510 
NAP 
-upon the blood of the public were ruined. The people, 
when it was i'olemnly publifhed,' manifefted an extreme 
joy, believing they had now recovered all their ancient 
rights and privileges. Maffaniello, at the defire of the 
viceroy, went to the palace to viiit him, accompanied by 
the archbilhop, who was obliged to threaten’ him with 
excommunication before he would confent to lay afide 
his rags and aITume a magnificent drefs. He was re¬ 
ceived by the duke with the greateft demonftrations of 
refpeft and friendfliip, while the duchefs entertained his 
■wife, and prefented her with a robe of cloth of filver, 
and fome jewels. The viceroy, to preferve fome fhadow 
of authority, appointed him captain-general; and at his 
departure made him a prefept of a golden chain of great 
value, which with great difficulty he was prevailed upon 
to accept; but yielded at length to the entreaties of 
the cardinal. Next day, in confequence of the commiffion 
granted him by the viceroy, he began to exercife all the 
functions of lovereign authority; and, having caufed a 
fcaffold to be ereCted in one of the ftreets, and feveral 
gibbets, he judged all crimes, whether civil or military, 
in the laft refort; and ordered the guilty to be imme¬ 
diately put to death, which w r as the puniffiment he af- 
ligned to all offences. Though he negleCted all forms of 
law, and even frequently judged by phyfiognomy, yet 
lie is faid not to have overlooked any criminal, or pu- 
niffied any innocent perfon. His grandeur and profperity 
were of a very fliort continuance ; for, his mind becoming 
diftraCted and delirious for two or three days, he com¬ 
mitted a great many mad and extravagant aCtions ; and 
on the 18th of July he was affaffinated with the confent 
of the viceroy. 
The tumult did not end with the death of Maffaniello: 
on the contrary, the people now expelled the Spaniards 
from mod of the cities throughout the kingdom ; and, 
this general infurreCtion being the fubjeft of difcourfe at 
Rome, the duke of Guife, who happened then to be at 
the pope’s court, took the opportunity, at the mitigation 
of his holinefs, to offer his fervice to the Neapolitans 
againlt the Spaniards. The duke was prompted by his 
ambition to engage in this enterprife, efpecially as he 
liimfelf had fome diftant pretentions to the crowm. The 
Spaniards in the mean time made a vigorous attack on 
the city; but were repulfed by the people, who now 
formally renounced their allegiance to them. In a fliort 
time, however, their city being furprifed by the new 
viceroy, the count d’Oniate, and the duke of Guife liim- 
felf taken prifoner, the people returned to their allegiance; 
and thus all the attempts of the French on Naples were 
fruit rated. 
In the year 1700, Philip V. of Spain fucceeded to the 
crown of Naples and Sicily. His title, however, was op 
pofed by the lioufe of Aullria, which, while it contended 
with that of Bourbon for the crown of Spain, envied it alfo 
the fceptre of Naples. Thefe views of aggrandifement 
were not in vain : a confpiracy procured the govern¬ 
ment of Naples for Charles II. foil of the emperor Leo¬ 
pold. By the conditions of the general peace, Naples 
again owned the fway of Philip; but Sicily was given 
to the duke of Savoy. The emperor Charles VI. how- 
ever, by force, feized upon Naples fome years afterwards; 
and, by ceffion, obtained alfo Sicily. He reigned over 
them for feveral years; till Don Carlos, being vetted with 
the rights of his father, Philip V. of Spain, who was yet 
alive, conquered thefe two kingdoms in 1734, and fixed 
the feat of his government among his fubjeCls. His 
title was confirmed by the treaty of Vienna, Nov. 7, 1738. 
During the two centuries immediately preceding his 
reign, the fovereigns, refiding at a difiance, had drained 
thefe kingdoms of both men and money; but now prof¬ 
perity was reftored by the prefence of a mild and econo¬ 
mic king. New vigour was given to the manufactures; 
the commerce of the Levant, then nearly extinfit, was 
revived ; a ftrift police w'as eftabliffied; and an order and 
regularity, before unknown, were introduced into the 
L E S. 
juridical and financial departments of the ffate. Aided 
by thefe wife inftitutions, Don Carlos changed the face 
of thefe kingdoms ; and, twenty-five years afterwards, 
when, in 1759, on the death of his brother Ferdinand VI. 
he went to take polfeffion of the crowm of Spain, left, 
them in a flourifiiing condition to his third fon Ferdi¬ 
nand III. of Sicily, and IV. of Naples, (the eldeft being- 
found incapable of reigning, and the fecond being de¬ 
clared heir to the crown of Spain,) who pofleffes the crown 
at this moment, though his reign has met with fome in¬ 
terruptions of which we are prelently to fpeak. 
In the year 1767, the Jefuits were expelled from Na¬ 
ples. Without ceremony, or leave being alked, they 
were all conveyed into the pope’s dominions; the vici¬ 
nity of whofe territories made every fcheme of oppofition 
fruitlefs. The court of Rome complained loudly of this 
outrage, and prefented memorials to all the foreign mi- 
nifters in that city. In thefe memorials, the pope com¬ 
plains, that the king of Naples has violated, in the firft 
place, the divine right, by the manner in which his fol- 
diers entered into holy places, and by the fequeftration 
of the ecclefiaftical revenues; fecondly, the right of man¬ 
kind, by forcibly depofiting fome of his fubjeCts in the 
dominions of his holinefs, and by marching his troops 
into a country that was not his own ; and laftly, the 
right of good neighbourhood, in not communicating his 
defign to the pope, both as the head of the church and 
as a temporal prince, who has the fupreme fovereignty 
over Naples. Thefe memorials produced the fame effect 
which the remonftrances of weak princes to their power¬ 
ful neighbours generally do-, they were carelefsly an- 
fwered, and no further notice taken of them. The car¬ 
dinal Orfini, Neapolitan minifier at Rome, made a verbal 
declaration to the following purport: “ That, every fo- 
vereign having a right to drive from his dominions per- 
fons convicted of being enemies thereof, no other means 
could be found of getting rid of thofe fathers, than 
caufing them to be efcorted to the ecclefiaftical ftate, 
fince the kingdom of Naples had no other frontiers; and 
that, as to the confifcation of the efteCts of the fociety, 
it no lefs belonged, by the fame right of fovereignty, to 
the royal treafury.” 
Nothing very important in the fubfequent liiftory of 
Naples occurs till the period of the French revolution, 
by which all Europe was to be aftefted and difturbed, 
more or lefs. As the throne was occupied by a Bourbon 
who was married to an archduchefs of Auftria, Naples 
was of courfe confidered as one of the family-courts. 
It was the intereft of Ferdinand IV. as well as that of all 
the Italian dates, to remain at peace ; but he foon, un¬ 
happily for himfelf, entered into the gigantic projedls of 
more powerful princes, and, in the hopes of aggrandife¬ 
ment and revenge, forgot the principles by which his 
conduCt ought to have been regulated. 
The court of Naples, therefore, exhibited the mod de¬ 
cided oppofition to the various changes that had taken 
place in France ; and, although it had formerly acknow¬ 
ledged the republic on the appearance of a naval arma¬ 
ment under admiral Latouche-Treville, (Dec. 15, 1792.) 
yet no fooner did his fquadron difappear than the former 
lyftem was refumed. The decollation of the unhappy 
Louis of courfe widened the breach; and the proffered 
affiftance and protection of England at length converted 
an equivocal neutrality into a ftate of war. A convention 
was accordingly entered into (July 12, 1793.) between 
their Britannic and Sicilian inajefties; and the former not 
only agreed to proteCt the dominions of the other by 
means of a refpefitable fleet in the Mediterranean, but 
alfo to grant a fubfidy, in order to infufe vigour into the 
proceedings of his ally. 
But the time was not yet arrived for the king of Naples 
to take an aCtive and decided part. Even on the invafion 
of Italy by the French in 1796, after fome immaterial 
hoftilities, a fufpenfion of arms was agreed to between the 
king of Naples and the republican commander. The 
multiplicity 
