fifting of turns on the heel, much footing and fnapping of the fingers*: it feems the delight of their foul, and a conftant holiday diverfion of the young women, who are, in general, far from handfone, although they have fine eyes and striking features. Their hands and feet are clumfy, their fhapes neglected, their necks flabby, and their king difcoloured by living fo much in the fun without bonnets. Amongst them we may find almost every mode of hair-dreffing feen on the Greek and Roman coins t.

The women are always fighting and fcolding; but never refift their husband's authority, when he comes to feparate the combatants, and carry home his dishevelled fpoufe, who feems to ftand as much in awe of her confort as the Ruffian wives do of theirs, and fuffers herself to be beaten by him with as little murmuring. I was fhewn a woman here, who, during the life of her firft husband, was a pattern of modefty and evennefs of temper to the whole parifh; but upon contracting a fecond marriage, furprized and fcandalized the neighbourhood with her perpetual riots and obftreperoufnefs. On being reprimanded for her behaviour by the curate, the very frankly acknow ledged that her former husband underflood the management of a

wife, and used to check her intemperate burfts of paffion by timely correction; but that her prefent helpmate was too mild to apply the proper chastifement which every wife requires, more or lefs. Men feldom interfere in feminine brawls; and if they do, generally content themfelves with abufing, threatening, or fhaking a cudgel or pitchfork at their antagonift, till the crowd comes in to part them. Sometimes a man is stabbed; but this is a rare event among the fifhermen, the clafs of inhabitants I have had moft conftantly under my eye. Manners vary with the diftricts; in fome they engage with bludgeons, and thofe are the true lazaroni of Maffaniello; in others the attack is made with knives and other deadly weapons; but the Neapolitans are by no means fo bloody and revengeful a people as they are reprefented by many travellers. It requires more than a flight provocation to lead them to extremities. During the prodigious hurry and confufion of the races in Carnival, not the leaft tumult or quarrel was heard of; and even in the cruel famine of 1764, the only act of violence committed by a hungry populace, increased to double its number by the concourfe of peafants from the provinces, where all crops had failed, was to break open and

pillage

pillage a fingle baker's fhop. Can as much be faid for the temper of the mobs at London and Edinburgh? Drunkennefs is not a common vice at Naples, and therefore quarrels, its ufual confequences, are rare; befides, the Neapolitan rabble allow each other a great latitude of abute and fcolding before they are wound p to a fighting pitch. It is alfo uncommon to fee any thing in public like gallantry among the people; no foldiers are met leading their doxies, or girls going about in queft of lovers; all which are, in other countries, fources of riot and bloodfhed. At Naples there is nothing but a ere nominal police; yet burglaries are unknown, riots ftill more fo, and the number of affaflinations inconfiderable: it bears no proportion to that of the murders committed in the diftant provinces, where, I am credibly informed, no less than four thoufand perfons are killed annually. Most of these crimes are perpetrated with guns in the mountainous countries, where a great ferocity of character and wildnefs of manners prevail, and where the inhabitants are more wandering, and lefs expofed to the purfuits of the law, which is indeed far from formidable in any part of the realm. It would require a prudent, inflexible, and long exertion of impartial criminal juftice, to reduce to order the fierce untractable aflaflin of the mountainous regions of Calabria, who; being driven by the oppreflion of the barons and officers of the revenue to penury and defpair, fets little value upon his life, and braves danger to the laft drop of his

blood. The execution, however cruel, of a few banditti, would ftrike but little terror into their affociates, and produce no effect but that of ridding fociety of one or two bad members; nor will any meafure of police ever prove effectual, unless government adopt and purfue, with steadiness, a fyftem that may leffen the grievances of the poor, reftrain the defpotifm of the petty tyrants, and, by providing the peafant with more means of fupporting himself and family by honeft labour, guard him against the temptation of taking up a lawlets line of life. The cafe is different in the foft and fertile plains of the happy Campagna; there the well-timed prompt execution of a criminal, without allowing him any unneceffary refpite to prepare for death, and without fuffering priests to affemble round him, to excite the devotion, compaffion, and almoft admiration of the crowd, would operate with great energy on the daftardly minds of the docile race that inhabit this charming climate; the terror of active juftice would prove a powerful check to murder and violent outrages.

At prefent, the forms of criminal jurifprudence are here fo ill ordained, fo multiplied, and fo complex, that if the King were to infift upon a villain, who was taken in the fact, being tried, and if found guilty, hanged before the end of three days, the difpatch would almoft kill the judges with fatigue; for the trial and procedures would employ them eighteen hours out of each twenty-four. First, the accufation must be laid according to rule, and

witneffes

witneffes examined; next, the council for the prifoner pleads a couple of hours; then the advocate for the fifco replies during one hour; and after him the advocate of the poor makes a rejoinder, which he has a right to fpin out for two hours: this done, every one of the four judges harangues; then all the notifications are made, examinations canvaffed, proofs debated, and a thousand trifling formalities obferved, which occafon fuch fhameful, infurmountable delays, as eternize a criminal procefs. It happened lately, that upon the final determination of the trial and condemnation of a malefactor, a meffage was fent to the jailor to bring the culprit into court in order to receive fentence; when, behold! the turnkey appeared, and made affidavit that the prifoner had died of a long fit of ficknefs the Christmas twelvemonth before. As the falary of a judge in Naples is only fifty duCats a month (91 75 64) he cannot afford to be honeft or expeditious: but the cafe is ftill worfe in the provinces, where the judges have but twenty-five ducats, and with that must keep a coach and proper household eftablishment. The fcrivani, or commiffaries, who have the department of warrants, arrefts, and police, are allowed no pay, though they muft keep thirty bailiffs a-piece under them; fo that they are naturally very active in taking up an offender, where there is a probability of extorting any money out of him: when once ir durance, the prifoner ceafes to be an object of confideration to them, and therefore they take no pains to forward his trial, or bring him to juftice.

There are at this day above twelve thoufand criminals rotting in the different prifons of the kingdom, whofe maintenance costs the state above two hundred thousand ducats a year (thirty-feven thousand five hundred pounds).

The fishermen of Santa Lucia are the handfomeft men in Naples; they have the true old Grecian features, and fuch well-propor tioned limbs, that they might ferve for models in any academy of defign: they are the most fubftantial and beft lodged portion of the Neapolitan populace. It is true, as moft writers affert, that the houferoom of this metropolis is very inadequate to the population, which, according to authentic accounts, amounted, at the clofe of the year 1776, to three hundred and fifty thousand fixtyone fouls; and that numbers of thefe are deftitute of house and property. But it is not equally a fact, as they affert, that winter and fummer thefe houfelefs inhabitants pafs their lives in the open air, and fleep in all weathers in the ftreets. In fummer it is very pleasant fo to do, but in winter not even a dog could bear the inclemency of the weather, not so much on account of cold, as of wet. When the rainy feafon fets in, it commonly lafts feveral fucceffive weeks, falling, not in fuch show. ers as we are acquainted with in England, where we have rain more or lefs every month in the year, but by pailfuls, an abfolute water-fpout, that carries all before it, and almost drowns the unfortunate paffenger who is caught out of doors by the form. The quantity of rain at Naples is much more confiderable than that which

falls

bility in general are well-ferved, and live comfortably, but it is not their custom to admit ftrangers to their table; the number of poor dependants who dine with them, and cannot properly be introduced into company, prevents the great families from inviting foreigners: another reafon may be, their fleeping after dinner in fo regular a manner as to undrefs and go to bed. No ladies or gentlemen finish their toilet till the afternoon, on which account they dine at twelve or one o'clock. The great officers of state and minifters, live in a different manner, and keep fumptuous tables, to which ftrangers and others have frequent invitations.

The establishment of a Neapolitan grandee's houfehold is upon a very expenfive plan; the number of fervants, carriages, and horfes, would fuffice for a lovereign prince; and the wardrobe of their wives is formed upon the fame magnificent fcale; yet it is a fixed rule, that all ladies, whatever be the circumftance of their husbands, affluent or circumferib ed, have an hundred ducats a month, and no more, allowed them for pin-money. At the birth of every child, the hufband makes his wife a prefent of an hundred ounces, and fome valuable trinkets, according to his fortune. Marriage portions are not very great in general; it does not coft a nobleman more to marry a

daughter than it does to make her a nun; for a thoufand pounds will not defray the expence of the ceremonies at her reception and profeffion: the muft have a penfion fettled upon her; and referves, befides, a power over her inheritance, in cafe the fhall ar

rive at any dignity in the convent, and with to enrich it with buildings, plate, or vestments.

Servants and artificers of the city give from fifty to an hundred ducats with their daughters; peafants and country workmen go as far as three hundred. Females at and near Naples are esteemed helplefs and indolent, and therefore have always twice or thrice as much fortune as their brothers, who have greater refources in their ftrength and activity. A girl would fcarce get a husband, if her lover did not expect to be reim burfed by her portion the fum he had paid away with his own fifters. In the plains, it is cuftomary for a peafant, on the birth of a daughter, to plant a row of poplar trees, which are cut down and fold at the end of feventeen years, to make up a fortune for her. The proverbial be nediction of Figli mafchi (male children) which a Neapolitan gives a woman when the freezes, is founded on the great facility with which the common people provide for their fons: as foon as they can run about they are able to earn their bread, while their fifters remain idle at home, or beg till they are old enough to attract the notice of the men.