giorno anch' io," is particularly beautiful, and written with all the softness and pathos of which the Italian language is susceptible.

The Neapolitan nobility is divided into two classes, the old families, among whom there are many names well known in history such as Pignatelli, Stigliano, San Severo, Caraffa, and many others, and the new, upon whom the various governments which have succeeded each other within the last fifty years have bestowed titles. Many of the latter were raised to their rank by the old Queen Caroline of Austria; others by Murat. The Neapolitan noblemen in general have an outward dignity of appearance, joined to ease of manners, sociability of temper, and a pleasing courteousness of address. They are profuse and splendid, often beyond their means, which were much curtailed by the French. They receive well strangers who are introduced to them; and it is much to their honour that they support a social and brilliant establishment, l' Academia de' Nobili, which is the first of the kind in Italy, and to which foreigners are admitted in the most liberal and hospitable manner. Several of the Neapolitan nobility are at the same time grandees of Spain, such as the dukes of Monteleone, del Vasto, and Berwick and Alva. Others are also Roman princes. In general, however, their fortunes are on the decline. The Sicilian

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MUSICAL COMPOSERS.

families, such as Paternò, Butera, Trabia, &c., are the richest in the kingdom. With regard to the feudal oppression exercised by the Neapolitan barons upon their vassals, such a grievance had been long out of existence even before the French invasion. The crown had abolished all feudal authority; and those foreign writers, who, on a late occasion, have taxed the nobility with practices of this sort, were confounding all the while the old fierce feudal lords of the middle ages with their modern refined and democratized successors.

Naples is well known as the country of music; its conservatorii are nurseries from which many eminent professors of this science have been produced. The list of the Neapolitan composers is very long; the names of Cimarosa and Paisiello shine above the rest like two stars of the first magnitude. Among the living ones, a young nobleman of the name of Caraffa has composed several operas, which have been received with considerable applause, and he promises fair to support the character of the Neapolitan school of music.

Naples has produced many eminent painters, among whom are the well known Salvator Rosa, Solimene, Santafede, Cavalier Arpino, and others mentioned already in the description of the churches.

MECHANICAL ARTS.

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Mechanical arts have made little progress at Naples; although they boast of the china of their royal manufactory, of the cutlery of Campo Basso, the woollen cloths of Arpino, their guitars and strings, and their carriages, which are certainly the best specimens of their workmanship. Still, generally speaking, the arts are here in their infancy, and people who can afford to pay for the refinements of life are obliged to get them from France, England, and Germany. The articles of furniture made at Naples are clumsy, heavy, and unfinished; their doors, window-frames, and shutters, never close well, and admit the air through innumerable interstices, so that, on a rainy or chilly day, one is obliged to run out of the house to warm oneself. The best jewellers, milliners, tailors, and shoemakers, are fo reigners; the best restaurateurs are Milanese; the only circulating library is kept by a Frenchman; in the same manner the architect who has erected the colonnade in front of the king's palace, is a native of Lombardy; a German has established a cotton manufactory at Piedemonte, a small town, about fifty miles from the capital; and the principal merchants and bankers at Naples are also strangers; all which is certainly not to the credit

of the natives.

The best specimen of the state of the arts and

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YEARLY EXHIBITION.

manufactures in this country, is the yearly exhibition of the produce of national industry, which is open to the public in the month of May, in the lower apartments of the National Palace de' Studj. This was first instituted under the French, in imitation of their own exhibition of the Louvre. This kind of display has been looked upon by some travellers more as a show to gratify national vanity, than as a useful encouragement to industry; but in a country like Naples, which is so backward in all things of this kind, and where foreigners monopolize all the credit and profit of the mechanical arts, I think án exhibition of native workmanship must be productive of some good effects, by stimulating the self-love, and rousing the dormant energies of the people. I saw this year some good woollen cloth, from ten to twelve ducats the canna (which is a Neapolitan measure, about two yards English); sub. stantial but showy silks of the royal manufactory at Santo Leucio, near Caserta; well tanned leather, good hats, coral trinkets, combs of tortoise or horn, which are esteemed in other parts of Italy; fine china ware, mathematical instruments, articles of furniture, &c. This people seem, in general, rather better imitators than inventors. There was also an exhibition of paintings by living artists, among which were some good landscapes by Cali, and

PEOPLE SUSCEPTIBLE OF IMPROVEMENT.

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some historical pieces and portraits by Falciani; I saw also some very good miniatures by M. Comte, a French artist. Zuccarello, an eminent miniature painter, a native of Calabria, died some time ago. Among the painters resident in Naples, must be mentioned Huber, a landscape painter, and a Swiss by birth, an artist of great genius; and Meyer, who excels in his views and costumes of this country, either in body colours or à l'acquarella.

From all that I have said, it will appear that the Neapolitans are possessed of many good natural qualities, which either are slumbering in them, or are not directed towards proper and beneficial objects; yet the elements exist with which many things might be effected: and the mass of the nation, particularly in the provinces, is rather below civilization than advanced to the extreme of corruption; their minds are like an unbroken soil, which contains all its primitive strength and fertility, and which, with the help of a skilful labourer, might bring forth an abundant and valuable harvest. If this country continue to enjoy peace, if the government apply itself at last to the encouragement of education and industry, and if the laws be found sufficient to protect property, Naples will certainly improve every year; and the presence of many intelligent foreigners, who resort to this place from every quarter of

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