174] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1^513. 



was issued at Palermo, in which 

 the king of the two Sicilies is made 

 to inform his people, that his health, 

 the ill state of which had induced 

 him to disburden himself of the 

 cares of government, being now 

 re-established, he had resolved to 

 resume the functions of royalty. It 

 was very improbable that this 

 should be a spontaneous move- 

 ment; and accordingly we are in- 

 formed in the following month, 

 that it was the result of a counter- 

 revolutionary project planned by 

 the queen and count Palermo, the 

 defeat of which terminated in the 

 king's total abdication, and the 

 queen's retiring to Sardinia, from 

 whence she proceeded to Zante in 

 June, where she took up her resi- 

 dence. The state of the island now 

 appeared sufficiently tranquil to 

 permit lord William Bentinck to 

 part with a large detachment of 

 the English troops for the Spanish 

 service in Valencia, and to follow it 

 in person ; but the flame of party 

 was only smothered, not extin- 

 guished. In the month of July it 

 is stated that a commotion took 

 place at Palermo, which was the 

 first explosion of a conspiracy hav- 

 ing for its object the subversion of 

 the government, and the overthrow 

 of the English interest. The con- 

 spirators had laid a plan of setting 

 free a gang of desperate criminals 

 confined in the principal gaol, pre- 

 viously to which, they attempted 

 to seduce the Sicilian and Italian 

 soldiery in the barracks from their 

 allegiance, by sending a rabble to 

 infuse discontent among them, and 

 gain them over by presents of mo- 

 ney, provisions, and clothes, of 

 which articles they had been left 

 scantily furnished. The exertions, 

 however, of general Macfiarlane, 



rendered this part of the scheme 

 abortive. But the machinations of 

 faction were not confined to enter- 

 prizes of this kind. In the parlia- 

 ment which opened in July, a num- 

 ber of disafiiected persons had pro- 

 cured themselves to be returned as 

 representatives to the House of 

 Commons, where, as well as in the 

 Upper House, an opposition to the 

 measures of administration had 

 been organized, which obliged the 

 Sicilian ministers to tender their 

 resignation to the hereditary 

 prince. The offer had been ac- 

 cepted, and a new ministry had 

 been appointed ; but the same spi- 

 rit of opposition was said still to 

 be prevalent in both houses about 

 the commencement of August. This 

 situation of affairs perhaps has- 

 tened the return of lord W. Ben- 

 tinck from Spain in the following 

 month. From that time we have 

 no particular accounts of the state 

 of Sicily, which may therefore be 

 presumed to be externally tran- 

 quil. 



A visitation of that terrible dis- 

 ease, the Plague, in the island of 

 Malta, spread alarm through all 

 the neighbouring ports and islands 

 in the Mediterranean, and was re- 

 garded with particular interest in 

 England on account of the British 

 troops stationed in it, and its com- 

 mercial connexions with this coun- 

 try. From a relation communicated 

 by Mr. Green, the head of the mi- 

 litary medical establishment in 

 Malta, who had acquired previous 

 experience of the plague from his 

 service in Egypt, it appears that 

 having, in company with Mr. lliff, 

 apothecary to the forces, visited, on 

 April 6th, the two persons who first 

 died under suspicious circum- 

 stances, the captain and a seaman of 



