Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1861-09-11 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

CHARACTER AND EXTENT OF TUE NEAPOLITAN BRIGANDAGE.  The Neapolitan brigands, according to the statement of the ablest and best-informed writer on the subject in the Continental press, may at present be divided into four distinct categories. There are first the veteran brigands of the old Bourbon reeled:; second, the condemned criminals, who have either been liberated or who have made their escape from the prisons in consequence of the late political events; third, the temporary and, so to speak, improvised brigands, the coarse and ignorant peasants, who hope to gain more by on musket shot than by 20 strokes of the 'pad° ; and fourth, the mutinous soldiers, or the deserters from a military service which, for the lut 50 years, had possessed at Naples only the character of a heavy burden, without contributing in any degree to the national glory. All these individuals have not reached the same degree of demoralization, but they were all in revolt against the law. In the course of life on which they all entered in common the least guilty acquired by degrees the habits of the others; they all robbed for subsistence ; they murdered, in order to get rid of troublesome witnesses or to escape from the bands of justice. The crimes of to-morrow, added to those of to-day, increased the motives for resistance and for opposing any attempt at pacification. Accordingly, one of the wisest measures adopted by General Ciablini was the species of amnesty which be accorded to the old soldiers who would surrender. He thus opened a door of repentance to all who bad gone wrong through a mere momentary aberration. More than 7,000 of this class have already laid down their arms; not a day passes without others following their example; and thus the brigand hands are deprived of their best element for obtaining recruits. . . . .  The present Neapolitan brigandage, which exhibits the almost indispensable conditions of every civil war, has found a greater or loss degree of support in the ignorant masses according to the particular localities. Thus its chief theatre has been on the mountains in tho heart of the country, and towards the Adriatic rout; whilst on the opposite side of the peninsula, towards the Tyrrheno Sea, the ravages have been insignificant, and limited to a recoil from the neighbouring disorders. This arises from the difference of custom, originating in the different modes of rural life peculiar to the inhabitants. A gystem of cultivation which has received the name of Cam panian extends along a great portion of the shores of the Mediterranean, and especially in the provinces of Naples, of the Terra di Lavoro, and of the Principato Citeriore. It approaches in character to that which is practised in Lombardy, and consists in raising on the same Held wheat, and vine, and olive mulberry, and orange trees. A crop of this mixed kind, which will only grow on a very fertile soil, and on one with an advantageous exposure, exacts care every day and every hour. It binds the man to the soil, and retains him beneath the salutary influences of the family, of order, of labour, and of