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    still more harassing and oppressive While such good care is taken ( for th& System is the same now as it was in 1791 ) to render it a difficult matter to print a book in Naples , equal care is taken to render it expensive to bring 6 ne into the kingdom , or to carry itabout for your instruction . There is a duty of three carlini per volume on importation , and the same is payable over again on carrying books to a neighbouring town and bringing them

    back agam into Naples . The jEnglish Consul informed me , that a gentle-: man going to visit Pompeii , ei g ht miles distant , with a German book in his hand , was obliged to pay the duty on his return from his visit . He likewise mentioned , that having had consigned to him a gxm and a copy of the Scri p * tures , though the importation of arms is contrary to law , the gun was imme-, diately given up to him ,, but he had a good deal of trouble to get his Bible

    put of the Custom House . In my own case , a singular contrivance was had recourse to in order to deter me and others , no doubt , from bringing so dangerous a book into the kingdom of Naples . If two or more vohitne sf ar $ bound into one , the vplume is liable to the * amount of duty on each sepa- * rately . The right was , however , never enforced until within the last two years , when the duties have been farmed . I had amongst my books a copy of the Vulgate , in one vol . 12 mo ., which was examined page by page , and

    wherever a fresh title occurred , the Pentateuch , Judges , &c , a fresh item was added to my account , until my single volume had multiplied itself under the magic pen of the Custom-house officer into twenty-foaiy and I was charged with 72 carlini , a sum which { although the carRno varies in value from 3 d * to 4 | d , according to the rate of excnange , yet as a carlino goes as for at Naples as a shilling in England , ) may be reckoned equivalent to £ 3 , 12 , ? . By announcing my intention of abandoning my books rather than pay the

    duty , and by leaving them at the Custom-house , I have obtained , through the influence of the British Consul , permission to re-export them without payment . But the delay occasioned by this circumstance , and by tha ecclesiastical censorship , which took away from me some of my books during my stay , and has put me upon troublesome applications for their recovery , has obliged me to remain six weeks in Naples .

    In spite of the police # nd the ¦ C ustom-house , there is a good news-room and circulating library at Naples ; but in order to have any books wortfy reading , fraud is obli g ed to be played off against injustice , awi bribery against rapacity , in a way which it is shocking to think of . But little provision is made lor the education of the poor here . The Orphan Asylum , and one gratuitous school for giris , are the only general institutions having this object , which I can hear of . The schools for the

    Qitartieres , liberally supported by the French during their sway , ate fatten into neglect ; but the leeuits' college has been restore ^ . There are two tnagazines published here , very trivial performances , and relating entirely to French literature , as the court of Naples entirely discourages the use of the sweet and majestic tongue of Italy , < or rather Tuseany , and the study of its

    eharming literature . The monarch sets the noble example , I am toid , of speaking nothing but the eoarse / and vulgar dtaleet of Naples , while the nobles speak French . The discourses I have heard from the priests have generally been in so weak and childish a strain as not to be worth giving any account of . On the alternate Sundays I have preferred attending the French service , where I could at least be addressed as a man . The

    degraded state of public morals is acknowledged by the Neapolitans themselves . But I have found some of those to be the greatest cheats who began with saying , " Though I am a Neapolitan I speak the truth ; " or , "I do not

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    Narrative of a ftteidm&e qf Ftiur Months < tt Nnptei . 291

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    y 2

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 291, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/3/