329 
five department ; and their profliracy of 
every kind had a€iually become fodefamed 
and proverbial, as to deter every honeft 
aman from, putting his. children in the 
army. His Majefty avowed more than 
once, that he had been ftrangely diiap- 
pointed, and could not help remonftrating 
to M. Pignatelli on the fubjeét. The 
commander excufed himfelf_on the age 
and condition of the young people, which 
rendered them incorrigible and difrefpetful | 
to their fuperiors. ‘The ultimate confe- 
quence was the fuppreffion of fach a fcan- 
dalous body! and M. Pignatelli, however 
unfuceefsful might have been his exertions 
in the command of the Battaglioue, carried 
on through them his great object of having 
frequent opportunitics of feeing and in- 
gratiating himfelf with his majefty. From 
that time, he has always poffefled a confi- 
derable favour at court. : 
The public opinion, with refpect to the 
morals and abilities of M. Pignatelli, 
whilf commander of the Cadetiz, was not 
decidedly in his favour. His great activity, 
fupported by the affection of the court - 
(which is a great prepoffeffion under an 
abfolute monarchy) enabled him to ac-, 
quire, among the bulk of the people, 
fome degree of reputation for talents and 
military knowledge. Thofe, however, 
who could judge for themfelves, were able 
to appreciate him in his juft value. He 
was confidered by the latter as a man of 
no abilities, of many intrigues, and of an 
infatiable ambition. The writer of this 
- article was, when in Naples, affured by a 
elergyman of great re(pectability, who had 
been the fpiritual direftor in the col'ege, 
that no particular eftablifhment in that 
place was well projected or executed, 
and that the wickednefs of the young 
people there was, in a great meafure, oc- 
cafioned by a defect of adminittration. 
Many Neapolitan, officers alfo gave 
him a difadvantageous charaéter. But 
what moft unqueftionably betrayed the 
narrow mind, and the infufficiency of M. 
Pignatelli in this ftation, was an order 
folicited by him from the court, purporting 
that all the officers in the Battaglione fhould 
be chofen thenceforward from the nobility 
of the metropolis,excluding all the provin- 
cial xoblefe. “This was certainly a dif- 
graceful blunder, as no man is <o totally, 
unacquainted with the hiftory of the two 
Sicilics as not to know that Naples be- 
came the metropolis of the kingdom under 
Charles I. and that the body of the Neo- 
»slitan nobility in that city was formed by~ 
Charics II. towards the clofe of the thir- 
tecnth century 3 whereas, Sicily, Apulia, 
4 
Memoirs of Prince Pignatelit: 
[ Nov. ty 
and Calabria, having been the theatre of 
all the civil revolutiods in the middle 
ages, and the occafional refidence of the 
founders of the monarchy, as well as of 
the overthrown dynafties, prior to the 
houfe of Anjou, poffefled a nobility who 
had a claim to be the defcendants of the 
Lombards, of the, Normans, and the 
Greeks! . This ffjeated him to the 
moft humiliating animadverfions from the 
provincial nobility, and to plenty of pam- 
phlets and lampoons from every quarter. 
Two ftanzas of a very fine fonnet are ftill 
in remembrance, which we fhall here infert 
for the pleafure of fuch readers as are ac- 
quainted with the Italian language; 
Un-provinciale il bel difpaccio ha letto, 
Ufcito, poco fa, pe’] Battaglione, 2 
_Ed il medefmo appena fcorfo, ha detto : 
Quel fanto direttor quanto € c—g—one ! 
Cede Napoli al regno, a fuo difpetto, 
Di nobilta vetufta al paragone : 
E gente é 1a di tal condizione, 
Che i feggi in feggio tien, con buon rifpette. 
M. Pignatelli being aware that the 
body of Cadetti, of which he was direc- 
tor, was not likely to laft long, and having 
no profpect of continuing in the favour of 
the court by that means, he fought for 
others. From the year 1775 to 1780, he 
projected feveral public and private build- 
ings for the fervice of the court and the 
ftate ; the moft ‘capital of which was ‘the 
Magazine, ere&ted-on the fea-fhore, be- 
yond Magdalen’s Bridge, in Naples, in- 
tended as a warehoufe for the city, as well 
as for a repofitory of naval and military 
ftores. The building is immenfe, and fe- 
cond to none in Naples, but to the Gene- 
ral Hofpital! It is, however, fo difpro- 
portioned in length, height, and breadth, 
as to difguft a man of tafte at the very firft 
view, ‘ ‘This difproportion is fo confpicu-. 
ous, even in the doors, windows, and apart- 
ments, as t9 give to the building no cha- 
raéter at all; and were an informed tra- 
veller to judge of it only by the ftyle or 
the appearance, he would be at a lofs to 
guefs whether it is a palacé, a court of 
juitice, an hofpital, a warehoufe, or a jail! 
The infide is, if poffible, more defective z 
no reguiar diftribution of rooms, no eafy 
communication between the feveral apart- 
ments, no part perfeétly conneéted with 
each other, and, what is more fhocking, 
the whole interfected with long and narrow 
galleries, or corridores, which would be 
fcarcely tolerated in a convent of Capu- 
chins! The view of fuch corridores is.fo 
gloomy and uncomfortable, that the noted 
Acurrilous philofopher, the Abbé Galiani, 
could 
a0 sk imme rt pa oi gs 
Tt 
