The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-07 00:00:00

STATE OF .NAPLES.

A letter from Naples, dated Oct. 30, says :
After one of the most splendid summers, followed

by the brightest October I ever remember, we are
beginning to enter upon winter. The passeggiata
to the Favorita is over, and the Neapolitan patriots

have concluded their amusements of swinging and

riding on cockhorses in the Summer Palace of the
Bourbons at Portici. The musical fetes of an even-

ing, too, in the Villa are over, though the band
plays twice a week during the day ; and the elements
seemed to announce tt:e change which has come
over us by pouring down a deluge of rain on Sun-
day night. The rain, has, however, come in good
time, for so great has been the drought this sum-
mer and autumn, that water was actually wanting
in our houses for ordinary domestic purposes. It
would be agreeable if on the turn of the seasons I
could speak with any satisfaction of our prospects
for the winter, but even the most sanguine would
find it impossible to do so if they spoke honestly.
There is universal discontent and murmuring here.
The merchants complain that there is no commerce;
the poor, that bread is dear ; the crowds who de-
pend for existence on the influx of sovereigns and
napoleons, that there are no foreigners ; the auto-
nomists, that they are shorn of their national glory
and governed by prefects ; and people are busily at
work to foment discordand dissatisfaction. People's

minds may settle down with time, and the chaos
consequent on revolution may gradually subside
into order, but a man must have been blind and
deaf not to have perceived that the murmurs have
been increasing from day to day, and very hope-
ful must he be if he can look forward without
anxiety. The publication of the new system of go-
vernment, though it has long been expected, has
brought the reality of their position before tho Nea-
politans, and the majority of them, I will answer
for it, now find that they were not willing to settle
down into a distant province, with Turin as their
capital. It was all very well when they were
smarting under the despotism of the Bourbons ; in
order to get rid of that they would have acknow-
ledged the Grand Turk, to use their own words, or
even put themselves under the dominion of the
French; but now that they have driven out their
oppressors, and have got that unity for which they
clamoured, they feel that it means something very
different from what they expected, and are mor-
tified and hurt beyond all expression at being
let down so low and so rapidly. So far as the
mere political change is concerned, it must be
confessed that it is the logical consequence of
what the Neapolitans have been raving about for
years, but, like the boy priest, who takes his views
of celibacy in ignorance of his own nature and of
the world and its temptations, they were not ready
for the sacrifices they were called upon to make—
did not, in fact, understand them. In the midst
of their inconsistency one can scarcely help com-
passionating them, and it certainly is impossible
to look forward 'Without grave apprehension when
the feeling I have described is so general. In one
word, the Neapolitans do not tolerate being sub-
dued and governed by the Piedmontese, and yet, if
Italy is to be united, it must be through the action
of the strongest element in the national mass.
Both the one and the other have been evident from
the first, and a wise and farsighted Government,
flaterttheairt
iotnceomulidghtot hcoanvceiltihaoteugthhte, would have done
o
vanity, and to feed the poor ;
but, the tcot all that
it
with a ruthless hand, all the signs of independent
nationality have been destroyed, and little, o: nra
much
less than might have been done, has been done to
employ the thousands who are without work or
horsfoouotd.
There were two modes of governing the
of Italy, constitutionally and by conciliation or else
by force of arms, and to thislatter necessity,
whether from the faults of the governors or the
governed, we are fast coming. So great and univer-
sal ara the discontent and disorder, and so strong
is the prejudice against being " Piedmontised,"
that I would almost hazard the opinion that the
South of Italy to be retained must undergo an
armed occupation, and be governed by the sword.
How far this is desirable or practicable time, which
solves all difficulties, alone can show. Besides a
general aversion from the rule of the Piedmontese—
for these people will not merge the distinction in
names of the various inhabitants of the Peninsula
in the general one of Italians—there are numerous
specific accusations which aro made against the
Government, and, if I mistake not, the approaching
session of Parliament will be marked by much approaching
lent recrimination, I kayo met with deputies, And