The National Register. — London, England, 1811-11-17 00:00:00

• 'l' • .jir THE NATIONAL REGISTER. va: • Cur 'Ring, Conaftution, anti 31,03 z. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT NO. 5, PICKETT.STREET, STRAND, NEAR TEMPLE BAR. N°. 203. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1811. PRICE 9d, POLITICAL DISQUISITION. No. 190. SICILY. Governments, like men, are unconscious of their own imbecility, and frequently adopt measures, which, wrong in principle, unjust , in their effects, and impolitic in all their bearings, seem to their authors, safe, judicious, and effective. Such. self delusion is by no means uncommon, and we have a striking instance of it in the late conduct of the Si cilian Court. Subjects, however, who feel the con sequences of the erroneous policy of their rulers, need only possess the ordinary sensibility of man to evils, to discern where the error. lies ; and as the tuarter whence it proceeds is publicly known, they speedily lose that confidence which alone gives efficiency to all Governments, and which is replaced by contempt and disaffection. To such causes may the present divided state of Sicily be attributed. Threatened incessantly by a neighbouring and vi gilant 'enemy, the Court party were too strongly infected with pride and prejudices to lower them selves in their own opinion, by endeavouring to conciliate the affection and esteem of their subjects. Nay, at the very hour of trial, when the very ex istence of the Monarchy depended on their loyalty and the consciousness of their own power when united, they used every means which could create dissatisfaction, and annihilated the little confidence the people might possess in their own courage and exertions, by assembling an auxiliary force, chiefly composed of Germans and French runaways, which seemed destined rather to keep the country in sub jection than to defend it. One of the principal sources of all the intrigue and mismanagement which have taken place in Si cily is in the conduct of the QUEEN -a woman of great abilities, but not above those feminine foibles which have often misled Sovereigns of that sex. It is notorious to all, that the KING himself is totally unable to rule the helm of State, the whole of his youth having been passed in exercises and amuse ments which would have disgraced an English Squire. In a tract of great ability, published some time since by Mr. LECKEY, the British Consul in Sicily, it is stated, as a well-known fact, that the • Sovereign of that country cannot even Vol. IV. No. CCIII. ;•• - • 7 ; - ; ~~L_~x NA • the QUEEN, therefore, sits pi supreme in all Coun cils, and that all business is transacted by her. The two Ministers at the head of affairs fled : the Minis• ter of Finances and the Secretary at War are her fa vourites. One of them is a French intriguer, and not unreasonably supposed to be in the pay of Buo- NAPARTE. The other is a man of greater talents, but totally involved in his pleasures which he is said to share with the QUEEN. Between the mis. chievous activity of the one, aad the indolent suf ferance of the other, the affairs of Sicily have taken a manifest French turn, and it has become an avowed maxim in the Court, that even an al liance with France, and the acceptance of any in demnity which NAPOLEON might be disposed to offer, would be preferable to the overawing tone which the British Commander-in-Chief thought proper to adopt. The indisposition of Sicily to England is thus stated to have originated in these mixed causes of jealousy accl intrigue. The QUEEN, a daughter Of MARIA THERESA, and a sister of the late QUEEN of FRANCE, is naturally of too high a spirit to brook any controul in dominions which she justly considers as here own, and her French favourite l.'s had dexterity enough to im prove upon this jealousy. The necessities of mili tary command in the immediate vicinity of the enemy on the coast opposite Calabria, have sometimes required the British Commander to exert his authority with some abseltir ness ; and as the peasantry of the country have perceived that their sole hope of safety lies in the English Army,. they have followed the yety reasonable impulse of implicitly obeying those upon whose skill and bravery they felt they depend ed. There is a very natural transition from alliance in one cause to association in all. When the Court of Palermo, therefore, in order to supply its neces sities, imposed a heavy contribution on their lands or goods, they presented a memorial of their griev ances to their English friends, and besought their co-operation in the means of redress. The English Officers, seeing a manifest grievance, and not being accustomed to find such thing in their own country, have sometimes intemperately, but certainly gene rously, espoused their cause, and hence another source of jealousy to the Sicilian Government. — From all these causes, has risen the present state of I , umstances in that island, and it requires a very I ' 1K ; e 4 trA INN • . *