ITALY. 581 



of earth, producing a very gay and agreeable effect. Some of the 

 streets are very nandsome : no street in Rome equals in beauty the 

 Suatia di Toledo, at Naples; and still less can any of them be com- 

 pared with those beautitul streets that lie open to the bay. The richest 

 and most commodious convents in Europe, both for male and female 

 votaries, are in this city ; the most fertile and beautiful hills of the 

 environs are covered with them : and a small part of their revenue is 

 spent in feeding the poor, the monks distributing bread and soup to a 

 certain number every day before the doors of the convents. 



This country now forms two separate kingdoms ; Ferdinand IV, 

 having been driven to Sicily by the French in 1805, and Joseph Bona- 

 parte placed on the throne of Naples. In 1808, Bonaparte ordered 

 his brother from Naples to Spain, and gave the former to Murat, one 

 of his lavourite generals. Murat, by timely deserting the cause o£ 

 his master, made his peace with the allies, and thus secured his 

 kingdom. The king of Sicily still, however, asserts his claim t» 

 Napies. 



Though above two-thirds of the property of the kingdom of Na= 

 pies are in the hands of the ecclesiastics, the protestants live here 

 with great freedom. The present revenues of the king amount t® 

 about 10,000,000 dollars a year. The exports of the kingdom are le- 

 gumes, hemp, aniseeds, wool, oil, wine, cheese, fish, honey, wax, 

 manna, saffron, gums, capers, macaroni, salt, pot-ash, flax, cotton B 

 silk, and divers manufactures. The king has a numerous but gene- 

 rally poor nobility, consisting of princes, dukes, marquises, and other 

 high-sounding titles ; and his capital, by far the most populous in 

 Italy, contains 412,000 inhabitants. Among these there are 40,000 

 lazaroni, the greater part of whom have no dwelling-houses, but 

 sleep every night in summer under porticoes, piazzas, or any kind of 

 shelter they can find, and in the winter, or rainy time of the year, 

 which lasts several weeks, the rain falling in torrents, they resort to 

 the caverns under Capo di Monte, where they sleep in crowds like 

 sheep in a penfold. Those of them who have wives and children.* 

 live in the suburbs of Naples, near Posilippo, in huts, or in caverns,, 

 or chambers dug out of that mountain. Some gain a livelihood by 

 fishing, others by carrying burdens to and from the shipping ; many 

 walk about the streets ready to run on errands, or to perform any 

 labour in their power for a very small recompence. As they do not 

 meet with constant employment, their wages are not sufficient for 

 their maintenance : but the deficiency is in some degree supplied by 

 the soup and bread which are distributed at the doors of the convents. 



But though there is so much poverty among the lower people, there 

 is a great appearance of wealth among some of the great. The Nea- 

 politan nobility are excessively fond of show and splendor. This ap- 

 pears in the brilliancy of their equipages, the number of their attend- 

 ants, the richness of their dress, and the grandeur of their titles. 

 According to a late traveller (Mr. Swinburne) luxury of late has ad- 

 vanced with gigantic strides in Naples. Forty years ago the Neapo- 

 litan ladies wore nets and ribbons on their heads, as the Spanish wo- 

 men- do to this day, and not twenty of them were possessed of a cap : 

 but hair plainly drest is a mpde now confined to the lowest order of 

 inhabitants, and all distinction of dress between the wife of a noble- 

 man and that of a citizen is entirely laid aside. Expence and extra- 

 vagance are here in the extreme. 



