The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-13 00:00:00

LOUIS .PIIILIPPE AND THE KING OF

NAPLES.

The Revue de Paris publishes the following
curious correspondence, extracts from which have

already appeared in our columns. The first is a
letter addressed to the present King of Naples by

Louis Philippe shortly after the revolution of July,

which occurred three months before the accession

of King Ferdinand 11. The second document is
the reply of the King of Naples.
Louis Philippe writes as follows :
"It is, perhaps, Providence which once more
smiles upon the family of St. Louis that has
called your Majesty to the throne of Naples at
a time when the storm of revolution has been
let loose over Europe. The broken health
of his Majesty Francis could not have
withstood the repeated shocks which suc-
ceed each other, and the end of which God
only knows; but I have long heard your Majesty
praised for energy and foresight, and I do not
doubt that you will happily weather the storm, for
your Majesty is under the necessity of resisting at
the same time the dangerous insinuations from
without which might urge you to an anti-national
policy fatal to your interests and to the interests of
the people you govern, and the internal pressure
which blind passions might exercise upon the free
action of your Government. lam acquaintedwith
all the insinuations and severe counsels with which
your Majesty is beset to compromise you into a
blind line of policy, but I am also sure that your
Majesty will display sufficient firmness and fore-
sight not to be led astray.
" We are in a period of transition, when often a
little must be relinquished so that all may not be
lost, and it would give me real joy to learn that
your Majesty has given up a system of compression
and of severity which caused many days of intense
agony to your late august father, and which often
banished the smile from the lips of the enlightened
King Ferdinand I. Let your Majesty imitate the
system in France ; you will be a gainer in every
respect ; for, by sacrificing a little authority, you
will insure peace to your kingdom and stability to
your house. The symptoms of agitation are so
strongly pronounced and numerous in Italy that an
outbreak may be expected sooner or later, accord-
ingly as the stern measures of Prince Mette.rnich
may hasten or adjourn it. Your Majesty will be
drawn into the current if you are not prepared to
stem the tide, andyour house will be burstintwo
either by the revolutionary stream or by th
men-
sures of repression the Vienna Cabinet may thinke
fit
to adopt.
" Your Majesty may save everything by antici-
pating voluntarily and with
for,
the wishes
and wants of your
breaks out in Italy, Austriapeele. will if the revolution
try to act as abso-
lute mistress, and I shall ,
beoric
compelled to take steps
re ; and in thil ,
I should wish to avoid at any p
if am sure England, fshe does not anticipate me, will
not leave me alone, for neither of us can allow
influence
Austria to extend her still more over the
Italian peninsula. I trust, my dear brother, cousin,
that you will think over the
and dear nePh°lv,
the happiness to express to your
wis • hes I have
majesty, and that you w"
ill trust to my experience.
LOUIS PHILIPPE."
To the above letter the King of Naples sent the
following reply :
"To imitate France, if ever France can be imi-
tated, I should have to precipitate myself into that
policy of Jacobinism for which my people has
proved feloniously guilty more than once against
the house of its Kings. Liberty is false to the
house of Bourbon ; and, as regards myself, I am re-
solved to avoid, at all price, the fate of Louis XVI.
and of Charles X. My people obey force and bend
their necks, but woe's me should they ever raise
them under the impulse of those dreams which
sound so fine in the sermons of philosophers, and
which are impossible in practice. With God's
blessing, I will give prosperity to my people, and a
Government as honest as they have a right to;
but I will be King, and always.
" My people do not want to think ; I take upon
myself the care of their welfare and their dignity.
I have inherited many old grudges, many mad
desires, arising from all the faults and weaknesses
of the past ; I must set this to rights, and I can only
do so by drawing closer to Austria without subject-
ing myself to her will. We are not of this century.
The Bourbons are ancient, and IT they were to try