6

our author, will sell cheaper, weight for weight, than a fat one, it is the interest of the butcher to sell as much bone as he can, and refuse to treat with the owner of the fat ox.' The cheaper he can buy his ox,-the baser meat, in short, the ox is likely to prove, the higher will be his gains. The state of the butcher market on the baronial territories may, then, be easily conceived. Nor is it those great articles alone to which the monopoly of the baron extends; he seems to have hardly omitted any thing which was the object of consumption among his people. The sale of cheese, oil, wine, lard, &c. is claimed as his exclusive privilege; and he sells the monopoly in the same manner as that of the baker and the butcher. He even monopolizes the business of innkeeper; and the premium paid for his license absorbs,' says Mr Leckie, so great a share of the profit, that the innkeepers are among the most miserable and dirty of the people.' Besides his various monopolies, a duty is levied for the baron upon every head of cattle slaughtered. If he has oil in his magazines, he orders the purchaser of his monopoly for selling oil to buy nowhere but of himself, and prohibits the oil of the neighbouring districts from being received within his territories; whence his vassals are sometimes compelled to purchase their oil 20 per cent. dearer than it might be bought at a village two miles distant. 'It is impossible,' says our author, in concluding his statements on this part of the subject, to enumerate the various methods taken to oppress this unfortunate people, who, added to these evils, support the whole weight of the public impositions. Thus, on the one hand, the barons contribute nothing to the support of the state; on the other, they enjoy the faculty of oppressing their countrymen. '

6

The courts of juftice in Sicily are in a fituation correfponding to the other inftitutions of the kingdom. Befides the courts, eftablished by the barons within their own domains, where the paffions of the lord, and the avarice of the judge, are the ruling principles, the Tribunal of Patrimony, from the right which it has affumed to interfere as the guardian of the king's interefts, in all queftions of property, has erected itfelf into a court of law; and there are two other general tribunals for civil caufes. The falaries of the judges are trifling; their chief emoluments depending upon the fees of fuits, and the bribes which they openly receive. The adminiflration of justice, Mr Leckie reprefents as venal and oppreffive to an extraordinary degree. The judge receives private visits from both parties, to instruct him beforehand, on the merits of the cause. The litigants, however, are not confronted, till the question is brought to a public hearing. The great business of the court then seems to be, to embroil and perplex the

cause.

cause. As the fees, both of the judges and the lawyers, are in proportion to the number of hearings and decisions, a cause may be tried five times, and the last decision given in such undefined and equivocal terms, that it is frequently the cause of a fresh suit. Even this is not pronounced in open court, but is sent by the judge in writing from his own house; and is not made public, except by report. In criminal causes, the witnesses are not examined in public, or confronted with the accused. When thrown into prison, such is the negligence in bringing them to trial, that they often remain till both they and the accusation, says our author, are forgotten. The torture to make the person accused confess, is still an expedient of the criminal courts of Sicily; and one singular species is here employed. The victim is locked up in an arched dungeon, to be tortured into confession by famine, and the horror of his situation. If he persists in his refusal, he either dies of hunger, or, after the time which seems good to his judges, is permitted to depart. Mr Leckie, however, has been more anxious to impress his readers with a conviction of the fact, that the administration of justice in Scily is venal and corrupt, of which no one who is acquainted with the order of affairs in other places in a similar state of society, will have any doubt, than to convey to us a knowledge of the mode in which the courts of that island dispense injustice. So little, however, has been hitherto put in writing respecting the administration, curious in all its parts, of this country, that he would have performed an acceptable service, had he been somewhat more sparing in his reflections, and somewhat more liberal of his facts.

With the education and character of the Sicilian nobility, the reft of Europe is much better acquainted, than with the political inftitutions of which they have been the authors. On this point, therefore, a few words will fuffice. Some one of the lower order of the priesthood is generally taken into the house, at a wretched falary, to teach the young lord the elements of reading and writing, and fome rudiments of the Latin language. This man is more on a level with the fervants, than the heads of the family. He is the confeffor and fpiritual guide of the domestics, which naturally places him much in their fociety; creates familiarity between them; and habituates him to their vices and manners. is his business to accommodate himself to all circumftances with unwearied pliability; and as cunning and fervility are the principal means of lightening his burdens, he is feldom deficient in those accomplishments. He is very often the house-steward, and almost always the confidant of the mafter or mistress in their amours. With this man the pupils spend a great part of their time among the fervants, witneffes of the arts which they mutually practife,

It

and

and fuccefsful difciples in the leffons of duplicity and falfehood, which are there fo forcibly taught. Thefe, with the mummery of the Roman Catholic religion, in which they are carefully trained, are the principal acquirements which they derive from their master. He is uniformly their fycophant, indulgent to their floth and other vices, and ever ready to conceal or palliate their faults and deficiencies. From this precious tuition they pafs into the hands of another fet of priests at their colleges, where they are taught a little Catholic theology, the hiftory of the faints, and a little school logic; but not one branch of knowledge fitted to enlarge the mind, or benefit fociety. About the age of fourteen or fifteen, they return to their parents' houfe, and enter upon the routine of noble or fashionable life,-the chafe, and diffipation in the capital. The females are immured in convents of the groffeft ignorance till marriage. It is no uncommon thing for a woman of high rank to be unable either to read or write. All orders of the clergy, whether fecular or regular, are,' fays Mr Leckie, with few exceptions, illiterate, ignorant, and immoral. As the fees of ordina

tion are a confiderable perquifite of the bishops, and as it is a great object of pride, in every family not in fordid neceffity, to have one of the family a prieft, the number of clergy far exceeds even the immenfe funds deftined for their fupport. A great proportion of them are in the very lowest condition; and, notwithstanding the fuperftition of the people, have funk and degraded the profeffion. The ftupidity of the declamations addreffed from the pulpit, exceeds the belief of those who are acquainted only with the preachers of this country, in the fields, and at the corners of the ftreets.

man.

Among the other particulars in the fituation of Sicily, the condition of the army is, at this moment, an important object of attention. A small number only of the younger branches of the noble families choose the military life. The pay of the officers is wretched, and inadequate to fupport the appearance of a gentleThey are chiefly compofed of an inferior fort of people drawn from the towns, mixed with Swifs, Greek and Italian adventurers; of courfe, there is among them no high fentiment of military honour. Their profeffion is a mean one, in their own eyes, and in thofe of others. There is no ambition, therefore, to excel in it. The difcipline of the army is in the moft wretched state; and its civil affairs, in the hands of contractors, present nothing but a scene of plunder and diforder.

Such is a picture of the prefent fituation of Sicily. Our author has discharged an important duty in directing towards it the attention of his countrymen. Our principal object, in the prefent article, is to contribute our affiftance in preiling it upon their notice. It is much to be regretted that fo little is known on the

fubject;

fubject; for it is a picture, with fome flight adaptations, appli cable to a confiderable part of Europe, to all thofe countries, where the feudal inftitutions, and the Catholic religion remain in force, to a great proportion of the Auftrian dominions,-to Spain, as fhe was before her refurrection,-to Portugal,-to a great part of Italy, and in fome measure to Poland. Ruffia, with confiderable differences in the form of her religion, and of her political institu tions, is, nevertheless, in a condition perfectly analogous. The fituation of Sicily, indeed, has been fo little defcribed in books, that one hardly knows where to fend the inquirer for inftruction. The documents for Mr Leckie's account have been chiefly derived from a work compofed under the direction of the Marquis Caraccioli, who was viceroy of Sicily about twenty-five years ago, and, among other vain efforts towards reform, employed a Neapo litan lawyer, named Simonetti, to draw up a reprefentation of the fyftem of revenue and taxation. In the work, too, of Filangieri on the Science of Legiflation, fome important details are to be found. It will be a fhame to the British army, if they quit Sicily, after having remained idle in it fo long, and leave their countrymen still ignorant of any thing which can intereft a liberal mind, in the general administration of the country, or the condition and fentiments of the people.

After having fulfilled our purpofe in pointing out the unhappy government of Sicily as an object of inftructive contemplation, we fhall not add many words on what remains of Mr Leckie's performance. His great object in drawing the picture, is to point out the folly of expecting any affiftance from Sicily, or countries governed like Sicily, in our great plan of oppofing the extenfion of French dominion and power. He afferts, indeed, and there is but too much probability in the affertion, that we have much more to fear than to hope, both from the Sicilian government and the Sicilian people. The king, whofe fole delight is in the chafe, and who has the most infuperable averfion to bufinefs, is governed by the queen,-who, in her turn, is governed in the following manner. One of her chief favourites is an emigrant Frenchman, who has a wife in Paris, with whom he correfponds, and is the tool of another intriguer of the fame country. Another of her counsellors, is the Prior Serrati, the minifter of Finance, who is well known to be entirely in the French interest; and the third is Circello, who was chofen minifter for foreign affairs, apparently (as a blind to the English minifter) contrary to her wishes, but in reality according to her directions. The queen, it is known, has the utmoft averfion to the English; and though the is mean enough to treat them when prefent with the groffelt flattery, fhe has been heard publicly to de

clare,

clare, that the never fees an Englishman but the feels the guillotine on her neck. The king, accordingly, has been inspired with the utmoft jealoufy of the English; has removed his army from the command of the English general; and every thing is done which may tend to fhow the people in how little estimation the British are held. It was only in confequence of a ftipulation in the recent treaty, that the supplies fent out to the British army were exempted from the duties of ordinary merchandize, though no fhips belonging to the government of any other country were subject to taxes. The officers of the Sicilian army, whofe condition is fo much inferior to that of the British officers, are univerfally fired with envy and diflike of them, and would join the French against them, on the flightest motives. Even the troops which the king brought with him from Naples, Mr Leckie afferts, ' are jealous of the British; many are in the interest of the French; and none are fincerely attached to his caufe.' In regard to the people at large, Mr Leckie, as an eye-witnefs, makes the following declaration. The arrival of our forces in Sicily,' fays he, has caused a reflection which is in the mouth of every one. obtain an amelioration of our condition from the British, their coming will be the period of our ills, and the dawn of our profperity; but, if they leave things as they found them, we are all ready to join the French on the first summons.'

If we

As it is perfectly vain to expect to oppose the French by the efforts of corrupt governments, fuch as that of Sicily, and the other allies with whom we have hitherto acted, there is no other expedient, according to Mr Leckie, but that of erecting a barrier of good governments against the overwhelming torrent. Alas! the erection of good governments, we fear, is not so easy an enterprize as Mr Leckie feems to imagine. Yet there is fomething plaufible and flattering in his scheme. The Continent, he thinks, we must abandon to Bonaparte; but we have the empire of the fea; and in that may be included, if we choose it, the empire of the islands. In the islands, from the entrance of the Baltic, to the bottom of the Levant, we may, in his opinion, erect empires, which will surround Bonaparte as fortreffes; afford points of attack against him in all directions; maintain on the ocean an immenfe commerce; afford an innumerable population, from which we may with fafety recruit for the defence of our diftant fettlements; and, by the profperity they will attain, confole human nature, in fome measure, for the miferies which continental defpotifm imposes upon it. He does not explain, very distinctly, the mode in which he would have the British government to proceed. He feems to conclude, that, in most places, we should find the people fully prepared to cooperate with us. In the Greek islands,