The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1849-12-27
Kingdom of NapIes.

AiHSuuLI vi NdPlCS.
The batf1ed attempt at revolution in the
kingdom of Naples has materially aggra-
waited the political abuses it was intended
to destroy The concessions which were
made by the King have all been either re-
tracted or neutralized by new assumptions.
The constitution still exists in form, but
only as a testimonial of royal perfidy. and
monument of popular instability. 1t is
no more the real law of the land than the
Koran. 1t gave the people a representa-
tive Parliament; but that Parliament, after
many of its principal members had been
arrested, was arbitrarily dissolved, and no.
thing but the royal fiat will ever speak
another into existence. The liberty of
conscience, the liberty of speech, and the
liberty of the press, which the constitution
created, the King has annihilated The
prison not only awaits every man who
gives expression to free sentiments, but
frequently is the doom of him whose only
crime is silence, and for months he laws
without trial or The least observance of the
most ordinary forms of justice. Bibles
are excluded with greater rigor than ever,
and all other books of liberal principles.
Foreign journals, except those of high
monarchlcal tone, are contraband. Of all
the Partisan papers, the Bourbonist Jour-
nal deS Oe6ats and the Legitimist .ASSenl-
btee N0tiOaate, are the only ones that find
admlttance. A severe censorship is exer-
cised over all domestic publications, and
III the whole kingdom no liberal press, nor
anything wearing its remotest semblance,
exists. The popular Journals have all
been extermlnated, and the three or four
others are but placards of royal edicts,
and wretched, garbled compends of for
eign news, In not one of them have
yet seen an article tending in the least to
enlighten and ennoble the people. Men
OF high standing are arrested on the wan
ton denunciatlon of any malicious street
vagabond; letters are Intercepted at the
postoffice on the slightest suspicion; DOM
iciliary visits are constantly made, and the
closest surveillance is maintained over the
whole face of society. had not been in
the city week, before | was kindly eau
toned by our consul to take heed lest my
public correspondence involve me in trou-
BILE with the civil authorities. quaran-
tine of fourteen days has been established
against every person coming from Rome
by land, and of twenty-one days against
all arriving by water from Malta or Mar
seilles, or from any of the ports of Upper
Italy. Its ostensible object is to guard
against the cholera, but everybody here
understands that its real design is to shut
out all political infection.
Is it possible that this state of things
will soon be changed! By no means.
King Ferdinand is man of narrow mind
and contracted views; and the advisers in
whom he most conhdes are persons who
have lately been recalled, and restored to
all their former privileges. Bigotry, intol-
erance, machiavelism, and consummate
selfshness possess both the ear and the
heart of the King, and it is idle to pre-
sumo that he will voluntarily part with his
irresponsible power. But what force can
com pei him! The same army which saved
him from the fate of his kinsman, Louis
Philippe, is as loyal as ever, and ready to
support him In every emergency. 1t tnum-
bers fifty thousand men,, and is daily in
creasing. Finer troops have not seen in
Europe, and no popular demonstration
could stand day against them. But there
is another fact, which decides the question
more conclusively than either the mon
arch's disposition or the soldiers sword
it is the character of the people themselves.
The populace, as has lately been the case,
may be seized with momentary passion,
and by violence attempt to right their
wrongs; but, in the mass, they are so be-
nighsed as to be lost to every noble senti-
ment, and utterly below every truly lofty
enterprise, and all sustained heroic exer-
| ton. They are as incapable of self-gui-
| dance as the cattle of the field; they must
either be driven by potentates, OF led by
demagogues; inconsistent as the wind, to
day, led by hunger, they yell, up NTH
the barricadesr' and tomorrow, tickled
with some state pageant they shout Long
ive the King"
The higher classes make their ostenta-
tion their glory, and pleasure their god.
Their time, their fortunes and their talents
are squandered III frivolitv. Their LIE Is