upon

palliate the lamentable defect of which I am speaking, by shewing that it is to be ascribed rather to the arts of others than to any natural indifference or levity in the monarch himself. A French Minister, being secretly commissioned by his court, in a very early period of the King's reign to call his attention, if possible, to serious and becoming occupations, took an opportunity of enlarging the pleasures of reading in his presence, and did it with so much effect, that the young King some days after told him that he was determined to try the experiment, and asked him what book he would recommend as at once useful and amusing. The minister ventured to mention the life of Henry IV. as a work well calculated for the purpose, and begged leave to present, it to his Majesty. A month passed, during which the minister was waiting with impatience for the result, and expecting at every levee to hear the royal opinion of the book he had recommended. In vain; the book and subject seemed utterly forgotten. At length being admitted into his Majesty's apartment, he saw the life of Henry lying on the table, and fixed his eye upon it, which the King perceiving, said, with a smileThere is your book untouched; they don't wish me to read, so I have given it up. So far the royal mind appears to disadvantage; we will now place it in a more favorable light, and point out some features that never fail to delight even in the absence of intellectual accomplishments. Though nursed in the bosom of majesty, and almost cradled in the throne, of course flattered and idolized, that is, hardened against every feeling but that of self-interest, he is yet reported to have shewn upon all occasions a tender and compassionate disposition. The following instance would do credit to the feelings of a private citizen, and when it is considered how seldom public distress penetrates the palace, and is felt within the circle of royalty, must

be acknowledged to be doubly honorable and praise-worthy in a prince.

In the year 1764, when a great scarcity prevailed at Naples, and the misery among the lower classes was extreme, some of the courtiers agreed together to give a supper and ball at Posilypo. The king heard of this ill-timed project of amusement, and though then in his thirteenth year only, observed, with some ill humor, that parties of pleasure were unseasonable in such circumstances, and that it would be more becoming those who were engaged in it to share than insult public distress. The hint was of course taken, and the arrangement given up. Upon another occasion, while almost a child, he is said to have been prevailed upon by one of his attendants to beg the Council of Regency to set a certain criminal at liberty: the Council very properly rejected the King's request; upon which he went to his apartment, and with a sort of boyish resentment threw open a cage of canary birds, saying-At least I will give liberty to these prisoners, since I cannot free any others. These instances of benevolence, strengthened and developed by an affability and good humor that seemed to increase as he advanced in life, added considerably to the partiality and attachment which the Neapolitans had conceived for him, from the circumstance of his being destined to remain with them, to govern them in person, and deliver them from all the evils of delegated authority. This popularity, though founded at first rather upon the hopes and wishes than the experience of the people, he has had the good fortune never to forfeit, and after a reign of more than forty years, the latter part of which has been marked by reverses and disaster, he still continues to enjoy the affection and reverence of his subjects.

The Queen is an archduchess of the imperial family, sister to the late Queen of France, and to the archduchess Christina, who once governed the Low Countries. In countenance and manner she resembles the latter; in spirit I believe the former, and has always been supposed to have a very considerable share in the management of public affairs. That queens should have influence, is natural, and howsoever mischievous, perhaps unavoidable; but that they should be admitted into the privy council and take their place at the board, is a phenomenon first witnessed I believe at Naples, at the marriage of the present queen. As the sex is very generally, without doubt unjustly, supposed to be influenced by personal considerations, and guided rather by the feelings of the heart than by the dictates of the understanding, every obnoxious and unsuccessful measure is invariably attributed to queens, where their influence is visi ble and acknowledged. Thus has it happened at Naples: every amelioration in the laws, every indulgence in government, are supposed to flow from the natural and unbiassed goodness of the monarch, while every unwise regulation or oppressive measure is constantly ascribed to the predominance of the queen. But the Neapolitans are by no means an ill-humored or discontented race, and till the late French invasion they seem to have been strangers to complaint and faction. Nor indeed was there much room for either.

The kingdom of Naples had for ages labored under the accumulated weight of the feudal system, and of viceregal administration. The former chained and enslaved nine-tenths of its population; while the latter, the most pernicious mode of government ever experienced, subjected the whole nation to systematic plunder, and ruled the country with a view, not to its own inte

rests, but to the interests of a foreign court, in its very nature, proud, suspicious, and vindictive. From the last of these evils the accession of Ferdinand IV. delivered the Neapolitans. King of the Two Sicilies only, he had no distant realms to look to as a more brilliant and engaging inheritance. Naples was not to him a step to a more elevated situation; it was his home, and his and its interests became too closely interwoven in his mind and feelings to be ever separable. The feudal system was an evil that had taken deeper root, and entwined itself with so many institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, that to disentangle them without danger required time and delicacy. Those who lost by reform, and who, though few in numbers were yet far the most powerful part of the community, of course opposed it at every step, and retarded its progress. Much however, or rather what must appear much when due regard is had to circumstances, has been done by the present king since his accession, first under the administration of Tanucci, who, from the chair of law in the university of Pisa, was advanced to the dignity of first minister at Naples; and afterwards of Sir John Acton, who has pursued and enlarged the beneficial plans of his predecessor. But in a country where the whole system is a vast shapeless heap of institutions, decisions and customs taken from the codes, decrees, and manners of the different nations and chiefs, who have peopled or invaded it; where abuses have grown from abuses, and where power has ever enjoyed the privilege of oppressing right; in such a country the evil is always prominent, and must naturally excite the surprise and indignation of the traveller; while the reform, whose operations are slow and silent, sometimes reaches him only as a report, and sometimes entirely escapes his notice. Certain it is, that since the commencement of Ferdinand IV.'s reign, the power of

the barons has been checked, the number of ecclesiastical establishments diminished, the surplus of the income of the church applied to objects of public utility, many academies and schools established, a marine and an army almost created, the police better regulated, and the morals and manners of the common people raised and refined. Now these improvements, great in themselves, and still greater because they lead naturally and unavoidably to other ameliorations, are sufficient to entitle the reigning monarch to the love and gratitude of his people..

To return to the court-The assembly, as has been remarked above, was numerous and brilliant, and its brilliancy augmented by the number of stars and ribbons that blazed in every direction. The multiplicity of these honorary badges, for where almost every individual is graced with them they can scarce be called distinctions, may contribute to the splendor of the show, but must diminish the value of the ornament; insomuch indeed, that the absence of all such decorations seemed to confer a more honorable distinction on the English minister, than any that could be derived from the united lustre of all the stars of all the orders.

It was dark when the court broke up, and as the whole city was illuminated we directed our course to the principal squares and ornamental buildings, all of which were lighted up with a profusion of lamps, arranged in such a manner as to shew the form and ornaments of each edifice to the best advantage. In illuminations both the French and Italians surpass us, and on this occasion the Neapolitans, I thought, shewed more taste and magnificence than I had witnessed before in any country. The most splendid, and to us the most novel, object was the