Cape Alice (Crimissa) to the south-west, and Cape Santa Maria di-Leuca to the north-east, extends 66 miles across. No part of the west shore affords any harbour or shelter for a vessel with the wind blowing from the south or south-east. Sybaris, the earliest and one of the most celebrated cities of Magna Graecia; Thurii, that had among its colonists the orator Lysias and Herodotus the historian; Heracleia, a joint colony of the Thurians and Tarentines, and the place of meeting of the general assemblies of the Italot Greeks; and Metapontum, where Pythagoras ended his days—all stood on the western shore, at present deserted, of this gulf. Taranto (Tarentum), in its N.W. angle, behind the small, low islands of S. Pietro and S. Paolo, was once the rival of Rome, and had an excellent port, which, becoming choked up from neglect, forms now what is called the Mare Piccolo, which is famous for its oysters and great variety of delicate fish. The city has a fort, and occupies the site of the ancient citadel, on a rocky isthmus, which, being cut through by Ferdinand I. of Aragon, is now an island connected with the mainland by two bridges. More than 50 miles south-east of Taranto, on a rocky island connected with the mainland by a causeway, stands Gallipoli (Callipolis), near to which is a roadstead, with good anchorage, within gun-shot of the town; but farther inshore the ground is rocky, and there are several shoals. The trade of this town consists chiefly in the export of oil, well known by its name. Thirty miles S.E. of Gallipoli is Cape Sta. Maria di Leuca (Iapygian Prom.), which marks the boundary between the Gulf of Taranto and the Adriatic: and upwards of 30 miles north of it is Cape Otranto, the easternmost point of land in Italy. Otranto (Hydruntum), has a port capable of affording shelter to vessels when the wind is south or south-west, but a northerly wind blows right into it. It admits vessels of 150 tons. About 40 miles north-west is Brindisi (Brundusium), from which the Romans usually crossed to Dyrrachium, the modern Durazzo, on their way to Greece. It was once the best harbour on this side of the Adriatic; but in the fifteenth century the Prince of Taranto sunk some ships in the middle of the passage to prevent his enemies from entering, and thereby formed a resting-place for sea-weeds and sand, an accumulation of which choked it up. Of late years the government has undertaken the work of clearing it up.

The coast from Brindisi proceeds north-west to Monopoli, Mola, Polignano, and Bari (Barium), the largest city on this side of the kingdom. It has good anchorage without, and a small haven into which vessels can enter. A new port is in progress of construction. It is a fine city, and exports large quantities of wine, oil, almonds, and soap. Beyond this are Giovenazzo, Molfeatta, Bisceglie, Trani, and Barletta, all populous places, but not so flourishing as they were in the middle ages. Six miles N. of Barletta, beyond the mouth of the Ofanto, are the Reali Saline, the largest salt-works in the kingdom; and further north, at the bottom of the Gulf or Bay of Manfredonia, is the city of that name, founded in 1256, by Manfred, and celebrated for the excellence of its esculent vegetables.

Between Manfredonia and the boundary line towards the Papal territory there are no good ports or harbours, though there are some spots where there is tolerable anchorage. On our progress north, about 8 miles north-east of Manfredonia, on the shore at the foot of Mount Gargano, is the village and tower of Matinata, supposed to mark the spot where Archytas of Tarentum was shipwrecked. Viesti, in the midst of orange groves on the slope of the easternmost spur of the Gargano, has a fair anchorage. On rounding the promontory, the Tremiti islands (Dionedece) come in view, the nearest of which is about 14 miles from the coast. They are four—S. Domenico, S. Nicola, Caprara, and Pianosa. The latter, which scarcely belongs to the group, is 11 miles north-east of Caprara. At San Domenico (Trimeron), the largest, Julia, the granddaughter of Augustus and wife of Lepidus, died in exile. On S. Nicola there is a prison for culprits from Naples. North of the mouth of the Biferno is Termoli, the second port of the kingdom on the Adriatic, sheltered by a small headland, and affording safe anchorage. Northwest of Termoli there are several towns and villages, along a coast generally low and sandy. The most important of them are—Vasto (Histionium); Ortona (Orton), on a projecting promontory commanding an extensive view of the coast, and with a small port from which the best wines in this part of Italy are exported; Pescara, the second fortress in the continental states, in a most unhealthy situation at the mouth of the river of that name; and Giulianova, where the Apennines come so near the coast as to leave only a narrow strip of lowland. Ten miles north of Giulianova is the Tronto.

The Domini al di là del Fere, or island part of the kingdom, comprises Sicily, the Lipari group, and other smaller islands.

Sicily (Sicilia, Sicania, Trinacria), next to Sardinia, the largest, and by far the richest and most important island in the Mediterranean, extends in N. Lat. from 36° 38' to 33° 18', and in E. Long. from 12° 25' to 15° 35', and has an area of about 7967 geographical square miles, and a population, in January 1865, of 2,231,020 inhabitants. It is separated from the continental Italian coast by the Straits of Messina, and from the headland of Cape Bon, in Africa, by 80 miles of the Mediterranean Sea. The appearance of the two coasts justifies the belief, that a violent disruption or subsidence of strata separated it from Italy at some remote period.

The name Trinacria was derived from its form of an irregular triangle, of which the shortest side faces the east, and the longest the north. The angles of the triangle are formed by Cape Torre di Faro (Pelorus) to the N.E.; Cape Boeo (Lilyburnum) to the W.; and Cape Passaro (Pachynus) to the S. Though the topography of the island is not accurately known, no scientific survey of it having ever been made, yet the distance, in a direct line from Cape Boeo to Torre di Faro, the greatest length of the island, is estimated at about 198 miles; from the latter Cape to Cape Passaro, its breadth, 123 miles; and from Cape Passaro to Cape Boeo, 184 miles. Its circumference, including the windings of the coast, is estimated at upwards of 550 miles.

A considerable part of the surface of Sicily is rugged, and covered with mountains. The group of Mount Madonna (Nebrodos), whose highest peak rises to an elevation of 3765 feet, is the central nucleus from which the other mountains branch off. The western range surrounds the Bay of Palermo and the Gulf of Castellammare, and forming the almost detached mass of Mount St Girolamo (Eryx), 2184 feet high, sinks into the sea near Trapani. Another range trends east, encircles Mount Etna on the north, and approaches the sea at Taormina, whence it turns north-east, and under the name of Nettuno Mountains, ends at the Faro Cape. The third range trends south-east through the heart of the island, forms the elevated group on which stands Castrogiovanni (Enna), and thence breaking up into irregular masses of lower hills, covers great part of the southeast corner of the island. Between the two latter ranges, but entirely detached from them by intervening valleys, stands the great mass of Mount Etna, called also Mongibello, the largest and most destructive volcano in Europe. It rises on the east coast, between Catania and Taormina, and attains an elevation of 10,874 feet, which, however, is subject to variations, in consequence of the changes caused by great eruptions. Its base has a circumference of upwards of 90 miles, of which no less than 30 are of sea-coast, formed by the streams of its lava. A more detailed account of Etna will be found under its head in this work. At the south end of its base is the rich plain of Catania, and beyond it is an extensive volcanic formation, of a much older date than Etna, which covers the tract from Palagonia and Scordia to Palazzolo and the neighbourhood of Syracuse.

The ranges of mountains we have noticed form three great natural divisions of the island—the Val Demona, on the north; the Val di Noto, on the east; and the Val di Mazara on the south-west side; and till 1819 they combined with the administrative divisions, which at that time were altered and changed into seven provinces. The surface of Val Demona and Val di Noto is chiefly hilly and rugged, whilst Val di Mazara is an undulatory plain, sloping gently from the mountains to the sea.

The rivers of Sicily are numerous, but none of them of any importance; most of them are mere mountain-torrents, nearly dry in summer. The most important of them will be noticed in our survey of the coasts. There is scarcely any mass of water considerable enough to deserve the name of a lake. The largest, however, is the Lake of Lentini (Herculeus Locus), between the city of that name and Scordia, south of the Piana di Catania. A few miles south of Castrogiovanni is Lake Pergusa (Pergus), about 4 miles in circumference, which is associated with the mythological story of the rape of Proserpine.

"Haud procul Ennalis lacus est a moenibus altae, Nomine Pergus, aquae. Frigora dini rami, Tyraos humus humida flores; Perpetuum ver est." Ov. Metam., v., 385.

The lakes of Camerana, Terranova, and Naftia, are mere ponds.

The first appearance of the coast of Sicily is strikingly picturesque. Vessels from the westward generally touch first at Cape St Vito, the northernmost point, in N. Lat. 38° 13', and E. Long. 12° 45'. It forms the west point of the Gulf of Castellammare (Sinus Segestanus), an indentation about ten miles in depth, at the bottom of which is the town of the same name, in a highly cultivated district. Six miles south of it, inland, are the well-known remains of Segesta, consisting of a Doric temple, with vestiges of an ancient theatre. To the eastward of the Gulf of Castellammare, beyond the lofty promontories that bound it on that side, is the bay and city of Palermo (Panormus), sheltered on the east by Mount Cattalano. There is good anchoring ground in almost every part of this bay, near the shore. To the northeast of the city is a fine mole, nearly a quarter of a mile in length, extending into water of the depth of 9 or 10 fathoms; and it forms a noble port, capable of containing a great number of vessels. Along the whole, at the most favourable points, there are establishments for the tunny fisheries. The next point on the coast is Cape Zaffarana, which looks like an island, and forms the western boundary of the extensive bay of Termini, in the middle of which stands the city of Termini. During two-thirds of the year the anchorage is so exposed that the boats must be drawn up upon the beach.

Five miles to the eastward of Termini is the site of the ancient Himera, the birth-place of the poet Stesichorus, and celebrated on account of one of the most disastrous battles that history has recorded. 300,000 Carthaginians under Hamilcar were routed with great slaughter by Gelon of Syracuse and Theron of Agrigentum, B.C. 480. Near to it the Fiume Grande (Himera) discharges its waters into the sea, through one of the most unhealthy, but most fertile districts of the island.

About 12 miles to the east stands the city of Cefalu (Cephaloedium), on a low projecting point of land, under a conical mount, on the summit of which are the ruins of an ancient Phoenician edifice and a Saracen castle. It has a fine cathedral. The district from Cefalu to Caronia (Calactea) is the most extensively wooded with oak, elm, and ash trees of any in Sicily, and most of the trees are converted into charcoal. On the shore there is good an-

Chorae, which continues by the towns of Santa Agata and San Marco, to Cape Orlando. Here is a dangerous reef of rocks; but between it and the shore there is good ground, where small vessels may anchor in safety. Cape Orlando (Agathyrnum Pr.) is distinguished by the Brolo Castle, a ruinous structure, and a rock between 16 and 17 feet in circumference, and 20 feet above the level of the water, behind which a ship may ride in safety, except when a southerly wind blows with great violence.

Next to Cape Orlando is Cape Calava, which bounds on the west the Bay of Patti, a perfectly safe anchorage in all parts except in the centre, where there is a large rock; but as it appears above water, all danger is easily avoided. In the middle of the bay is the lofty projecting headland of Cape Tindaro, on which the ancient Tyndaris was situated. East of it a sandy beach extends along a fertile plain studded with villages, and terminates at the promontory and city of Milazzo, the ancient Myla, situated on the southern part of the promontory facing the east. It consists of the upper and lower town, and a citadel commanding the city, the port, and the promontory. This northern coast terminates with Cape Rascelmo, which is a deep sandy bay, with several small streams running into it. The banks are much infected by malaria, but the heights near them are thickly peopled. Off the cape is good anchorage ground, with from 12 to 20 fathoms depth of water.

The eastern coast of Sicily begins at the north with the Faro di Messina, and the city of that name. The celebrated vortex known to the ancients as Charpyllis, but now called Gallofar, is formed at the back of the tongue of land named Braccio di San Raineri, which is one arm of the harbour of Messina. This whirlpool was said by the ancients to swallow up ships, and upon the return of the tide to throw them up again in broken pieces. Admiral Smyth describes it as an agitated water from 70 to 90 fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies, which seem to be caused by the meeting of the harbour and of the lateral currents with the main current; the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. The risk is proverbial; and at the present day small craft are sometimes endangered by it, and ships of war wheeled round upon its surface; but, with caution, very little danger or inconvenience is to be apprehended from it, especially since a lighthouse has been constructed.

In our progress westward, along a bold and fine coast, are Cape Grosso, Point St Alessio (Argennum), and Cape St Andrea, near to the last of which, in a bay of the same name, is the city of Taormina (Tauromenium), in one of the finest situations in the world, though at present not very healthy. It has good anchorage ground, in water from 8 to 30 fathoms in depth. About 2 miles beyond it, the Alcantara (Onobalos or Acesines), one of the most considerable rivers of Sicily, falls into the sea. Near to this is the most fertile district of Mascali, which, amongst other productions, yields annually about 90,000 pipes of excellent wine.

Beyond this, at the distance of 5 miles, is Point Tocco, a precipitous mass of basaltic lava, converted into a mole, and forming a small port called the Marina of Aci. Not far from it is the city of Aci Reale, standing on extensive streams of lava. It is in a healthy and fertile spot, and is clean and well built. Another promontory, 3 miles from it, Cape Molino, is formed of lava; and the town of La Trezza, near to it, is built wholly of that rock, the very dark hue of which, contrasted with the white-washed lintels and door-posts of the houses, has a singular appearance. Near La Trezza are the rocks called the Cyclops, which have a bold and striking appearance; for the basalts that form them are mostly vertical, and consist of prisms of from 4 to 8 sides.

The bay upon which Catania stands is 7½ miles in extent from La Trezza to Cape Santa Croce; the ground is generally clean, and ships may anchor in any part of it during the fine season. The city, originally a Greek colony, has been most dreadfully ravaged by wars, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. By the great eruption of Etna, in 1693, which in great part filled up the port, more than 50,000 persons perished, and the whole of the buildings were destroyed, except a few which were subsequently taken down to carry on the plan laid down for rebuilding the new city. It stands close on the sea-shore, and is well built, regular, spacious, and handsome. The churches and other public buildings are magnificent, being for the most part constructed of lava, faced with magnesian limestone, and enriched with marble. It is the residence of many of the Sicilian nobility, and has many literary and charitable institutions. The environs are fertile and well cultivated. The harbour is generally filled with small craft, which repair to it for corn, macaroni, potatoes, olives, figs, silk, wine, almonds, cheese, oil, soda, manna, cantharides, amber, snow, and lava. The beauty of the situation exceeds all power of description. The city, close on the sea-shore, is overshadowed by the gigantic majesty of Etna, whose summit is only 14½ miles northward, and is encompassed by the several minor volcanic hills, which appear like so many branches arising from the parent stock; whilst the placid brilliancy of the sea-view in front, and the solemnity of the inland scenery behind, contribute to form as magnificent a prospect as any part of the island can exhibit.

A little to the south of Catania the Giaretta (Symathus), the most important river on the eastern coast, enters the sea; and further south is the port of La Bruca, with a harbour looking like a work of art rather than of nature, as the rocks rise vertically to the height of 40 or 50 feet. After passing Capo Santa Croce, the spacious Bay of Augusta (Xiphonius Portus), bounded on the south by Cape Magnisi (Topusa), opens to view. On a tongue of land projecting from the N. side of the bay stands the town of Augusta, whose inhabitants subsist chiefly by collecting salt from some salines near them, and by the export of oil and wine. There is a fort and a lighthouse, which, with the cathedral, form the marks for reaching the anchorages; the latter are good, although the inner one is deemed unhealthy. The western sides of the harbour are watered by several streams abounding with fish. On the same side are the mountains of Hybla, celebrated by the ancients on account of the honey produced on them, the sale of which still forms a most profitable trade.

The next place to Augusta is Syracuse, originally a Corinthian colony, and the birth-place of Empedocles, Theocritus, and Archimedes. In the days of its prosperity and power it is said to have contained half a million of inhabitants. The whole of the present city now scarcely covers the island of Ortygia. It suffered most dreadfully by an earthquake in 1693, which destroyed a great part of the population. It is a fortress of considerable strength; and the entrance of the harbour, which is half a mile wide, is defended by a fort on the south of the town. The adjacent country being copiously irrigated, and possessing a marly soil, is exuberantly fertile, producing wheat, oil, hemp, tobacco, fruit, pulse, and several kinds of delicious wines; but, from the marshes of the alluvial plains on the west side, pernicious and destructive miasmata have frequently arisen. The port is a very secure one, easy of access, and sufficiently capacious to admit a large fleet, with great facilities for shipping provisions and water, as was experienced by Lord Nelson, who, in five days, obtained supplies sufficient for his memorable pursuit of the French fleet in the year 1798.

Between Syracuse and Cape Passaro, the southernmost spot in Sicily, is the extensive bay, the northern point of which is Cape Lungo. In the whole of it there is good shelter for large as well as small vessels, which may be compelled to bear up in the channel of Malta by a westerly gale of wind. The anchorage is good in from 9 to 30 fathoms of water, with a good holding ground of stiff clay. The town of Avola carries on some traffic in wine, corn, almonds, oil, honey, and sugar made from the only plantation of canes now left on the island. The city of Noto, within four miles of the shore, is finely situated and well built, and the country around is fertile. Seven miles south of it is the Abisso, the ancient Helorus, which winds through a rich but unhealthy plain.

That part of the coast of Sicily which extends from Cape Granatola in the west, to Cape Passaro in the east, is generally low and arid, and does not possess a single harbour for large ships, although there are several tolerable summer anchorages. The approaches towards the headlands are not so clear nor so deep as those of the northern shores; but ships are safe which by day are not in less than 12 fathoms water, or at night in about 20 fathoms.

From Cape Granatola to Cape St Marco there is a long but slender bay, called the Gulf of Tre Fontane, 20 miles deep. It is of easy access, but has no good shelter except for small vessels. In it, near to Port Paolo, are the solitary extensive ruins of Selinus or Selinuntum, appearing, at no great distance, like a large city; and 4 miles east of them the Belici (Hyposa), which rises near Corleone, and has a course of upwards of 30 miles, falls into the sea.

From St Marco to Cape Bianco a similar bay extends about 14 miles, in which there is good anchorage; but it is only safe in the summer months near the town of Sciaccia, the Thermae Selinuntiae of antiquity; a poor but large place. The baths are supplied by two springs; one of which is sulphureous and hot, being about 126° of Fahr.; the other cool, being about 60°, and impregnated with the saline qualities of the rock from which it springs. The steam-baths of Dædalus are situated on an insulated rock, and have been in use upwards of three thousand years.

Close to the north of Cape Bianco the Platani (Halyceus), next to the Salso, the largest river in Sicily, empties itself. On its left bank are the ruins of Heraclia Minoa, and 8 miles beyond it is the town of Siculiana, pleasantly situated, but in an unhealthy climate. The chief trade consists in the exportation of sulphur, of which there are some extensive mines in the neighbourhood. The city of Girgenti (Agrigentum), 10 miles farther east, stands on a hill at nearly 1200 feet above the level of the sea, and is so elevated that almost every house in it can be seen at once. It has a cathedral, a large and heavy structure of the thirteenth century; but it is irregularly built, dirty, and poor. Agrigentum was renowned for its power and commercial enterprise, and is said to have once contained 200,000 inhabitants. Most of the space which it occupied is now a continued range of orchards and gardens, and of groves of almond and olive trees. The vestiges of the city have been amply described by Admiral Smyth in his able and accurate account of the island. The port is formed by a mole, having on it a lighthouse; and outside of it there is good anchorage. At this port, also, large quantities of sulphur are shipped.

About 5 miles from Point Bianco, and 2 miles from the shore, is Palma, which overlooks one of the richest and best cultivated valleys in Sicily, and near to it many cattle are reared. About 10 miles from Palma, is Alicata (Phintia), at the mouth of the River Salso (Himera), the largest river of Sicily, which rises in the Madonia mountains, only 15 miles from the N. coast, and traverses most of the island in its course of more than 50 miles south. At the entrance there is a bar, on which the surf beats so heavily with southerly winds, that boats can only enter it by a narrow passage, which is always difficult, and sometimes dangerous.

At the distance of 14 miles from Alicata, along an open beach, is Terra Nova (Gela), where Æschylus ended his days. About a mile from the town there is good anchorage in from 7 to 10 fathoms water, but it is much exposed when the wind blows from the south-west. The town is situated on a table-land, considerably elevated; and it has a fine palace, but few other edifices worthy of notice. The country around abounds in corn.

The whole coast to Cape Scalambra is within a reef of rocks, always an object of peculiar dread to the ancients, and, notwithstanding all the improvements made in navigation, the cause of the loss of many ships. It is not safe to approach nearer the shore than a depth of water of 14 fathoms, nor, with a westerly wind, quite so near as that depth. The eastern side of Cape Scalambra has a small port for vessels of an easy draught of water. From Cape Scalambra the distance to Point Spina is 8 miles; at the latter place the coast is foul and rocky; but at three leagues farther is the town of Pozzallo, which is the chief shipping place for the produce of the district. The next point is Cape Passaro, the southernmost land of Sicily, being in north lat. 36° 41' 30". It is formed of bold projecting rocks, and immediately off it is the small island of Correnti. Near to it the water of the limpid stream of Bisaidone irrigates the land of Spaccaforno, a town 3 miles from the shore. It trades with Malta, to which it exports grain, flax, carubias, acorns, and live cattle.

The west shore, which extends from Cape St Vito to Cape Granatola, will require but a short description. Proceeding from Cape St Vito southwards, we come to Cape Emilia, opposite to which is the dangerous shoal of that name, on which there are only 2 fathoms of water, whilst everywhere around it there are from 6 to 10 fathoms. Immediately to the south-east of it rises Mount San Giuliano (Eryx), on whose summit, on the place now occupied by a prison, stood the famous temple of Venus, who derived from it the surname of Erycina. Only a few vestiges of it now remain, built up in the walls of the prison; but in the town of San Giuliano near it, which has about 7000 inhabitants, there are in the houses several fine granite columns, which undoubtedly belonged to the temple.

At the distance of 4 miles west of San Giuliano is the city of Trapani (Drepanum), which may be approached with safety by vessels of from 200 to 300 tons; though, as the ground is much broken, and there are many counter-currents, great care is required on the part of the pilot. Trapani is surrounded by a wall with bastions and ravelins, and among its inhabitants are some of the best artists, artificers, and sailors of the island. It is a place of considerable enterprise and industry; well built, and with a fine cathedral and senatorial palace. From Trapani southward to Capes Boeo and Marsala, a distance of 10 miles, the coast is low, irregular, and varied by numerous islets resting upon a base of shoal and rocky ground which in some parts extends 2 miles from the shore. The country on the main island is laid out in extensive saltworks, by the construction of causeways about a foot and a half high, enclosing square places which communicate by dams with each other. The salt is heaped up in a pyramidal form, at a distance resembling tents, and when quite dry, is exported chiefly to Marseilles.

Cape Boeo, the westernmost point of the island, and that nearest to Africa, from which it is only 80 miles distant, is a low rocky headland, above which, in a healthy situation, stands the city of Marsala, the ancient Lilybeum, founded by the Carthaginians in B.C. 397. Lilybeum had a good and much-frequented port, though neither spacious nor deep; but it was blocked up with sunken stones by order of the Emperor Charles V., to protect the place from the attacks of the Algerine corsairs. The Saracens, during their domination in Sicily, attached so much importance to it, that they called it Massa Allia—the port of God—from whence the modern name of the city arose. Marsala is tolerably well-built and surrounded by a wall, and exports wine, fruits, and barilla. Near to it there is a large establishment for shipping its wine to England, where it is well known by the name of "Marsala." The ground on the beach is all sand and foul, and large ships must anchor at nearly 2 miles from the mole, which has been constructed near the English wine-stores of the two houses of Bingham and Cumming Wood.

Off the coast, between Trapani and Marsala, lies a group of three small islands (Egates), of which the westernmost and most distant, Marettimo (Hieria), is 22 miles from the coast of Sicily. Favignana (Egusa), the largest and southernmost; and Levanzo (Phorbanitia), the smallest and northernmost, are at about a distance of 6 and 8 miles off. On Marettimo and Favignana there are the worst dungeons in the kingdom for political and common criminals.

About 10 miles S.E. of Cape Boeo is Cape Feto, and 3 miles further S. the city of Mazzara, situated at the mouth of a small river of the same name, 6 miles north of Cape Granatola. It retains its ancient name (Mazara), and though the streets are narrow and dirty, its domes, rising above the houses, give it a respectable appearance from the sea. It is surrounded by a Saracen wall, and has some trade in the exportation of grain, pulse, wine, fruit, barilla, madder-root, oil, and soap. Its little haven is formed by the entrance of the river, and is convenient for small craft, but larger vessels are obliged to lie at a very exposed anchorage without, in from 8 to 12 fathoms water, where the holding ground is a stiff clay.

The tides, or rather the currents, arising from the constant evaporation and the action of the winds, observe no regularity, rising a foot or two, according to the weather, and the peculiarities of locality and depth. Thus, the northwest winds, raking the shores, produce a strong set to the south-east, whilst the south-west wind, which is very sensibly felt during the vernal equinox, causes strong counter-currents; and at length, on a change of wind to the opposite quarter, the whole body of water rushes with great velocity to the westward. In settled weather, the currents between Sicily and the African shore run to the eastward at the rate of from half a mile to a mile an hour. In the channel of Malta, the current at south-east has been found so strong, that ships have found it difficult to beat up to Maritimo; whilst others, driven to leeward of Malta, have been obliged to carry a press of sail in order not to lose way, until a change of wind enabled them to make the island again.

An atmospheric phenomenon which deserves notice occurs principally on the southern coast of Sicily, but exhibits its greatest force in the neighbourhood of Mazzara. It commonly bears the name of Marobia, and is thus described by Admiral Smyth:—"Its approach is announced by a stillness in the atmosphere and a lurid sky, when suddenly the water rises nearly two feet above its usual level, and rushes into the creeks with amazing rapidity, but in a few minutes recedes again with equal velocity, disturbing the mud, tearing up the sea-weed, and occasioning a noisome effluvia. During its continuance the fish float quite helpless on the turbid surface, and are easily taken. These rapid changes generally continue from thirty minutes to two hours, and are succeeded by a breeze from the southward, which quickly increases to heavy gusts."

To the north of Sicily, between E. Long. 14. 13. and 15. 15., and N. Lat. 38. 20. and 38. 30., is the volcanic group of the Lipari Islands (Insulae Æolie), consisting of Lipari (Lipara), the largest, and the seat of the local authorities; Vulcano (Hieria), the nearest to the Sicilian coast, from which it is only 12 miles off; Stromboli (Strongyle), the northernmost; Salina (Didyme), next to Lipari in size; Alicudi (Phoenicusa); Alicudi (Erebus), the westernmost of the group; Panarea (Enonymus), and some smaller islets. Vulcano and Stromboli are small but constantly active volcanoes. On Salina there are two conical mountains, which attain an elevation of 3500 feet above the level of the sea. More particulars about them will be found under the head Lipari.

Ustica (Ostades et Ustica), and Pantelleria (Cosura), are two small islands of volcanic origin; the former, about 10 miles in circumference, is situated 60 miles west of Alicudi, and 40 miles north of the Cape di Gallo, and is a sort of beacon to ships going to Palermo from Naples. Pantelleria west of Cape Granatola, and nearly half-way between Sicily and the African coast, from which it is only 38 miles, is 30 miles in circumference, and has nearly 6000 inhabitants.

Politically annexed to Sicily, but geographically belonging to Africa, are the small islands of Lampedusa (Lopadusa), Lalena, and Scota, situated almost midway between Malta and the African coast.

From the vast extent of sea-coast appertaining to the two divisions of the kingdom, the fishery naturally is, next to agriculture, the chief source of occupation to the inhabitants. Its principal branches are those for the tunny, or scamber-thynnus, the swordfish, the anchovy, and the sprat. The tunny was, according to Oppian, in the highest estimation with the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and the Romans, who made from it the sauce called garum. Shoals of them enter the Mediterranean in the spring, with an extended base for the tides to act upon, as they swim broad and deep in a conical form. In the progress of the shoal to the eastward it inclines over towards the European coasts, and is caught in great abundance in May, June, and July. The average length of the tunny is from 4 to 8 feet, and the girth from 2 to 5; yet there are many of still greater size, and the females are always the largest.

The manner of taking them is similar to that which was practised by the ancients. Large nets are spread out in the shape of a parallelogram, about 1500 feet in length, 300 in width, and from 40 to 100 in depth, divided into four quadrilateral rooms, having channels of communication with each other. These nets are moved east and west at about a mile distant from the shore, across the known route of the fish, with each of the spaces at right angles, and secured vertically by a number of anchors and stones at the bottom, whilst the upper edge of the net is floated by large logs of the cork-tree. The whole is connected with the shore by a stout single net of large meshes, called the wall, that arrests the progress of the tunny, and induces them to enter the outer room, which is thereupon raised a little and closed by the boatmen on the look-out. The fish, alarmed, and seeking to escape, swim from side to side, and thus enter the next room, when their retreat is again prevented, and thus finally they enter the fatal part, called corpo, where the meshes are smaller and stronger, and made of rope of superior quality. When this chamber is filled, large flat-bottomed boats, assisted by smaller ones, close round, and, weighing the net, secure the prey with harpoons struck into the head to prevent the fish from floundering. Although this fish has rather a coarse appearance, the flesh is agreeable to the taste, and very nutritious.

The sword-fish passes by the shores of Sicily, in its route to the Black Sea, about the time of the vernal equinox, and is often taken in the tunny nets; but in the Straits of Messina there is a particular fishery for them. It is taken by the harpoon, in a manner similar to that practised in the whale-fishery. When the fish is struck it immediately dives, and the long coil of rope fastened to the harpoon is suffered to run out till the animal becomes faint; but it is sometimes so vigorous as to oblige the fishermen to cut it adrift, lest it should draw the boat under water. The length of this fish is from 7 to 13 feet, exclusive of a sword projecting from the snout, about 3 feet long and 3 or 4 inches broad. The flesh is esteemed delicate food, and when broiled in slices resembles veal.

The anchovy and the sprat are taken in shallow water in the months of March, April, and May, by means of nets 10 or 12 feet wide, and very long. The curing of them occupies about a month. The fish are first thrown into brine, to give the salters time to nip off their heads with the finger and thumb, and pack them with alternate layers of salt, in barrels about 200 pounds each. When the cask is filled, a round board is placed over the whole, and loaded with stones, by which the contents are sufficiently compressed in a few days to allow of the casks being properly coopered up for exportation.

Several parts of the coast swarm with barbel, whitling, red mullet, sole, white smelt, mackerel, seassae, sturgeon, and gray mullets, the roes of which are converted into a sauce called botarga. A variety of testaceous and crustaceous fish, amongst which prawns of gigantic size are also taken along the shore. Coral yields considerable profit to the seamen of Trapani and Torre del Greco, who fish it on the African coast.

The geology and the mineral wealth of the country are scarcely known. In the Abruzzi some mines of anthracite and petroleum are worked on a very small scale. The largest iron-works are at La Serra, Mongiana, and Stilo, in Calabria Ultra I.; they are fed by the ore found in the surrounding mountains of the Aspromonte. There are mines of rock-salt, which are but slightly worked, that substance being instead largely collected on the sea-shore, especially of Apulia, where it is prepared by the operation of the sun alone both for domestic consumption and for exportation. Some alum is also collected; and in many parts quarries of marbles of various descriptions are worked, of which, however, none are exported. The mineral production of most importance, as an article of foreign trade, is sulphur, which is only found in large quantities in Sicily. The sulphur districts are principally in the central and south-western part of the island, and are calculated to extend over an area of about 2400 square miles. In 1858 there were more than 200 mines, capable of yielding upwards of 160,000 tons of mineral per year. From January 1858 to November 1859, the quantity exported amounted to 306,967 tons.

The climate is in general healthy, except in those districts where stagnant water produces malaria; but it varies considerably in the different parts of the kingdom. Whilst on the elevated mountain districts of the Abruzzi and Molise, especially near the Monte Corno, the Maiella, and the Monte Greco, there is a real Alpine climate, the snow lies several months on the ground, the thermometer falls below zero, and none of the plants of temperate latitude thrive; along the sea-coasts, on the contrary, the winters are mild, and the thermometer seldom or never falls to the freezing point. The contrast is peculiarly striking in Calabria, where, on the table-land of the Sila, the winters are intensely cold, the snow remains for a considerable part of the year on the higher peaks, and light frosts are not uncommon even in June and August; and yet, at a distance of a few miles on the sea-coasts, orange and lemon trees attain a great size, the palm-tree, the sugar-cane, and other plants of tropical latitudes grow luxuriantly, and the cactus and American aloe are used for hedges. In summer the heat of the sun, tempered by the breezes from the sea, is never oppressive, except when the south wind, called scirocco, prevails. The scirocco is not actually unhealthy, but produces a general feeling of lassitude and depression, which however disappear without leaving any lasting effects as soon as the wind shifts to any other point of the compass.

The quantity of rain which falls annually on the Tyrrhenian coast is about 29 inches, or one-third more than in Paris, yet the number of rainy days is greatly less than in that capital. On the eastern shores, both of Naples and of Sicily, the quantity of rain that falls, as well as the rainy days, are much less than on the western side. Sicily of course is, upon the whole, much warmer than the continental provinces; but even at Girgenti, or Syracuse, the glass seldom, and then only for a short time, rises above 90° in summer.

The Two Sicilies are essentially an agricultural country, the cultivation of the soil being the chief occupation of the people, and almost their only means of subsistence. Their agriculture may be classified under four different systems—the Mountain system, the Campanian system, the Apulian system, and the Sicilian system.

In the Mountain system, which applies to the cultivated districts of the northern and central provinces of the kingdom in general, except the higher range of the mountain-chain, the size of farms varies greatly from 6 to 200 English acres, and the rotation, generally, is as follows:—First year, fallow or potatoes, or a summer crop of maize, beans, or lupins, &c.; second year, wheat; third year, wheat; fourth year, oats or barley. In elevated situations the third year is a crop of barley, followed by two years of rest, during which sheep are driven to graze down the herbage. The ground is prepared in August, September, and October, and wheat, barley, or oats are sown in November.

The Campanian system prevails in the tract of country which extends from Gaeta to Salerno, and includes the rich Campanian plain. Farms are generally of a small size, from 2 to 50 acres, and are let for a period of from four to twelve years. The richness of the soil, and the abundance of manure, enable farmers to have no fallow in the rotation of crops, and to keep the ground in a constant state of high cultivation. A rotation in frequent use is—First year, hemp; second year, wheat; third year, spring wheat; fourth year, wheat. But the practice that more generally prevails, and which is the characteristic feature of the Campanian system, is to have the ground planted with rows of elms or poplars, and vines trained from tree to tree. Grain and other crops are raised under the shade of these trees—a practice which, far from being a proof of bad farming, in that climate is found to give crops of better quality, and though not so abundant as they might be if there were no trees, yet deficiency in quantity is more than made up by the variety of produce raised on the same soil. In the farms where this cultivation is adopted, artificial grasses or lupins are raised in October, to provide food for the cattle in winter. Early in the spring the ground is ploughed, and maize is sown in furrows, with beans, potatoes, melons, &c., in the spaces between the furrows; and when these summer crops are gathered in, the ground is ploughed again, and wheat sown. Sometimes, instead of elm or poplar trees with vines, olive or mulberry trees are planted in rows of from 30 to 40 feet apart; and green crops, hemp, maize, or wheat are also grown under them. Several farms are entirely laid out in orchards containing a great variety of fruit, such as apples, pears, apricots, peaches, figs, plums, almonds, walnuts, &c., with stone-pines towering over them all. Madder-root has of late years been introduced, and cultivated to a considerable extent in the plain on the S.E. slope of Vesuvius.

The Apulian system is peculiar to the great plain already described as extending from the Fertore to the Ofanto rivers, and from the foot of the Apennines to the shores of the Adriatic, and known by the local appellation of Tarriere di Puglia. Nearly the whole of this vast treeless flat, parched up in summer, and clothed with luxuriant herbage in winter, belongs to the crown, and is chiefly laid out in pasturage. From the earliest times, the Marsican and Sam-

The shepherds were in the habit of leading their flocks from their high mountains to this plain for the winter pasturage. This periodical migration greatly increased when the second Punic war had depopulated the few cities which existed on the plain; and the Romans, when masters of the country, imposed a rectigal, or fixed tribute, on the right of grazing upon it—a tax more or less enforced during the middle ages. Till the fifteenth century the winter migration of the flocks was voluntary; but, in 1442, Alfonso I. of Aragon made it compulsory, and established the system of the Tavoliere, which, with some alterations, lasts to the present day. Alfonso appropriated to the crown all commons and waste lands to which no good title could be shown, and divided them into Locazioni. To give greater accommodation to the flocks, which his laws compelled to resort to Apulia, he bought from several feudal barons and convents the right of grazing on their adjoining lands, which he designated by the name of Ristori. To convey the flocks to and from the plain, several great roads, called Tratturi delle Pecore, were traced, with some adjacent tracts of land, called Riposi laterali, on which the flocks were allowed to rest and graze for twenty-four hours on their march. Two general Riposi, or resting-places, were also provided at two extremes of the plain, on which the sheep might stop till the proprietors declared the number of their respective flocks, and the crown officers verified them, and apportioned to them their pastures. The farmers were compelled to sell the produce of their stock at Foggia, where the tax was paid into an office called the Dogana di Foggia, and they were not allowed to leave the Tavoliere without a passport, which of course was not granted until the taxes were paid.

Under the Spanish viceroys the system became so odious and oppressive that Charles III., on his gaining possession of the kingdom, made the Tavoliere the subject of an official inquiry; but no great changes were effected till 1806. In that year, by a law of Joseph Buonaparte, farms held under the crown were declared freeholds of those who were in possession of them; and the occupants of lands assigned to them for grazing were declared owners of such lands, on payment to the crown of a certain rent, which was fixed according to the number of their flocks, and was redeemable at will. After the restoration of the Bourbons, however, Ferdinand I., with the exception of compulsory migration, which is at an end, re-established the old system, by taking the land from those who had been in full possession of it for ten years, by making rents and charges irredeemable, and by forbidding the ploughing up or planting of any part of the land without an express licence from the crown. The collection of the taxes, which are calculated to bring about L70,000 a year, is confided to a magistrate called the Direttore del Tavoliere, who is also the governor of the province of Capitanata.

The Sicilian system prevails in Sicily, and the continental provinces of Bari, Otranto, and Calabria. The general rotation is—First year, fallow or summer crop; second year, hard wheat (grano rosso); third year, a lighter kind of wheat (maiolica); fourth year, oats. Cotton is sometimes planted the fourth year; and of late years rice has been introduced in the marshy districts. But olive, almond, fig, and orange trees, and vines, form a more important branch of the cultivation. More than one-half of Terra di Bari and Terra d'Otranto, and great tracts of the western shores of Calabria, are covered with olive-trees, which are propagated by slips, by shoots, and chiefly by grafting the wild olive either in situ, or, if transplanted, a couple of years after it has taken root. It takes at least twenty years before an olive plantation begins to bear a satisfactory return. The flowering of the olive-trees begins towards the end of May, but the fruit is not ripe till November. Except in very few favourite spots, the olive-tree does not give a yearly return. A plantation is considered very good if it brings a tolerable quantity of fruit every other year; generally a good return is only every third year. The vineyards are very extensive, but the vines are not trained in festoons, as in the provinces of Naples, Terra di Lavoro, &c., but low, as they are in the south of France.

The area of the continental provinces is supposed to contain about 20,230,516 English acres, of which only 11,430,972 acres are reduced under cultivation; the remaining 8,789,544 acres being occupied by waste land, lakes, rivers, buildings, roads, &c. The peasants who cultivate the land, though receiving on the whole small wages, are not badly off, except in Capitanata, in Basilicata, and in some other mountain districts. In many districts they are commonly metayers, dividing equally with the lord or the farmer the annual produce; but where the soil is peculiarly fertile, the peasant has but one-third of the harvest for his share. Most of the soil was formerly owned by the crown, the king, the higher aristocracy, and the religious houses; but a great change has taken place since most of the main lands were seized by the state on the suppression of convents and nunneries in 1806, and afterwards sold. The abolition at the same time of entails and the new laws of succession increased the number of landowners, by the breaking up of large estates; the tendency at present seems rather to be towards too great a subdivision of property, particularly near the large towns.

The principal productions of the country include all those of the temperate, and several of the torrid zone. In most years more corn is grown than is required for the consumption of the inhabitants—the full year's average of the crop being estimated at about 14,000,000 English quarters. It might, however, be tenfold increased by bringing into cultivation some of the rich land of the plains which are now a waste, if the constant practice of the government of prohibiting exportation of corn whenever its price is not low, did not effectually check that branch of agricultural industry. Oil is, next to corn, the most important agricultural production. It is the substitute for the butter made in northern Italy, and enters largely into all the edible preparations of the inhabitants. It is generally used in lamps, to supply the place of candles, and a large quantity of it is converted into soap. The best oil for culinary purposes is made out of the olives before they turn black; that of Vico and Massa near Naples, of Venafro in Campania, of Trani and Monopoli in Apulia, and of several other places in Calabria and Sicily, is in high repute. The oil-mills are the same as those used in ancient times, and are generally at work from November to March, and in years of great returns even till May. The oil, as it is prepared, is sent to different places of depot along the coast, where it is collected for exportation, and is deposited in large subterranean tanks excavated in the limestone rock, where it clears, and keeps, if necessary, for many years. The quantity of oil deposited by a proprietor is guaranteed by a ticket which is given to him, and upon which he may borrow money, and eventually effect the sale of the article.

The vine is extensively cultivated, but so little care is bestowed in the selection of the varieties in planting it, and so little skill is exercised in the preparation and treatment of the wines, that a large quantity of the produce is only fit to be converted into brandy. Under different circumstances the Two Sicilies might supply the whole market of Europe with wine, as vineyards might be increased to any extent, and capital and skill are all that are required to produce excellent wines. An illustration of this is given by two English houses established at Marsala, in Sicily, that prepare wine of tolerable quality and flavour, and of durable strength, which, under the name of Marsala, has found its way in considerable quantity into the English market. Several local wines, however, in spite of the unskilful way in which they are prepared, are excellent, and strong enough to bear a sea-passage, and only require to be known to be appreciated. Such are the Pellagrello of Piedmonte, the red and white Gerace, the red Taranto, the Muscat of Trani, the Aleatico of Bari, the red Arpino, the Capo di Lecce, the Monte di Procida, the Syracuse, the red Cirò, the white Torre del Greco, the red Somma, &c., &c.

Both on the continent and in Sicily much silk is produced, but little beyond what is required for domestic consumption. In late years the cultivation of the mulberry-tree has increased, but the same skill and diligence is not applied to it as in Lombardy and Piedmont. Figs are extensively cultivated, and their fruit, dried in the sun in September, and in some places, baked afterwards in an oven, is an article of winter food to the lower classes. Another article of food are chestnuts, which are supplied by the sweet chestnut-forests that clothe extensive tracts of the mountain districts. Almonds form an important item of the productions of the province of Bari. The liquorice-juice brought to the English and French markets is extracted from the liquorice-root that grows wild in many districts of Calabria. The average annual growth of cotton wool is about 80,000 bags, a quantity far below the home consumption. Flax and hemp, wool, cheese, tobacco, saffron, manna, raisins and currants, oranges, lemons, capers, carobas, sumac, madder-root, castor-oil, beans, rice, honey, &c., are the other principal agricultural productions of the kingdom.

The live stock is supposed to be nearly as follows:—sheep, 4,700,000; goats, 720,000; oxen and cows, 360,000; buffaloes, 50,000; horses, 110,000; mules and asses, 890,000; pigs, 2,400,000. About two-thirds of the whole number of sheep are migratory, being kept, as already stated, in the mountains in summer, and in the plain of the Tavoliere in winter. They are shorn twice a year, totally in the spring, and only partially in the summer. The wool varies in quality, but is in general good, and most of it is exported. But the chief return to the farmer is from a kind of ordinary cheese made from the milk of the ewes. Cows' milk is made into butter only near Naples, Palermo, and a few other large towns; generally it is converted into a kind of cheese called Caciocavallo and Provolè. The oxen are commonly used to plough the land, and to draw waggons or carts. The horned cattle in the Terra di Lavoro, in Terra d'Otranto, and the S.W. of Sicily, are white, very large and splendid-looking animals. Buffaloes are used as beasts of draught, and their milk is made into a kind of very ordinary cheese. Mules abound in the provinces of Otranto, Abruzzi, Principato Ultra, and Sicily; they are used for ploughing, for drawing carts, but chiefly for the internal traffic over paths across mountains; in some of the provinces they are even used in the carriages of the upper classes and the clergy. Some of the breeds of horses are fine, especially those reared in the Tavoliere, in the plain of Paestum, and in Calabria; but they have much fallen off in consequence of a heavy tax laid on their exportation in the last century, and the present prohibition of importing foreign horses. The swine are generally black, though the white are not uncommon; at Sorrento, and in other places further south, they are devoid of bristles.

The manufactures of the kingdom are for the most part of the domestic kind. The females spin the flax, hemp, wool, or cotton, and make coarse cloths, with which the condition of the great body of the lower classes compels them to be satisfied. Within the last forty years, however, considerable progress has been made, and large manufactories of various kinds have been established in different parts of the country. At San Leucio, at Catanzaro, at Reggio, at Naples, and at Catania, silk goods are made, which are in great demand, and Sorrento is celebrated for its silk socks. Arpino, Sora, and Isola have paper-mills and manufactories of woollen cloths, made of Apulian wool. Near Salerno, at Sarno, at Scafati, &c., there are cotton-mills, linen and calicut manufactories, &c. Carpets are made at Ischia, and in the neighbourhood of Naples. Amalfi, Gragnano, and Torre Annunziata are celebrated for their macaroni. The best quality of it is made from the hard wheat grown on the Tavoliere (the grano rosso of Barletta), which is reduced to flour by the usual process of grinding. At Atripalda there are iron-foundries, fulling and paper mills. Leather, hardware, glass, earthenware, porcelain, ropes and cordage, hats, gloves, artificial flowers, &c., though of indifferent workmanship, are also made in several towns.

Many of the continental provinces have Monti Frumentarii, which, in aid of agriculture, lend wheat to farmers at the sowing time on a small return in kind after the harvest. In most large towns there is also a Monte di Pietà, or government pawn-bank, which lends small sums at 5 per cent, to the poor; but there are no saving banks, as their operations would interfere with the Lottery revenue. The only saving bank in the kingdom was opened at Naples in 1855, and in 1857 it had L.1,525 of deposits in 479 accounts. It receives sums from 4d. upwards, and when they reach 3s. 4d. it allows an interest of 3 per cent.

Accounts are kept in ducats of 10 carlini or 100 grani each; but the currency is in piastre of 12 carlini. The carlino, at the exchange of 600 grani to L.l., is equal to 4d. The palmo, equal to 10½ inches, is the unit of the measures of length. 10 palmi form the new canna, and 8 the old canna, still in common use. The mile is the geographical mile of 60 to a degree. The measures of capacity vary almost in every province, the standard measures of late years prescribed by government not being yet in general use.

No country in Europe has so little foreign trade, in proportion to its extent and population, as the Two Sicilies; but the absence of any official statistical returns renders it impossible to give a correct account of its nature and amount. The mercantile navy of the continental possessions, in 1825, consisted of 5008 ships, and 107,938 tons; in 1855 it had increased to 8988 ships, and 212,965 tons. The chief emporium of the trade is Naples, to which the greater portion of the spare products are brought by small coasting-vessels, and whence also are dispensed what foreign commodities are required. The other principal places where there is some foreign trade are—Castellammare, Reggio, Taranto, Gallipoli, Bari, Molfetta, Barletta, Manfredonia, and Termoli. Sicily in 1856 had 2300 ships, and 123,775 tons, of which the greatest portion belonged to Messina and Palermo. Next in importance are Catania, Trapani, Marsala, and Castellammare.

The imports of the continental provinces, in 1856, were estimated at about L.2,744,760; and the exports at L.3,853,513, showing a surplus of 808,753 in favour of the latter. The principal articles of importation were—cotton yarn and cotton wool, sugar, woollen manufactures, tobacco, coffee; and the chief articles exported—oil, corn, wheat, silk, madder-root, wool, almonds, and fresh and dried fruits. With respect to the various countries, and in the order of their respective importance, the largest imports were—from England, France, America, Holland, Sardinia, &c. And the exports to France, England, Austria, Russia, Holland, Sardinia, &c.

We have more reliable information with regard to the existing trade between this country and the Two Sicilies, the nature and extent of which will be shown by the subjoined abstract tables, from the official statistical returns of the trade and navigation of the United Kingdom, presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty. It will be seen that the imports from the Two Sicilies, which in 1854 were of a computed real value of L.1,411,457, in 1858 had risen to L.1,656,523. The increase of the exports thereto is even more remarkable. From L.672,291 in 1854, they had steadily risen in 1858 to L.1,787,300. The most important articles of importation, in 1858, were—oil, L.601,651; brimstone, L.452,292; sumac, L.121,179; madder-root, L.103,386; oranges and lemons, L.72,044; wine, L.41,585; and the principal articles of exportation—cotton yarn, L.489,686; ditto, by the yard, L.352,068; ditto, at value, L.13,601; iron, wrought and unwrought, L.228,850; woollens by the yard, by the piece, and at value, L.165,070; hides, not tanned, L.74,791; indigo, L.73,474; coals, cinders, and culm, L.52,420; linen by the yard, L.35,220; linen yarn, L.22,949; steam-engines and machinery, L.41,088.

Imports from the Two Sicilies into the United Kingdom.

| Articles | Quantities | Computed Real Value | |---------------------------|------------|--------------------| | | 1858 | 1854 | 1856 | 1858 | | Argol | | | | | | Barilla | 2,079 | 4,555 | 8,211 | 7,908 | | Bone | 688 | 1,160 | 4,426 | 12,039 | | Brimstone | 931 | 6,205 | 4,618 | 5,043 | | Corn—Wheat | 1,067,287 | 394,753 | 308,519 | 452,902 | | Cream of Tartar | 12,299 | 4,872 | 21,632 | | | Juice of Lemons | 9,250 | 118,287 | 53,099 | 38,210 | | Hemp, undressed | 79 | 79 | 158 | | | Lime & Oranges | 163,493 | 9,484 | 10,848 | 11,466 | | Paste | 7,010 | 30,043 | 31,566 | 31,909 | | Nuts, small | 55,198 | 71,569 | 132,187 | 103,286 | | Oil, Olive | 12,425 | 308,105 | 313,780 | 63,641 | | Orange & Lemon | 145,967 | 39,079 | 62,296 | 72,944 | | Seeds, flax & linseed | 2,796 | 38,113 | 1,381 | 7,451 | | Silk, Raw | 11,019 | 135,964 | 184,090 | 121,179 | | Wine | 8,603 | 11,264 | 2,519 | 12,104 | | Wood, Sheep & Lambs | 184,669 | 77,983 | 56,031 | 41,585 |

Exports from the United Kingdom to the Two Sicilies.

| Home Produce and Manufactures | Quantities | Declared Real Value | |-------------------------------|------------|--------------------| | Apothecary Wares | | | | Apparel, Slops, & Value | | | | Haberdashery | | | | Coal, Cinder, & Calm Tones | | | | Copper, wrought & unwrought | | | | Cottons | | | | Entered by the Yard Yds | | | | Cotton Yarn | | | | Earthware | | | | Porcelain | | | | Fish, Herrings | | | | Hardware & Cutlery Cuts | | | | Iron, wrought & Tones | | | | Linens | | | | Linen Yarn | | | | Machinery | | | | Salt | | | | Silk Manufactures | | | | Sugar, refined | | | | Tin Plates & Tin Ware | | | | Wool | | | | Total | | |

The internal trade of the country has increased considerably since the opening of many excellent carriage-roads. In the beginning of this century there were only the post-road from Naples to Terracina, the roads from Naples to the royal hunting-parks of Veucastro, Bovino, and Eboli, and the road from Palermo to Bagheria. Several roads were projected and begun under the French, chiefly with a view to military operations; but most of the great roads now open have been constructed since 1815.

Five high post-roads start from Naples for Terracina, the Abruzzi, Molise, Puglia, and Calabria, reaching, with their main trunk or their branches, the capitals of all the fifteen continental provinces, and some of the capitals of the districts. The road of the Abruzzi branches at Popoli into two main lines, both of which enter the Papal territory; one inland, by Civitaducale and Rieti, the other along the Adriatic by Porto-di-Fermo and Ancona. Another inland road, by San Germano, enters the Papal States at Cepano. All these roads are constructed with remarkable engineering skill, and are in excellent condition. They are kept up at the expense of the state. The provincial roads which start from the capital of the province to the chief town of the district, are open and kept up at the expense of the provincial funds, and the communal roads at the expense of the different communes interested in them. There are no tolls of any kind. There are many provincial roads projected, but not even begun, and the communal roads open are very few, except in the province of Terra-di-Bari, where internal roads open communications among the principal towns. As an illustration of the great want of roads still existing, it may be mentioned that there is no direct road connecting Brindisi to Taranto, the two principal ports on the Adriatic and the Ionian; none from Taranto along the shore of the Ionian Sea to Castrovillari and Cosenza; none from the eastern to the western shores of the province of Basilicata; none from Foggia to Melfi, &c. &c. In Sicily, the only public roads open to traffic are—from Palermo to Messina, with a branch to Catania; to Castrogiavanni; to Marsala by Alcamo; to Castellammare, along the coast; to Termini and Cefalu; to Girgenti by Calatissetta; and from Messina, along the eastern base of Etna, to Catania and Syracuse, with a continuation from the latter place inland to Noto. The only railways open are, from Naples—a line of 26 miles to Cava, with a branch of 4 miles to Castellammare; a line of 22 miles to Caserta and Capua, with a branch of 8 miles to Nola and Sarno.

Till January 1848, the government of the Two Sicilies was, in theory as well as in practice, an unmixed absolute monarchy; but on the 10th of February of that year, a constitutional charter was freely granted by the late king Ferdinand II., which restrained the previously unlimited powers of the sovereign. The principal provisions of the charter are—

The Two Sicilies will be a constitutional hereditary monarchy, in which the executive power belongs exclusively to the king, and the legislative power is collectively exercised by the king, and a Parliament, composed of two houses, an upper and a lower one.

The king has the command of the army, declares war, and makes peace; he also negotiates treaties of commerce and alliance, subject, however, to the approval of parliament previous to their ratification. All his acts must be countersigned by a responsible minister.

The Upper House, or Camera de' Pari, is composed of an unlimited number of members nominated for life by the king, from among persons at least thirty years old, who either are in possession of a net income of L500 a year, or belong to one of the ten categories enumerated by the charter. The princes of the royal family are peers by right at the age of twenty-five, but have no vote till they are thirty years old. The upper house is the high court to try any member of parliament for high treason.

The Lower House, or Camera de' Deputati, is composed of deputies returned by the electoral districts into which the kingdom is divided; there is a deputy returned for every forty thousand inhabitants. Both the deputies and their electors must be at least twenty-five years old. They must have from landed property, from mortgages, or in the public funds, a net yearly income, fixed by the electoral law of May 24, 1848, at two pounds for the electors, and at twenty pounds for the deputies; or, in the absence of such an income, they must be members of one of the royal academies, professors in one of the universities or public colleges, &c. The duration of the lower house, unless dissolved sooner, is five years.

Parliament is to meet every year, and in case of a dissolution of the lower house, a new house must be summoned within three months. Neither peers nor deputies receive any salary or indemnity. The sittings of the chambers are public; no sitting is valid unless an absolute majority of their members are present. Each of the three powers of the state has a right of introducing bills, but all money bills must first be introduced in the Lower House. No tax can be imposed or levied without its having previously been assented to by the houses and sanctioned by the king.

No other religion but the Roman Catholic is to be allowed a free exercise. The charter guarantees individual liberty and property; any person imprisoned as a precautionary measure must, within twenty-four hours, be brought before the proper judicial authority, and acquainted with the motives of his imprisonment. No one's domicile can be entered without a warrant of the judicial authority. The press is to be free, but subject to a repressive law for any attacks against religion, morality, public order, the royal family, foreign sovereigns and their families, and the honour and interest of any private person. Judges are irremovable after they have exercised their functions for three years under the constitution. The ministers of the crown are entitled to attend the debates and speak in either house, whenever they deem it expedient; but they have no vote unless they are members. Any member of the lower house who takes office under government vacates his seat, but may be re-elected.

A parliament was summoned, and met under this constitution, in June 1848; it was prorogued in September, and met again in February 1849. On the 13th of the following March, however, a royal decree dissolved the lower house, reserving the naming of a day for proceeding to the new elections, according to the charter. From that time parliament has never been summoned; the constitution, without being formally annulled, or even suspended, has remained in abeyance, and the old despotic practices have been resorted to. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies is thus in the anomalous and perhaps unique position of being in theory a constitutional government, in practice and de facto the most thoroughly despotic and arbitrary government in Europe.

The administration, as it was previous to 1848, and as, in defiance of the constitution, it has been ever since March 1849, consists of—a council of state (Consiglio di Stato), a council of ministers (Consiglio de' Ministri), and a council general for the kingdom (Consulta Generale del Regno). The Consiglio di Stato has an unlimited number of members, appointed directly by the king, in order to give their opinion, when required, on any subject relating to the internal affairs or foreign relations of the country. Their meetings are presided over by the king, or the heir-apparent, if of age, or the president of the council of ministers. The functions of this council, which has a certain resemblance to our privy council, are merely consultative, and do not in any way bind the king or his ministers to any course of policy.

The Consiglio de' Ministri, which answers to our Cabinet, consists of the ministers-secretaries of state, and is presided over by the president of the cabinet. Their resolutions are submitted to the king, in a conference between him and each minister within whose department the respective subject under discussion lies, and cannot be carried out until they have received his royal sanction. In the absence, or non-appointment of a minister, the corresponding director takes his place at the council, and in the conference with the king. There are ten ministries, each of them called Real Secretaria di Stato:—Presidency of the Council, Foreign Affairs, Grace and Justice, Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Instruction, Finances, Public Works, War and Navy, Home, Police, Affairs of Sicily.

The Consulta Generale del Regno is divided into a consulta for Naples, with 16 members; and a consulta for Sicily, with 8 members. Each consulta has a president, and meets separately; but on affairs affecting the whole kingdom they meet together under the senior president. They examine and give an opinion on projects of law, or on such other matters as may be referred to them by the king or any of the ministers. The consulta was established in 1829, as a security for the good government of the country; but like all such half or evasive measures, it neither had any legislative influence, nor produced any good results whatever.

The supreme executive power of the king is carried out through two distinct branches—the Administrative and the Judiciary power. Their different attributions and respective limits were defined by the organic law of 1817. The system is in substance the same as the French; the difference is chiefly in the details.

In the provinces the former power is represented by a governor, called Intendente, who is appointed by the king, and has in his hands the civil, military, and financial administration of the province over which he presides. He is assisted by a secretary-general and a council called Consiglio d'Intendenza, and has under him sub-governors, called Sottintendenti, in each district into which the provinces are divided. The secretary-general, the members of the council, and the sottintendenti, are also appointed by the king. A provincial council, Consiglio Provinciale, consisting of members selected by the king out of lists of landed proprietors, submitted to him by the communal councils, assemble once a year to examine the provincial accounts, recommend local improvements, and praise or censure the conduct of the Intendente.

The Sottintendenti of the districts carry out the ordinances and instructions of the Intendente, to whom they report on the petitions or grievances of the comuni, and correspond both with the intendeute and the home minister. A district council (Consiglio Distrettuale), composed as the pro- vincial council, meets once a year in order to examine and report to the provincial council on all matters of local interest.

The Comuni, into which each district is divided, are arranged in three classes, with a view to their administration. Towns which have at least 6000 inhabitants, or a revenue of L.833 per annum, or are the provincial capital, or the seat of the law-courts, rank in the first class. In the second are those with a population of from 4000 to 8000 souls, or the chief town of the district. In the third, those that have less than 4000 inhabitants. A comune is either a single town, or an aggregate of two or more towns or villages; there are comuni whose population is made up by as many as 24 villages. Each comune is governed by a corporation of very ancient institution, consisting of a Sindaco, two assistants called Eletti, and a communal council called Decurionato. The sindaco superintends the registration of marriages, births, and deaths, which are entered by a communal registrar (Cancelliere Comunale), under his orders; has the control of the public establishments, and the management of minor communal affairs; has to provide the commissariat of the troops passing through, and, in the absence of a military commissary, even of those quartered in, the comune; has jurisdiction in some minor causes of communal police, obstructions of roads, occupation of public ground, &c., presides over the decurionato, and corresponds with the Sottintendente and the Intendente. The eletti act as his deputies, and as commissioners of the communal police; the prices and order of the daily market are under the vigilance of the first eletto. The decurionato, which meets once a month, unless specially summoned by the sindaco, forms (subject to the approval of the king in comuni of the first, of the home minister in comuni of the second, and of the Intendente in comuni of the third class) the communal budget, fixes the local rates and taxes for communal purposes, gives the three names out of which the sindaco and the eletti are to be appointed, and submits to the king the names of the proprietors whom they consider eligible for the provincial and district councils. Two-thirds of its members must be present to deliberate.

The sindaco and the eletti are selected by the king or the home minister, according as the comuni belong to the first and second, or to the third class, out of three names (Terna) submitted by the decurionato for each of them. If the names are not satisfactory to the authority, the decurionato is directed to submit a new terna. The decurionato is generally composed of three members for every thousand inhabitants, but their number must never in the large cities exceed thirty, and in the small comuni be less than five. Landholders, farmers, artisans, &c., are all eligible, provided they are possessed of a rateable annual income of L.4, or have exercised a liberal profession for 8 years consecutively, in the comuni of the first class; or have an income of L.3 and L.2 respectively, or occupy a farm of a certain size, or exercise a profession or trade in the comuni of the second and the third class. One-third of them at least must be able to write and read. One-fourth of them go out annually, and the lists for the new members (with three names for each member) are formed by the decurionato itself, by ballot, and submitted for selection to the king or the home minister.

Questions relating to comuni, communal property, public roads, rivers, lakes, and the sea-shores; questions concerning taxes and excises, or the accounts of their collectors, or of communal and provincial cashiers, &c., all fall within the attribution of the administrative power, and are decided in the first instance by the Consiglio d'Intendenza of the province in which the question arises, and in appeal by the Court of Accounts of Naples or that of Palermo, as the case may be. The decision of the latter court, however, cannot be carried into execution unless it is approved by the king in council, who sometimes, before sanctioning or modifying the decision, sends it, on the application of one of the interested parties, to the Consulta del Regno for their opinion.

All other matters and questions whatsoever affecting things and persons fall within the attribution of the judiciary power, and are regulated by a Code of Laws (Codice pel Regno delle Due Sicilie) promulgated by Ferdinand I. in 1819. It is, in substance, the Code Napoleon, which Joseph Buonaparte introduced into the continental part of the kingdom in 1807. Divorce, recognised by the Code Napoleon, is expunged from the Neapolitan Code, and marriage is regulated according to the canons of the Council of Trent. The other principal changes are with regard to parental authority, the relations between husband and wife, legitimate succession, and mortgages. With respect to succession, any person who has issue is allowed to dispose by will only of one-half of his whole estate, including both real and personal property; the other half must be equally divided among his, or her, children or grandchildren. With this difference, however, that, if any of the children are alive, the grandchildren succeed per stirpes—that is to say, they altogether take and divide among themselves the share which their parent would have been entitled to; but if the children are all dead, and there are surviving only grandchildren, the latter succeed per capita—that is, they take an equal share each of their grandfather's inheritance. Natural children are entitled only to two-thirds of what as legitimate children they would have taken; adulterine issue is only entitled to alimony. In case of intestate succession, the whole property is equally divided, according to the same rules and proportions.

The magistrates appointed to administer justice are very numerous, and their respective jurisdiction is defined by the organic law of 1817 (Legge Organica del Potere Giudiziario). They are all appointed by the king, badly paid, and, in the present illegal suspension of the constitution, removable at his pleasure. The lowest among them is the Conciliatore, who is appointed in each comune from among the inhabitants, including ecclesiastics, receives no salary, and, acting as an umpire, decides without appeal all actions for sums below L.1. In each district there is a judge (Giudice d'Istruzione), whose duty it is to collect evidence against criminals, and transmit it to the local courts for prosecution. The districts are divided into Circondarii, of which there are 720 in the kingdom; and in each of them there is a justice of the peace (Giudice di Circondario), whose salary, besides some small fees, is from L.4 to L.6 a month, and is paid by the comuni of the Circondario. He decides all civil actions, without appeal, to the amount of L.3, 7s., and subject to the amount of L.50; all questions arising in a market, or regarding trespasses; all infractions of the revenue laws; and all cases of correctional police, whose punishment does not exceed two years' imprisonment. He also collects and reports upon the evidence of local crimes, and has the general control of the police, where there is no police inspector. In each province there is a civil court (Tribunale Civile), and a criminal court (Gran Corte Criminale). The civil court, composed of a president, two other judges, a royal procurator, and a chancellor, takes cognizance in first instance, and subject to appeal, of all civil actions exceeding L.50; of questions affecting the state of persons, and of mercantile actions in those provinces that have no commercial tribunal; it also decides, as a court of appeal from the justices of the peace. The criminal court, composed of a president, five judges, a procurator-general, and a chancellor, decides upon graver criminal cases, except military offences, and revises, on appeal, the judgments of the justices of the peace in cases of correctional police. In the provinces of Naples, Capitanata, Calabria Ultra I., Messina, and Palermo, there are commercial courts (Tribunali di Commercio), having a president and three judges, chosen from the class of merchants, and a royal procurator and a chancellor. They have jurisdiction in commercial cases, without appeal, up to L4, and subject to appeal beyond that amount. There are six civil courts of appeal (Gran Corti Civili) sitting at Naples, Aquila, Trani, Catanzaro, Messina, and Palermo, and consisting of a president, six judges, a procurator-general, and a chancellor. They decide, in the last instance, upon the appeals from the judgments of the civil and commercial courts which fall under their jurisdiction. Above all these courts is a Court of Cassation, called Corte Suprema di Giustizia, which for Sicily is held at Palermo, and for the continental provinces at Naples, and consists of a president, two vice-presidents, sixteen judges, a procurator-general, two advocates-general, a chancellor, and two vice-chancellors. It is divided into a civil and a criminal chamber, each with a president, eight judges, an advocate-general, and a chancellor. All judgments from which there is no appeal may be denounced by the interested party to the Supreme Court, on the plea of their being against the law, whose articles alleged to have been infringed must be specified. The court, if there is any violation of the law, quashes the judgment, and sends the contending parties before another judge of circondario, civil or commercial tribunal, criminal court, or civil court of appeal, as the case may be, for a new hearing and a new judgment upon the question. For certain particular criminal cases, eight judges of the ordinary criminal courts are by royal commission invested with special powers, and formed into a special court (Gran Corte Speciale), from whose judgment there is neither an appeal to a superior court nor a recourse to the Court of Cassation. There are also a military court (Alta Corte Militare), composed of generals appointed by the king, and an admiralty court (Commissione delle Prede Marittime).

From this long list it might be inferred that justice has a fair chance in the Two Sicilies, and yet nothing would be farther from the truth. The total absence of a jury, in civil as well as criminal cases, leaves both the finding of the fact and the application of the law in the uncontrolled hands of the judge. But the evil is to be traced to other causes. Ever since the establishment of the present system, the smallness of the salaries, as compared with the profits made at the bar, had contributed to keep away from the bench the best legal minds, whose absence, however, was often made up by common sense and moral principles. Whilst the leading lawyers are likely to make from L2,000 to L4,000 a year, the salary of the President of the Supreme Court, who is the chief-justice of the kingdom, is only L650 a year! Nothing but death stops the prosperous career of an honest barrister or chamber counsel who has once established a reputation; a judge, even after having through many years toiled his way up to the highest courts, may be, and often is, turned out and left unprovided for whenever individually or collectively he pronounces a judgment distasteful to the government. Of late years the political troubles have increased the evil to an incalculable degree. The criminal courts receive from the head of the police, or from the king's private cabinet, the list of obnoxious persons who are to be condemned for state crimes, irrespective of any evidence. Any resistance to their bidding is visited with immediate destitution. The Official Neapolitan newspaper teems with instances of it. Thus, in 1850, the Criminal Court of Cosenza was broken up, and recomposed twice before the government could obtain the conviction of several hundred prisoners against whom there was no evidence; and in the trial of Poerio and his friends, a trial so well known in this country, conviction was secured only by the substitution of several judges. Nor is this all. After the abolition of the constitution of 1821, a circular from the minister of justice instructed all the judges in the kingdom that, in the decision of all civil questions, a deference should be shown towards the parties who were loyal to the despotic system. This injunction, against which the moral sense of the country had rebelled and had caused it to be forgotten, was reiterated in 1851. The result of all this has been, that men with any sense of morality, of self-respect, and of independence, keep away from an office which would ruin them in every way. Only a set of poor, unprincipled, ignorant men, who have nothing to lose and all to gain, have consented to be the tools of the government. The scum of the bar has filled the bench. Many an upright man in his old age has been placed in the fearful dilemma of either departing from justice or meeting starvation to himself and his family. Under these circumstances a set of Jeffreys might be found in any country; and the paternal government of Ferdinand II. so well fostered them that Neapolitan justice is become a byword among nations, and a disgrace to civilised Europe.

A large army, in part of foreign mercenaries, naturally is required to maintain this outrageous system. On the 1st of January 1859, the military establishment, including the reserve, the marines and the veterans, numbered 2825 officers, 96,805 soldiers, of whom about 14,000 were Swiss mercenaries, and 8843 horses. The effective part of the army consisted of 2509 officers, 80,029 soldiers, and 8543 horses. The national regiments are raised by conscription from 18 to 25; a substitute may be obtained by a payment of L40 to the government. The period of forced service is eight years in the cavalry, artillery, and gendarmerie regiments; five years in the line, with three years' liability to be called again in case of emergency. The Swiss regiments were recruited in Switzerland in force of a stipulation passed with some of the Cantons in 1827. When that stipulation expired, the enlistment took place on the Swiss frontiers. In the course of 1859, a spirit of insubordination having appeared among them in consequence of their being deprived of their national flag, many of them were dismissed and sent home; but as many other foreign cut-throats were enlisted to fill their ranks in the regiments, which have received different names. They receive one-third more than the Neapolitans, and have mattresses, which are not given to the latter.

The navy has of late years been increased and much attended to. It consists of 2 ships of the line of 80 guns each; 5 frigates of from 60 to 40 guns; 2 corvettes of 22 guns; 5 brigs of 18, and two sloops of 14 guns; and a steam squadron composed of 2 frigates of 400 horse-power each, 10 of 300, 4 of 200, and about 20 more of less power. The number of seamen is about 5000, and that of the marines and artillerymen about 7400.

As no regular budget is ever published by the Neapolitan government, the real financial state of the country is in great part a matter of conjecture. The following particulars, however, without laying claim to strict accuracy, are as near an approximation to it as, in the absence of all official returns, it is possible to obtain.

Under the French rule, 1806–15, all the creditors of the state who were not paid by the sale of public domains or monastic property, were entered into a registry called Gran Libro del Debito Pubblico, and allowed an interest of 3 per cent. on what was due to them. Such was the origin of the funded debt of the country, which, when the French left the kingdom in 1815, was only L4,666,680, paying an annual interest of L140,000. The restoration of the Bourbons increased this debt by more than L3,500,000, L1,000,000 of which were paid for an Austrian army of occupation from 1815 to 1817. In consequence of the political events of 1821, two new loans were contracted amounting to about L15,000,000, of which L14,000,000 were required to pay the expenses of an Austrian army which entered the kingdom and put down the constitution.

On the 1st of January 1848, the savings effected by the late king during many years of peace had reduced the public debt, by means of the sinking fund, to L13,526,836, paying an annual interest of L674,800; but in the course of that and the following year the government, without the concurrence of parliament, issued L5,749,334 of fresh stock, bearing interest at 5 per cent., of which L2,416,000 were for Naples, and L3,333,334 for Sicily. The whole funded debt of the kingdom in 1859 may be set down at L16,959,000 for Naples, and L3,316,000 for Sicily; total, L20,315,000, bearing an annual interest of L960,000.

The revenue in 1858 was reckoned about L5,300,866, the expenditure about L5,410,680, leaving a deficit of L109,814, which was met by various schemes. In 1831 the revenue was L4,411,667, and the expenditure L4,976,000. In 1847 the former was L4,657,171, and the latter L4,604,868, leaving a surplus of L52,303.

The subjoined table will give an idea of the

### Chief Items of the Public Revenue and Expenditure in 1858.

#### Revenue.

| Item | Amount | |----------------------------------------------------------------------|----------| | Land-tax | L1,295,670 | | Communal Twentieth | 23,560 | | Customs, excise, tobacco, salt, snow, gunpowder, playing cards, etc. | 2,186,560 | | Stamps and registers | 232,450 | | Lottery | 325,447 | | Game licences | 5,220 | | Post-office | 30,226 | | Mint and coinage | 14,800 | | Public domains, sinking fund, discount bank | 206,500 | | Royal printing office | 2,500 | | Railroads | 39,120 | | Percentage on salaries of civil and military officers | 159,000 | | Passports | 1,050 | | Charitable trusts' property | 164,500 | | Share of Sicily towards the common expenses | 674,263 | | Miscellaneous | 30,000 | | **Total** | **L5,300,866** |

#### Expenditure.

| Item | Amount | |----------------------------------------------------------------------|----------| | Office expenses | L5,500 | | Private secretaryship of the king | 800 | | Royal printing office | 4,500 | | Orders of knighthood | 3,500 | | Office expenses | 7,050 | | Salaries of ministers and consuls abroad | 35,500 | | Cabinet messengers | 1,800 | | Miscellaneous & unforeseen | 5,000 | | Office expenses | 8,200 | | Supreme Court of Justice | 10,600 | | Courts of appeal | 15,500 | | Criminal courts | 33,000 | | Civil tribunals | 17,000 | | Offices of the courts and tribunals | 26,600 | | Tribunals of commerce | 600 | | Consulta of state | 11,400 | | Miscellaneous | 6,500 | | Office expenses | 5,500 | | Support of churches and curates | 1,000 | | Charities to religious orders | 720 | | Repairs of churches | 650 | | Festivals, missions, etc. | 660 | | Office expenses | 3,200 | | Theatres & public spectacles | 11,800 | | Royal Museum, public libraries, institutes of the fine arts | 18,240 | | Public instruction, universities, colleges, etc. | 10,320 | | Provincial instruction expenses | 4,800 | | Office expenses | 6,475 | | Civil list and royal household (without including income from crown lands) | 307,040 | | Interest of public debt | 960,000 | | Pensions, etc. | 278,420 | | Custom-house, excise, and other indirect taxes | 256,540 | | Stamp and registration offices | 84,560 | | Post-office | 38,650 | | Lottery | 32,500 | | Railway | 16,800 | | Sinking fund and domains | 16,280 | | Mint | 16,280 | | Miscellaneous (chiefly for collection of taxes) | 241,655 | | Office expenses | 4,800 | | Prisons, dungeons, and Ergastoli | 108,250 | | Public roads and bridges' department | 130,530 | | Harbours, etc. | 22,850 | | Land improvement department | 15,860 | | Provincial public works | 30,680 | | Miscellaneous | 10,150 | | Office expenses | 9,100 | | Civil administration, viz., intendenti, sotto-intendenti, etc. | 29,500 | | Charitable trusts | 42,150 | | Public health | 5,120 | | Scientific and artistic establishment | 1,450 | | Woods & forests, & game | 8,340 | | Miscellaneous and extraordinary | 126,500 | | Police | 32,850 | | Navy | 372,820 | | Army | 1,954,340|

**Total** | **L5,410,680**

**Revenue** | **L5,300,866**

**Deficit** | **L109,814**

These tables, even if they were less accurate than we take them to be, would always give a great insight into the state of the country, and the moral principles which guide its government. It will be seen that nearly one-sixteenth part of the whole revenue is derived from that most objectionable of all indirect taxes, lottery. The charitable trusts' property (Fondi della Pubblica Beneficenza), which in the course of ages has accrued from donations or bequests intended to be employed for the relief of the poor, gave an income of L164,500; but of this sum only L42,150, or less than one-third, were invested according to the original intentions of the donors and testators. More than one-sixth of the revenue goes to pay the interest of a public debt, chiefly incurred for the support of a foreign army called in to check the liberal aspirations of the people.

The army and navy expenses absorb L2,327,160, or more than one-half of the whole revenue, whilst only L324,120 are spent for public works, and L48,120 for public instruction. In the department of public works, however, are included prisons and dungeons, the maintenance of which costs the country L108,500, or a third of the amount classed under that head, and nearly as much as is spent in the salaries of all the judicial bench in the kingdom. And what is even more remarkable, among the expenses for public instruction we find an item of L11,800 for theatres and public spectacles, leaving for the purposes of the public instruction only a sum of L36,620, in which the expenses for the maintenance of the Museo Borbonico, the public libraries, and the Institute of the Fine Arts, as well as the office expenses, are included! The expenses of col- lection and administration of the revenue amount altogether to about 14½ per cent.

By the Concordat of 1818 between Pius VII. and Ferdinand I., it was stipulated that no other religion but the Roman Catholic should be allowed a free exercise. There are about 2400 Jews, but they are allowed neither to hold property nor to acquire a domicile. The ecclesiastical establishment, which was formerly very extensive, having been somewhat reduced by the Concordat by the union of several of the smaller sees, consists at present of 22 archbishoprics, 19 on the continent and 3 in Sicily; 85 bishoprics, 72 in the continental and 13 in the Sicilian provinces; 5 abbeys, and 88 clerical seminaries. The archiepiscopal sees are, in Naples—Acerrera and Matera, Amalfi, Bari, Benevento, Brindisi, Chieti and Vasto, Capua, Conza, Cosenza, Gaeta, Lanciano, Manfredonia, Napoli, Otranto, Reggio, Rossano, Salerno, San Severino, Sorrento, Taranto, Trani; in Sicily, Messina, Monreale, Palermo. The abbeys are, in Naples, Monte Casino, Trinità della Cava, Montevergine; in Sicily, Monreale, San Martino. The archbishops of Naples, Capua, and Palermo, on being appointed to their sees, receive a cardinal's hat. Each diocese has its own administration, composed of the bishop as president, two senior canons, elected every three years by the chapter of the diocese, and an assessor. In every diocese there is a seminary for the education of young men intended for the church.

The monastic and mendicant orders, which were partially suppressed in 1807, were restored by Ferdinand I. on his return in 1815. Their numbers, of both sexes, are reckoned at present about 40,000.

The Concordat of 1818 received several important modifications in June 1857; not, however, by a new concordat, but by royal decrees revocable at pleasure. The jurisdiction of bishops was greatly extended; the trial of ecclesiastics for ordinary crimes was given to their respective ecclesiastical court; members of collegiate or cathedral chapters, curates, and members of religious communities, were granted the privilege of being buried in their own churches; article 826 of the code of civil laws, requiring the royal assent to any bequest in favour of a religious corporation, was abrogated, and public instruction was more completely placed under the control of ordinaries.

Public education is entirely in the hands of the priests, and is at a lower stand in the Two Sicilies than in any part of Italy; the attention of the government being directed not to foster, but to check it in every way. It has already been noticed that the item for public education in the budget is L.48,420, out of which L.11,800 are spent on theatres and other amusements.

By a law of Murat, in 1810, elementary schools were established in all the communes, for the sake of the primary education of boys and girls, who were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and the principles of religion; the girls also knitting and sewing. Since 1821, and more since 1848, most of those schools have been closed, or placed under the care of the parish priest, who entirely neglects them. In the capitals of some of the provinces there are royal colleges, superintended by the Jesuits, in which young men of the middle classes are educated. The course of studies consists of Latin, and sometimes Greek, mathematics, and elements of history and geography. In the seminaries young men intended for the church are taught Latin, metaphysics, and theology. The professors are all priests, and under the vigilance of the ordinary. Private teaching is forbidden, unless the teacher satisfies the ordinary, and the head of the local police, of his attachment to the throne and his abhorrence of new ideas, and receives from each of them an express permission to give lessons. Till very recently, there were four universities, at Naples, Palermo, Messina, and Catania, all of old foundation, for the higher branches of knowledge, and the conferment of academical degrees; the former frequented by the young men of the continental provinces, the three latter by the Sicilians. But as the concourse of many youths to Naples was a subject of alarm to the government, by a royal decree of April 1857, it was provided that only the young men of the two provinces of Naples and Terra di Lavoro should be allowed to go and take their degrees at the university of Naples; the others are compelled to take them in the colleges of their respective provinces. This decree, somewhat justifiable in principle, if there was no compulsion, and if there were means of obtaining a suitable education in the provinces, is calculated greatly to lower the standard of learning in the country; for it is only in Naples that able professors for the higher branches of knowledge can be obtained.

The superintendence of the public instruction of the whole kingdom is vested in two boards, Giunta della Pubblica Istruzione, one of them at Palermo, the other at Naples, and both under the control of the minister of religion and public instruction. Each Giunta is composed of a president, generally a bishop, and six members appointed by the king from among the professors of the university.

The whole kingdom is divided into 22 provinces, of which 15 include the continental possessions, and 7 the island of Sicily. Each province is divided into districts, distretti, and each district into circondarii; a circondario consists of one or more communes; some communes are an aggregate of several villages. The city of Naples is divided into 12 and Palermo into 6 circondarii. There are altogether 77 districts, 720 circondarii, and 2210 communes. There is no reliable census of the kingdom, the official returns that are occasionally published being very unsatisfactory. The last returns were published in 1856. A survey of the kingdom, begun under the French, having made as yet but little progress, the numbers given as the area of each province must be considered as merely an approximation.

The following table shows the name, extent, and population of each province, and the population of the chief towns:

| Province | Area in square miles | Population of 1856 | Capitals | |----------|---------------------|--------------------|---------| | NAPLES | | | | | 1. Naples | 326 | 850,450 | Napoli | | 2. Terra di Lavoro | 1,959 | 774,523 | Caserta | | 3. Abruzzo Ultra I. | 976 | 239,429 | Teramo | | 4. Abruzzo Ultra II. | 1,908 | 355,683 | Aquila | | 5. Abruzzo Citra. | 840 | 323,674 | Chieti | | 6. Basilicata, or Scanzo. | 1,070 | 376,600 | Campobasso | | 7. Principato Citra. | 1,064 | 373,736 | Avellino | | 8. Principato Ultra. | 2,359 | 332,294 | Foggia | | 9. Capitanata. | 1,743 | 358,103 | Bari | | 10. Terra di Bari. | 2,504 | 431,949 | Lecce | | 11. Terra d'Otranto. | 3,134 | 517,354 | Potenza | | 12. Basilicata. | 2,160 | 452,765 | Cosenza | | 13. Calabria Citra. | 1,704 | 395,029 | Catanzaro | | 14. Calabria Ultra II.| 1,152 | 334,872 | Reggio | | 15. Calabria Ultra I.| 24,921 | 5,877,357 | Total |

| SICILY | | | | |----------|---------------------|--------------------|---------| | 16. Palermo | 1,500 | 541,326 | Palermo | | 17. Messina | 1,048 | 384,664 | Messina | | 18. Catania | 1,332 | 411,832 | Catania | | 19. Noto | 1,120 | 254,593 | Noto | | 20. Caltanissetta | 900 | 185,531 | Caltanissetta | | 21. Girgenti | 1,040 | 250,795 | Girgenti | | 22. Trapani | 1,027 | 202,279 | Trapani |

Total: 32,938,9,088,377

The first enumeration of the inhabitants of the conti- Sicilies.mental part of the kingdom was ordered by Alfonso I. of Aragon, for the purposes of taxation, and was finished in 1465. It was found that there were 232,896 fires, or families, which, calculated at the rate of six heads per family, gave 1,397,376 souls, and with the addition of 250,000 for the city of Naples and its suburbs, a total of 1,647,376. The increase from that time, as far as it can be ascertained, was as follows:

| Year | Population | |------|------------| | 1505 | 3,628,500 | | 1705 | 4,029,620 | | 1788 | 4,815,000 | | 1816 | 5,114,613 | | 1825 | 5,545,804 | | 1835 | 6,013,171 | | 1845 | 6,451,405 | | 1855 | 6,858,357 |

By comparing these numbers, it will be seen, that in 40 years, from 1816 to 1855, it has increased a little more than one-third, and that it would, therefore, take about 120 years to double it. During that period, however, the steady, though slow, increase was checked three times, in 1817, when an epidemic spotted fever caused the number of deaths to exceed that of births by 142,887, and in 1836-37, and 1854-55, when the cholera caused altogether a diminution of 82,964 in the births, as compared to the deaths. The slow increase from 1788 to 1816, being only 1-16th in 28 years, is accounted for by the civil and foreign wars, and the revolutions to which the country was a prey during part of that time. The population of Sicily in 1505 was reckoned at about 600,000. In 1615 it had nearly doubled, being 1,107,234; but after a century, in 1714, it was only 1,133,163. In 1825 it was 1,714,000, and in 1854, 2,231,020, showing an increase of about one-third in thirty years, which would cause it to double in less than a century.

On the 1st of January 1856, the population of the whole kingdom was 9,088,377.

The various states which form the kingdom of the Two Sicilies played an important part previous to the rise of the Roman power. Though the existing records of their early history are very scanty and unsatisfactory, yet enough remains to prove that some of the small independent states into which Southern Italy was divided had attained great intellectual development and material prosperity. Some antiquaries have seen traces of Phoenician settlers in several places at a very remote period; but there is no doubt that that high degree of civilisation in the country was owing to the numerous Greek colonies which, between the eighth and the seventh centuries B.C., if not earlier, had settled in Sicily, and on the shores of the Tyrrhenian, the Ionian, and the Adriatic Sea, which hence had the name of Magna Graecia. An account of those colonies, and an admirable relation of the great Athenian expedition against Syracuse in B.C. 427, and its disastrous results, may be found in Grote's History of Greece, vols. iii. and viii. The conquest of the continental provinces by the Romans, which may be said to have begun with the first Samnite war in B.C. 343, was completed with the final defeat of Pyrrhus, near Beneventum, in 225, who had been called in to their assistance by the Tarentines, and the fall of Tarentum three years later. The possession of Sicily was the subject of a long and obstinate contest between the Romans and the Carthaginians; its total submission and reduction into a Roman province was only accomplished by the taking of Syracuse by Marcellus in B.C. 212, and the surrender of Agrigentum to the Consul Laevinus in 210.

At the dissolution of the Western Roman empire, Sicily and Naples fell first under Geneser and Odoacer, and at the defeat of the latter by Theodoric, under the Goths, until Justinian, through his generals Belisarius and Narsis, regained the whole of Italy, and put an end to the Gothic kingdom in 553. The Greeks, however, did not long enjoy their conquest. The Longobards descended into Italy under Alboin, in 568, and extended their conquests into Southern Italy, where they founded the powerful duchy of Benevento. The whole of the present kingdom of Naples with the exception of a few cities along the coast which remained under the Greeks, and the towns of Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi, that erected themselves into independent republics under dukes appointed by the Greek emperors, fell under the dukes of Benevento for nearly 200 years. In the ninth century, whilst that Duchy was weakened by internal feuds, and by the erection of the independent Longobard principalities of Capua and Salerno, there was added a new element of confusion and disorder, in the depredations that were carried on by the Saracens, who had first landed in Sicily in 827, and in a few years conquered the whole island from the Greeks. From Sicily the Saracens began their attacks on the continental shores, seized Bari and other important cities, and strongly fortified themselves in several places. The incursions of the Hungarians, and the occasional arrival of German hordes under the successors of Charlemagne, contributed to increase the state of general confusion, constant warfare, and anarchy.

In the midst of these struggles a new element appeared in the field. The Normans, who had already made themselves conspicuous in the north of Europe, found their way to the south. The two conquering races of the middle ages, and the representatives of the Roman empire in the East, the Saracens, the Normans, and the Greeks, first met on the classic soil of southern Italy, and northern strength and daring gained the victory.

In the beginning of the eleventh century a body of Normans offered their assistance to Sergius, the Greek duke of the city of Naples, against Pandulf, the Longobard prince of Capua. As a reward for their past and a guarantee for their future services, they received a tract of land midway between those two cities, where, in 1030, they established themselves and built the city of Aversa, of which their leader Rainulf was the first count. The news of their success soon brought other bodies of bold and greedy adventurers from Normandy, with the twelve sons of Tancred, Count of Hauteville, at their head. After at first joining sometimes the Longobards and sometimes the Greeks against each other, or against the Saracens, at length they began to fight on their own account, and soon acquired such power that, at a general assembly they held in the city of Matera in 1042, they proclaimed William Bras-de-Fer, eldest son of Tancred, Comes Apuliae. He was succeeded in 1046 by Drogo, and in 1050 by Humphrey, his brothers.

The successes and the rapacity of the Normans, who did not respect the property of churches and monasteries, alarmed Pope Leo IX., who proclaimed a sort of crusade, and led in person against them a large army of Italians, and some Germans contributed by the Emperor Henry III. Leo began his campaign by a pilgrimage to the monastery of Montecassino, whence he descended into the Apulian plains. In vain the Normans, who were but few in number, sued for peace; the Pope was inexorable. The two armies met on the plain near Civitate, on the right bank of the Fornore, on the 18th of June 1053. Despair gave the Norman arm additional strength; the motley crowd brought together by the preaching of the monks fled in utter disorder; Leo himself fled to Civitate, but, being refused shelter by the inhabitants, fell into the hands of his enemies. The crafty Normans, however, far from making him a prisoner, knelt as they approached, imploring his pardon and benediction, and treated him in their camp with so much respect that Leo soon was reconciled to the race, and, as if the kingdoms of the earth were the Pope's, granted to the brothers Humphrey and Guiscard, their leaders, an investiture not only of what they were already masters of, but of the whole of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, which they might wrest from the Greeks and the Saracens. Leo was canonized at his death.

The battle of Civitate is a most important event in Italian history. It not only firmly established the Norman power, and led to the foundation of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, but originated that memorable investiture, which, by causing the Popes to claim Naples and Sicily as fiefs of the Holy See, and apply to them the rules of feudal law, led to their constant interference in the affairs of the country, and to the changes of dynasties through their instrumentality; it became, in short, the clue to great part of the history of the Two Sicilies. It was also owing to the alliance of interests formed after that battle, that, when Pope Gregory VII., in his famous contest with the Emperor Henry IV., was defeated, and besieged in the castle of St. Angelo, Robert Guiscard went with his Normans to release him, and pillaged and burned the whole of Rome from the Lateran to the Capitol.

Robert Guiscard, who succeeded Humphrey in 1057, having conquered Calabria from the Saracens and the Greeks, in 1059 assumed the title of Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and in 1085 transmitted his power to his son, Roger Borsa, whose son William died without issue in 1127. Meanwhile Roger, a younger son of Tancred of Hauteville, had conquered the island of Sicily from the Saracens, and assumed the name of Great Count, which he transmitted to his son Roger, who became the founder of the monarchy. Roger, on the death of William in 1127, succeeded to the dukedom of Apulia and Calabria, of which he obtained the investiture from Pope Honorius, by confirming to the Holy See the possession of Benevento, which Leo IX. had obtained from the Emperor Henry III., in 1050, in exchange for Bamberg. In 1130, on making himself master of Naples, at a general parliament assembled at Salerno, he resolved to assume the title of King of Sicily and Apulia; and the antipope Anacletus, who was anxious to secure Roger's support against his competitor, Pope Innocent II., with a bull of September 1130, gave him the corresponding investiture.

As a summary of the whole history of the country, into the details of which the limits of this article forbid us to enter, we give at the end a chronological table, showing the various dynasties from the establishment of the monarchy to the present day, the duration of the reign of each sovereign, and when Naples and Sicily were united under the same ruler, and when governed by different kings.

Roger made Palermo the royal residence, and at his death transmitted the crown to his son William, surnamed the Bad, who was succeeded by his son William, surnamed the Good. At the death of the latter in 1190 without issue, the Emperor Henry VI., of the house of Hohenstaufen, claimed the kingdom in right of his wife Constance, the daughter of Roger. The Sicilians, however, abhorring German rule, chose Tancred, a natural son of a son of Roger, and, on his premature demise, his son William, a minor. Henry invaded the country, and exercising great severity, reduced it to his authority, and compelled William III., in whom the Norman dynasty ended, to abdicate. Henry did not enjoy long his conquest; his widow, Constance, governed the country for a year, and at her death, in 1198, she left her son, afterwards emperor of Germany (as Frederick II.), then only three years old, under the regency of Pope Innocent III., who entrusted the education of Frederick to four national bishops, and checked several attempts at insurrection of the powerful barons. At the death of Innocent III., in 1215, the strange alliance between a Pope and the head of a Ghibeline family was broken, and a long contest began, which ended in the extinction of the house of Hohenstaufen, and the establishment of the Angevine dynasty at Naples.

Frederick was born at Iesi, and though of a German family, he was in language, character, and affections an Italian. He encouraged learning, and founded schools and universities. He was fond of literature and poetry, and spoke with equal facility Latin, Greek, Italian, German, French, and Arabic. It was at his court in Sicily that the Italian language, hitherto regarded only as a corruption of Latin, first rose to importance, and was polished by the poets, who were encouraged by him to make use of it. Some of the earliest poetry in Italian is by Frederick himself, and his sons Manfred and Ezzo. He had a taste for philosophy, and great independence of opinion; but his want of faith in the sacred character of the Roman Church and the sanctity of popes, whose temporal encroachments he was compelled constantly to withstand, countenanced the attack of infidelity brought against him by the Guelph party. Cruelty, though not more than usual at that age, ambition, a suspicious disposition, and great partiality for the Saracens, whom he found useful in opposing the Court of Rome, were the leading faults of his character. He restored order in the Two Sicilies, and established a prosperity not to be found elsewhere in Europe at that time.

The Constitutions Siciliae, a body of statutes, which he enacted at different times, chiefly by the advice of his famous secretary, the great and unfortunate Pier delle Vigne, to whom refer these beautiful lines of Dante—

"To son colui che tieni ambo le chiavi Del cor di Federico, e che le volsi, Serrando e disserrando, si sovvi Che dal segreto suo ogni altro non tolsi."

(Inferno, xiii., 58)

are a monument of legislative wisdom far beyond his age. We find him, among other things, abolishing as a barbarous custom the droit d'audience, or seizure by the state of the property of a stranger, not naturalized, at his death—a practice abolished only in our own times by some of the most civilized nations.

In 1225 Frederick married Iolanda de Lusignan, heiress of the kingdom of Jerusalem, from whom the kings of Naples inherited the title of kings of Jerusalem. After thirty years of almost unremitting contest with the popes and the Guelph party, which wore out his boorly as well as mental energy, Frederick died, only fifty-six years old, in December 1250, in the castle of Fiorentino in Capitanata, anathematized by the church, and broken-hearted at the treason of many whom he believed his friends, the disasters of his party, the decline of his power, and the refusal of the Bolognese to set at liberty his favourite natural son Enzo, whom they had made a prisoner in 1249.

Conrad, his son, had a very short reign, and died in 1254, leaving an only child, Conradin, in Germany. Manfred, another natural son of Frederick, assumed then the government of the country, at first as guardian of Conradin, and afterwards, on the false reports of Conradin's death, in his own name.

Manfred became the leader of the Ghibeline party, and more obnoxious than ever to the Popes, who resolved to get rid of such an unfriendly neighbour. At length, Urban IV., who was raised to the Papal chair in 1261, and was an inveterate enemy of the house of Swabia, excommunicated and deposed Manfred as a usurper, and, availing himself of the feudal authority claimed by the Holy See, offered the Sicilian crown for sale among the princes of Europe. It was ultimately handed over as a fief, on a yearly tribute of 8000 ounces of gold, to Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis IX. of France.

Urban did not live to see the fulfilment of this arrangement, which however, after his death was furthered by every temporal and spiritual means at his disposal, by his successor, Clement IV., who was by birth a Provencal, and greatly devoted to the house of Anjou. Urged on by the restless ambition of his wife Beatrice, a daughter of Raymond Berenger, last Count of Provence, whose three elder sisters were married to the sovereigns of England, France, and Germany, Charles arrived in Rome in December 1265, with an army composed of the flower of the knights of France, and on the 1st of January 1268, was crowned by the cardinals as king of the Two Sicilies. After a short stay he entered the kingdom; and having had the frontier strongholds of Ceprano, Arce, and San Germano surrendered by the treachery of their commanders, he marched upon Benevento, where Manfred was encamped with his army. Charles gave battle the same day, February 26. The valour of the Swabian and Saracen followers of Manfred was not proof against the impetuous attack of the French and the treacherous desertion of his Apulian barons. Manfred fell in battle, and his remains, on account of the anathema against him, being denied Christian burial, were at first buried under the bridge of Benevento, and afterwards, at the instigation of the Archbishop of Cosenza, removed into a lonely valley of the Tronto, beyond the frontier of the kingdom. Every reader of Dante is familiar with the beautiful passage alluding to Manfred in *Purgatorio*, iii., 124.

Scarcely had Charles been two years in the possession of his throne when young Conradin, the son of Conrad, advanced at the head of an army from Germany, and supported by the Ghibeline cities of Lombardy, to attack him. The hostile armies met on the plain of Tagliacozzo on the 22d of August 1268. Victory seemed at first to be for Conradin; but whilst the youth was rejoicing in the camp over his success, Charles sent against him a fresh detachment which he had kept in reserve, and the day was completely lost. Conradin succeeded in escaping, but was betrayed into the hands of Charles by a Frangipani, an old follower of the Hohenstaufen, with whom he had sought refuge. Taken to Naples, and subjected to a mock trial, Conradin, the last scion of the Hohenstaufens, the descendant of emperors, at the age of seventeen, by the advice of the Pope, perished, together with his cousin Frederick of Austria, by the hand of the executioner, in the Piazza del Mercato at Naples, on the 29th of October 1268. From his scaffold he called his heir Constance, daughter of Manfred; and, challenging an avenger, he flung his glove among the crowd, which was picked up and faithfully conveyed to Peter of Aragon, her husband. Charles disgraced himself by personally assisting at the execution. By such means was the Angevine race established in the Two Sicilies.

After the utter annihilation of the Swabian party on the continent, Charles wreaked his vengeance upon the island of Sicily, which had declared in favour of Conradin. Augusta and other towns, which offered some resistance, were destroyed and all their inhabitants slaughtered, and the whole island was ruled with an iron sceptre. The oppressed and discontented people applied to the Pope for redress, but without effect. Upon this John of Procida, a nobleman from Salerno, whose estate had been confiscated on account of his strong attachment to the Hohenstaufens, resolved to put an end to the sufferings of Sicily. In execution of his plans of revenge, he first applied to Peter of Aragon, who showed a disposition to assist him, but could do nothing from the want of pecuniary means. Procida undertook to procure those means, and first visited Sicily, where he found all prepared to resist Charles, and where he encouraged the hope of revenge. He then proceeded to Constantinople, and presented himself to the Emperor Michael Palaeologus, who had been alarmed by Charles with threats of invasion, and from whom he obtained promises of a large sum to be sent to Aragon. Having received the money, he returned to Peter, who immediately commenced warlike preparations, on the pretext of making an attack upon the Moors in Africa.

Whilst these warlike preparations were going on, the arrogant and oppressive behaviour of the French gave rise to a sudden outburst of popular indignation, which put an end to their misrule in Sicily. On the afternoon of Easter Tuesday, the 31st of March 1282, the inhabitants of Palermo went, according to their custom, to hear vespers at a church outside the town, where they gathered in great numbers, and, with a mixture of gaiety and religion, enjoyed dancing and eating. Among them was a girl of great beauty, with her parents and her acknowledged lover. A Frenchman, called Dronet, under pretext that she carried arms concealed under her dress, seized her, and thrust his hands into her bosom. The girl fainted away in the arms of her betrothed, who, enraged, exclaimed, "Oh, let us kill these French!" His voice was not raised in vain. An unknown youth fell upon Dronet and killed him, and he himself was instantly put to death by the other Frenchmen. A thousand voices from the assembled crowd exclaimed, "Death to the French!" and the fight became general. A dreadful massacre ensued, in which all the French were put to death. In their rage the inhabitants sacrificed all, not excepting the aged, the females, and the children; and even those women who had connected themselves with Frenchmen were likewise murdered. This horrible event has ever since been known by the name of the Sicilian Vespers. The other cities of Sicily, with the exception of Sperlinga, followed the example set at Palermo, and wherever a Frenchman could be found he was instantly put to death.

Charles, on receiving the horrible intelligence, hastened from Orvieto, where he was on a visit to the pope, to Naples, and having collected his whole forces, prepared to pass over to Sicily. In July he appeared before Messina, and at first gained some advantages; but the spirit of the inhabitants was so roused that they defended themselves with the most energetic courage, even the women and children partaking with the men in the dangers as well as the privations and sufferings of a siege.

Soon after the breaking out of the insurrection, a kind of federal republic had been proclaimed under the patronage of the Church of Rome; but the hostility of the Pope, who lent spiritual and temporal support to Charles, and the news of the first reverses at Messina, caused the parliament assembled at Palermo to offer the Sicilian crown to Peter of Aragon, who was with a considerable army on the African coast. Peter at once accepted the offer, and on the 30th of August landed at Trapani, and thence proceeded to Palermo, where he was received with rapturous joy. Charles, disturbed by this occurrence, became also alarmed for the state of Calabria, and having instantly embarked his troops, leaving his military stores behind him, sailed across the strait; but before he reached the continent his fleet was attacked by that of Peter, under the command of his admiral, Roger de Loria, who captured twenty-nine of his vessels, and then ravaged the coast of Naples. Peter was received with exultation in Messina, and assumed the government, although the pope issued a bull, placing him and the Sicilians under the ban of the church. The next year Constance arrived with her sons, and was acknowledged as the legitimate inheritor of the crown. Although Charles continued to make attempts to regain his authority in Sicily, they were all unavailing; and the two kingdoms were separately ruled during a hundred and sixty years.

Robert, the grandson of Charles, who in succession filled the throne of Naples in the year 1309, was a patron of letters, and the friend of Petrarch and Boccaccio. After his death, in 1343, in the reign of his granddaughter Joanna, great commotions broke out in Naples. She had married Andrew of Hungary, who was murdered at Aversa, not without strong suspicion that his wife had been participator in the crime. Owing to this charge, the Pope, Urban VI., conferred the crown of Naples upon Charles of Durazzo, a Hungarian, who had married a sister of Joanna. He was a short time acknowledged as king of Naples and Hungary; but was assassinated in the latter kingdom in 1386. At his death, two competitors for the crown appeared in Naples; Ladislaus, his son, and Louis of Anjou, an adopted or illegitimate son of Joanna. Ladislaus, after some struggles, conquered Louis. He also made himself at one time master of Rome, and aimed at the sovereignty of all Italy; but his projects were terminated by death in the year 1414. His sister, Queen Joanna II., at first adopted King Alfonso of Aragon as her heir, but afterwards by her will called to the throne René of Anjou, who succeeded her. Alfonso, however, who was the heir of the Hohenstaufens through the female line, and was already king of Sicily, attacked and expelled René from the kingdom, put an end to the Angevin dynasty, and reunited Sicily and Naples.

The dominion of the house of Aragon, after the death of Alfonso, was a period of misery to the country. Wars were frequent and destructive, the exchequer was impoverished, and the most noble and influential families were crushed, especially after the conspiracy of the barons, headed by the Count of Sarno and Antonioello Petrucci. The descent of Charles VIII. into Italy gave the first blow to the dynasty of Aragon, which was at length overthrown by a combination of France and Spain.

By the treaty of Granada, signed November 11, 1500, and confirmed by Pope Alexander VI. and a conclave of cardinals in the following year, Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain, and Louis XII. of France, agreed to divide the kingdom of Naples between them. The treaty provided that the King of France should possess the city of Naples, the Terra di Lavoro, the three Abruzzi, and half the revenue produced by the Tavoliere di Puglia, with a confirmation of the title of King of Naples and Jerusalem, which he had previously assumed. On the other hand, the King of Spain, who had for many years been king of Sicily as the successor of his father John II., was to possess the three Calabrias and Apulia, and the remaining half of the revenue of the Tavoliere, with the title of Duke of Calabria and Apulia. The possession of the provinces not mentioned in the treaty soon led to a war between the contracting parties. Hostilities commenced in June 1502, and in little more than eighteen months the French were defeated in four battles, and the whole kingdom, by the military genius of Gonzalvo de Cordova, became, like Sicily, a Spanish possession.

During the two succeeding centuries, both portions of the kingdom of Naples remained under the government of the kings of Spain. The parliaments, which had originated with the Normans, and were occasionally convened both in Naples and in Sicily, fell into desuetude, or were only summoned to vote money. The feudal system grew worse, an extension of their privileges, especially the power of life and death over their vassals, being granted to the barons with a view of securing their service in the wars, and their votes of money. The city of Naples had almost the whole administration of the kingdom centred within itself, but under the absolute control of the viceroy. By such means the power of the crown was gradually extended. The imposition of new taxes, and the oppressive modes of enforcing the payment of them, led sometimes to turbulent scenes in the capital, most of which were speedily suppressed; but one of them was of so singular a character as to deserve a short relation.

In the year 1647 it was thought necessary to impose some tax upon all fruit sold in the city; which, being in summer the chief food of the poor, caused great uneasiness, but no immediate insurrection. A fisherman, named Masaniello, whose wife had been recently detected in smuggling some flour into the city, and fined for it, had conceived an implacable hatred against the sufferers, the farmers, and the collectors of the new tax. He was a powerful speaker, and a leader of one of the parties of the populace who had agreed to have a sham fight upon a festival. On that day, the 7th of July, in consequence of a quarrel between the tax-collectors and some fruit-sellers from Pozzuoli, one of whom was a brother-in-law of Masaniello, the latter first roused the populace, and excited them to destroy the office where the tax was collected, and the dwellings of those who had proposed or farmed it. In the course of the rioting, the viceroy, instead of ordering the Spanish guards to suppress the disturbance, fled, and was personally insulted; but at length he escaped to a sanctuary, where the archbishop joined him, and they jointly issued a notice that all taxes on provisions should be abolished. Besides this, an attempt was made to gain Masaniello by an offer of a pension. But he refused to accept the offer, declaring that if the viceroy kept his word he would find the people obedient subjects.

On the following day, however, no taxes being abolished, the followers of Masaniello committed some violent outrages, which induced the viceroy to enter into a kind of treaty with this leader, who, though half naked and in rags, found himself at the head of 100,000 armed men, filled with fury. Some of his followers having been bought over by the court, agreed to kill him; and whilst he was in treaty with the archbishop, in the church of the Carmine, the attempt was made; but it failed, and those who were thus shown to be traitors to their chief were instantly put to death. The failure of the attempt greatly strengthened the power of Masaniello, who exercised it with much appearance of fairness and impartiality. The viceroy was fearful that the French might take advantage of the commotion, and create some annoyance, and therefore hastened to make peace with the leader of the insurrection. On the fifth day after it broke out, a treaty was concluded, by which it was stipulated that the taxes imposed since the reign of Charles V. should all be abolished; that in future no new taxes should be levied except by electors; that the people were to elect as well as the nobles; that an act of oblivion should be passed, and the people remain in arms till the ratification of the treaty was completed.

Great rejoicing followed this arrangement. Masaniello having repaired to the viceroy, was appointed captain-general, and induced to change his dress for more appropriate apparel; he also received a present of a gold chain. The following day he began to exercise the authority of a sovereign, judging all crimes, whether civil or military, and ordering to instant execution, on a gallows he had erected, those whom he had doomed to death. It is said that in these summary proceedings no innocent person suffered, and no guilty person escaped. His grandeur was but of short duration. In two or three days he became distracted and delirious, and committed some most extravagant actions; and on the 18th of July he was put to death, with the consent, if not by the orders, of the viceroy.

The tumult did not, however, terminate with the death of its author. In the capital, as well as in all the other cities of the kingdom, the people rose and drove out those Spaniards who were found in them. The Duke of Guise, who happened to be at Rome, was induced, at the instigation of the pope, to offer his services to the Neapolitans against the Spaniards; and to this he was further encouraged by having some distant pretensions to the throne. The Spaniards, in the meantime, made a vigorous attack on the city of Naples, but were repulsed by the people, who thereupon formally renounced their allegiance to the Spanish family. In a short time, however, a new viceroy, Count d'Onate, arrived from Spain. He took the city by surprise, made the Duke of Guise prisoner, and thus frustrated all the designs of France against the Spanish power in Naples.

But the rule of Spain, which neither the popular movement of Masaniello, nor an aristocratic conspiracy at the beginning of the eighteenth century planned by the Prince of Macchia, succeeded in overthrowing, was brought to an end by the war of the Spanish Succession. In 1707, after the defeat of the French army in Lombardy by Prince Eugene, a body of 5000 infantry and 3000 German cavalry, under the command of Count Daun, entered the Neapolitan frontier by Palestrina, and without encountering any resistance from the Spanish viceroy, took possession of the kingdom. By the treaties of Utrecht (April 1713), and Rastadt (March 1714), the Emperor Charles VI was maintained in the possession of Naples, and Sicily was ceded by Spain to Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy. The latter part of this arrangement, however, was altered after the death of Louis XIV., when Cardinal Alberoni, in endeavouring to retrieve the Spanish loss, seized upon Sardinia and Sicily, and thereby gave origin to the quadruple alliance of Austria, England, Holland, and France. After two years' war, by a peace made in 1720, Sicily was also given to the emperor, and Amadeus of Savoy received a poor compensation in Sardinia.

The contest for the Spanish Succession had only substituted an imperial for a Spanish viceroy over the Two Sicilies; but the war for the succession of Poland (1733-1738) gave them national independence. The Spanish Infant Don Carlos, a younger son of Philip V., by his second wife Elizabeth Farnese, with an army of 16,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry, under the command of Count de Montemar, entered the kingdom in 1734, and having defeated the Austrians near Bitonto on the 24th of the following May, seized also upon Sicily, where, on the 3d of June 1735, he was crowned at Palermo as king of Naples and Sicily, and founded the Bourbon dynasty still reigning over the country.

Charles had not been long acknowledged as king by the treaty of Vienna of November 1735, when he had to defend his possessions in the war that broke out in 1748 on the death of the Emperor Charles VI. for the Austrian succession. But the defeat of the Austrians at Vellettri in August 1744, and afterwards the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, firmly established him on the throne.

The reign of Charles, through the wise administration of his minister Tanucci, a Tuscan advocate who had followed him to the conquest of the kingdom, was marked by great reforms in every branch of the administration, and by attempts to raise the moral character of the nation from the low ebb into which it had fallen under the viceroys. The state of the country was such, that the judicial census gave 30,000 thieves in the city of Naples alone, and poisoning was so prevalent, especially by women, that Charles deemed it necessary to institute a special court, called Giunta de' Veneti, for their punishment. Charles founded a naval college, a tribunal of commerce, a vast house of refuge for the reception of the poor of all the kingdom, and the knightly order of St Januarius. He opened the first roads in the kingdom, built several military barracks, and the large theatre called from him San Carlo; and began and partly built the royal palaces of Caserta, Capodimonte, and Portici. He attempted to mitigate the barbarity of the criminal laws, and to check the abuses of the feudal system; and by a Concordat, agreed upon in 1741 with Pope Benedict XIV., established on a better footing the ecclesiastical hierarchy and policy in the country. He also promoted and encouraged learning in every way, and on the discovery of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae, he founded the Ercolenese Academy for the explanation of the antiques brought to light, and began the vast collection called afterwards Museo Borbonico.

Whilst carrying on these reforms, Charles was called to the throne of Spain by the death of Ferdinand VI. without issue in 1759. Before leaving Naples he regulated the royal succession, and excluding his eldest son Philip on account of imbecility, and his second son Charles, who was to succeed him in Spain, he called to the throne of the Two Sicilies Ferdinand, his third son, then only eight years old, and appointed a regency for the government of the country. Charles, who was VII. of that name in Naples and III. in Spain, is generally known in Neapolitan history as Charles III.

Ferdinand IV. followed under the regency the steps of his father. On attaining his majority, his first act was the expulsion of the Jesuits from the kingdom in 1767, in compliance with the orders from Spain. The following year he married Caroline, a daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, and a sister of Mary Antoinette of France. Caroline, who was beautiful, clever, and fond of power, soon acquired great influence over her indolent and uneducated husband, and being admitted into the council of state by an express stipulation in the marriage articles, she became the chief ruler of the whole policy of the government. The liberal and enlightened reforms initiated by Charles were, however, continued, and the royal attention was particularly turned to public education. The University of Naples, founded by Frederick II., was re-constituted on a better plan, and the chairs filled with the most able men in the country. The statutes of the Academy of Science and Literature were altered and remodelled. A college of nobles was founded in every province, in which the lectures were public, and the professors chosen by public examination; and every commune was ordered to appoint masters for primary instruction. These schools were all secular, and the ordinaries had neither voice nor power of interfering in them. Men of learning were encouraged; Pagano published his Political Essays; Filangieri his Science of Legislation; Genovesi his Metaphysics, and Lessons on Political Economy, works very remarkable for their age.

At the same time, to encourage agriculture, the mortmain laws were promulgated, which prohibited any increase of the landed property of religious corporations, and favoured the passage of the lands they were possessed of into secular hands.

These improvements, however, were counterbalanced by some evils. Tanucci lost all influence, and the personal favourites of the queen, Chevalier Medici and Sir John Acton, who had settled at Naples and attained the rank of general and minister of marine, governed the country at their will. The personal conduct of the queen, and the example of the whole court, greatly lowered the moral tone of society, and made the Neapolitan aristocracy proverbial for their profligacy.

Such was the state of the country at the breaking out of the French Revolution in 1789. As a narrative of the occupation of Italy by the French has been given in this work under the heads FRANCE and GREAT BRITAIN, it is not necessary here to do more than briefly notice the principal events from that time to the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815.

The French Revolution effected an entire change in the course hitherto pursued by the Neapolitan government; which, as French affairs became worse, so grew more suspicious and watchful, till at length, after the execution of the royal family, it burst forth into open persecution against any one who had shown enthusiasm for the new doctrines.

In July 1793, Ferdinand entered into a secret treaty with England, which being acceded to by other powers, the Two Sicilies found themselves included in the vast European confederation against France. To meet the expenses of the war, the government resorted to extraordinary means and taxes. Subsidies were demanded and enforced from every community, corporation, and wealthy proprietor; a tax of 10 per cent. was imposed upon predial revenues; a large amount of church property was seized upon and sold; and all churches, monasteries, and private citizens were ordered to deliver over their plate, and receive in return bank certificates, payable after some years. To avoid any evasion of this law, buried treasures were declared confiscated, and one-fourth of them awarded to the discoverer. The bank certificates were, however, rendered a mockery by a most disgraceful act of spoliation. There were in Naples seven banks, belonging to corporations, in which people were in the habit of placing their money, and receiving in return a promissory-note, which, being payable on presentation, circulated like cash, and often even at a premium, from its convenience and safety in carrying large sums. The cash deposited in these banks was gradually and secretly seized by the government, and the theft concealed some time by causing the bank officials to fabricate fresh paper. Suspicion having arisen of what was going on, the depositors hastened to claim payment; but the coffers being drained, payments were refused, and the promissory-notes at once fell to a discount of 85 per cent. More than L12,000,000 of hard cash had been purloined, and thousands of families reduced to beggary.

Extraordinary measures were also adopted, both to silence the general indignation caused by such steps as these, and to smother the spreading of the new French ideas. An exceptional tribunal was created, called Giunta di Stato, for the trial of persons accused of treason. The proceedings in it were inquisitorial and secret; the proofs given in writing; secret and anonymous denunciations accepted as evidence; paid spies, servants, and even children, admitted as witnesses. The king appointed the advocate for the prisoner, who was not allowed to speak in his own defence; and the sentence—pronounced with closed doors, and not subject to appeal—was carried into immediate execution. Vincenzo Vitaliano, Emmanuele de Dea, and Vincenzo Galiani—three youths of good family, 22, 20, and 19 years old—fell the first victims to the cause of Neapolitan freedom, a cause which gathered strength from persecution; for though thousands have since died for it on the scaffold, in dungeons, and in exile, the aspirations for a liberal government are as ardent as they were more than half a century ago.

These measures were chiefly, if not entirely, the work of the queen and her favourite ministers, Acton and Medici, whilst the indolent king spent his time in hunting and carousing. But hard times were at hand. The events of the war were not favourable to the Bourbons. After some checks and a hollow peace, signed at Paris, with Buonaparte and the Directory in October 1796, Ferdinand raised a new levy of 40,000 conscripts, and, joining a new confederation against France, poured with a large army, under General Mack, into the Papal States, then occupied by the French, and, without encountering the enemy, entered Rome on the 29th of November 1798, and committed all sorts of excesses. In a few days the Neapolitan army was routed; Ferdinand fled in disguise to Caserta; and on the 20th December the French, under General Championnet, crossed the Neapolitan frontier. Such terror seized the king and the royal family, that, in spite of the advice of Sir William Hamilton and Nelson, on the morning of the 21st, they all sailed for Sicily. Championnet, with 22,000 French, after a week of desperate resistance from the lazzaroni, roused by the friars and priests, entered Naples on the 23rd January 1799, and proclaimed the Pantheon Republic.

The various acts of the republican government during its short existence; its overthrow by Cardinal Ruffo on the 14th of June 1799; the unutterable horrors, in the name of religion and loyalty, committed by the undisciplined masses under the cardinal's flag; in their progress from Calabria to Naples; the wholesale massacre and pillage on the taking of Naples; and the state trials and executions that followed them, as well as the other events down to 1825—are graphically and touchingly related by a national historian, Pietro Colletta, who was partly an eye-witness and partly an actor in them, to whose work any one who takes an interest in them may refer with pleasure.

When the royalist army entered Naples, the leading men who had taken a part in the republican government sought refuge in the castles Nuovo and Dell' Uovo, and entered into negotiations with the king's lieutenant, Cardinal Ruffo; but not trusting to him alone, they required that the capitulation should also be agreed to and signed by Captain Foote, in command of the British fleet in the harbour, and by the leaders of the Russian and Turkish forces. By the terms of the capitulation, the republican garrison might either embark for Toulon, or remain in the kingdom, secure from molestation for themselves and their families. When Queen Caroline read in Palermo these terms, and saw her hopes of vengeance frustrated, she entreated Lady Hamilton to go in pursuit of Nelson, who was sailing towards Naples, with letters to him from herself and the king, and to prevail upon him to revoke the treaty, as sovereigns could not stoop to capitulate with rebellious subjects. Nelson at first shrank with horror from the demand, but, unfortunately for his name, he yielded at last to the allurements of Lady Hamilton, and broke the capitulation. Cardinal Ruffo himself was disgusted at the violation of public faith. Admiral Caracciolo was subjected to a mock trial by court-martial, and hung on board Nelson's flag-ship. The republicans, who had embarked in several ships, and were sailing for Toulon, were stopped; eighty-four, marked as victims, were taken out of their number, chained two and two, subjected to a mock trial, and eventually executed. Mario Pagano, Logoteta, Conforti, Cirillo, Baffi, and many others of the most eminent men of the time, even the beautiful and accomplished Leonora Pimentel and Luigia Sanfelice, perished by the hand of the executioner. Naples has not yet recovered the blow, and the British name has ever since remained taxed by the Neapolitans with want of faith.

Ferdinand returned to Naples, and increased the prosecutions. The monasteries of the order of St Benedict, and of the Carthusians, who had taken no part in the revolution, but had the misfortune of having great wealth, were suppressed, and their property confiscated to the exchequer. Another decree abolished the Sedili, a sort of municipal corporation of Naples, which represented, and in part sustained, the ancient rights and privileges of the kingdom, and the influence of the aristocracy.

Six years after these events, Ferdinand, on the 23d Jan. 1806, was compelled again to seek refuge in Sicily. After the battle of Austerlitz, the peace of Presburg, Dec. 26, 1805, between France and Austria, having left Naples to her fate, a French army, under General Massena, marched upon the kingdom, and entered Naples on the 14th February. A decree of Napoleon, dated Paris, March 30, 1806, proclaimed Joseph Buonaparte king of Naples. After two years, however, another imperial decree, of July 15, 1808, calling Joseph to the throne of Spain, appointed king of Naples Joachim Murat, who had married Caroline, a sister of Napoleon.

It would be long to enter into an account of the new institutions and laws introduced under the French rule into the kingdom. Suffice it to mention that the Code Napoleon was adopted, the Tavoliere system was improved, a tax called Fondiaria, of one-fifth part of the revenue from real property, was introduced, the remnants of the feudal system were destroyed, and every sort of jurisdiction restored to the crown; feudal burdens were abolished; serfdom done away with; the use of rivers, lakes, and sea-shores restored to all; mixed properties, upon which the feudal lords and the peasantry had certain defined rights in common, were dissolved and divided; the aristocratic order preserved only by titles; monasteries suppressed; privileges of any kind abolished, and all the inhabitants made equal before the law.

Important events were at the same time taking place in Sicily. After the whole of Italy had been occupied by Napoleon, England felt the necessity of strengthening her alliance with King Ferdinand, and securing her retreat into the island. With that view she engaged to pay him subsidies of from L.300,000 to L.400,000 per annum, and to protect the island by an army of at least 10,000 men; the king, on his part, promised to exempt from customs' duties all the provisions required for her army in the Mediterranean, and to close the ports of Sicily against her enemies. In 1810, however, Queen Caroline, being displeased at the English not using all the efforts which she desired to reconquer Naples for her dynasty, opened communications with Napoleon, who having become her kinsman by his marriage with Maria Louisa, gave her hope of regaining that kingdom. Hence she began to make every exertion to create mutual mistrust between the Sicilians and the English, and to drive the latter out of the island. These intrigues on the part of the queen being backed by an attempt from the king to destroy the constitution of the island, rendered an intervention necessary on the part of our government in the affairs of the country.

The Sicilian constitution had undergone but slight alteration during the Spanish dominion. Its parliament consisted of three braccia or estates, in the first of which, at the time these events happened, sat 66 prelates and abbots; in the second, or military braccio, 227 noblemen; and in the third, or braccio demaniale, 43 representatives of as many free towns. It met only every four years, but was permanently represented by a committee of 12 members, appointed by the three Chambers, who administered the finances, and were the guardians of the public liberties during the intervals between its sessions. In February 1810, the hereditary prince opened it in the name of the king, and demanded an extraordinary supply of L.180,000 per annum; but parliament having refused to vote more than L.50,000, the Crown, by several edicts of February 1811, ordered some communal and public lands to be sold, and a tax of 1 per cent. to be levied upon the value of every contract. The braccio militare having presented a protest to the king against these unconstitutional proceedings, four of the leading peers, who had signed it, were arrested on the night of the 19th July, and transported to different islets off the coast.

On these occurrences becoming known in this country, our government furnished Lord William Bentinck, who was then commander-in-chief of the British forces in the island, with full powers for intervening in the contest which had arisen between the Crown and the Sicilian nation. The results of Lord William Bentinck's intervention were—1st, The removal of the queen from all concern with public affairs, and eventually her departure from the island; 2d, The recall of the peers who had been deported; 3d, The revocation of the unconstitutional edicts; 4th, The appointment of the hereditary prince as vicar-general of the kingdom; 5th, The consent of the king to a reform of the constitution.

Parliament was accordingly summoned by the Prince Royal, and in November 1812 concluded its reform of the constitution, which, in February 1813, was sanctioned by the king. The new constitution was framed on the model of that of England, the legislative power being vested conjointly in the king, in an Upper House, consisting of barons and bishops, and a Lower House of representatives, elected by the people, and the executive power being exclusively in the hands of the king.

The new Sicilian constitution, however, was not destined to have a long existence, for the fall of Napoleon brought on the restoration of the Bourbons at Naples, who forgot the asylum they had twice found in the island. Whilst the Congress at Vienna was considering whether Naples was to be left to Murat or restored to Ferdinand, the escape of Napoleon from Elba changed the state of affairs. Joachim, who was distrustful of the Congress, in March 1815, declared war against Austria, and entered the Papal territory; whereupon the Congress sitting at Vienna declared him fallen from the throne, and the dynasty of the Bourbons reinstated. After various engagements, the battle of Tolentino, and the treachery of many of Murat's generals, decided the contest. Joachim retired in disorder, and the Austrians entered the kingdom, and encamped round Capua. On the 20th of May the Neapolitan generals Carrascosa and Colletta, the Austrian generals Bianchi and Neipperg, and Lord Burghersh, on the part of England, met at Cassanlaza, a small house three miles from that fortress, and concluded a treaty, which put an end to the war and to the kingdom of Murat.

Ferdinand returned to Naples in the beginning of June; not Queen Caroline, who had died suddenly in the Castle of Hetzendorf on the 7th September 1814.

Murat ended his days in a rash attempt to recover the kingdom. In the island of Corsica, where after the battle of Waterloo he had sought refuge, he collected a band of two hundred and fifty followers, all personally attached to him, and ready for adventure; and having freighted six vessels, on the night of the 28th September 1815 weighed anchor from Ajaccio, and directed his course to Salerno, where three thousand of his former soldiers, supposed to be discontented with the Bourbons, were stationed. His preparations, however, had been watched by a certain Carabelli, a Corsican, who, though formerly covered with favours by Murat, had volunteered to act as a spy; and the Neapolitan government, being by him informed of Murat's movements, kept a look-out along the coasts. The small fleet sailed prosperously for six days, but on the 7th it was assailed and scattered by a storm, which drove the vessel in which the ex-king himself was near the shore of Pizzo in Calabria. After some hesitation Murat resolved to land at that place; and on the 8th of October, a feast-day, he appeared in the market-place of Pizzo, with twenty-eight followers, who, raising his standard, shouted, "Long live King Murat!" All persons present having remained silent, Murat perceiving how cold his reception was, hastened to go to Monteleone, a populous city, in which he expected to find many warm friends; but being followed up and attacked by a number of devoted adherents of the Bourbons, he gallantly dashed through them, and made for the shore, to regain his vessel. But the vessel was at some distance, and Murat in vain shouted for her, for the captain sailed, carrying away the rich booty he had on board. Murat tried to push off a skiff which lay upon the shore, but at length surrounded and seized, he had the jewels he wore on his cap and breast torn off, was struck in the face and insulted, and, with his companions, dragged into the dungeon of the castle.

The news of the events at Pizzo being transmitted to Naples by telegraph, the government sent stringent orders for Murat's trial and immediate execution. A court-martial, composed of seven officers, three of whom and the attorney-general had been raised by Murat from humble stations, assembled on the 13th, and by a law which he himself had passed seven years before, and which now became the instrument of his own death, condemned him to die as a public enemy, for having attempted to excite the people to rebellion against their lawful sovereign. He was shot the same day in a small court of the castle. He refused to have his eyes bound, and calmly placing himself in a posture to receive the balls," said to the soldiers, "Spare my face, and aim at my heart." He fell, in his forty-eighth year, grasping in his hands the miniature portraits of his children; and his remains were buried in the church of Pizzo, towards the erection of which he had liberally contributed.

Once firmly re-established on the throne of Naples, Ferdinand began his attack on the liberties of Sicily. Article 104 of the treaty of Vienna recognised him as "king of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies." The word kingdom therein introduced, though apparently insignificant, aimed, as it will be seen, at important changes in the government of the country.

By a secret article of a treaty, signed at Vienna on the 14th of June 1815, Ferdinand had bound himself, in resuming the government of his kingdom, "not to admit of any innovation not in accordance either with the ancient monarchical institutions, or with the principles adopted by his imperial and royal majesty in the internal government of his Italian provinces." In conformity with this engagement, in 1816 he promulgated three royal edicts, by which he assumed the new title of Ferdinand I., King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; and on the grounds that the privileges enjoyed by the Sicilians were to be combined with the unity of the political institutions, which were to form the public law of the kingdom, he united the two kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, took the whole of the government into his hands, and virtually and de facto annulled both the ancient and the new constitution of Sicily. The Sicilians were only granted the privilege, that all offices and employments, civil and ecclesiastical, in the island should be conferred exclusively upon them. From that time dates the despotic rule of both the continental and the insular divisions of the kingdom.

A summary of the principal events, from 1815 to 1850 having been already given under ITALY, it remains only to add that the condition of the country has not since improved in any degree. A series of state trials, familiar in this country through the powerful appeal against them to the public opinion of all civilised nations by one of our most able statesmen, initiated, in 1850, a system of ferocious reaction, which, far from abating, seems to grow worse with time. Ferdinand II., in 1859, was succeeded by his eldest son Francis II., who is faithfully treading in the footsteps of his father. The supreme and irresponsible authority of the police, and its natural offsprings, want of personal security, persecutions, injustice, terror, and general dismay, are still the order of the day in the Two Sicilies.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES.

THE NORMANS, A.D. 1130-1194.

1130. Roger, a grandson of Tancred of Hauteville, is proclaimed King at Salerno.

1134. William I. (the Bad), son of Roger.

1166. William II. (the Good), son of William I.; leaves no issue.

1190. Tancred, Count of Lecce, a natural son of a son of Roger.

1194. William III., son of Tancred.

THE SABINIANS, 1194-1266.

1194. Henry VI., Emperor of Germany, the son of Frederick Barbarossa, having married Constance, the daughter of Roger, claimed the crown, and compelled William III. to abdicate.

1197. Constance reigns alone in the name of her son.

1198. Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen, Emperor of Germany.

1230. Conrad, the second son of Frederick II.

1254. Manfred, a natural son of Frederick II., at first as guardian of Conradin, the only son of Conrad, and afterwards, on the false report of Conradin's death, in his own name.

THE ANGEVINES, 1266-1442.

1266. Charles I. of Anjou, Count of Provence, brother of Louis IX. (St Louis).

KINGDOM OF NAPLES.

House of Anjou.

1282. Charles I. having lost Sicily, remains King of Naples.

1285. Charles II., the Lame (Carlo il Zoppo), son of Charles I.

1309. Robert the Wise, third son of Charles II.

1343. Joanna I., daughter of Charles, only son of Robert.

1381. Charles III., of Durazzo, son of Louis Count of Gravina, and grandson of Charles II.

1385. Ladislao, son of Charles III.

1414. Joanna II., sister of Ladislao.

1435. René of Anjou, Duke of Lorraine, called by Joanna II.'s will in opposition to her previous adoption of Alfonso of Aragon. The Angevine dynasty ended in him.

KINGDOM OF SICILY.

House of Aragon, 1282-1501.

1282. Peter, King of Aragon, the husband of Constance, the daughter of Manfred.

1303. James I., the Just, son of Peter; on succeeding to Aragon in 1291, abdicated in favour of his brother.

1321. Interregnum.

1366. Frederick II., brother of James I.

1377. Peter II., son of Frederick, to whom he had been associated on the throne since 1321.

1342. Louis, son of Peter.

1355. Frederick III., a younger brother of Louis.

1377. Mary, daughter of Frederick III., and her husband, Martin of Aragon.

1402. Martin I., on the death of Mary without issue.

1409. Martin II. (I. of Aragon), the father of the last king. Sicily was united to Aragon.

1412. Ferdinand the Just, King of Aragon and Sicily.

1416. Alfonso V., son of Ferdinand, King of Aragon and Sicily.

King of Naples and Sicily.

1442. Alfonso V., called the Magnanimous, having expelled Renato of Anjou from Naples, united the two kingdoms, and assumed the name of Alfonso I. At his death the two countries were again separated.

Kingdom of Naples.

1468. Ferdinand I., a natural son of Alfonso, legitimated by the Pope in 1444.

1494. Alfonso II., Duke of Calabria, son of Ferdinand I., who, on being attacked by Charles VIII. of France, abdicated in favour of his son.

1495. Ferdinand II., who recovered the kingdom from the French, and died at twenty-nine.

1496. Frederick, Prince of Altamura, second son of Ferdinand I. Attacked by Louis XII. of France, and betrayed by his cousin Ferdinand the Catholic, he lost the kingdom in 1501. The Aragonese dynasty ended with him.

Kingdom of Sicily.

1458. John II., a brother of Alfonso, and King of Aragon and Navarre.

1479. Ferdinand II. (Ferdinand the Catholic), son of John II.

THE SPANISH DOMINION, 1501-1707.

Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily.

By the treaty of Granada, November 1500, Louis XII. and Ferdinand the Catholic, agreed to divide Naples; but dissensions having arisen between them, Ferdinand drove the French away, and in 1504 united the whole of Naples to Sicily, already a Spanish possession.

1504. Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Spain.

1515. Joanna of Castile, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, who abdicated in favour of her son.

1516. Charles IV., afterwards the Emperor Charles V.

1554. Philip II. of Spain, the husband of Queen Mary of England.

1598. Philip III. of Spain, son of Philip II.

1621. Philip IV., the son of Philip III., by Margaret of Austria.

1665. Charles II., son of Philip IV., by his second wife, Mary Anne of Austria.

1700. Philip V., Duke of Anjou, and grandson of Louis XIV. of France, called by Charles II.'s will to the thrones of Spain, Naples, and Sicily.

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1 Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen on the State Prosecutions at Naples, by W. E. Gladstone. London: Murray.