Produced by David Widger
By Lewis Goldsmith
Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London
PARIS, August, 1805.
MY LORD:—No Sovereigns have, since the Revolution, displayed moregrandeur of soul, and evinced more firmness of character, than thepresent King and Queen of Naples. Encompassed by a revolutionary volcanomore dangerous than the physical one, though disturbed at home anddefeated abroad, they have neither been disgraced nor dishonoured. Theyhave, indeed, with all other Italian Princes, suffered territorial andpecuniary losses; but these were not yielded through cowardice ortreachery, but enforced by an absolute necessity, the consequence of thedesertion or inefficacy of allies.
But Their Sicilian Majesties have been careful, as much as they wereable, to exclude from their councils both German Illuminati and Italianphilosophers. Their principal Minister, Chevalier Acton, has provedhimself worthy of the confidence with which his Sovereigns have honouredhim, and of the hatred with which he has been honoured by allrevolutionists—the natural and irreconcilable enemies of all legitimatesovereignty.
Chevalier Acton is the son of an Irish physician, who first wasestablished at Besancon in France, and afterwards at Leghorn in Italy. Heis indebted for his present elevation to his own merit and to thepenetration of the Queen of Sardinia, who discovered in him, when young,those qualities which have since distinguished him as a faithfulcounsellor and an able Minister. As loyal as wise, he was, from 1789, anenemy to the French Revolution. He easily foresaw that the speciouspromise of regeneration held out by impostors or fools to delude theignorant, the credulous and the weak, would end in that universalcorruption and general overthrow which we since have witnessed, and theeffects of which our grandchildren will mourn.
When our Republic, in April, 1792, declared war against Austria, andwhen, in the September following, the dominions of His Sardinian Majestywere invaded by our troops, the neutrality of Naples continued, and wasacknowledged by our Government. On the 16th of December following, ourfleet from Toulon, however, cast anchor in the Bay of Naples, and agrenadier of the name of Belleville was landed as an Ambassador of theFrench Republic, and threatened a bombardment in case the demands hepresented in a note were not acceded to within twenty-four hours. Beingattacked in time of peace, and taken by surprise, the Court of Naples wasunable to make any resistance, and Chevalier Acton informed our grenadierAmbassador that this note had been laid before his Sovereign, who hadordered him to sign an agreement in consequence.
When in February, 1793, the King of Naples was obliged, for his ownsafety, to join the league against France, Acton concluded a treaty withyour country, and informed the Sublime Porte of the machinations of ourCommittee of Public Safety in sending De Semonville as an Ambassador toConstantinople, which, perhaps, prevented the Divan from attackingAustria, and occasioned the capture and imprisonment of our emissary.
Whenever our Government has, by the success of our arms, been enabled todictate to Naples, the removal of Acton has been insisted upon; butthough he has ceased to transact business ostensibly as a Minister, hisinfluence has always, and deservedly, continued unimpaired, and he stillenjoys the just confidence and esteem of his Prince.
But is His Sici