truly for the intereft of the higher orders, than for that of the lower. How infinitely more exalted is the fituation of an English nobleman, than that of a Sicilian! How much for the intereft has it been, of the higher orders in England, that their aggreffions were checked by the elevation of the people! And how unfortunate is it for the nobles of Sicily, that their natural, but unenlightened efforts for their own advantage, were allowed to proceed till they produced the inftitutions which now defolate their country! Whatever is for the intereft of the whole, muft, by neceflity, be for the intereft of thofe in whofe hands the greatest fhares of the national poffeffions and national honours are placed.

We have seen in what manner the influence of the Sicilian nobles is exerted in the general administration of their country. The manner in which it is exerted on their own territories, which extend to a third part of the kingdom, is no uninteresting consideration. In all the towns situated upon his own lands, the baron nominates the magistrates, or members of the corporations, and the civil and criminal judges within his fief. The Tribunal of Patrimony, however, in consequence of the business which it has to transact with the corporations, in superintending the taxes which they are bound to pay, has pretty generally assumed a right of confirming the choice of the baron. Where the lord, ' says Mr Leckie, has the absolute choice, the slavery of the peasant is complete.' Besides the right of nominating the magistrates and the judges, he reserved to himself the power of distraining at his own pleasure, in case of arrears or debts incurred to him on his estates. Among some reforms which the Marquis Caraccioli, a few years ago, when viceroy of Sicily, vainly attempted, and lost his place for the attempt, he put an end to the power of distraining at the discretion of the baron,-a practice which fortunately has not been resumed. The baron, however, still exercises the exclusive privilege of baking the bread which is sold in the markets over his whole territory. This privilege is annually sold to the best bidder; and no one can, either publicly or privately, sell bread, but the individual by whom the monopoly is purchased. As there is no competition, it is easy to conceive in what manner the market is supplied. The bread is not only bad, but unwholesome. But it is not enough to usurp the privi lege of baking the bread on his territory; the baron usurps that also of killing the meat, and assumes the monoplay of butchering for his vassals. This, too, is annually sold for the highest sum it will fetch, and is a monopoly not only against the purchaser of meat, but the vender of cattle; for no one must sell his ox but to the baron's butcher. As the price at which the butcher must sell his meat is fixed in the contract, and two lean oxen,' says N 4

our

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.

The courts of juftice in Sicily are in a fituation corresponding to the other inftitutions of the kingdom. Befides the courts, established 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 itself into a court of law; and there are two other general tribunals for civil causes. The falaries of the judges are trifling; their chief emoluments depending upon the fees of fuits, and the bribes which they openly receive. The administration of juftice, Mr Leckie reprefents as venal and oppressive 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,

a

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 institutions 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 domeftics, 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 circumstances with unwearied pliability; and as cunning and fervility are the principal means of lightening his burdens, he is feldom deficient in thofe accomplishments. He is very often the house-steward, and almost always the confidant of the master or mistress in their amours. With this man the pupils fpend a great part of their time among the fervants, witneffes of the arts which they mutually practise,

It

and

and fuccessful 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 ints, and a little school Jogic; 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' house, 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 ordination are a confiderable perquisite 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 streets.

Among the other particulars in the fituation of Sicily, the condition of the army is, at this moment, an important object of attention. A fmall 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 gentleman. They are chiefly compofed of an inferior fort of people drawn from the towns, mixed with Swifs, Greek and Italian adventurers; of course, 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 most wretched state; and its civil affairs, in the hands of contractors, prefent nothing but a scene of plunder and disorder.

Such is a picture of the present situation 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 affistance in preffing it upon their notice. It is much to be regretted that fo little is known on the

Lubject;

fubject; for it is a picture, with fome flight adaptations, applicable 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 the 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 institutions, 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 Neapolitan lawyer, named Simonetti, to draw up a representation of the fyltem 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 ftill 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 shall 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 business, 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 counfellors, is the Prior Serrati, the minister 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 utmost aversion 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,