184 , SIC 
cipal is the tunny fishery. Money accounts are here kept 
in ounces, taris and grains. 
1 grain is equal to ~d. sterling. 
20 grains = 1 tari or 5 d. sterling. 
30 taris 1 ounce or 12s. 6d. 
Inhabitants, Education, Religion. —The Sicilians re¬ 
semble the Spaniards and Italians in the darkness of their 
complexion, and not less in the indolence of their habits. 
Their backwardness arises, not from heaviness, for they ap¬ 
pear quick and ingenious, but from the want of education 
and personal exertion. A vindictive spirit, and the ex¬ 
tremes to which it leads, are as remarkable here as in Italy or 
Portugal. The vices of the Sicilians are not intemperance, 
for they are as sparing in the use of drink and victuals as the 
Spaniards; but the vices engendered by indolence, namely, 
a passion for public amusements, a rage for gaming, and a 
licence in gaming. 
The Sicilian language approaches greatly to the Italian; 
and until the end of the 18th century, printed compositions 
generally appeared in the latter. Of late, attempts have 
been made to raise the Sicilian from a provincial to a na¬ 
tional tongue. A dictionary has been printed, and several 
poets have published in their native language. In ancient 
times, Sicily produced several writers of note, as Theocritus, 
Empedocles, Stesichorus, Epicarmus; also painters and 
sculptors, not unworthy of competition with those of Greece. 
In modern times, or rather since the beginning of the 17th 
century, there have appeared some successful candidates in 
the field of belles-lettres, poetry and natural history; and at 
present Palermo, Catania and Messina, contain individuals 
of distinguished attainments; but their efforts have been 
discouraged by the want of a free press, the inadequacy of 
the public libraries, and the difficulty of intercourse with 
the more enlightened part of Europe. Education may be 
said to be in almost the same incipient state : there has yet 
been no general establishment of elementary schools; and 
the colleges at Palermo, Catania and other large towns, have 
been conducted on a very antiquated plan, Latin and the 
doctrines of the Catholic church having excluded every 
branch of useful knowledge. The schools called Scuoli 
Normali, established in 1789, are on a better footing, the 
pupils being limited in number, and the teachers subjected 
to a previous examination. Girls, as in other Catholic 
countries, are put, at the age of eight or ten, into a convent 
or retiro, where, during six or eight years, they are taught 
little else than reading, writing, or the ceremonies of the 
Catholic faith. Fortunately the plan of teaching of Bell and 
Lancaster has found its way into Sicily. The religion of Si¬ 
cily is the Catholic : the number of ecclesiastics in Sicily is 
said to amount to 70,000, exclusive of a still greater 
number of monks and nuns; all, or almost all, marked 
by one uniform character of ignorance, credulity and super¬ 
stition. 
Government. —Sicily has long had an assembly dignified 
with the name of parliament, but until a very late date 
(1810) it was merely a feudal institution, possessing 
hardly any marks of the elective franchise. It was com¬ 
posed of three branches: the nobles to the number of 
227; the prelates in number 61; the demanial or de¬ 
puties from universities, cities, and crown estates, to the num¬ 
ber of only 43. Its authority was in a great measure no¬ 
minal, and it did little or nothing towards repressing the 
abuses which prevailed notoriously in every branch of ad¬ 
ministration. The public officers are so inadequately paid, 
as necessarily to have recourse to peculation. The hospitals 
and other public establishments, even when well endowed, 
are in a very uncomfortable state. As to the administration 
of justice, the laws, however good in the letter, are inopera¬ 
tive against a delinquent of influence or fortune. The 
judges are open to corruption ; civil suits are protracted 
from year to year, in a manner not surpassed even in Poland; 
and the nature of the verdict often depends on the compa¬ 
rative influence of the parties. The rarity of capital punish- 
I L Y. 
ment would claim our praise, were it not accompanied, in 
cases of doubtful evidence, by a recourse to torture: in 
short, no country could be more in. want of that political 
reform which was begun by the British government when 
in possession of the island, and is now carried on by the 
inhabitants themselves. 
The Revenue and Military Establishments. —The re¬ 
venue of Sicily is computed at £1,000,000 sterling ; a sum 
that would not be exorbitant, were the taxes judicious in 
their nature, and equal in the mode of levying; but until 
lately, the barons or landholders were to a certain degree 
exempt, and the burden was unmercifully imposed on the 
commons. The executive branch is subject to no inquiry or 
responsibility in regard to the application of the public 
funds. The Sicilian army in time of peace does not exceed 
10,000 men ; the pay of the soldiers, adequate only to their 
subsistence in a plentiful year, makes them dependant on 
public charity in a season of dearth and scarcity. A num¬ 
ber of the officers are foreigners. The Sicilian navy is 
limited to one ship of the line, two frigates, five sloops: the 
gun-boats are numerous; but the whole is in a poor state of 
discipline and equipment. 
History.-— Sicily is said to have been originally called 
Sicania, and to have derived its present name from the Siculi, 
a people who invaded it from Italy. It was called also; 
from its triangular form, Trinaeria.. Of foreign nations, the 
first acquainted with it were the Phoenicians, who appear to 
have carried on a commerce of a very primitive kind, with 
the inhabitants of the sea-coast. The Greeks soon after 
resorted to it, as to the south of Italy and the coast of Asia 
Minor, for the purpose of colonizing: hence the prevalence 
of the Greek language, the erection of structures in the Greek 
style, and a political connection with Corinth, Athens, and 
other sea-ports of the mother country. The occupancy of 
the western and northern. coast by the Carthaginians, took 
place about 500 years before the birth of our Saviour, but the 
eastern and southern remained to Greek settlers : for the 
siege of Syracuse, so unfortunate for the Athenians, occurred 
only 414 years before the Christian era. About a century 
and a half after, took place the long military contest between 
the Romans and Carthaginians, for the possession of the 
island, on the termination of which Sicily remained in pos¬ 
session of the former during many centuries, the inhabitants 
being permitted to retain their own usages and forms of 
worship. At last, in the 8th and 9th centuries, the Saracens 
succeeded in conquering Sicily, and, making Palermo their 
capital remained in possession of the island about 200 years. 
They, or rather their rulers, gave way to the Normans, who, 
attracted to Sicily, on their progress to the crusades, made 
the conquest of the island in the 11th century. After being 
for a short time subject to the emperor Anjou, a French 
prince, in 1266; and it was in 1282 that the massacre of 
the French, so well known by the name of Sicilian Vespers,, 
took place. After this catastrophe, the inhabitants trans¬ 
ferred the sovereignty of their island to Spain, with whom 
it long remained, as well as that of the Neapolitan territory, 
to which Sicily became united in 1430. Both were subject 
to the crown of Spain in 1700, when the death of the 
reigning king led to the grand contest called the “ war of 
the succession.” In 1707, the Austrians obtained possession 
of Naples and Sicily; and by the peace of Utrecht in 1713, 
while Naples was confirmed to them, Sicily was given to the 
duke of Savoy, with the title of king. But in 1720 the 
Austrians prevailed on the new possessor of Sicily to ex¬ 
change it for Sardinia, and added the former to the king¬ 
dom of Naples, a union of which they were not fated to reap 
the fruits—the war of 1734, carried on by France and Spain 
against Austria, transferring the crown of Naples, or, as it 
was now termed, of the Two Sicilies, to a branch of the 
royal family of Spain. In their hands it remained without 
interruption, until the progress of the French revolutionists 
led, in January 1799, to the expulsion of the royal family 
from Naples. The latter took refuge in Sicily, and being 
restored by the success of the allies in the ensuing campaign,- 
remained 
