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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1485: NAPLES.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

NAPLES.

For many years the intercourse between the governments of her majesty and the King of Naples were unsatisfactory, for the reasons assigned in previous chapters. During the period included in this chapter, Naples was in a very disturbed state, and the people of Italy were desirous to aid their brethren of that kingdom in bringing about a revolution. A ship, called Cagliari, the property of Sardinian subjects, was engaged, ostensibly for other purposes but really to land a small force in Naples, with supplies of arms and munitions of war, and precipitate a revolution. The captain of the ship was a Sardinian, and ignorant of the plot. The engineers were Englishmen, and also ignorant of the plot. The conspirators seized the ship, and compelled the captain and engineers to direct the vessel to Naples. The government of that country had information of the design, and sent a war vessel to intercept that on board of which the conspirators were. The capture was effected. The Sardinian captain and British engineers, although obviously innocent, were subjected to cruel injuries and indignities. The Sardinian government interposed, but was not in a condition to enforce its rights. Lord Palmerston’s cabinet neglected the claims of the British subjects so injured, except by empty and futile remonstrances. When that cabinet was thrown out for its timid policy towards France, on the refugee question, the government of Lord Derby took the matter up with energy, and Lord Malmesbury, then foreign secretary, adopted a tone as bold and as English, as his conduct in the case of Mr. Mather, in Tuscany, some years before, was incompetent and cowardly. The threat of force by the English government secured the restoration of the unjustly imprisoned English, and some measure of compensation. This circumstance gave weight to the government of Lord Derby, both at home and abroad.