actionary
movement, the more disgraceful from its execrable hypocrisy. We are
governed by an oligarchy; the only article maintained is that
respecting the taxes. The laws have ceased to exist; the Statute is
buried; a licentious soldiery rules over everything, and the press is
constantly employed to asperse honest men. The lives of the deputies
are menaced. Another night of St Bartholomew is threatened to all who
will not sell body and soul.' Ferdinand only waited till he had
recovered substantial hold over Sicily to do away with even the
fiction of parliamentary government. Messina had fallen in September,
though not till half the city was in flames, the barbarous cruelties
practised on the inhabitants after the surrender exciting the
indignation of the English and French admirals who witnessed the
bombardment. This was the first step to the subjection of Sicily, but
not till after Syracuse and Catania fell did the King feel that there
was no further cause for anxiety--the taking of the capital becoming a
mere question of time. He was so much pleased at the fall of Catania
that he had a mock representation of the siege performed at Gaeta in
presence of the Pope and of half the sacred college.

On the 13th of March Prince Torelli handed the President of the
Neapolitan Chamber of Deputies a sealed packet which contained a royal
decree dissolving Parliament. Naples was once more under an
irresponsible despotism. The lazzaroni of both the lower and higher
classes, if by lazzaroni may be understood the born allies of
ignorance, idleness and bigotry, rejoiced and were glad. Nor were they
few. Unlike the Austrians in the north, Ferdinand had his party; the
'fidelity of his subjects' of which he boasted, was not purely
mythical. Whether, considering its basis, it was much to boast of,
need not be discussed.

In March, the happy family at Gaeta was increased by a new arrival.
Had he been better advised, Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, would have
never gone to breathe that malarious atmosphere. He had played no
conjuror's tricks with his promises to his people; Austrian though he
was, he had really acted the part of an Italian prince, and there was
nothing to show that he had not acted it sincerely. But a persistent
bad luck attended his efforts. Though the ministers appointed by him
included men as distinguished as the Marquis Gino Capponi, Baron
Ricasoli and Prince Corsini, they failed in winning a strong popular
support. L