The court of Naples had joined the first coalition against France in 1792, and had sent some troops to join the Austrians in the North of Italy, and others with a squadron to the expedition against Toulon.' In 1795 however, alarmed by the successes of Napoleon I., Ti peace was purchased of the Directory by paying a few millions of francs., In 1793, the French having occupied the papal state, the court of Naples formed a secret alliance with Austria, England, and Russia, but, Instead of waiting for the operlin5 of the campaign in Lombardy, which was to take place In the follow ing Fining, the Neapolitan army, 60,000 strong, began hostilities in November 1703, and marched upon Rome, which it occupied only for a few (lays, as the French generals, having collected their forces, attacked and routed several divisions of the Neapolitans, and cut off the communications between the rest; a general panic spread through the army ; the king, who had accom panied it as far as Rouse, fled back to Naples; Mack, who was his commander-in chief, followed his example ; and of the various corps that were left to themselves without any concerted plan or prepara tions in case of a reverse, come were dispersed or made prisoners, and otb,•re good their retreat to their own frontiers, whither the French followed them closely. The greatest confusion prevailed at the court of Naples ; the queen, beset by informers, fancied that the capital was full of conspirators, and determined to withdraw to Sicily. Ferdinand was easily persuaded to do the same, and the royal family left Naples on the 21st of December 1793. The French meantime were approaching, and the populace, left without a government and excited by denunciations against the Jaeoblus, rose, murdered a num ber of parsons, and for three days fought desperately against the advancing French in the streets of the capital. The events of Naples in 1799 form a romantio but tragical episode in the history of the Continental war, and they have become the theme of numerous narra tives. The reverses of the French in Lombardy in the spring of 1799, obliged them to abandon Naples, leaving only a mall garrison in it. The native republicans, or patriots as they were called, were few, and disliked by the lower classes. Cardinal Buffo landed in Calabria from Sicily, and preached a sort of political and religious crusade against the French and their partisans, and the whole kingdom was recou quered for Ferdinand in a short time. A dreadful reaction took place, in which thousands lost their lives, either murdered by the royalists, or condemned. by the courts instituted to try all those who were accused of republicanism.
Ferdinand returned to Naples, and in 1801 be concluded, through the mediation of Russia, a treaty of peace with France. But the past events and the proscriptions that had taken place in his name had destroyed all confidence between the government and the more enlightened part of the nation. In 1805 the court of Naples com mitted a second political error, worse than that of 1793. While professing to be at peace with France, it entered secretly into the coalition against that power; and while Napoleon was defeating the Austrians on the Danube, Russian and English troops were landed at Naples to join the army of that kingdom for the avowed purpose of attacking the French in the north of Italy. The consequence was, that Napoleon, after his victory at Austerlitz, declared that "the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign at Naples," and he sent a force under Massone to occupy that kingdom. Ferdinand and his court withdrew to Sicily a second time, where being protected by the English forces, they remained till 1815. A desultory but cruel war fare was carried on for several years in Calabria between the partisans of Ferdinand and those of Murat, whom Napoleon had made King of Naples, the details of which are vividly described by Botta, ' Storia Thalia,' twenty-fourth book, towards the end. But oven in Sicily the reign of Ferdinand (lid not run smooth. The court was extrava gant in its expenditure, the queen was as arbitrary as ever, and great jealousy existed between the Sicilians and the Neapolitan courtiers and emigrants. But Sicily had a parliament consisting of three orders, barons, clergy, and deputies of the towns, and the parliament would not sanction the levying of fresh taxes. The queen then ordered the imprisonment of five of the most influential barons. Meantime it was suspected that that princess, who had conceived dislike against the English, whom she considered as a check upon her, entertained secret communications with Napoleon, who iu 1810 had married her grand-niece Maria Louisa. A conspiracy against tho English was discovered at Messina. All these circumstances obliged the English government to interfere, and in January 1812 Ferdinand resigned his authority into the hands of his eldest son, Francis. A
parliament was assembled, which abolished feudality, and framed a new constitution upon a liberal basis. The queen's influence was now at an end, and after some fruitless intrigues she embarked in 1313 for Constantinople, from whence she went to Vienna, where elm (lied in the following year. For an account of these important Sicilian transactions ace Botta, and also a work styled ' De la Sidle at do sea Rapport-s avec l'Angleterre h I'dpoque do la Constitution de 1812,' Paris, 1827. In 1814 Ferdinand resumed the reins of government, and opened in person the Sicilian parliament of that year. In 1815, after the defeat of Joachim Murat by the Austrians, Ferdinand was recalled to the throne of Naples, and in June of that year ho returned to his old capital. In a well-written proclamation to the Neapolitans he promised them peace, a complete forgetfulness of tho past, impartial justice, and a steady administration ; and to a great extent he kept his word. The government of Ferdinand at Naples from 1815 till 1820 was comparatively mild, impartial, and orderly. But in Sicily, having dissolved the parliament, he never convoked it afterwards. By a decree of December 1810, he assumed tho title of Ferdinand I., King of the United Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, declaring that Sicily and Naples formed no longer distinct states, but were both subject to the same system of government.
Meantime a secret society, called Carhonari, were spreading them selves fast through the kingdom, especially among the landed proprie tors in the provinces, and consequently through the ranks of the provincial militia. The land-tax, which was more than 20 per cent. on the rent, made this class of people dissatisfied and ready for change. The origin of this society or acct, for it was religious as well as politi cal, is somewhat obscure : it seems to have come from France into Italy, and was established in the kingdom of Naples under Murat, with his sanction ; but was afterwards proscribed by him, and it then found favour with the court of Sicily. On the 2nd of July 1820, a military revolt, led by two subalterns, broke out in a regiment of cavalry stationed near Naples; other troops joined in it, and the Car boned of the capital and provinces openly espoused its cause, demand ing a representative constitution for the kingdom. Ferdinand, pressed by his ministers, promised to establish a constitution in a given time; but the Carbonari would not wait, saying it was better to adopt one already made, namely, that of the Cortes of Spain; and thus the Spanish constitution was proclaimed, and a parliament was convoked at Naples. Meantime the Sicilians, ever jealous of their nationality, demanded a separate parliament for themselves, and a repeal of the union of the two kingdoms, which the parliament at Naples refusing, a revolt broke out at Palermo, which was put down after much blood shed. Soon after, the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, assembled at Troppau, wrote to King Ferdinand, inviting him to a conference at Laybach, in Carinthia, without which they stated that they could not acknowledge the new system of government established at Naples. Ferdinand, after some demur, obtained leave of the par liament to proceed to the congress in December 1820, leaving his son, Francis, as his vicegerent at Naples. In February 1821, Ferdinand, by a letter written from Laybach, signified to his son that the allied sovereigns were determined not to acknowledge the actual constitu tional government as established at Naples, deeming it incompatible with the peace of that country and the security of the neighbouring states; hut that they wished Ferdinand himself, assisted by the wisest and moat able among his subjects, to give to his kingdom institutions calculated to secure peace and prosperity to the country. Soon after wards the Austrian army passed the Po, moving on towards Naples. The parliament of Naples determined upon resistance, but at the first encounter, near Rieti, a Neapolitan division was defeated; the rest of the army being alarmed at the thought of fighting against the will of their own king, disbanded, and the Austrians entered Naples without any further opposition, at the end of March 1821. Ferdinand soon afterwards returned to his capital on what may be styled his third restoration. The leading constitutionalists were allowed to emigrate ; but of those who remained some were tried and sent to the Presidii. The government again became absolute; and—Ferdinand now having his dread of tho constitutionalists pretty well removed—not so lenient or liberal as it was before 1820. After reigning four years longer, Ferdinand died suddenly on the morning of the 4th of January 1825, aged seventy-six, having been king sixty-five years. He was succeeded by his son, Francis L