Mirror; presented to His Sicilian Majesty, Great Britain, and the allied sovereigns, reflecting political facts
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MIRROR PRESENTED TO HIS SICILIAN MAJESTY, ©mt Britain, anB tt)r AIlirB S'inirmcjns REFLECTING POLITICAL FACTS of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE, CALCULATED TO UNDECEIVE THEM; Puerto ®tnyutrtisfjetr. BY Captain FRANCIS ROMEO, \X A native of Calabria, belonging to the noble order of the Sacred Roman Empire, Member of the Academies Buon Gusto, in Palermo, Florimontana, in Vibonia, Peloritana de* Periclitanti , in Messina ; and who had been employed in Sicily, in the confidential department of the Britsh Army stationed there. 1 - - - - Audite in9ulse, et attendite populi de longe.— Sap. •) 4» •o 1> LONDON : PRINTED FOR ROBERT STODART, 81, STRAND. mi. / MOTIVES That induced the Author to publish this Work, SUBMITTED TO His Sicilian Majesty , to the King of Great Britain^ and to the Allied Sovereigns. Seneca held forth his Mirror to those addicted to anger, in the hope, that every one seeing the deformity of such a passion, might avoid and abhor it. A Mirror is here also presented to his Sicilian Majesty, formed on the same principles and for a like purpose. By it, that Sovereign may easily perceive how much he is disfigured and traduced by the iniquitous and per¬ fidious wretches, who are just now his Counsellors. It is not hereby meant however to indispose him against every one of his Counsellors in particular. There are certainly some of them distinguished for their per¬ sonal honour, merit and wisdom, whom this work truly respects ; to whom his people owe their grateful thanks ; and whose salutary influence it is the general wish to see exalted, while the destruction of that fatal ascendency, which those of an opposite description have gained, is as anxiously looked for. Against these last only are my observations directed. Only a VI villains need complain of me, not the real friends of their country, of reason, of honour, of His Sicilian Majesty, and the Allied Sovereigns! Let the chil¬ dren of darkness, the distinguished proselytes of im¬ posture, do us at least the favour to appear for once in the open day. Let them stand alone, or accompanied with those, their high and worthy supporters, who have hitherto protracted the miseries of the people, and the disgrace of their country. Alone, though the butt of a thousand misfortunes, and subjected to the greatest sufferings, I am still a stranger to fear. The wicked in power inspire me with no terror ; and instead of dreading, I pity them. Instead of shunning, I defy them to the combat, and here boldly challenge them to measure their strength with mine. If the endeavouring to undeceive my Sovereign ; if the seeking to withdraw him from the brink of the fatal precipice, on which he is placed ; if the wishing to rescue my country from all malefic influence, and to spare Europe the horror of seeing rekindled the torch of Alecto , be deemed heresy ; let whoever thinks so, be assured that I should be truly proud to find re¬ newed against me the anathemas once fulminated against a Galileo and a Copernic ; or against those, who durst assert the existence of the Antipodes. But on the other hand I should think myself very happy, and much beholden to those wise friends of their country, who, animated with the real desire of benefit¬ ing their nation and government, would deign to cor¬ rect, improve and extend the observations and princi¬ ples here set forth ; which, owing to their complicated Vll state, and the shortness of the time employed in arrang¬ ing* them, leave certainly many blanks to be filled up, and many points to be rectified. The Mirror presented to his Sicilian Majesty, is at the same time equally recommended to the Allied Sovereigns. The conduct of the actual Ministry of the two Sicilies shews the effects of a violent reaction. The attempts of these assessors render vain the acts of the present Sovereigns of Europe ; compromise their virtue, and make their sincerity be questioned : nor will these Princes have forgotten that all their glory was the result of that confidence in their philanthropy and good faith, with which they lately inspired their people. If the principle fails, can its consequences subsist? Will political errors, though their effects be slow, miss to produce their natural consequences ? Europe is become clear sighted. The people’s en¬ thusiasm is roused. Their courage is exalted. In more than one country the liberty of the press exists. And it were the merest illusion to befriend such ill- omened measures. Such a fatal illusion will be dissi¬ pated the moment that the standard of the perfidious is dashed to the ground. Humanity so degraded re¬ quires this to be done, as well as the glory and security of every Sovereign ; and it is from a wish to perform so sacred a duty to Reason, that I propose to unmask the darkest imposture ; and now venture to attack the fiend on his own very ground, supposed so inaccessible; and even within the magic circle of all his fatal en¬ chantments. Nisi utile est quod facimus Gloria stulta est. — PhjEDr. a 2 . ■ » . • {. * • PROSPECTUS. - - IN this Work are detailed the attempts of Bonaparte to make himself master of Sicily in 1810, and the reasons for which Murat did not second his design. The plan of destroying the English army garrisoned in Messina in 1811, and of assassinating their Com¬ manders, together with all the English resident in that place, conceived by the chief persons in office in the Sicilian Government, which at that time was in alliance with Great Britain. The manner in which this horrid and barbarous plan was to have been executed ; and how the Enemy was to have effected his landing in Sicily. The measures proposed by the Author of the Work, approved of by the British Commanders, Lieutenant Generals Maitland, Campbell and Don¬ kin, and most successfully executed by himself, to prevent the impending mischief. The admirable policy with which the said British Generals, and par¬ ticularly Lord William Bentinck effected the sepa- X ration of Murat from Bonaparte ; which so contri¬ buted to the great political changes, that have since taken place in Europe. The motives which at that time induced Murat to break with Bonaparte, and concur in saving from harm the British army. The reasons, which in 1814 induced the Sicilian Govern¬ ment to recal from their prisons and exile, and to exalt to the first posts of honour in the kingdom, those very Miscreants who, in the year 1811 had projected the massacre of the English in Messina ; who, to excul¬ pate themselves, had declared her Majesty, the late Queen of Sicily, the author of their conspiracy; who had been respited from suffering death by the huma¬ nity of the British Minister : and whom his Sicilian Majesty had then stiled most wicked, perfidious and sacrilegious calumniators. The motives, which, after their reinstalment in office, induced these Revolutiona¬ ries to cause Murat to be shot, as a disturber of the public peace. The circumstances preceding, accom¬ panying and following his execution, which demon¬ strate the real cause of their having ordered him to be so quickly dispatched : and which has never hitherto been explained. In this Work a view is also taken of all the depart¬ ments of Government ; it touches on the moral, poli¬ tical, military, diplomatic and economical systems ; on those of public health, education, industry, en¬ couragement, correction, amusement, and the modi¬ fication of vice. From all which will appear the wants of the several departments, what has been done, neg¬ lected or thwarted in each branch ; and hence the me¬ thod and means of bettering the situation of those coun - tries, by diminishing their wants and miseries ; improv¬ ing their resources ; obviating, as much as possible, those evils that are most incident to society ; and thus establishing the happiness of the subject, and the pros¬ perity of the State. The motives will be further noticed and explained, which induced the actual Ministers of the Court of Naples, to annul the Constitution, granted to the Sici¬ lians by their Sovereign, and guaranteed to them, for fifteen years, by Great Britain ; to persecute all over the kingdom, Free Masonry, and the Carbonarian Societies ; and to persuade their King to change his title of Ferdinand the Fourth to that of Ferdinand the First. Xll • It will likewise be shewn how far Murat’s overthrow was owing: to his ill treatment of the Carbonarian Societies ; and Bonaparte’s rise and downfal, to the favours granted, or insults offered to Free Masonry. Finally, a parallel will be drawn between the con¬ duct of the late Spanish Government, and that of the present one of Naples ; and from what has happened in Spain, will be shewn what must be expected soon to take place in Naples. JAM TUA RES AGITUR PARIES DUM PROXIMUS AUDET. Ovid. HIS SACRED AND ROYAL MAJESTY FERDINAND, (Late the Fourth, now the First,) KING OF THE TWO SICILIES, &c. &c. &o. Circumstances preceding , accompanying , and follow¬ ing Murat’s execution, explanatory of that event. Plan formed in 1811 of massacring the British army in Messina ; and how it was defeated. Sire, You are aware, and I need therefore only remind you, that the new marriage of Na¬ poleon with the Arch-Duchess of Austria, niece to your late royal consort, introduced a vertiginous spirit into your court, as well as into that of the late Murat ( 1 ). / r“ This new alliance revived in the breasts of your counsellors the almost extinguished hopes of recovering the kingdom of Naples, B 10 while it excited in Murat the utmost appre¬ hensions of losing it. The preference given to this new, and powerfully influencing, as close connection, gave birth to events, which very much influ¬ enced the subsequent changes in the political system of Europe ( 2 ). Murat was too fond of his beautiful king¬ dom of Naples, not to wish to retain it ; and between his anxious desire of preserving, and fear of losing it, he gave headlong into an endless train of chimerical projects, and false measures, which proved so very fatal to him in the end. As soon as, in conse¬ quence of the aforesaid marriage, a relation¬ ship had taken place between your Majesty and the late Ruler of France, Murat began to contemplate in Bonaparte the defender of your rights, no longer the promoter of his own views; in the French Empress a most formidable rival ; and in the English, the fittest supporters possible of his designs and future operations ( 3 ). / II So fantastical and foolish an idea, which the false politics of his predecessor Joseph had confirmed him in, made him take certain steps, which however did not escape the late Salicetfs notice, the political Argus of that time. Napoleon was secretly informed of all by that minister. Murat, upon this, was called to Paris. The manner in which he justified his conduct was not thought very satisfactory ; and Bonaparte was as little pleased with Murat, as this last was at finding himself subjected to so new and so strict a species of superintendence ( 4 ). A few months after this the prefect of general police at Naples, the Cavaliero Maghella, gave a diplomatic entertainment ; at which Saliceti was present ; who, after eating an ice-meat, was immediately taken ill of a violent cholic : the physicians pronounced his case hopeless, and three days after he was a corpse. His situation was bestowed upon Maghella, under whose ministry no further effective obstacles were put to the secret introduction of colonial produce from Sicily into Calabria ( 5 ). b 2 12 . Meanwhile the king of Rome was born, and Murat had to set out again for Paris ; where, at the same time that he looked on the Empress with a jealous eye, Bonaparte on that account, no longer shewed him the usual marks of his former confidence ; so that new motives were furnished, on both sides, for mutual diffidence and disgust (6). Murat plainly foresaw that he was going to be deprived of his kingdom ; when the ex¬ queen Caroline, his wife, interposed with her brother, and through her mediation a reconciliation took place ( 7 ). • k / \ At this very time the Empress, availing herself of her influence, on having brought forth an heir to the empire, deigned to in¬ terest herself with her husband in behalf of her aunt, your Majesty’s spouse ; and Napo¬ leon, though he had formerly sworn never more to suffer the Bourbon dynasty to reign in Naples ( s ), assured her, upon this occasion, that if her aunt would but contrive to get lid of the English, and admit his army into Sicily, he would not only restore to her the 13 kingdom of Naples , but would make over to her besides the marquisat of Ancona ( 9 ). In -consequence of this assurance, frequent and mysterious messages passed to and from your Majesty's cabinet and that of Bo¬ naparte (lo). In the month of March, 1810, Bonaparte ordered the troops dispersed all over Naples to concentrate their forces in the farther Ca¬ labria, for the expedition about to be under¬ taken against Sicily (il). * Murat was charged with the operations, and General Gregner appointed to assist him, and at the same time watch over his con¬ duct (12). An army thus of twenty-eight thousand men remained for three whole months within view of the British forces, busied only in performing mere sham and farcical manoeuvres (13),. i , To give, however, some feasible colour to all this inactivity, Murat caused, at last, b 3 14 three thousand Neapolitan soldiers to dis¬ embark on the beach at San Stefano, four i miles from Messina ; nine hundred of whom he sacrificed, and recalled back the rest whose retreat was not intercepted, though the whole of the streight they had to repass was kept at the time by the English fleet. Yet the vice admiral, who could have easily made them all prisoners, however much blamed at the time by those who were not in his secret, for allowing them to escape, was afterwards rewarded, instead of being pu¬ nished, for his conduct on the occasion (14). While this was executing on the part of Napoleon and Murat, and when Sicily was so immediately threatened, the British com¬ mander in chief, Sir John Stuart, applied again and again to your Majesty's court for a supply of troops, but never received any ; on the contrary, your forces were always kept purposely at a distance from the centre of military operations, and from the threatened point of danger and attack (15). 15 Murat having thus completed his well con* certed farce, gave up all further thoughts of renewing the enterprize that had been forced upon him ; and contented himself with issu¬ ing a proclamation, in which he declared that he had shewn the French with what ease they could make good their landing in Sicily ; though, for the present, the con¬ quest of that island was deferred : that, how¬ ever the expedition had answered the end proposed, which was that of forcing the ene¬ my to a greater distance from the most es¬ sential posts, while he had occasion to em¬ ploy the army elsewhere (16). While Murat was doing nothing but issuing proclamations, Lieut. Gen. Stuart, who had marked with particular attention the conduct of your Majesty's advisers at the most critical moment, perceiving that under false pretences, they persecuted those of your Majesty's subjects who had favoured the English (l?) ; while, on the other hand, they shewed a marked partiality for those who had seconded the enemy's attempts (18) ; to spare himself I 16 the trouble of continuing with your Cabinet a perplexing and endless altercation on the subject, requested of his Government to be recalled ; and Lord William Bentinck was appointed to succeed him (19). Murat then, who had narrowly observed the conduct of the first in power at your Majesty's court, dreading the consequences of their underhand machinations, and at the same time resolved to keep fast hold of the kingdom of Naples, endeavoured secretly to connect himself with the English (20). Lord Bentinck, who clearly foresaw the advantages resulting from such a proposal, directed his whole policy to encrease Murat's suspicions and apprehensions ; in which hav¬ ing succeeded to his utmost wish, he suddenly returned back to London, leaving to Lieut. Gen. Sir Frederick Maitland the command of the army during his absence (21). In this interval, towards the end of the year 1811, when it had become evident that 17 \ the enemy's landing, so anxiously anticipated, and for which such precautions had been taken to render it successful, was not forthcoming ; your Majesty's advisers, and their worthy colleagues, those very men who now so grace your throne with their presence, wishing to remove at once all the obstacles, which they fancied prevented Murat from passing over into Sicily ; and quite impatient to see the kingdom of Naples restored, as promised, to your Majesty ; at a perfect loss, how¬ ever, how to get the English out of your dominions ; conceived and projected the hor¬ rible plan of massacring the whole of them, after assassinating their principal leaders ; and then of admitting into the island the French troops in their stead (22). The execution of this barbarous project was confided to the most distinguished per¬ sonages of your Court, who accepted the commission with transports of joy ; all ex¬ ulting in the idea that the moment was at hand of serving up the feast to the lobsters, 18 and celebrating once more the Sicilian vespers (23). «r J * -. v • Their so wished-for celebration met how¬ ever with some difficulty in the execution. Lieut. Generals Maitland, Campbell, and Donkin, had heard of what was going on, and deigning to consider my co-operation as fit on the occasion, they employed me in the confidential department of the British army. These, Sire, alone sufficed to unravel and render vain the dark and complicated in¬ trigues of your ministers, perhaps in other respects distinguished for their sagacity, but who, on this occasion, betrayed in their mea¬ sures the greatest stupidity as well as per- fidy (24). The plans by me suggested on such an emergency, which, under the direction of the abovementioned generals, I myself carried into effect, succeeded in making me com¬ pletely master of the correspondence carried on between Napoleon himself and his most I 19 distinguished confidents in Sicily (25) ; so far as to enable me, by giving a new turn to its drift, to prevent its effects ; and finally to frustrate the projects of the former, and the views and expectations of the latter. In virtue of the first object attained by the above suggested plans, having ascertained that the conspirators' had asked, through the French general Manhes in Calabria (26), and expected from Napoleon a general officer to be sent to them, to determine finally with them upon the long premeditated scheme of destroying the British army ; I found means to substitute, in the stead of the officer looked for, and get introduced into their councils, a British officer, Mr. Rochefueill, lieutenant in the Anglo-Maltese regiment, and to procure, through his medium, not only the confirmation of all I had discovered by other methods used for that purpose, but also an exact list of the chief conspirators (27), dispersed over Sicily ; who were all at the time appointed for their operations to ren - devouse at Messina, in order to accomplish 20 at once the assassination, as well of the English residents in that place, as of the British army that protected them. It appears, and indeed is evident, that Murat imprudently apprized by your Ma¬ jesty's advisers of their design (28), but fol¬ lowing the advice of his prudent minister, the prince of C — C, regulated his conduct in such a way, as not only to put it in Gene¬ ral Maitland’s power to come at the know¬ ledge of what was passing (29), but even contrived, with the greatest ingenuity, to make the secret correspondence carried on X between Bonaparte and the most distinguished members of your Majesty's government, par¬ ticularly the Cavaliere C — st — r, head of the police at Palermo (30), and the head of the police at Messina, C — (3i), be intercepted by Lord William Bentinck. Murat was convinced that on these ac¬ counts the English would put an end for ever to the Bourbon dynasty in Sicily, and that his kingdom would be thus secured to him. Lieut. Gen. Maitland, however, wished to prove, by substantial facts, the generosity and good faith of Great Britain towards your Majesty ; and at the same time furnishing a striking instance of that prudence which so characterizes her representatives, continued to encourage Murat's fond illusion, in order thus to widen the breach between him and Napoleon ; while, on the other hand, he strove to remove from before your eyes the fatal veil that conceiled from your sight the precipice to which your were driving on head¬ long, in order to deter you from the further pursuit of an object which at first sight ap¬ peared so fallacious (32). For this twofold purpose, he caused the arrest of the Messina conspirators ; who, on their being tried by a court-martial, com¬ posed partly of Sicilian and partly of British officers, and fully convicted of the crimes laid to their charge; durst, in order to screen themselves from the awarded punishment, de¬ fame your royal consort, by declaring her to be the head of their conspiracy (33). 2C2 On learning this, the British plenipoten¬ tiary and commander in chief, Lord William Bentinck, instead of aiming, in consequence of so atrocious and formal an accusation, at depriving you of your crown (34), made it his sole endeavour to convince you of the per¬ fidiousness of your counsellors ; the infamy of your favourites ; the fallacy of the measures to which you had submitted ; the most pro¬ per expedients to make your false friend and worst of enemies give into the very snare which he had laid for you ; and the means, which, at so favourable a juncture, he could afford you of recovering the kingdom you had lost (35). Sire, You prized at that epoch, as they de¬ served, the wise and salutary counsels offered you. You approved of the plan then sub- mitted to you : you ordered the court-martial at Messina to inflict exemplary punishment on those who had conspired against the Eng¬ lish army, declaring, at that time, those con¬ victed the enemies of your throne , and to the country ; impious wretches , and sacri - 23 legious calumniators : and thinking your late consort stood in the way of realizing the newly combined measures, you persuaded her to quit the island. Some of your advisers were banished the kingdom ; others dismissed from employment ; and all those ministers removed from your court, who so trifled with the vi¬ tal interests of your subjects. You then made over the government of your kingdom to your eldest son, praising the exalted qua¬ lities that adorn him . You yourself granted Sicily a liberal constitution, calling it a truly loyal and meritorious nation : and you pro¬ fessed yourself the sincere friend and con¬ stant ally of Great Britain (36). Thus powerfully seconded by your Majesty, that noble Lord settled the affairs of your kingdom in such a way as gained him the ut¬ most affections of the Sicilians, whose minds he totally alienated from the common enemy (37), ^nd reconciled to your government (38). He thus furnished fresh motives of diffidence and disgust between your Majesty's rival, and false friend (39) ; and so succeeded in 24 dividing them from each other in their re¬ spective views and interests, as to effect that at Naples and Paris against Bonaparte and Murat, which these two had endeavoured to accomplish at Palermo and Messina, to your ruin and the disadvantage of Great Britain (40). Sire, In the year 1815, scarce were you replaced on the throne of Naples, when, as soon as the English had quitted Sicily ; your former counsellors, and actual ministers, those very ministers and counsellors whose iniquity and perfidy, in the year 1811, you » had so clearly detected, and so emphatically acknowledged ; and even all their associates and accomplices, who to avoid suffering the punishment they deserved, had dared so to asperse your royal consort, and to force even your Majesty to act a part the most humi¬ liating and degrading possible ; those, either such madmen, or such short-sighted conspi¬ rators, whose horrid project your Majesty swore to have had no knowledge of, and whom you yourself ordered to be punished in an exemplary manner, though they were spared 25 from shedding their blood on a scaffold by the humanity alone of the British Minister ; were immediately, by a truly new kind of political metamorphosis, recalled from their chains, dungeons, and exile, to fill anew the first situations in the kingdom (41) ; where those very honours were restored to them, which they had forfeited by their own per¬ fidy, brought forth to light chiefly by Murat, and by him disclosed to the British commanders. Such worthy subjects, on regaining the supreme authority in your dominions, soon distinguished themselves by the facts and measures, which are here detailed. On getting Murat into their power, they treated him as any other private individual, and caused him to be shot, as if guilty of exciting revolt. They at the same time, granted an am¬ nesty to the ringleader of the banditti. They bestowed the chief honours of the •r c 26 state on the most notorious revolutionists; and those most evidently convicted, confessed and condemned. They, on the other hand, oppressed and persecuted all those, who had shewn themselves friendly to the British ar¬ my in Sicily ; ordering some to be arrested, banishing others, without allowing them the least opportunity to vindicate their innocence ; treating others as if unworthy to serve among your troops ; or admitting them into the ser¬ vice on a footing inferior to that which they had held in the English army. These very same advisers of your Majesty refused Lord William Bentinck the permission to land at Naples. Through them has Sicily been stripped of the rightful privileges it had en¬ joyed for ages ; and deprived of the constitu¬ tion which yourself had granted ; and Great Britain had guaranteed to it. They humbled, as much as in them lay, all those princes in Palermo, who had shewn their attachment to the constitutional system. Even your heir apparent to the throne, Francis Bourbon, was not less exposed than others to the effects of their malevolence ; having been 27 for the same cause placed on the back ground (42). Sire ! Can the reason of all these their misdeeds be still a mystery to you ? Must it ever remain, like the perpetual vow, to be paid to the silent deity of Hypocrates ! deign only to hear it. The observations which are here submitted to you, may perhaps afford a key to the intentions of your Ministers ; and lay open to your sight all their secrets, their concealed wishes, and their hidden projects. You will thus be enabled to recognize the true principle and main spring of their actions under the following heads, which I propose touching upon ; Their blind spirit of revenge ; Their malicious disposition ; and Their love of turbulence and disorder , which has all along directed them ; and you will clearly perceive, by this investigation, that your present ad¬ visers have induced your Majesty to sanction their above-mentioned iniquitous measures, because they themselves are instigated by the base motives alluded to ; because they wish their own infamy to be all laid to your c 2 28 account ; because they wish you to quarrel with your friends ; to forfeit the esteem of the other crowned heads ; to shew yourself ungrateful to your saviours and best pro¬ tectors ; and to make you appear worthy of the insulting titles, which the bitterest ene¬ mies of your Majesty's person have^ every where industriously spread to your dis¬ honour (43). Do not disdain, Sire, to retrace with me for a few minutes, the administration of your kingdom. Consider only for a moment the conduct of your present Ministry with regard to the moral establishments, the economy of the state, the military departments, and the various civil and political dependencies. From the sight of what they have done, and undone ; as well as what they have neg¬ lected, and ought to have done ; you will be able to judge of the merit possessed by your chief advisers ; and you will distinguish those who seek to betray, and those who study only to serve you (44). 29 Such a retrospect may enable your Ma¬ jesty to hit upon that system of administra¬ tion, which human nature, the experience of ages, the analogy of the times, the bonds of society, local circumstances, and the actual civilization of the kingdom, will convince you to be the best adapted to the wants and wel¬ fare of your subjects. Sire, The rival of your throne was put to death ; but did they who ordered his execu¬ tion do so to render your authority more stable and permanent ; or not to glut their personal revenge ? To better their own cir¬ cumstances, or those of the state? Might not the death of Murat have proved more fatal, than his life could have been dangerous to your Majesty ! Their gift, presented to you, of their victim’s head, might it not have turned out as pregnant to you of mischief as Pandora’s did to Prometheus ? Should you wish, Sire, to ascertain the true state of things, you will find it, on ex¬ amining attentively the whole of their pro- c 3 30 ceedings. It will appear from the conduct of your Ministers in putting Murat to death ; in oppressing and maltreating to such a de¬ gree all those, who, in the year 1811, had saved the British army from the fatal danger that threatened it ; in raising to the first posts of the state those revolutionists of Mes¬ sina and Palermo, who projected the horrid massacre ; and in persecuting so relentlessly those others, who, in the year 1810, with a view to promote the objects proposed by yourself, or suggested to you by the British commanders, so readily concurred with the English troops in opposing the efforts made by Murat, in person, to effect the threatened landing of his army in Sicily. Murat set out from Corsica, furnished with British passports, in order to join his family at Trieste. On his passage, opposite to the heights of Calabria, his flotilla was dispersed by a sudden tempest. Next morning at day break, he found himself in sight of the gulf of Saint Euphemia. He stepped ashore at Pizzo. He walked up from the beach to the 31 town, where happening to meet Capt. Trenta Capilli, he asked him if he would accompany him. The Captain answered that the only king he obeyed was Ferdinand Bourbon. In¬ dignant at this reply, General Franc6schetti snatched a pistol, with the intent to blow out the Captain's brains : Murat interposing, pre¬ vented him from doing so, and thus saved the Captain's life. After remaining but a moment in the square, not knowing, in such a place to whom to address himself, or whom to ask for ; and observing besides that the vessel in which he had sailed, as well as all the others that accompanied her, had re¬ moved to a considerable distance from the shore (45), Murat proposed ascending the heights of Pizzo, perhaps with the intention of proceeding to Monteleone. While on his way, a few peasants, headed by the same Capt. Trenta Capilli, attacked him. His at¬ tendants were about to fire upon the assail¬ ants (46), but Murat would not suffer it. This but encreased the boldness of his enemies. His party at length took to their heels ; and he remained alone, without offering the 32 smallest resistance; wishing only to shun their attack, he returned to the beach, and strove to float a boat, in order to join with it, if possible, his own vessels. During his attempts, the country people came up with him ; and in their fury conceived against him, treated him in the most barbarous manner, and offering him the most degrading insults, they dragged him to the prison in their for¬ tress (4?) ; where his clothes, that had been torn off his back, were replaced by others sent him by the Prince Dell’ Infantados; and where he was waited upon only by the English Vice-Consul, whom Murat had appealed to in order to beg he would report his case ex¬ actly to the British government ; under the sure conviction that justice would be done him (48). The Vice-Consul accordingly, without losing a moment, sent off expresses to Sicily, Malta and Naples, informing the corresponding British authorities in these places of all that had happened (49). Lieut. Colonel Robertson hastened from Messina ; and in the name of England, under the pro¬ tection of whose passport, Murat was tra- 33 veiling, reclaimed him of Lieutenant General Nuntiante, who ruled the Calabrias with his sovereign alter ego ; and who not only re¬ fused to give Murat up to him, but even de¬ rided Lieutenant Colonel Robertson's request. —Mu rat, on being asked in what manner he wished to be tried, answered that the only competent and unsuspected tribunal for him to be tried in, was that of the allied sove¬ reigns ; that as they had acknowledged him for a sovereign, to them he appealed : as it would be deemed an insult to every crowned head, were he to be judged by those subjects, who owed him the very commissions they held ; and that he certainly would disdain to answer any interrogatories put to him, if it was intended to subject him to such atrial(50). The supreme council of war, presided by your advisers, thought proper, neverthe¬ less, not to recognize in Murat that charac¬ ter, which the sovereigns of Europe held in his opinion. They refused trusting his case to the decision of other sovereigns; and, treating him but as a private individual, they left him to be judged by an heterogeneous kind of 34 commission, composed for the most part of those very subjects, whom Murat himself had raised to the bench of justice, and the politico-military presidency in Calabria (5i). By such a treatment, and by proceeding against him as if guilty of exciting revolt, they condemned him upon one of his own laws, enacted against revolutionaries ; not by the one, its equivalent, enacted by your Majesty against such (52). The said commission having received, and exactly acted upon the peremptory orders sent them by the supreme council ; con¬ demned Murat, as a revolutionary, to be shot: when your Majesty, aware of this, and wishing to prevent the sad fate of that unfortunate individual, though your rival, had the goodness to dispatch the most posi¬ tive orders to spare his life (53). These or¬ ders, however, arrived too late. Murat was already no more ; but the fact proves the generous compassion of your royal heart (54) ; and all the precautions observed ; the preced¬ ing, concomitant, and subsequent circum- 35 stances of his death ; cannot but manifest to you the real motives, and effective principle, that instigated your advisers to treat Murat in the manner they did. On consulting merely common sense, and examining undeniable facts, your Majesty will at once perceive whether Murat was really condemned for the intention it was •/ ailed ged he had, of exciting in 1815, a re¬ volt in the Calabrias ; and thus opposing your rightful claims ; or not rather for his having, in the year 1811, thrown obstacles in the way of your present advisers, who were then wishing to upset every thing in Sicily ; and his not having exactly com¬ plied with the orders he received from Bona¬ parte in 1810, of landing with his forces in that island, in order to second their perfi¬ dious efforts and designs ; and, in fine, for his having made, what they considered to be so false a step, and so deserving of punish¬ ment, that of his having separated himself from Napoleon, to combine measures, and act in concert with the Allied Powers. 56 Sire, as long as Murat continued to act under the instructions of the French Ex-Emperor, in 1810and 1811, your present Ministers favour¬ ed his agents, promoted their designs, assisted them in their undertakings, and persecuted their adversaries^). These counsellors of your Majesty have since held forth Murat to pub¬ lic detestation, from no other motive, but because he proved unfaithful to Napoleon, by attaching himself to the Allied Sovereigns ; and thus defeated the ruffian purposes of the favourites of your court: and these coun¬ sellors of your Majesty, at the very time that they caused Murat to be shot, as a revolu¬ tionary ; exalted to the first dignities of the state, and entrusted with the most illustrious situations of the kingdom, the revolutiona¬ ries of Messina and Palermo ; who had con¬ curred with him, as acting under the direc¬ tions of Napoleon ; persecuting, at the same time all those, who on that occasion opposed him ; and humbling all Sicily to such a de¬ gree, that had invariably opposed the ene¬ my's designs and those of his agents and emissaries ; striving all the while to set you 37 at variance with your heir apparent, that wor¬ thy Prince, who, studious of the real interests of your throne, of the country, and of your true friends, had shewn himself, on the above- mentioned emergency, the awful scourge of the perfidious, the steady prop of your kingdom, and the undaunted asserter of your rights. Sire, Your advisers persuaded you to treat Murat as a private individual ; and thus not to respect in him that inviolable charac¬ ter, which the allied princes had recognized and established. And why this? Was it with a view to convince all Europe that the counsels of the sapient worthies, who are just now your advisers, had acquired over your mind the same supreme and irresistible in¬ fluence, which Bonaparte had vainly at¬ tempted to gain over that of every other sovereign. Or did they seek thus only to ful¬ fil their long cherished wish (56) of inducing the other princes to avenge the insult, so daringly put upon them; and so to ruin for / 38 s ever your rightful cause, and mar your most sacred interests. 