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300 THE IiEADEB . [ No - 467 , March 5 , 1859
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these signs of fear , a bold and faithful counsellor , whose name has not been recorded , remonstrated with the King upon the error and mischief of his flight ; but all he could obtain was a promise that the fact should be concealed from the people , in order not to damp the warlike ardour of the provinces , or the hatred of the French . Letters and messengers were accordingly dispatched to assure them that the King was preparing to annihilate the enemy , who , aided by treachery , and venturing into the heart of the kingdom , in the midst of fortresses and a population in arms , would find the punishment he deserved for his temerity . The credulous people
trusted , implicitly in these words , and redoubled their ardour and endeavours to oppose the French . Suddenly , on the morning of the 21 st Dec , a number of ships which had weighed anchor in the night from the port were seen navigating the bay , and upon the largest vessel ( which was English ) the King and the royal family were embarked , as could be perceived by her flag . At the same time an edict "was placarded on the walls of the city , proclaiming that the King had left for Sicily , and had appointed the Commander-iii-Chief , Prince Francesco- Pignatelli , regent , but that he intended shortly to return with apowerful army . As soon as the King had ^ departed , the secret history of his flight was divulged .
Ferdinand had carried off the jewels and treasures of the crown , as well as the most valuable of the antiquities , and works of art in the museums , besides all that remained in bar or coin in the mint and banks —in short , a booty of twenty millions of ducats , belonging to the State treasure , leaving the uniiappy nation engaged in a foreign and domestic war , without law or guidance i destitute and insecure . The ships were detained three days in the bay by contrary winds , and during that time the municipality the magistrates ,, the barons , and the people sent deputies to the King , promising , if he would return , to use every effort against the enemy , and secure Mm the victory by their numbers and determination . But Ferdinand declared his resolution to be
irrevocable , and the ministers repeated the same in less courteous terms ! The loyal , feelings of the people ¦ were changed by this conduct ; the magistrates retired from pubic office , either from indignation or to secure their own safety ; those who loved quiet waited events'in fear and trembling ; the hopes of the innovators were rising , while the rabble—the only party actively engaged—daily committed worse excesses . " Naples , after a brief resistance , opened its gates to the French , ¦ and Chainpionnet , whose instructions from the Directory , savoured as much of political propagandism as of military conquest ,
resolved to . signalise his Success by calling into existence another democratic daughter of France , On the day of his triumphal entry he visited the shrine of St . Januarius ; and niade votive offerings of great splendour to the miracle-working saint . On the following day he proclaimed in his own name , as General - in - Chief of the French army , the establishment of the Parthenopean Republic . By subsequent decrees , feudalism , was abolished , certain rich , monasteries were suppressed , xnaivjr judicial changes were introduced , and a vast sum in treasure , besides numerpus objects of antiquity and ait , highly prized by the nation , -were declared to be appropriated . to . France . From such beginnings what could have been expected ? A number of upright and patriotic men , who had studied liberty in boohs , and talked to one another
in salons ana libraries , until they fancied they understood all about its workings in practice , wore placed at the head of the administration . ; and for the most pavt no set of men ever laboured mpre assiduously , more patiently , or uiore disinterestedly to infuse life and vigour , into the system imposed upon their country a la mode by Ohampionnet . But their efforts were in vain ., The provinces , enraged at now taxes , which they not unjustly asci'ibed to French dictation , became the prov to guerilla warfare . Every brigand called himself a partisan of nationality , and affected to hold a com-, mission from the ftigitivo King to effect his restoration . Many , like JTva JDiavoJO , actually received rgyal atithority to act against the invaders and republican subvei * tors . of tho throne , After some months tho Frenoh troops became unpopular in Naples itself ; and when at last they withdrew , their departure was hailed with general satisfaction . . . Left to itself , the republic , which had never had any root in the convictions or feelings of tho community at largo , perished without a struggle . Nelson brought bapk tho Bourbons in triumph , and , swayed Iby tho arts and witcheries of Lndy ITainilton , lent himself to tho porpotration of those hideous deeds of oruol and oowardly vongeanco
that have cast an irredeemable stain upon his memory . <¦ . , . "VVe have not space to fellow the historian through bis narrative of the oppressions and rapacities of the restored Bourbons ; and—ef : their second expulsion by the troops of Napoleon to make way , first for his brother Joseph , and then for his brother-in-law , Murat . Colletta , who served under the latter with distinction , speaks enthusiastically of the personal qualities of Joachim ., which endeared him to those around Mm , and rendered him at one time highly popular amongst his involuntary subjects . The hard necessity of his a a ^ W i ¦ 1 _ ¦¦ 1 M 'I ¦ - m i m ^ a ~*^ ^ J 4 * Awn of the French drove
. _ ^^^^^ position as a tributary Empire hhn by degrees into errors and inconsistencies , and ultimately into faults that deserve a graver epithet under the obloquy of which he finally fell . Once more the old regime was rehabilitated by the decrees of Vienna ; and once more the loathing with which its benighted sway was regarded , and the inextinguishable . longings after freedom in the breasts of the educated classes broke forth in 1 . 821 , when the Constitution was proclaimed . Ferdinand dissembled , took the constitutional oath , fled to Lay bach , where lie signed an engagement to put down the new representative institutions he had sworn to maintain , and returned to his capital to execute the most ruthless retribution which
tyranny could devise , under the protection of an Austrian army . Colletta , whose only sin had been that he had served the sanguinary despot too faithfully in suppression of revolt in Sicily , was condemned to a perpetual imprisonment in exile at Spielberg , for having held office for a few weeks under the constitutional government . He was after a time permitted to reside in Tuscany , where he composed the present work , and died in 1831 . "We cannot commend the style of the translation , the slovenliness of which often mars the pleasure which the work is otherwise calculated to afford . Colletta was a man of observation and . of action rather than of ideas ; but his contribution to modern Italian history is one of unquestionable value . ., . .
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NEW ZEALAND AND ITS COLONIZATION . New Zealand and its Colonization . By William Swainson . Smith , Eider , and Co . The . history of all colonies and dependencies is pretty much alike . First comes the energetic man—the circumnavigator , or the wandering mariner , who lands upon the strange island or continent , and deals with the simple natives to considerable personal ! advantage . Next comes the missionary , armed with tracts , accordions , Bibles , and cauliflower seeds , who effects a lodgment in the name of a parochial religion and a bigotted civilisation . Close upon the heels of the tlveological pioneer there follows Mammon , in the shape of a trading company , ; and large dividends are paid to antipodean shareholders by jockeying the aborigenes put of their landed birthright . , At this point the white , man generally introduces tho firewater ; and it is then discovered what an inferior , contemptible race of heathen savages wo have undertaken to improve . They feed upon baked monkeys—the nasty beasts I—and they never heard of pale-ale , and the registered paletot ! Xt . is difficult to conceive why such creatures wore born . They positively worship , walkingsticks , and prize tenpenny nails ; and their gods are so hideous ( as the enlightened traveller remarks ) that the children yolfat thorn , and go intp fits . This may have been their condition for
centuries before we luckily found than out , and we must pursue , our mission vigorously to make up for lose time . The savage objects to be robbed , except under the thin veil of exchange ; and when tho shoe of tho Anglo-Saxon mission gives him too tight a pinch , the calumet of peace is extinguised in tho hoathen council chamber , and the tomahawk is once more polished up for tho logic of war . Tho first homeward mail takes accounts
of a native insurrection , or a collision with tho rebellious aborigines , and tho colonial minister runs Jus jewelled fingers through his wig , and puts it to Parliament whether this state of tluinigs should bo . Soino financial reformer , who Jigs the weakness to resist a war of extermination on tho ground of inhumanity and rookless oxponso , is vory quickly ' silenced by tho British jphiok of tho IIouso . An unclor-Booratary gots up with a paper , which ho says ho holds in his hiuiU " ( not in his
are y hings ; our merchants are congratulating themselves upon the possession of another " market " for ' their goods , and the officeholders are singing over the victory we have achieved in conquering prodigious right of trade , the general tax-payer is hardly made aware that the cost of colonial maintenance amounts to nearly 50 per cent , of the gross export commerce , which that expenditure is suppposed to create and protect . '
costlt and while teeth ) j and produces a national ecstacy of avaricious delight by _ announcing that the colony has given undoubted indications of coal . The financial reformer by tlds time , must' feel excessively small as he hears on all sides the triumphant shout of ~ " Coal ¦!'• ' Fleet and army at on 6 e receive instructions to go ahead * and the buccaniers of progress steal another jewel for the Crowiv These jewels ( like many other luxuries pertaining to the Crown )
This is , in substance , a faithful account of many a British colony , and what it leads to ; and the present volume can tell us little more . The Maories of New Zealand may have been an exceedingly intelligent race ; the first Governor—Captain Hobson—may have been a wise and humane man , but bad systems and false principles cannot work good through any individuals ; and war , bloodshed , and cruel injustice ar e sure to spring from such seed . Mr . Swainson , who was fifteen years her Majesty ' s Attorney-General for New Zealand , speaks up nobly in defence of the now fast-respiring native population , and gives us inucli interesting and useful information about their- division and
tenure of land , and their civilised respect for privileges , boundaries , and rights . We conclude ; oiu' notice with a short extract relating to the earliest English government of the colpiiy-The duties which devolved on the Local Government in founding the Coldny of New Zealand , arduous as it would have been under anj r circumstances , had to be performed amidst the angry opposition of an irritated cornrnunity and . the most strenuoits efforts were niade , not only by land claimants in the north , and by the disappointed settlers in the south , but by a powerful English Joint-stock Association , to effect Governor Hobson ' s
recall ! Almost alone—looking in vain for despatches from home—^ failing in h ealth—surrounded by angry opponents and assailed by the , bitterest abuse—uncertain whether his proceedings would be approved by the Ministers of the Crown—the last 'few months of Captain Hobson ' s life were passed in a state of painful and harassing sus 2 ) ense . Had lie lived but a few , weeks longer , he would have boon chcerod by the knowledge that his general administration of the affairs of New Zealand was approved by her Majesty ' s Government : ¦ that his selection of the site of the capital hud received the sanction of the Crownami that in all his transactions -with thelsew
, Zealand Company he might r < ± ly upon the support ot her Majesty ' s Government against Hie " exaggerated pretensions" of tliat Company and their agents , llemoycd beyond the roach of praise and blame , none will now deny that , in founding a British Colony in New Zealand , Captain l lobson Had a novel and arduous duty to perform—that lie laboured honestly and assiduously to discharge « and that . his services entitled him to the favourable consideration of his country . Ami if the native inhabitants of those islands shall cscapo the J"to which has hitherto attended uncivilised tribes wiion IT AJJk ^ A * *** % »* ll ^ KilW * VW , KW *« W > rf «* V * -wv « - ^ . r— - . -, — - ¦ ,.. viu
brought into the vicinity of civilised men , they owe something td tho inilesiblo sense of justice oi thoir first Governor , who , while living , cn ] oyca their ostpom and gained their conficlonco , and wnosc paternal government is still held by thorn in , respectful , remembrance . " Mother Victoria , "—wrote one of their greatest chiefs , addressing hoi' Majesiy after Governor Hobson ' s death , — " my subject as » Governor for us and for tho strangers ot tins iswnu . Lot him bo a good man . Look out for a good man . a man of judgment , Lot not a troublov conto Hero . Lot not a boy como horo , or one pulltod up . ^ ' " ' , bd a good man , as tho Govornor who has just i uu . There is much in Mr . Swwnson'B book that iu » intei'ost many persons .
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FACTS , FAILURES , AND FRAUDS . Facts , Failures , and Fruttda , J $ y V . Morior Kvnnj London j Groombwilgo and buns . Wb cannot rognrd tho ^ rouent volume n « n oroditablo or eatiafhctorv poi-ibrnmnoo . ' A ' tl . , ' in oiitoliimf—nnd thnt w nil . It tolls w m » tl » 8 wliioh wo can rol , y uponus buing fveu from uiu thai ; wo did not know bofuro * . , ; Tho author , or coxunllur , fi ' ivo u » i « tuJ 40 wU "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1859, page 300, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2284/page/12/
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