400 
Reply to the Remarks of Scrutator . [Dec. 1, 
and insured his success. He declared 
in an address to the people on the fifth 
day, that he had been offered two hun¬ 
dred crowns a month by the archbishop 
of Naples, if he would give up their , 
cause, which offer he refused ; he added, 
that when he had succeeded in securing 
their rights, he should return to his 
old occupation of fishing, desiring no 
other recompense than their gratitude. 
His head, however, does not seem to 
have been sufficiently strong to bear the 
sudden and great elevation to which he 
was raised, for he soon became arbi¬ 
trary and capricious in the exercise of 
his power, and so strange and eccentric 
were some parts of his conduct, that 
they can only be accounted for on the 
ground of insanity. From these causes 
the £tide of popular favour began to 
turn against him, his adherents gra¬ 
dually fell off, and at length on the 
tenth day of the insurrection, a party 
of gentlemen attached to the govern¬ 
ment, under pretence of holding a con¬ 
ference with him, went suddenly into 
a cloister of the church of Carmine, 
where he was taking repose, and shot 
him. He fell exclaiming a Ah, un¬ 
grateful traitors !'* His head was im¬ 
mediately cut off, and his body ex¬ 
posed to the greatest indignities by the 
populace. The histoiy concludes as 
follows: 
44 In this manner ended the life and 
empire of Masanello, having foretold 
it himself on the ninth of July, the 
third day of the revolution, when going 
up the market-place, he told the peo- 
lethat what he did was for the public 
enefit of the city, and he knew well 
that when he had finished the work, he 
should be slain, and dragged up and 
down the streets of Naples: yet he de¬ 
sired that the people should remember 
him; and they answered, we will all 
die with thee. And so it happened ; 
for having confirmed the interests of 
the city, and caused their privileges 
and the confirmation of them to be sub¬ 
scribed and sworn unto by the Viceroy 
and all the councils, he was the third 
day after assassinated, and hauled up 
and down the streets; his head was 
thrown into a ditch called the corn- 
ditch, hard by the house of Ardizzone, 
and his body cast into another ditch 
between the gates Nolana and Ca- 
puana."' 
It is for posterity to decide to which 
party the blame of excesses committed 
during these transactions ought to 
attach. Certainly if resistance to a 
government by a community is ever to 
be justified, it was in this case, where 
the most intolerable burdens were laid 
on the people, and when, to use their 
own words, 44 there was no cessation of 
new ones every year, by the ministers 
of his Catholic Majesty, the greatest 
part whereof were imposed by the voices 
of the nobility and gentry, and with 
violence of penal mandates and impri¬ 
sonments”— 44 there being promised on 
the contrary to the nobility and power¬ 
ful persons, an exemption from the 
said gabells and impositions, whereby 
many of them became extremely rich, 
by renting and farming the said impo¬ 
sitions.” 
But the subsequent conduct of the 
administration of Naples must for ever 
expose them to the abhorrence of all 
good men. A manifesto of 44 the most 
faithful people” is attached to the end 
of this work, from which it appears, 
that as soon as the government had got 
rid of their formidable opponent Ma¬ 
sanello, they broke the solemn agree¬ 
ment into which they had entered, and 
Don John of Austria, son of the King 
of Spain, arriving in the port, the peo¬ 
ple were induced, on condition of his 
confirming the treaty, to lay down 
their arms. They had no sooner done 
so, however, than the city was attacked 
by the royal forces from all points, both 
by sea and land, and the greatest bar¬ 
barities were exercised on the defence¬ 
less inhabitants for several days suc¬ 
cessively, by a ferocious soldiery. In 
this nefarious manner it seems was the 
design accomplished of bringing this 
unfortuwate country again under sub¬ 
jection to its degrading and barbarous 
despotism. We blush for human na¬ 
ture when we read that such things 
have been, and rejoice in the considera¬ 
tion that however the progress of liberal 
government may be for a time retarded, 
they can never take place again. 
April 19, 1821. S. E. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR. 
THINK I am justified in stating 
that your correspondent Scrutator 
has assumed the office of censor without 
those essential requisites, investigation 
and judgment; nothing else can ac¬ 
count for his ignorance of the subject, 
or the extraordinary way in which he 
confounds the very names of societies. 
As a friend to suffering humanity, I am 
induced to offer the antidote, founded 
on a knowledge of facts that cannot be 
controverted 
