NAPLES, an ancient kingdom in the south of Italy, is bounded on the north-west by the states of the Church, on the west and south by the Mediterranean, on the north east by the Adriatic. It reaches from 13° 18' to 18° 50' of east longitude, and from 37° 46' to 42" 55' of north latitude. The length, from the limits of the Pope's ter ritory on the north, to the extremity of Calabria on the south, is about 360 British miles ; the greatest breadth 120 ; the superficial extent being estimated at something more than 30;000 square miles, and the population at 5,000,000 souls. It is divided into 15 provinces, and in cludes several small islands in both the seas which bound it.
The general aspect of the country is variegated and picturesque. The spine of Italy, the Apcnnine chain of mountains, passing through this tract, and sending. off shoots in several directions, gives a character of inequa lity to the surface; at one time rising into lofty and rug ged summits, which merit the epithet sublime ; at another swelling into gentle eminences, which, covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, and fringed with a profusion of elegant shrubs, arc justly denominated beautiful. Monte Gargano is the principal secondary branch ; it starts at right angles from the main ridge, and proceeds eastward to form the promontory whose name it beam Another secondary branch extends south-eastward into the province of Otranto ; the main ridge itself now bend ing to the south and terminating at the Faro of AIessinti. The principal summits of this district are the Gran Sasso d'Italia, 8000 feet above thc level of the sea ; the Velino, 8300 ; and the Sila, 5000. The famous Vesuvius is an insulated mountain; its volcanic action, not its height, renders it worthy of mention. The elevation of its crater is only S900 feet.
The climate of Naples exhibits considerable variety. In the mountainous parts of the kingdom, of course, cold is the prevailing characteristic; none of the peaks, however, ascend to the region of perpetual frost. The eastern provinces, on the other hand, being screened by the Apennines, are frequently incommoded with droughts; and some of their vegetable productions, as the aloes and the palen, indicate the approach to a tropical temperature. Calabria is moist and hot. The district around the capital is temperate, and delightful beyond any other in Europe. It is called the Campagna Felix,
and well deserves that name. There is a luxurious balminess in the air; an azure brightness in the sky; a magnificence in the atmospheric phenomena, which strike every traveller with admiration. The feeling is heightened by contrast also; you arrive at Naples, from the north, by the Pomptine NIarshes ; the most insalu brious and dist-nal country of the world conducts you to the fittest. But the beauty and grandeur of the CUM pagna Felix are not without their drawbacks. 'File eruptions of Vesuvius are sometimes dangerous, and earthquakes are both frequent and destructive. The year 1783 is still recollected with terror over all the kingdotn; and more lately, in 1803, a violent shock was experienced, from which the capital ancl its neighbour hood sustained great damage.
The soil here is light and sometimes volcanic, but generally fertile ; a better system of agriculture might render most of it eminently fertile. A little draining in one place, a little irrigation in another, arc often all that the ground asks of the husbandman; but even this he seldom grants. His mode of cultivation is the rudest imaginable. He ploughs the land and sows it annually -with corn ; and when it will no longer yield him any crop, he leaves it to recover as it likes. Nor will this igno rance and inattention of the farmer appear surprising, if we take his circumstances into view. He is usually a metayer, and the terms of the contract are grinding to him. Ile receives his patch of ground at first stocked by the landlord, and provided with seed and such clumsy implements as he requires, all of which he is bound to replace at the expitation of his lease; he manages the farm by his own labour, and according to his own plan ; and a thIrd of the pioduce is his whole reward. In Lombat (I) a half of the produce makes the peasant happy', industrious, skilful : in Naples, a third makes hinn a sloven, a beggar, frequently a smuggler or a robber. The government in Lombardy has secured the terms of the peasant's contract with his master, by law : the govern ment in Naples treats with the banditti who infest its dominions, and often pays them a salary to restrain their depredations.