5ol 
NAP 
Trefs and champion of the old governments of Europe, 
the has never availed herfelf of her power and influence 
to mediate between the prejudices and fears of her allies 
and the juft claims and expectations of their fubjedls. 
Kingdom after kingdom has been fubdued, throne after 
throne has been fubverted, without teaching governments 
that there is no fafety for them but in the aft'eCtion of 
their people, and that the price of affedfion is to deferve 
•it and return it. Two expulfions from Naples had not 
imprefled thefe lefions on the court of Palermo. The 
Sicilians were neglefled and defpifed ; their grievances 
were not redrefled ; their complaints were not liftened to ; 
their government was in the hands of ftrangers, fur- 
rounded by traitors; and the power of England, inftead of 
being extended to their relief, ferved only to uphold the 
authority of thefe who flighted and opprelfed them. 
Nothing could be more deteftable to the Sicilians, than 
the authority of the court of Palermo, adminiftered by an 
intriguing and arbitrary queen of foreign race ; and they 
would gladly have feen the fovereign power aflumed by 
the Englifh, who were in fadt mafters of the country; but 
fuch an adt was prohibited by the faith due to a nominal 
ally, whofe rights this nation had undertaken to defend. 
As long, therefore, as we appeared in the character of 
fatellites to fuch a court, we could not expedt the at¬ 
tachment of the people. At the fame time the queen, 
who felt lief authority circumfcribed by the prefence of 
the Englilh, viewed our interference with jealoufy and 
averfion, and was even fuppofed defirous of making terms 
with the French court, and eftablilhing its influence in 
the ifland. In fuch a contrariety of interefts, it is obvious 
that nothing but mutual fufpicion and ill-will could take 
place. 
At the beginning of the year three royal edidls were 
iflued from the Sicilian court which gave much diflatif- 
fadlion, as affording, it is faid, an unprecedented example 
of levying money on the fubjedts of this ifland without 
the form of their confent. One of thefe related to in¬ 
demnities to be given to ecclefiaftical communities from 
whom certain eftates were alienated; another, to a lot¬ 
tery for the fale of thefe eftates ; and the third impofed a 
tax of one per cent, upon all payments. This laft being 
confldered as extremely detrimental to commerce, a re- 
monftrance againft it was prefented by the Britifh mer¬ 
chants in Palermo, but without eftedt. The Sicilian 
barons refident at Palermo drew up a proteftation againft 
this royal demand upon the properties of the people with¬ 
out a regular application to what is called their parlia¬ 
ment ; the refult of which was the arreft of feveral of 
thefe noblemen, and their exile to the neighbouring 
iflands. The great abufes prevalent in the government 
of Sicily were feverely animadverted upon by fome mem¬ 
bers in the houfe of commons, when the chancellor of 
the exchequer moved for a renewal of the annual fubfidy 
of 400,000!. paid to the court. It was faid, that, while 
affording fuch aid and protedlion to Sicily, it was but 
right that we fhould ufe every endeavour to corredt the 
vices of its government, which was, without hefitation, 
denominated the mod profligate in exiftence, and its 
people the moft opprelfed; and, though the minifter de¬ 
precated the ufe of fuch language, as of dangerous con- 
fequence, yet the fadt was not attempted to be denied. 
On the 16th of January, 1812, Ferdinand, by a folemn 
inftrument, bellowed on his eldeftfon Francis the appoint¬ 
ment of “ Vicar General of Sicily, with the ample title of 
Alter Ego, and the exercife of all the rights, prerogatives, 
pre-eminencies, and powers, which could be exercifed by 
the king himfelf.” The reafon given for this was, that 
his majefty might withdraw for a while from ferious ap¬ 
plication, and breathe the air of the country by the advice 
of his phyficians. 
Naples itfelf was at this time fo tranquil, that Napoleon 
ventured to take king Joachim with him on his difaftrous 
expedition into Ruffta this year. His troops fuffered in 
common with the reft. On the 18th of October, a bril- 
L E S. 
liant affair took place between the advanced-guard of 
the French and Ruffian armies near Mofcow, in which 
the former, under Murat, were defeated with great lofs. 
Marfhal Kutufoff, having learnt that the corps of Vidlor 
had quitted Smolenlko to reinforce the grand army, re- 
folved to attack the advanced-guard, being 45,000 ftrong, 
in order to defeat Murat before the junction of Victor, 
and before Napoleon could fupport him with the main 
body of his army. Thirty-eight pieces of cannon fell 
into the hands of the Ruffians, as well as a llandard of 
honour belonging to the ill regiment of cuiraffiers. 
They made 1500 prifoners, amongft whom was a general; 
and 2000 men were left on the field of battle. 
But, after the next campaign, when all was loft, and 
Napoleon’s fate feemed partly decided, Murat joined the 
confederacy againft his friend and brother. In Italy, 
however, the war was ftill vigoroufly maintained by the 
viceroy, Eugene Beauharnois. The talk of this officer 
was certainly very arduous, as Joachim king of Naples 
was now acting in concert with the Auftrian general 
Bellegarde againft him. The difaffedtion of this fovereign 
to Napoleon materially aftedled the operations of the 
hoftile armies in France. It prevented the viceroy (whofe 
army was fuperior to that under Bellegarde) from fend¬ 
ing any reinforcements to Bonaparte; and not only gave 
confidence to the allies, but enabled them to undertake 
operations which they otherwife never would have ven¬ 
tured upon. According to the treaty of alliance, which 
was concluded between the emperor of Auflria and the 
king of Naples in the beginning of the year 1814, the 
latter agreed to furnilh 20,000 men, to adt in concert udth 
the Auftrians till the end of the war : in return for which, 
the emperor guaranteed to the king and his heirs the 
polfelfion of the dominions adlually held by him in Italy, 
and promifed his mediation to induce the allies to accede 
to this guarantee. 
The French general Grenier, having marched from 
Reggio by Guaftalla, in order to eftedt a jundlion with 
the viceroy, the king of Naples, on the 5th of March, 
after reinforcing the Auftrian advanced-guard, caufed an 
attack to be made on the divifion of Severoli, in which 
he drove it back, with confiderable lofs, under the walls 
of Reggio; and, on the 7th, his movements threatening 
to cut off the enemy’s retreat on Parma, they evacuated 
Reggio, and retreated behind the Enza. Nothing of any 
confequence, however, occurred in this quarter, the vice¬ 
roy continuing to maintain himlelf with great firmnefs. 
The events which had taken place at Paris were ftill un¬ 
known on the right bank of the Po, near the middle of 
April ; (Napoleon’s abdication was figned on the 6th.) 
The king of Naples, on the 12th of that month, forced 
the paflage of the Taro, and purfued the enemy as far as 
Firenzuolo. On the next day he renewed his attack, and 
threw a bridge over the Sacca, in which operation he was 
vigoroufly oppoled, but without preventing its execution. 
Murat then advanced with his army within a league of 
Placentia. The lofs in thefe adtions was very confiderable 
on both fides, and may be reckoned among the ufelels 
expenfes of the war. An armiftice, which was concluded 
on the 16th, between the viceroy and the commanders of 
the allied forces, clofed all further military operations. 
By the terms of the armiftice, the French troops were to 
crofs the Alps, and the Italian troops to continue to oc¬ 
cupy that portion of the kingdom of Italy which had not 
yet been poflefled by the forces of the allies. 
After the departure of Napoleon for Elba, and the 
eftablifliment of a general peace among the greater powers, 
a congrefs aflembled at Vienna, on the 25th of September, 
1814, to decide on the fate of the fmaller ones, and toreftore 
the balance of Europe, as it was called. Before the clofe 
of the year, it was underftood that the cafe of Murat, as 
king of Naples, gave rife to much difeuffion at this con¬ 
grefs; and that the Bourbon government was ufing every 
effort to get the old family reftored. Murat was certainly 
placed in a critical fituation. A mere foldier of fortune, 
, with 
