The Express.
London, England, 1859-08-13 00:00:00

THE TWO SICILIES.

(MOM 001 OWN 001118PONDINT.)

NAPLES, droner 6.
I have noted every public act sines the beginning
of this reign, and, with every disposition to wait
until things should settle down into something like
order, and make allowances for the inexperience of
a youthful sovereign, I am compelled now to say
that the state of things hers is most hopeless. Nothing
will emanate from this government calculated to
satisfy the people. We have had an amnesty which
served only to awaken public indignation—an act
destroying the lists of suspects, which was under.
mined and nullified by a circular, which I
sent you, addressed to the intendents, and
by them to the provincial functionaries ; it bore
the date of 24th June, and says, " it is necessary to
exercise o illanne at all times over dangerous
I men, whether they have or have not been on the
lists of the attendibili." and General Filangieri him-
self admitted that 100,000 families would be &if's:lied
by that act. Then again we hare had *nests and
exiles ; and the British government has been grossly
insulted, by having had its special intercession in
favour of men imprisoned illegally for three years
responded to as it was last week—thirty person',
some of whom were men of fortune and education,
having been manacled and fastened to a long rope,
and sent off to" relegation" in the Isle of Capri,
where they present themselves, according to order,
i twine a day to an inspector of polies.
The famous circulars of Filangieri, too, mast
bo noted, which, whilst proposing changes im-
possible of realisation, admit the existence of the
worst abuses which have been charged even spinet
this government. The Neapolitans sok if these
are the salutary reforms which Louis Napoleon
hinted at as likely to be introduced. The fact
is—and in sober seriousness I assert it—the posi-
tion is worse than it was, for the Sovereign, instead
of being ,like Ferdinand 11., a man of firmness of cha-
racter, le the slave of his Camarillo. His intentions
may be excellent at any fixed hour to-day, but God
knows what they may be two hours after. Thus his
Prime Minister is engaged in a constant strug-
gle with some unseen and secret power. At
times he makes an impression on the royal mind,
and retires full of hops ; but the old advisers flrek
around the King, and everything is reversed. These
are facts, and until that neat of ill-omened birds be
cleared out, neither will Filangieri succeed in
eliciting or working out reforms, nor will any forsisn
minister succeed in exercising any permanent in-

Ammo over the sovereign will. It is difficult to
doubt promises and declarations made by the highest
personages in the realm, but events have long slice
proved that such promises and declarations were
illusory, and amongst other proofs it would be easy
to send you the names of any number of persons, who
find themselves under as strict a surveillance as
ever. If the peat, therefore, does not support the
statement of the government, but just the oontrary,
what dies the present say ? I could give you the
names of persons who have withdrawn from the
capital, and are lying hidden from fear of probable
arrest. The young Marchese Casannovo has received
an order to absent himself from Naples. In Palermo
ere now lying in prison, or were last Saturday, some
yonog men of the first families, for having taken part
in a simple and ienocent demonstration. Moreover,
strong and active efforts are being made to ac-
quire a complete control over the public mind,
and to procure an apparently free expres-
sion of opinion against the two great points
which will shortly have to be agitated; that
is to say, the Confederation and a Conatitutios.
I am assured—and I have every confidenoe in the

assuanc•—that circulars have been sent to the In-
tendants and to the Attorney-Generals of provinces,
directing them to usist in getting up petitions to the
effect that his Majesty's subjects do not desire them.
Some of these have already probably arrived; bat
from all parts—from the provinces and from Sicily.—
I receive the same intelligence, that great activity
prevails in this sense; and here in Naples I have
learnt that the ecclesiastical authorities have been
busy. It is laughable to hear of an appeal to public
opinion in the kingdom of Naples; of course n will
be with the government, because it can command
and will command it through the interests
or the fears of the people. Bo it did
in 1848; but it is to be hoped that no British states-
man will ever cite these petitions u containing the
deliberate opinion of the people of the Two Sicilies.