acy to destroy various persons who were obnoxious to
them in the province, some of them actuated by political motives,
and others in order to get possession of the property of their
victims. The bugbear of the Court is Carbonarism, and Matteis
pretended that there was a Carbonari plot on foot, in which
several persons were implicated. He employed the spies to seduce
the victims into some imprudence of language or conduct, and then
to inform against them; in this way he apprehended various
individuals, some of whom were tortured, some imprisoned or sent
to the galleys, and some put to death. These transactions took
place eight or nine years ago, and such was the despotism of this
man and the terror he inspired, that no resistance was made to
his proceedings, or any appeal against them ever sent to Naples.
At last one of his own secretaries made some disclosures to
Government, and the case appeared so atrocious that it was
thought necessary to institute an immediate enquiry. The
_intendente_ was ordered to Naples, and commissioners were sent
to obtain evidence in the province and sift the matter to the
bottom. After much delay they made a report confirming the first
accusations and designating these five men as the criminals. As
soon as the matter was thus taken up, the public indignation
burst forth, and a host of witnesses who had been deterred by
fear from opening their lips came forward to depose against
Matteis and his associates. They were arrested in the year 1825
and thrown into prison, but owing to the difficulties and delay
which they contrived by their influence to interpose, and to the
anomalous character of the prosecution, five years elapsed before
the proceedings began. At length a royal order constituted a
Court of Justice, composed of all the judges of the Court of
Cassation (about twenty), the highest tribunal in the kingdom,
and they have just been enjoined not to separate till the final
adjudication of the case. Although the offences with which the
criminals are charged are very different in degree, they are all
arraigned together; a host of witnesses are examined, each of
whom tells a story or makes a speech, and the evidence is
accordingly very confused, now affecting one and now another of
them. They have counsel and the right of addressing the Court
themselves, which the _intendente_ avails himself of with such
insolence that they are obliged to begin the proceedings of each
day by reading an ord