The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Memoirs of General Pepe; comprising the principal mili-
tary and political events of Modern Maly.
A patriot, with faith which exile has not withered
a soldier, with fortitude which defeat has not broken ;
and an honest man, whose confidence in humanity has
not been weakened by instances of individual treach-
ery ; could not fail to produce an interesting work,
even though its style should betray the hand of a
foreigner, and its arrangement that of an unpractised
author. Patriotism, valour, and honesty are impreeeed
on every page of these volumes; and it is impossible
to read them without feeling that we hal prematurely
despaired of Italy—too soon abandoned hope of the
land which has inspired such faithful love. Fatal, in-
deed, has been the (Oft of that beauty which Filicaja
at once boasted a:,d deplored; but that which has
long lured the forei ;Tier, may yet inspire the native—
even suffering has its use in teaching that what is
worth being seized is worth being defended.
Pepe's infancy n. 'y be said to have dawned on the
first hopes that were formed for the rege:.cration of
Italy : may its close witness their accomplishment I
Towards the close of the last century the kingdom of
the Two Sicilies, under the wise administration of
Bernardo Tanucci, enjoyed a long space of peace and
prosperity, such as has rarely been the fate of a
kingdom governed by one of the elder branches of
the house of Bourbon. A sad change camp, a hen
the young monarch Ferdinand married Caroline
of Austria. It is a curious freak of fortune that the
sone of the house of liapsburg have always by their
matrimonial alliances added to the strength and
wealth of their own dynasty, while the daughters are
proverbial for bringing ruin on the dynasties with
which they become connected. Mane Antoinette
was the fate of Louis XVI. ; Marie Louise, less di-
rectly, the destiny of Napoleon ; and Marie Caroline,
the sister of one, and the aunt of the other, was the
evil genius of the kingdom of Naples. Her influence
over her husband was directed only to lead
him into acts of violence, cruelty, and misgovern-
ment. All that was sound or sane in the kingdom
of Naples was alienate d from the court, when the out-
burst of the French Revolution shook every throne
in Europe to its foundations. It was not unreason-
able that Caroline, the sister of Marie Antoinette,
should have viewed even the earlier and more inno-
cent stages of this portentous movement with suspicion
and indignation. But Naples was not in a state to
send a contingent to Coburg, or add its signature to
the blustering proclamations of Brunswick : its
finances were in confusion, its army disorganised, and
its navy, under the administration of Acton, nothing
but a mockery. It was not until the autumn of 1798
that the Neapolitans, instigated by Austria, took an
active part in the war; the Aulic Council of Vienna
deemed it necessary to eend a leader to the forces of
their ally, and their choice fell on General Mack, to
whom the campaign of Ulm has given unenviable
notoriety. The northern powers denounced the
French republicans as violators of national
rights, while they were themselves engaged in the
partition of Poland; Ferdinand of Naples followed
the imperial example, and having proclaimed himself
protector of the Italian States, forthwith illustrated
the nature of that protection by taking military pos-
session of Rome. But his cowardice was equal to his
precipitancy : alarmed by the successes of the French,
he fled home in disguise, leaving Mack to mismanage
the Neapolitan army. A series of strategic blunders,
so great as to occasion suspicion of treachery, speedily
destroyed that army, and Ferdinand, abandoning his
continental dominions, fled in an English ship to
Sicily, leaving Naples to its fate. Though a large
body of the citizens felt inclined to hail the F: ench as
liberators, yet the lazzaroni made a brave defence
of the capital, and, if properly supported, might
have turned the tide of war. But, deserted by the
king and court, they had nothing to fight for, and
when they ceased from resistance, the kingdom of
Naples was virtually at an end. It was at this period
that Pepe entered on public life; he belonged to a
party which had long borne with impatience the yoke
of the feeble Ferdinand and the infamous Caroline ;
this party, regarding the flight of their tyrants as an
act of abdication, resolved to establish a new form of
government, and proclaimed the Parthenopean re-
public.
It was at this time the fashion in Europe, and
especially in England, to represent all republicans as
vulgar Jacobins, similar to the sanguinary mobs of
Paris ; but in Naples the republican party comprised
the principal landowners, the bulk of the learned pro-
fessions, and nearly all the middle classes; in short,
almost everybody possessing sufficient acuteness of
moral sense to be shocked by the cruelties of a vicious
court and the crimes of a depraved priesthood. It is
the more necessary to dwell on these points, as a dis-
tinguished modern writer, Sir Harris Nicolas, has
described the establishment of the Parthenopean
Republic as an act of unprovoked rebellion. He
might much more reasonably apply such an epithet
to the English Revolution of 1688; the admieistra-
ot Ferdinand was stained with greater crimes
them that of James II.; the flight of both kings ren-
dered it necessary to provide a new government, and
in Naples there were not materials for a constitu-
tional monarchy, even if the French would then have
consented to such an arrangement.
Pepe, though a mere youth, became an ardent
supporter of the republic; he and his associates were
thoroughly persuaded that the exclusion of ire Bour-
bons was necessary to the salvation of their country,
and the great object of their pokey was to prevent the
return of the court. But they had to contend with
many disadvantages; the emeducated peasants in
Calabria, and the ignorant Lazzaroni, were easily per-
suaded by designing monks sad fanatical priests that
the late revolution was an set of blasphemy; " an
army of the faith " was orgaaised, and just at the same
time the selfish policy of the French greatly abated
the zeal of the supporters of the republic. Pepe saw
the danger sad struggled against it; but he had
neither the rank nor the ego necessary to secure in-
fluence, and while the neesenty for doing something
was debated, the time la which anything could be
done effect's' slipped away. During the absence of
Napoleon in Egypt the 'military glory of France was
tarnished in Germany and Northern Italy ; " the
army of the faith," guided by Cardinal Ruffo, who
united the ferocity of a bandit to the fanaticism of a
monk, rapidly increased in strength ; England lavishly
supplied gold to the exiled Sicilian court, and an
Anglo-Sicilian armament landing on the Neapolitan
coasts soon put an end to the republic. The fall of
the friends of liberty was not dishonourable ; most of
them were ready and willing to die "with hand on
hilt," and they yielded not until they had obtained a
stipulation that they should be removed by sea to
another land, where they could neither leel the
vengeance of the Bourbons, nor witness their country's
' degradation. Most of them had embarked according
to the terms of the capitulation, when, in an evil
hour, Nelson arrived fresh from the glories of the Nile
in the bay of Naples. He denied the validity of any
treaty concluded with those whom he pleased to all
rebels, and to reward Queen Caroline's connivance at
his disgraceful adultery with Lady Hamilton, he took
an active part in gratifying the Queen's int for
legal murder.
We gladly pus over the sickening tale of treachery
and butchery which followed. Pepe deemed himself
fortunate in being sentenced merely to perpetual
exile ; he arrived is France about the tame that
Buoneperte returned from Egypt, obtained a com-
mission in the Italian Legion, and took a share in the
campaign rendered for ever memorable by thermoses
of the Alps and the battle of Marengo. The victories
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