24 MARCH 1860, Page 10

THE DOOMED DYNASTY OF NAPLES.

TRE Government of Naples forces itself upon the attention of the world at intervals, when some atrocity greater than common breaks the surface of a treacherous calm, and always it presents itself under the same odious aspect. Turn over the pages of its recent history, and, they are found to record the deeds of the Jesuit, the spy, the gaoler, the subservient minister, and his weak but cruel master. Blood does not, it is true, flow freely, but the groans of tortured prisoners are heard, the anguish of persecuted families is felt ; the gloomy face of the noble exile is seen as he quits the land of his birth, hurried out by no gentle bands. While the Piedmontese, the Lombards, and the men of Central Italy feel the rough but invigorating air of freedom on their faces, the Venetian is weighed down by the lifeless atmosphere of an alien despotism, and the Neapolitan and the Sicilian writhe under a native but a nauseous tyranny. Like other Bourbons, he of Naples has learned nothing and forgotten nothing, but pur- sues, with unfaltering feet, the old road that leads to the destruc- tion of dynasties and the convulsion of realms.

A British fleet has appeared in the Bay of Naples on a mission of humanity, and a British Minister has presented to Parliament a " Correspondence " which more than explains the reason why. The despatches shed lurid light over the history of the last eight months. When Lord John Russell entered upon the duties of Foreign Minister, the French were on the Mimi°, and the Nea- politan court saw its natural defender, the Austrian, disappear- ing behind the forts of the Quadrilateral. Uncertain of the fu- ture, M. Carafe., the Minister of a young King, had the grace to admit that prisoners had a right to demand a trial or liberation. There were then, hundreds of men confined in the loathsome abodes called prisons in Naples. There were thousands of sus- pected persons over whom the spy, and the gendarme, and the priest, kept up an incessant and irritating surveillance. In neither ease was there any law to justify the conduct of the Go- vernment. How, asked Mr. Elliot, could they hope to inspire respect for the law, when they themselves were its most persistent violators ? The remonstrances of the British Government were

not wholly without effect. They produced a sham amnesty for the behoof of political offenders, who showed their correct appre- ciation ot the precious document by not trusting themselves within reach of a treacherous court ; and they produced a sham measure intended to persuade the world that the surveillance of the pollee had been removed from 50,000 persons. There were in this time of" grace and clemency" some forty-eight men linger- ing out a wretched life in the person of Santa Maria Apparente. They prayed the clement monarch to bring them to trial or set them free. For nearly three years, they had been confined, as Carafa and Filaugieri admitted, in flagrant violation of the law.

"Men may differ," wrote Lord John Russell on the 6th of July, "about the merits of Representative Constitutions, and the form and time in which they should be put in force ; but there can be no difference of opinion among enlightened men about the necessity of a due, impartial, and speedy

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administration of justice. To keep men n prison without trial ; to place them under a zealous and suspicious police, thus embarrassing all their ac- tions, even the most innocent—is contrary to every principle of justice : it is also a violation of the Code by which the Neapolitan Government pro- fesses to be guided."

How did the Government proceed in the ease of these men? They set at liberty thirty-two' first sending them to Capri ; they retained sixteen, alleging, without a shadow of evidence, that they were the accomplices of Agesilao Milano ! Such was the effect of the success of the allied arms in Lombardy upon the shrinking Court, conscious that its doom might be pronounced at any moment. They were all superficial measures. The pollee retained their power to harrass the life of any one ; the Govern- ment retained its power to arrest on the bare report of spies. Like the yawning*/ month of the Lion of St. Mark, the willing ear of a Neapolitan Minister is ever ready to welcome the lies of the informer. Then there were sham political concessions, such as decrees establishing provincial councils never intended to work. Time wore on ; Peace arrived ; and with it the audacious confidence of the Neapolitan Government returned. Satriano vindicated the justice of keeping an eye upon those soupconne d'être suspects, and Carafe boldly maintained that the sovereign has a right to supersede the regular laws' when he deems it for the public interest to do so. In October, the system of sudden arrests was renewed. In one case the brother and son-in-law of a suspected person were arrested. Proofs were abundant that the police and prefects were as active and rigorous as ever in dealing with anybody whose name was on the black list. Nothing was changed in the system. Unblushingly, the Minister confessed that he had not evidence enough to secure a conviction in a court of law against persons whom he detained a month in subterranean dungeons. With the new year, the des- potism grew darker. The cloak of assumed moderation was thrown aside. The police were directed to arrest any body "without hesitation," against whom there were only grounds for suspicion. In March, Prince Torella was arrested "by mistake," and set at libety, when Mr. Elliot showed how dangerous it would be to keep him a prisoner on suspicion. Duke Proto, Marquis Vulcan° and six others were hurried into exile. Two gentlemen hid themselves; one refusing to come forth when

i assured of safety by a Government which s never trusted but to betray. In all cases, there is no trial, no recourse to law ; the atrocities are perpetrated at the mere fiat of a Minister.

The infatuated King cannot plead that he has had no warnings of the inevitable consequences of these transactions. He has long ago been reminded that the Constitution of 1848 has never been revoked, that the code of Neapolitan law has never been overthrown. On the 7th of July, Lord John Russell wrote to Mr. Elliot— "It may suit the purposes of those who have thriven on the past abuses, to encourage the King to follow in his father's footsteps, or a change of sys- tem would probaly lead to their ruin; but it appears to her Majesty's Go- vernment that the King has now to choose between the ruin of his evil counsellors and his own : if he supports and upholds them, and places him- self under their guidance, it requires not much foresight to predict that the Bourbon Dynasty will cease to reign at Naples, by whatever combination, Regal or Republican, it may be replaced. Ster Majesty's Government fully admit that it is not desirable that any Government should be hasty or in- trusive in giving advice regarding domestic changes in another country ; but, when the throne of an ally may be endangered, it becomes the duty of a friendly Power to say that, notwithstanding its desire to see the present dynasty maintained on the throne of Naples, neither the moral nor the ma- terial support of England is to be looked for by the King, if, by a continual denial of justice, and the refusal of an improved form of internal adminis- tration the Neapolitan people should be driven into insurrection, and should succeed in expelling the present dynasty from the throne."

In October, Mr. Elliot saw the King, and implored him not to he misled by interested advisers ; told him that recent arrests had produced a panic, a profound feeling of irritation ; and that dis- content was universal and deep-rooted. In November, when a public decree releasing the suspected from a degrading surveil- lance had been nullified by a circular from the Minister of Police, Lord John Russell was compelled to say:—" We can no longer rely upon any promises that may be given, or upon any decree that may be issued in the Name of the King." And in Yanuary he was farther compelled to say, that the British Government could only lament the blindness of the Neapolitan Council, and would "neither accept any part of their responsibility, nor under- take to ward off the consequences of a misgovernment which has scarcely a parallel in Europe." Finally, Mr. Elliot, in March, told M. Carafe he "felt that the destruction both of his Majesty and of the dynasty is inevitable, unless wiser counsels are listened. to.o Here are ill-deeds and here are waxwing's. The "cry of an- gel " comes up from Naples now; and the doom of the Dour-

bon dynasty is tie only intelli‘ible interpretation of the painful sounds.