NAPLES, SANTA LUCIA. Diceris extructa a dulce Sirene; Phaleri Diceris et Veneris gratissimus hortus et acris Alcidis campus diceris esse novus. Diceris et flavæ Cereris ditissima tellus ; Diceris intonsi vinea pulchra dei. ANGIRIANUS. Illo Virgilium me tempore dulcis alebat GEORG. IV. FROM the Santa Lucia, opening into the grand Strada di Toledo on one side, and the Strada Nuova which skirts the bay on the other, a noble prospect of the sea and the surrounding shores bursts on the eye, enriched with all the interest and attractions which monumental and classical associations, connected with those of modern history, can confer. In itself, however, Santa Lucia, with singular incompatibility of name, is the Billingsgate and Thames Street of Naples, with the addition of all that the genius of confusion and misrule can be imagined, among so lively and enthusiastic a populace, and in such a scene, to produce. Its effect on the eye and the senses of a stranger is almost inconceivable, and quite astounding; for when the confusion of tongues has reached its climax, and individual vociferation can no longer make itself heard, recourse is had to bells, and a peal of them is rung loud enough to rouse the ancient Roman salesmen, sleeping in the vast catacomb of cities beneath, from their long and no more usurious repose. To this market of the south did Campania send her choicest products, and the neighbouring coasts their wealth of trade in corn, oil, and fish; insomuch that, but for the grinding taxes which oppressed her, Naples would have been the most prosperous city in the world. But, the prey alike of foreign and domestic oppression, it has been truly observed of her succession of continental tyrants, that if they suck in Milan, and fleece in Sicily, they flea in Naples; a system which, it is well known, drove the people to desperation under Masaniello, and left an example, of which it is hoped that people will know how, with more wisdom, to avail themselves in times to come. In the quaint words of an old English traveller, "Tomaso Angelus Maia, his true name, was the son of a poor fisherman, without stockings or shoes, who for ten days together swaggered here so powerfully, at the head of 200,000 mutinous people, that when he commanded them to burn a house they did it; when he commanded them to cast into the fire all the goods, papers, plate, beds, hangings, &c., of the gabelliers (tax-gatherers), they did it without reserving the least precious piece to themselves; when he commanded them to cry out 'Down with the gabells!' they did it; when he put his finger to his mouth, they were all silent again; as if this poor fisherman had been the soul that animated that great body of people. It was prodigious, indeed, that such a poor young man, not past twenty-three, in waistcoat and drawers and his fisher's cap on, should find such obedience from such rich and witty citizens. But as tumultuous people make arms of every thing they meet with, so they make captains of every man that will but head them; and as the proverb goes, in seditione vel Androclides belli ducem agit. They showed me the house of this fisherman: but the other houses showed me his fury. Thousands have not yet recovered those ten days' tumults; for, when God hath a mind to punish, fleas and gnats are powerful things even against princes." The state of society at Naples is far from being such as to do credit to Italy; but there is scarcely a town in the world so famed for charitable institutions of every kind and description. There are thirty establishments, known by the name of conservatories, which are open for the reception of orphans and other helpless and unprotected children; there are five banks for lending small sums of money to poor honest people, who may require such assistance, the mention of which will probably remind the reader of Dean Swift's custom of exercising charity in a similar manner; there are also numerous societies, composed of the principal persons of the place, for searching out and attending to peculiar cases of distress, each fraternity, as they are called, devoting itself to one class of objects. Altogether, the charitable institutions are said to amount to sixty, among which there are seven regular hospitals, conducted on a very extensive scale, and with as much care and judgment as benevolence. The noblest Neapolitans delight in performing the offices requisite to the proper management of these establishments, and are described as exercising a patience and attention to frugality in this duty which they seldom manifest in their private concerns. Of the two principal hospitals, one is for the reception of the sick and wounded, of which it generally contains above 1800; the other is of a nature similar to our Magdalens and Penitentiaries, and is said to be among the richest establishments for a charitable purpose in Europe. To each of these institutions is joined a villa, or rural retreat, where the patients who are recovering, or who are likely to receive benefit from the purer air of the country, are placed as soon as it is judged necessary. Another useful appendage to the hospitals of Naples is an extensive cemetery outside the town, to form which the sum of 48,500 ducats was raised by voluntary subscription. This burial-ground is about half a mile from the city, and occupies an elevated spot, shaded with rows of cypresses. The whole space is divided into 366 spacious vaults, which are opened successively once a year, and, being closely covered in with blocks of lava which fit very exactly, the public are thus effectually preserved from every thing offensive either to the mind or senses. As we are beginning to turn our attention in this country to the state of the public cemeteries, it may not be amiss to give the opinion of so experienced a traveller as Mr. Eustace on this subject, coming as it does with the additional recommendation of his having been an ecclesiastic, and a member of a church never characterized by indifference to the sanctity of the dead. "It is to be regretted," says he, "that this |