116 General Sir Richard Church's Narrative of the [Feb. 



officers, were of the sect of Carbonari! The battahon of Foreign 

 Fusileers was commanded by an excellent officer (who had distinguished 

 himself in Apulia under ray orders) ; the officers and non-commissioned 

 officers were foreigners, the privates chiefly Neapolitans. This was the 

 corps on which I placed most reliance ; it was little, if at all, infected 

 with those Carbonari principles, from which none of the other corps, even 

 in Sicily, were free. 



I was determined, as soon as decorum to my predecessors per- 

 mitted, and as soon as the festival was over, to reform the military sj^s- 

 tem in Sicily. The officers and soldiers were aware of the changes 

 which I meant to introduce, and which would have been in every re- 

 spect advantageous to them. INIeanwhile I diminished the daily duty 

 of the troops, by taking off a number of superfluous guards and order- 

 lie^ — a sure sign of the little attention paid to the essential points 

 of military arrangement and discipline. 



Finding that the corps, not only in Palermo but generally throughout 

 the island, were considerably weakened by numerous detachments scat- 

 tered in every direction, I gave an order for the immediate recall of 

 all such detachments, except where a positive necessity required their 

 presence for some immediate service. In this manner the troops would 

 have been considerably reinforced at the head-quarters of every corps, 

 merely by the reunion of the outstanding detachments ; and this was 

 but a pre}Hiratory measure to concentrating in Palermo, if possible, a 

 force of 5,000 effective men : contingents for which I meant to have 

 drawn from Messina, Syracuse, and Trappani, in the following pro- 

 portions : 



Messina , 600 men. 



Trappani 300 



Syracuse 300 



1,200. 



To these reinforcements I hoped to add the Foreign Brigade, which had 

 been promised me by His Exc. the Capt. General Prince Nugent ; but 

 this corps was not to arrive until the latter end of the month of September, 

 for it seems no troops could be spared from Naples imtil after the fes- 

 tival of Piede Grotta, when it is customary to have a military parade. 

 This brigade consisted of a battalion of foreign grenadiers, the Mace- 

 donian Chasseurs, and the foreign cavalry (troops which ought to have 

 accompanied me to Sicily) ; but previous to receiving this reinforce- 

 ment the battalion of Foreign Fusileers was ordered to Naples, to be 

 present at the parade of Piede Grotta. In fact, my plan for uniting a 

 force of 5,000 men in Palermo might have been carried into effect to- 

 wards the middle of the month of October, and not before, and this only 

 in the event of no change taking place in the military dispositions of the 

 government at Naples. 



In the mean time, Palermo continued with its trifling garrison ; with 

 a paltry crumbling fijrt ; unprovided with an ounce of provision ; and 

 commanded by an officer senior in rank to the general commanding 

 the troops, (to whom, however, it was understood he was to report, 

 and did report.) ' 



Palermo had no local troops, except a few straggling remnants of 

 former corps, now reduced to about a company, and the troop of cavalry 

 belonging to the senate. It was not in ray power to add additional 



