The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-03 00:00:00

THE KING OF NAPLEq.

(From the Times.)
If some malign influence could suspend the
Habeas Corpus Act and quench the press, just for
a month, it would have a wonderful effect in ex-

panding some people's minds. Because in this
country every prison is as transparent as a glass
beehive, they will not believe that it can be any
otherwise elsewhere. When our correspondents
tell of a state of things inconsistent with the opi-

nion of our uniravelled multitude, they are very

apt to turn away with the remark that the Times
is full of exaggerations. We have never been able
to make this class of English minds comprehend
what it is the Italians had to complain of, and why
it is that they so hate the rule of the Pope and the
King of Naples. They have not imagination enough
to transport themselves out of the state of freedom
in which they have always moved, and to imagine
what their feelings would be if they were living in
a condition of society
_where secret arrests were

taking place every night ; where no family could
ever separate in the evening without calculating
the probability that during the silent hours one
of the party might be seized and incarcerated
no one could hope to discover where ; where
no conduct could insure security, because the
most harmless victims were often thought to

make the most impressive examples ; and where
any complaint, or inquiry, or attempt at vin-
dication had no other effect than to give a tenant

to another cell. A large portion of our Eng-
lish public cannot realise this by any mental effort.
'1 hey have such habitual confidence in the power of
public opinion that they cannot conceive how worse
things are now happening in Naples than happened
even in the times of the Emperor Tiberius or King
Ferdinand 11. . .

It falls in our way to-day to narrate a single in-
stance of a common class of cases. Among the best
known and yet the least political families in Naples
there is one which has been suddenly made prey of.
One of the sons has disappeared. The police vul-
tures have swooped upon him, and have carried hint
off no one knows where—no one dares to sylk where.
It is scarcely possible that he can have been guilty
of any offence, even against such police ordaances
as reign at Naples ; for he cared nothing for poli-
tics, and had no connection with any of the societies
which such a system as that now reigning in Naples
will perforce engender. He was simply a quiet
young man, mixing in good society, the son of a
Neapolitan father and an English mother, and
known to so large a circle that his arrest would be
certain to send the desired vibration of terror
through the city. The most complete proof of the
abject state of the Neapolitans is that the family
itself does not cry aloud. Even the English blood in
their veins does not boil over. It is left to a stranger,
furtively, and with injunctions to secrecy, to appeal
to Europe against this Francis 11. of Naples, this
youthful kingly kidnapper, and to cite this last in-
stance of his tyranny. In the centre of this typhoon.
of terror there is a dead silence; it is only from a
dweller upon its borders that we obtain a little
insight of what is going on where it rages. The
letter which has been handed to us runs thus :
" I send this in the faint hope of being useful to
a family with which the English residents at Naples
must feel sympathy. 'a second son was arrested
two days ago, and is in prison. Nobody knows where
or why ; I believe the Government no more that
the public. They do these things in terrorets-
They occur constantly. Some are let out in a short
time ; some remain in confinement for years •, some
are exiled to a distant province, where, if they are
not persons of property, they beg or starve.
" I write to you, not only unknown to the --0,
but even to my own wife and to my own son.
There is such a complete reign of terror here that
one distrusts one's best friends and even the impru'
dente cf one's children. There are spies everywhere,
The servants are spies ; duke and princes are spies I
nobody is safe. Domiciliary visits every night.
Last week, in Chiaja alone, 50 or 60 persons were
stopped and searched at night as they were walking
along quietly on their own business ; even carriages
were stopped and searched.
" The state of the country is beyond descriptioo
or imagination ; the nation is demoralised, sea
divided into two classes—slaves and mouchards."
Alas ! we fear that the Times is powerless le
such a case. We can hope to supply a reinedl
for oppression only where there is some consciene
in the governor and some independence in ttl
people. Our only weapon is publicity. We ci
only point to a wrong and appeal to the soil
ment of generosity and to the sense of justice !I
our countrymen, of whom we are always sure, or 9
enlightened neighbours, of whom we always he'lt
confident hopes. But what can we do to draw Or
innocent young man from a prison in Naples or 0
Sicily What power or hope have we to excite°
thought of sympathy for himself or for his sorrow
ing family ? We cannot wake up a people cringiv
in black despair ; we cannot touch the horny co
sciences of police agents and Ministers of Sts
whose habitual official acts are those of pole!
Such men have long been proot against all that 0
press can urge. If words could have moved the
they would have repeated in sackcloth and ash
long ago; if shame could have come over them the
would have long since slunk away before the esl
cration of all civilised men. They are men of 1
lence, who fear no retribution other than the punio'
ments they themselves inflict, and they have a 1011,,
at their head who has been tutored from the ere!,
by their lessons and in their policy, and whe
heart seems to be worthy of his education. This
a case in which the sympathy of Europe can ,
nothing. This victim must remain in hilepris!
till the caprice of his gaolers impels them to r
lease him, or until all the dungeons of Naples
the Two Sicilies are opened by other hands.
The governing authority of the country in NO'
this outrageous act Of oppression is but an cal
day fact is just now pluming itself upon being °
of the defenders of legitimacy and order. T
King of Naples, who maintains himself in ,
capital only by thus making himself terrible,
now considering, in conjunction with the Colo4l'
Spain,—which in its turn is engaged in a bar bar°,
and unsparing warfare with the Moors, simpl,
account of their religion,—whether it will be e°
s ivirs to
en t with
Powers thet dignity
take
placean dhigh
ina Congress viO morality of the
t
threatens to recognise the status quo of Italy. 11,
easy to understand that the meditations of the 1‘"
of Naples upon this subject must be some'
troubled, and that far nearer subjects of interest
him than any care for the interest of the Pope lo'
press upon his mind. If the Congress should
held Francis 11. had better by all means stay stO,
The representative of Naples might find hill
the object of sonic curious inquiries as to the ill
nal condition of that country, and perhaps he lel
also have to hear some remonstrances as to „
scandal he is bringing upon the name of all foi
lute government, and the danger he is occa,sios,,
to legitimacy throughout the world. With sr
in every house, with police agents filling the strt;
stopping the passengers on foot and peering ,
the carriages ; with prisons full of the most rail
table citizens, and with the elements of revole„'
stored up around him, he may well be disincl;
to meet hisfellow-monarchs in Congress, and he'
well be perplexed with fears of change at bomb
But, if Naples should ultimately resolve riot tie
to this Congress; or, better still, if there should
no Congress at all, does this foolish and cruel yo'
man imagine that the course he is now pure'
and the iniquities he is now perpetrating
therefore be more safely continued ? There
point which tyranny may, reach where it beet
worse than anarchy, even in the eyes of nobles,
of merchants. There is a point also
tyranny may reach where it becomes hatefe'
crowned heads, and finds no sympathy even a 0
absolute Monarchs. Cases like that we to',
quote are a common symptom of that high tie'
tyranny which presses too heavily against its 10
and threatens the dam which alone keeps old
ocean. If there should be no Congress 90:
Russia and Austria shouid become unwilliet
share the odium of these Neapolitan atrocities
should be restrained from interference by Eng
and France, what in such a case does Frail
Naples believe can possibly be the result of
course upon which he is now embarked? Df
own youthful impulses fail to sugerest to hire
resentment and despair will have their way ?
he doubt that if Central Italy is left unshackle'
will hasten to extend to Naples the liberty she
acquired for herself? Does tie not feel that "'
that event shall occur Italy will soon settle,
account with the Switzer and German mercer
who for the present moment sit squat two!
body of Naples ? This young King must '
these things, although he acts as though he
them not. It is sad, but we fear it is unavo't
now to accept the fact as fully proved, thol
young Francis Marie Leopold is only a Fertl'i
11. ground young again. lle has in a shortt,
proved himself to be a true Bourbon, incavo
learning anything beyond the old family,;t
tiens, and incapable of forgetting any part'
those traditions. He seems to differ frotli,
father only so far that he has no traces 1,
ability, and, perhaps, a slightly exaggeratecl,i
of his ferocity and bigotry. Such men itlli
deeds which such men do are not suited to t:,l
in which we live. Unless Francis 11. chaltr;
policy, Naples will certainly change her dyo
her

ENGLISH VESSEL FOUNDERED ON THE VI
Co AsT.—CitEw Losz.—A letter from Calais stated,
English sloop, the New Endeavour, of Dover, foutii
that port two nights back in the midst of a violet',
storm. The crow, consisting of five men, took to tli;
but from the heavy sea she upset, and all of theta I
Two of the bodie4 have been picked op.