The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-15 00:00:00

NAPLES, SICILY.

Our Neapolitan letters of the 3d instant state, in
addition to the facts we have before given, that the
resignation of M. Cassaro, President of the Consulta-
Generale de Regno, had caused much regret to the
Liberal party, who attributed that step to the diffi-
culties opposed by the King to his wise policy in re-
spect of Sicily.
" From Messina the late accounts have been alarm-
ing," says one of our letters ; the Generals Cardamina
and Naunciante promised Captain Codrington, of the
Thetis, that they would not bombard the town
without giving 24 hours' previous notice, and that
if they bombarded it, they would only fire on that
part of it where the insurgents were congregated
in the greatest numbers. Notwithstanding the solemn
pledge thus given, the forts opened on the town indis-
criminately, and without the slightest notice, on the
29th. One shell fell and burst in the drawing-room
of the house belonging to Mr. Sanderson. The bom-
bardment continued for an hour and a half. The
Consuls went in a body to the Generals on the 30th,
and took them to task for having broken their word.
They excused themselves by saying that a subordi-
nate officer had taken upon himself to fire; also that
the people had attacked them first. This Captain
Codrington denied, stating that he was on shore at
the time. The General, however, is said to have
answered, that he did attempt to stop the firing, but
his officers would not obey him. A letter, dated
Messina, 31st, now before me, states, in the first place,
that the General on the 29th took it into his head to
attack the people. The people fought well, and drove
the troops back, killing 56, and capturing two guns.
The General, enraged, immediately commenced bom-
barding the town, and fired 280 shells and shot into
it, doing much harm to the houses. The 1053 of life
on the part of the Messinese was very small.
" A few hundreds (300 or 400) of the wives and
children of the soldiers have come to Naples from
Messina; they are instructed to say nothing. I have
been out again to obtain fresh information. lam
sorry to say I cannot give you any news from Pa-
lermo. I suppose and believe that the forts have been
taken. It is, believe true, that the Fort Castella-
mare was taken by assault ; that the Falermitans at-
tacked it in three ranks ; as soon as any of the front
rank fell, their places were supplied by those who
were behind them, and who bad no muskets. The
remnant of the soldiers then escaped out of the fort.
" Lord Napier was applied to by the Sicilians to
mediate, but they would accept no terms from the '
King until they had a national Parliament assembled
to consider their grievances.
" A proclamation of pardon for all political offen-
ders, including those heretofore exempted, from 1830
to January 23d, 1848, has been published.
" The more wretched of the troops from Palermo '
were landed at Castellamare. I saw some of them
yesterday march into one of the forts here. Most of
those had, however, shirts and neckerchiefs and
muskets, but the greater part of the returned soldiers
are, I believe, destitute of those three necessary arti-
cles for comfort and war. They have certainly been
most completely heal en. A. friend of mine, in con-
versation with one of the officers just returned, was
given a description of the horrors of the late scene.
Women and boys,' said he, ' fought with hot oil,
hot water, guns, and pistols, to the total discomfort
and discomfiture of the royal troops. The cavalry
killed all their horses, to the number of 800, before
retreating.'
" The-French steamer of war Vahan arrived here