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pand, forests spread, and cities flourish in the windings of the Apennines, as they stretch their ramifications over the southern provinces, which have never yet been visited by travellers, and scarcely noticed by geographers. In these unexplored haunts what a harvest awaits the classic traveller! how much of the languages, manners, names, and perhaps even buildings of ancient Italy may be hereafter discovered! Some villages are known still to retain the Greek language, and are even said to speak it with more purity than the modern Greeks themselves; a proof that they have not been much visited by the successive invaders that have overrun the more open and frequented parts, and a presumptive argument that their manners and blood may have hitherto been but little adulterated.

But it was vain to long after new excursions; circumstances strong enough to control our classical projects called us homewards, and obliged us to abridge our stay at Naples. Being thus under the necessity of departing, we wished to be at Rome for the festival of St. Peter, in order to see the illumination of the dome, one of the grandest ideas of Michael Angelo, and supposed to be the finest exhibition of the kind in the world. But the return of the Neapolitan court from Palermo, and the festivities and rejoicings which were to accompany that event, induced the party to remain a week longer at Naples. This determination has since been a subject of regret, and with reason. Kings and courts are objects neither uncommon nor very curious; illuminations and balls are ordinary amusements. But the mausoleum of Adrian turned into a volcano, and the dome of the Vatican enveloped with fire, are spectacles sublime and wonderful, exhibited at Rome alone, and seldom beheld

more than once by an ultramontane. These however we did resign, and the court of Naples we have seen.

Preparations had been making for the reception of the royal family for some time, and temples and triumphal arches, superb porticos and splendid theatres, all on the ancient model, had been erected in the widest streets and most frequented squares. Opposite the palace stood a Corinthian, on the road to Portici, an Ionic temple: on the Largo del Castello a theatre, which, with a Doric colonnade and some imitations of the Pastan ruins, formed the principal of these temporary edifices. Their proportions, style, and decorations were in general in very good taste, and gave them an air of antique grandeur admirably adapted to the name, the history, and the scenery of the place. Every reader must have observed, that in theatrical decorations, artists have a great facility in catching the manner of the ancients, and copying the simple and beautiful, while in solid and permanent fabrics they almost invariably lose sight of these qualities, and give us whim and deformity in their place. The truth seems to be, that in trivial and occasional works they content themselves with a display of knowledge only, while in grand and lasting undertakings, they aspire to the higher praise of invention and genius, and scorning to imitate, endeavor to surpass their masters. In vain! failure has hitherto been their invariable fate.

But to proceed-the inscriptions on these ornamental buildings by no means corresponded with their appearance; long, strained, and inflated, they betrayed either the barrenness of the subject or the dulness of the writer.

On the twenty-seventh of June (Sunday), early in the morning, the King's ships appeared off Capra accompanied by the Medusa Captain Gore, and a few English sloops. About ten the royal family landed at Portici, and between five and six the King set out on horseback to make his public entry into Naples. The multitudes that crowded the road, and their frantic demonstrations of joy, impeded the procession, so that it was nearly sunset before it entered the palace, when he immediately hastened to the chapel, and attended at the Te Deum. Thence he proceeded to the hall of audience, where a numerous and brilliant assembly, composed of all the nobility of the country, and of all the foreign ministers, were waiting to receive him. On his entrance the ladies rushed forward, and kissing his hands with tears and exclamations of joy, prevented him for some time from advancing. The king received these effusions of loyalty and personal attachment, not with kindness only, but with emotion, and returned them with many affectionate expressions and inquiries.

As he passed towards the upper end of the hall, he spoke to his old courtiers with great affability and ease, and taking his usual place in the circle instantly addressed himself, with visible satisfaction, to Mr. Drummond, the English Minister; asked him several questions with that rapidity of utterance which great joy occasions, and without waiting to hear the names of the persons presented, exclaimed, with great condescension, politely at the same time directing his looks to each person-They are English, and of course my friends; I am very glad to see them all, and bid them welcome to Naples. After some conversation, perceiving the French Minister, who stood close by him, visibly

mortified at such a marked preference, he seemed to recollect himself, and turning to him, asked the usual questions, with common politeness. About half past nine his majesty retired.

Ferdinand IV. is now in the fifty-first year of his age; in his person he is tall and strait, rather thin than corpulent; his face is very long, his hair and eye-brows white, and his countenance on the whole far from comely, but lighted up by an expression of good nature and benignity that pleases more and lasts longer than symmetry of features. His manners are easy, his conversation affable, and his whole deportment (princes will pardon me if I presume to mention it as a compliment) that of a thorough gentleman. With regard to mental endowments, nature seems to have placed him on a level with the great majority of mankind, that is, in a state of mediocrity, and without either defect or excellency, a state the best adapted to sovereign power, because least likely to abuse it. If one degree below it, a monarch becomes the tool of every designing knave near his person, whether valet or minister; if only one degree above it, he becomes restless and unintentionally mischievous, like the Emperor Joseph; and if cursed with genius, he turns out like Frederic, a conqueror and a despot. But the good sense which Ferdinand derived from nature, required the advantages of cultivation to develop and direct it; and of these advantages he was unfortunately deprived, in part perhaps by the early absence of his father, and in part by the negligence or design, first of his tutors, and afterwards of his courtiers. Being raised to the throne in the eighth year of his age, and shortly after left by his father under the direction of a regency, he cannot be supposed to be inclined, nor they capable of compelling

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him, to application. The result has been as usual, a great propensity to active exercises, and an aversion to studious pursuits. The ignorance which follows from these habits is such as to extend to articles, known among us to every person above daily labor, and it not unfrequently shows itself in conversation, and betrays his majesty into mistakes that sometimes startle even well-trained courtiers. Thus, mention being accidentally made in his presence of the great power of the Turks some centuries ago, he observed, that it was no wonder, as all the world were Turks before the birth of our Saviour. Upon another occasion, when the cruel exccution of Louis XVI. then recent, happening to be the subject of conversation, one of the courtiers remarked, that it was the second crime of the kind that stained the annals of modern Europe: the King asked with surprise, where such a deed had been per`petrated before; the courtier replying in England, Ferdinand asked, with a look of disbelief, what king of England was ever put to death by his people? the other of course answering Charles I. his majesty exclaimed, with some degree of warmth and indignation-No, Sir, it is impossible, you are misinformed; the English are too loyal and brave a people to be guilty of such an atrocious crime. He added; depend upon it, Sir, it is a mere tale trumped up by the jacobins at Paris to excuse their own guilt by the example of so great a nation; it may do very well to deceive their own people, but will not, I hope, dupe us!

On this occasion my readers may be disposed to excuse the King's incredulity, which, however great the ignorance it supposes, arose from a generous attachment to the glory and credit of his allies. The following anecdote may, in some degree,

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