The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-28 00:00:00

NAPLES.

A letter from Naples, dated June 21, says :--We
begin to have details of the retreat of the Neapoli-
tan troops from Palermo, and it would appear that,
while the officers are amenable to the charge of in-
capacity or cowardice, the soldiers thought more of
stealing than fighting. A sergeant in the Foreign
Battalion, who had just returned from Palermo, was
in the same house with me yesterday, and said that
in many cases the soldiers fought without being
officered. Their commanders kept within the
houses, as happened especially in the Royal Palace.
As for the soldiers, I told you before they left that
there was a general expectation of plunder, and I
mentioned several cases where obligations had been
incurred in the prospect of booty. The result has
proved the correctness of my assertion. Both in
Sicily and on the continent the stolen property has
been sold, and the stories one hears here of such deeds
are numerous. An officer told a friend of mine
yesterday that he knew one man who had loose dia-
monds to the value of several thousand ducats.
Robbery was not confined to the soldiers, and as to
receiving stolen goods, as my reports have already
proved, it was considered quite a venial offence. It
;s said of the Vice-Intendant of the Army, a man
named Carelli, that his magazines, which had been
abundantly supplied with every species of material,
were found empty. He asserts that they were at-
tacked by the Royal troops ; and, further, his report
goes on to say that he could give no account of the
balance which had remained in Ms hands, tha
same troops having burnt the archives. It is
calculated here that the said balance amounted to
the pretty little sum of 56,000 ducats. In fact, in
this country—this be-priested and be-policed coun-
try—there is neither public honour nor private
morality. The very persons about the King are
betraying him ; he is too obstinate and too incapable
to see it, or to be persuaded to the contrary.
Every branch of the Administration is a den of
corruption, and things are done and laughed at
here, or called clever, which would set a mark on
the forehead of a man for life in England. That
which the Bourbons have sown they have reaped.
For years they have done their best to sow the
seeds of suspicion and kyrocrisy ; all manliness of
character has been destroyed, and the meanest and
most contemptible vices have replaced it. There is
an universal scepticism of all religion ; some of the
best go to mass to " lcvare un pensiero ;" and there
are numbers who are practical atheists except in
danger, when St. Anthony or St. Christopher, or
my other saint is invoked. The enemy is now
upon them, and what have the Bourbons to support
them ? The men they have formed—councillors
without intelligence or good faith, and soldiers with-
out patriotism, whose loyalty is valued at 5 grani
a-day, and whose sole object in war is to rob. The
results will be the same on the continent, if the
affair goes on ; for a Bourbon, a priest, and a
policeman will never make a man, any more
than six tailors, according to the proverb, can
form one. From what I hear, all counsel seems
to be thrown away at the Palace. A general
officer not many days since saw the King, and
said, " Your Majesty is betrayed by those who
surround you. The people have an impression that
the city will be bombarded and pillaged. Restore
confidence by appointing a national guard among
the most respectable classes, and then concert other
necessary measures." He is listened to, and then
others, high in the Royal confidence, are called, and
the same questions are repeated. " What am Ito
do ? General -- says you betray me !" "We in
the Palace," says the officer of whom I speak, "are
all ready, knife in hand, to destroy each other ; and
some morning we shall rise and find ourselves
without a King."
The 13th number of the clandestine journal, the

Corriere _Mercantile, has just made its appearance.
It was given to me yesterday by an officer in the
army, who folded up with it a most inflammatory
address of the Neapolitan army from the Comitato
Generale. It concludes thus :

" We confidently feel that you, soldiers, together with
your chiefs, feel your bosoms burn with holy national love.
But if in the case of some we are deceived, let them know
that in despite of them the redemption of Italy will be com-
pleted, and one sole cry will echo from the Alps to the ex-
tremest shore of Sicily—' Viva l' Italia ! Viva l' Indepen-
denza !"

A brigade, or, as it is called, a "flying column,"
was sent off yesterday in the direction of the Lago
d'Aguano, Bagnoli, and Pozzuoli, in order to guard
against an apprehended disembarkation near Naples.
It consists of two battalions of Chasseurs, a squad-
ron of cavalry, a regiment of the line, and a battery
of artillery. There has been a report of either a
landing in the Abruzzi or of a conflict between the
troops and the people. I am too much in the dark
about it to speak positively.
his Majesty was suffering slightly from fever
yesterday.
Letters from Messina, dated the 18th, say that
the garrison had not been increased from Palermo;
on the contrary, embarcations had taken place for
terra firma. Desertions continued, though the gates
were well guarded, and no soldier was permitted to
leave the city. The Customs duties ©f Sicily were not
acknowledged in the province of Messina, nor within
a few miles of the gates. From Catania we hear of
disturbances in Biancaville, where the country
people had taken vengeance on some of the old re-
gime. The conscription had also excited discontent,
but it will be submitted to on seeing that many
belonging to the first families in Messina had en-
rolled themselves. The post communication was
ie6tablished, and the courier arrived three times a-