1B26.] licvoliUiou at Palermo, in the Year 1820. 11^ 



command of the 9th miHtary division ; and on the 6th I assumed the 

 temporary command of the troops in Sicily, clogged as it was with 

 various difficulties, owing to several senior officers being still in Sicily, 

 and holding various commands. 



The mornings of the 9th and 10th were occupied in receiving the 

 heads of departments and the officers of the different coq)s, and in the 

 everlasting detail of receiving and signing papers relative to important 

 branches o? service ; the afternoons in the tedious but necessary 

 etiquette of receiving and paying numberless visits. On account of 

 the approaching anniversary of Santa Rosalia,- and the hard duty of the 

 garrison, all inspections of troops were necessarily postponed until the 

 first day after the festival — the only one, perhaps, in Europe which 

 consumes five entire days. 



The force in Palermo was quite insufficient for the garrison of thjit 

 city, and the discipline of the troops was lax. No military system what- 

 ever had for several years existed in Palermo — no public place of parade, 

 and no regular mode of transmitting orders ; the officers always dressed 

 in plain clothes, and were scattered in their different lodgings in and out 

 of the town, at a great distance one from the other ; in short, nothing 

 like military regularity was to be seen in Palermo. The spirit of insubor- 

 dination reigned in several of the corps, and all of them were in some 

 degree infected with the contagion of the sect of Carbonari ; nay, some 

 corps were almost exclusively composed of that sect. 



The general officers, staff, regiments, and corps in Palermo were as 

 follow, and their numerical strength could not certainly amount to 

 above 2,500 men, including the detachments in the neighbourhood of 

 Palermo. 



Maresciallo di Campo Pastore, commanding a brigade; Brigadier 

 Coglitore, commanding the town and province; Maresciallo O'Farris, 

 head of the staff; Lieut. General La Grua, commanding the fort of 

 Castel a Mare (in the town of Palermo) ; Lieut. Colonel Lecca, head 

 of the staff of the 9th military division. 



A recapitulation of the other officers of the staff and departments 

 would be superfluous. 



The corps were as under : 



Royal Artillery in Palermo and the division, and detached, 1 batta- 

 lion ; Regiment of Light Infantry of the Guards, 2 batts. ; the Queen's 

 Regiment, 2 batts. 12 comps. ; Foreign Fusileers, 1 batt. -4 comps. ; 

 Veterans, 1 batt. ; Cavalry of the Guard, 1 regt. of 1 batt. 



The numerical strength of the active troops may be thus laid down : 



Guards, 8 comps., or about 500 effectives. 



Queen's Regiment, 12 comps., about 800 



Foreign Fusileers » 350 



Cavalry (mounted) 180 



Total 1,830 



The Veterans and Artillery occupied Castel a Mare, the mole, and 

 the arsenal. Tlie characters of these corps may be briefly sketched : 

 The non-commissioned officers and many of the soldiers of the guards 

 were more deeply infected with a spirit of revolution than even the troops 

 of the line — the soldiers were chiefly Sicilian ; but the officers, with the 

 exception of a ^e\v, were unexceptionable. The Queen's Regiment had 

 recently arrived from the camp of Sessa : this whole corps, privates and 



Q2 



