‘242 
Under the fpecious name of family-com- 
pact, the cabinet of Verfailles had reduced 
the two Kingdoms of Spain and Naples to 
the condition of fiefs of the grand monar- 
gue. They were to move under his orders 
when he pleafed ; upon any other occafion, 
they could fcarcely affert their rights. It 
is a fast completely eitablifhed, that the 
: Algerine artillery was direéted by French 
officers fent over from Toulon. . And it 
_ really was the intereft of the French trade, 
that the Coafls of Barbary fhould always 
be at-war with Spain and the Two Sicilies. 
In the month of January 1779 another 
misfortune took place. This was the 
death of the hereditary prince, Charles 
Titus, Duke of Apulia. It was certainly 
a heavy forrow to his parents, as he was a 
promifing child, of found conftitution, 
good ficure, full of fpirits, and of fenfi- 
bility fuperior to any of the royal children. 
‘The event was fo much the more lament- 
able as it appeared that the unfortunate 
young prince was difpatched by the pre- 
fumptucus ignorance of the phyficians in 
his fervice, wno endeavoured to experiment 
- upon him fome new abftract and danger- 
ous theories of medicine. 
In February 1783, the fouthern Cala- 
bria, and fome part of Sicily round Mef- 
fina, were. defolated by a dreadful earth- 
quake, Although this fcourge of man- 
kind is more commen in the Two Sicilies 
than any where elfe, and fad records are 
preferved of the devaftations it has, in 
every age, effected in both countries, yet 
it never was fo wide and fo deftruétive as 
at the time we fpeak of. Thecity of Op- 
pido was faid to have been the centre of 
the movement,from whence, if we recollect 
rightly, it was equally and gradually f{pread 
‘to the extent of 45 miles in every direCtion. 
All the cities,therefore,and villages, lying 
between a circle of about 270 miles, were 
affected, and more thana hundred of them 
levelled to the-ground, with the lofs of 
about 40,000 lives. By thefe means the 
moft beautiful and fertile province of the 
kingdomcf Naples was loft for mary years. 
_ All thefe misfortunes, however, dwin- 
dled into infignificance, when compared toa 
very fingular ftroke infliéted on their Sici- 
lian majefties by the court of Spain in 
the fubfequent year17384. “The Catholic 
King had,perhaps, good reafons to be dii- 
fatisfied with the Neapolitan government. 
He was deeply concerned that the Auftrian 
fa&tion acquired from day to day an 
overgrowing preponderance in Naples; 
he therefore infifted, that a perfon devoted 
to that houfe fhould be removed frem the 
miniiiry, and every means in his power 
Memoirs of the prefent King of the Lwo sicilzes, 
was tried to. attain the object in an ami- 
cable way. He was not only totally difap- 
pointed, but had alfo the mortificationto fee 
the emperor Jofeph repairing to Naples in 
December 1733, and engaging his majef- 
ty in a treaty of alliance with him and 
the late emprefs of Ruffia, which virtu- 
ally tended to emancipate the Sicilian mon- 
archy from the family compaét. This. 
new alliance would, in all probability, 
have opened to his majefty a field of exer- 
tions quite unknown before, and’ given 
him a profpect of fome important acquifi- 
tions.in the fubfequent events then likely 
to take place, if the fcheme had been well 
contrived, and afterwards properly fup- 
ported by the wifdom of the government, 
and the fidelity of the new allies. It 
would certainly have occafioned no blame 
from the public, nor perhaps any complaint 
from the court of Spain ; as every man of 
fenfe was fully convinced that any eman-. 
cipation of the Bourbon powers from the 
infidious cabinet of Veriailles would be 
beneficial to them, who had been hitherto 
condemned to aét only like puppets in eve- 
ry political machinery of the French am- 
bition, As, however, his Sicilian majefty 
was deftitute of a good miniltry, and en- 
gaged to deal with a foreign prince, who, 
befides his noted charaéteriftical ambition 
and rapacity, had alfo fome rights on the 
very kingdom of Naples, it was juftly ap- 
prehended that fome time or other he 
might find himfelf in difficulties from 
which he could never extricate himfelf. 
Charles the IIId, after employing all the 
influence of his paternal authority to no 
purpofé, began to act as an injured friend. 
Accordingly, he recalled his ambafiador 
from Naples, and focg after enaéted 3 lave 
derogatory to the Pragmatic Sanétion of 
1759, and purporting ‘that his Sicilian | 
majefty and his defcendants fhould be for 
ever excluded from the fucceffion to the 
Spanifh crown.”? ‘This was really 2 po- 
litical thunder-clap. The Neapohtan go- 
vernment, being aware that the Spaniards 
were full as much as themfelves under the 
tuition of the court of Vérfailles, thought 
they could avert the blow by applying for 
juftice and proteétion to.the head ef the 
family. Cardinal de Bernis, then French 
ambaffador in Rome, was. fent for to Na- 
ples for the purpofe of negotiating the 
interceffion; and at, the end of the nego- 
tiations, their majefties were mortified by ~ 
‘the unwelcome truth that the mealure 
adopted by the court of Madrid had been 
previoufly confented to. by that of Ver- 
failles! The difguft of his Catholic ma- 
other 
jefty was fill at the higheft pitch, and » — 
t 
[Apuls, - 
