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pains to enlighten , and of indigence , which they will not spare a farthing to relieve . One would suppose , that only to save themselves from the pain of ennui , they would employ a little of their time in teaching the children of the poor to read and write , and forming them to good manners ; hut on the contrary , the rising generation are entirely neglected , and are , in consequence , so rude and insolent as to be a public nuisance . A stranger
walking the streets is liable to be called after and insulted by them . On one occasion a stone was thrown at me , and a German artist informed me , that while engaged in sketching from nature under the rocks , he had frequently stones and earth thrown down upon his head from the cliffs . One of his brother artists , he informed me , having just completed a four days' labour at Amalfi in this neighbourhood , a youth who had long watched the progress of his work came behind him unobserved , and with a handful of mud
completely destroyed it . When I had occasion to make little purchases in the town , I found myself cheated in the quality , the price , and the change , and my remonstrances were replied to with abuse . 1 was anxious to know whether this state of things was attributable to ignorance or not , and I found that although great numbers had either there or at Naples received the elements of knowledge , the means of further improvement were wholly withheld from ( hem , from two main causes , the discouragement of the priests , and the expensive duty on the importation of books laid on by the
government . I made diligent inquiry for any one who could shew me a book of any kind , and as the great mass of the population during the cooler hours of the day live in their balconies , exposed to view , if any one ever read , I must have seen it in the course of my stay . But the feet never once came under my observation during eleven weeks * I need scarcely add that there is no shop in Sorrento in which any kind of book is exposed for sale . After I had been nine weeks in the place , two young men travelled that way bearing a large basket of books between them , containing some Saints ' books , and a few wretched French romances in miserable type and paper .
I formed an acquaintance with the principal physician of the place . Unlike his neighbours , he possessed a few books , and we read Italian history together every evening . As we conversed freely upon various subjects , I was surprised that he never opened his lips upon the present state of his native country . I at length made direct inquiries , when , lowering his tone of voice , and speaking in French , instead of Italian , as before , he said , the state of the kingdom was most deplorable , and the worst was , that no one
knew when he was safe in speaking his thoughts , for that spies were out in every direction . All confidence in one another was destroyed , since few had virtue to resist the bribe to betray a friend . Even the secrets of confession haxl been revealed by the priests , under a general dispensation from the Pope from their oaths of secresy , as far as regards political sentiments . " The insurrections and revolutions we have had , particularly the last two in 1819 and 1823 , have swept away almost all our ablest men . And the
few men of talent who remain alive , shut themselves up in the bosom of their families . We were wont to have social meetings in the evenings , but now they are all over . Every man is suspicious that his neighbour may be a ppy . The priests are now the only favoured class , and absorb all and return nothing . Here , for example , where there are so many poor famishing creatures , I never find a single priest that will do any thing for tjhejr relief , " "But the kingdom of Naples , " said I , " has always been exempt from the Inquisition . ? " " Even uiat boast , " he replied , ** is now taken away from us * For since the last insurrection , four years ago , the
Untitled Article
218 Narrative of a Residence of Four Months at Naples .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/2/
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