"The good people of Naples are bent upon demolishing St. Elmo, and are only awaiting the dictator's bidding to lay hand to the work. A tough job they will find it, I am sure. As I was walking yesterday along the upper battlements the impatient citizens were already busy pulling back the huge brass guns, each of which was most offensively pointed at some of the most densely crowded quarters of the town, and turning their muzzles inward. What a fortress that was, and what a protection to the city! It was no bad emblem of the whole sea and land might of the Bourbon—worse than useless against foreign aggression, wholly and exclusively directed to crush internal commotion."
The condition of Naples on the 12th of September was thus described in a private letter of that date:
"There is much to be done here, and Garibaldi is doing it well. It is impossible to take up a journal, or move about in the midst of the vast crowds which throng the capital, without feeling that a master-spirit is here. Long before the city has shaken off its slumber, the dictator is up and driving about. Yesterday he went to visit Nisida, and surprised the British library, on his return, with a visit at half-past six o'clock A.M, wishing to purchase some books. During the day he was hard at work receiving visitors and legislating, and the following are some of the fruits of his labors:
"All political prisoners are to be liberated immediately. All custom-house barriers between Sicily and the Neapolitan continent are abolished. Twelve infant asylums, one for each quarter, are to be established in the capital at the public expense, and are to be municipal institutions. Secret ministerial funds are abolished. The trial by jury in criminal cases is to be established. The order of Jesuits, with all their dependencies, is abolished in the territory. Two Sicilies, and their property declared national. All contracts on property for the benefit of the order are annulled. Considering that religious fanaticism and aristocratic pride induced the late government to make distinctions even between the dead, the burial of the dead is henceforward absolutely forbidden within the walls of a city. The traffic in grain and flour with Ancona is prohibited.
"All these decrees have a history attached to them, which, if narrated, would tell of sufferings and persecutions almost incredible. They are admirable, and in themselves amount to a beneficial revolution; but the better and the more sweeping the changes that are introduced, the greater the necessity for some established government.
"His majesty, Francis II. has already formed his ministry, and placed at the head of it Gen. Cotruffiano; and among his colleagues are Caselli, Ulloa—not the general—and Canofari, all of the legal profession.
"MM. Maniscalchi, father and son, notorious for having been the most active agents of the late king's tyranny at Palermo, were arrested on the 7th, at Caserta, and taken under escort to Naples."
Another letter, written on the same day, gave the following additional particulars:
"Troops are continually coming in and marching to the frontier. The Piedmontese admiral, with another steam frigate and the ex-Neapolitan ships, is in the harbor.
"I hear the sound of cracked trumpets, and, looking out, see the first ranks of a Garibaldi division coming down the Santa Lucia. I am struck by the youthful appearance of some, certainly not more than twelve, or at the furthest fourteen years old—fair, pretty-looking boys, who might have had a satchel instead of a knapsack on their backs. There were, however, some glorious-looking fellows, and all, whether men or boys, seemed to be animated by a spirit little known to the Neapolitan troops. The latter were a sect to defend a vile political creed, and inflict chastisement on those who opposed it; but the former are banded together to assert the sacred rights of liberty. I saw it in their march; there was an elasticity about it which denoted what was passing within. I cannot say much for their uniforms; they were very dirty, out of order, and irregular, and I have no doubt but that so eminent a general officer as Ferdinand II. would have been much scandalized; but they were evidently working men, had an object in view, and were not going to fight for money. I have seen hundreds of them about the town to-day; they are billeted about in the hotels and lodging-houses, while the Piedmontese troops are in Castel-Ovo.