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against them were plundered and burned | 81st regiments, to make demonstrations

to the ground, and the inhabitants massacred without distinction of age or sex. This usage still farther inflamed the Calabrians, whose attacks on their posts were incessant and furious, till, with the assistance of the English, they drove them entirely out of their country. Unable to contend with their numerous and exasperated assailants, the French were compelled at length to evacuate both Calabrias, and to abandon all the cannon, stores, and ammunition which they had collected in these provinces for the invasion of Sicily. Not a single place along the coast was left in their possession, from Coohne to Sicosa. Of 9,000 men, which was the amount of their force in Lower Calabria, before the battle of Maida, not above 3,000 made good their retreat in Upper Calabria their loss from the insurgents, for the English did not penetrate into that province, was, by their own confession, very consider

able.

in that direction, which might alarm the enemy, and deter him from sending reinforcements to Calabria. General Acland was not absolutely prohibited from landing his troops, but he was directed not to expose his soldiers to that danger, unless he had a prospect of effecting some object of real and permanent utility. Sir Sidney Smith was in the mean time actively, if not judiciously, employed along the coast, assisting the insurgents with arms and ammunition, supplying them with provisions, and conveying them from one place to another, in the vessels under his command. By these exertions he contributed materially to extend the insurrection along the coast, and to expel the enemy from the watch-towers and castles which they occupied upon the shore. These operations were, in some instances, of use, by securing a safer and better anchorage for his ships; but, in others, the blood and treasure which they cost, exceeded the value of his acquisitions. In one of these adventures, two officers and five seamen were killed and thirtyfour seamen wounded, in the attack of an insignificant fort at Point Licosa, which he destroyed when it fell into his hands. No British troops were stationed any where to maintain his conquests, except in the isle of Capri, which was kept as a place of refreshment for the navy: but a number of posts were occupied and gar

But glorious and successful as this expedition had been, it soon appeared how far it was from having opened to the king of Sicily any prospect of regaining his kingdom of Naples. So sensible was Sir John Stuart of his inability to maintain the ground he had won in Calabria, that from the plain of Maida he announced his intention of returning, without loss of time, to Sicily. On the 18th of July his head-quarters were at Bag-risoned by the insurgents, such as Amannara, near Reggio; and on the 23rd the fort of Scylla, opposite to Messina, a place of great importance for the secure navigation of the straits, surrendered to one of his officers. The whole of the British army was now withdrawn from Calabria, except the garrison of Scylla, and a detachment of the 78th regiment, under Colonel M'Leod; which had been sent in the Amphion frigate to the coasting the coasting communications of the near Catanzaro, in order to countenance and assist the insurgents in that quarter. This service was effectually performed by Colonel M'Leod and Captain Hoste of the Amphion. The French under Regnier were severely harrassed in their retreat along the shore from Catanzaro to Cotrone, and the latter place, with all its magazines and stores, fell into the handof the English

General Acland was also dispatched to the bay of Naples, with the 58th and

tea, Scalea, and the isle of Dino, on the coast of Upper Calabria, and Maratea, Sapei, Camerota, Palinuro, and other places in the bay of Policastro. The chief or rather sole use of these posts consisted in the protection which they afforded to the anchorage upon the coast, and facilities thereby given to the British and Neapolitan small craft, of intercept

enemy, so as to prevent the supply of his army in Calabria with cannon, which, from the badness of the roads, it was impossible for him to convey by land.

The loss of Gaeta, which surrendered to the French soon after the battle of Maida, more than counterqalanced these trifling successes in other parts of the coast.

While the Prince of Hesse continued to have the command of Gaeta, that place was gallantly defended; and sallies were repeatedly made with the

greatest success, by which the operations of the enemy were impeded, their cannon spiked, and their batteries taken and destroyed. But the Prince of Hesse having been wounded by a splinter, and removed for his recovery to Palermo, and the French having at length brought their artillery to act upon the place, the lieutenant-governor, Colonel Hotz, saw himself forced to capitulate. The surrender of Gaeta cut off the communication with the northern parts of the kingdom of Naples, where the spirit of disaffection was as strong as in the south; and set at liberty a force of 16,000 men, previously employed in that siege, to act against the Calabrians.

A decree was issued at Naples, on the 31st of July, declaring the two Calabrias in a state of war, and subjecting them to all the rigours of military law. Massena, invested with despotic authority, was placed at the head of a powerful army, and sent to reduce them to obedience. The insurgents were not in sufficient force to meet him in the field, and were too much divided among themselves to attempt any enterprise of importance, even against his out-posts. The difficulty of transporting artillery over the mountains retarded his operations; but his progress, though slow, was uninterrupted, and his successes, though often dearly bought, were not checked by any reverse.

On the 16th of August, the advanced guard of the French army entered Cosenza, the capital of Upper Calabria, and before the beginning of September they had recovered possession of the whole of that province, excepting Amantea, Scalea, and some other places upon the coast. But it was some time before they penetrated in force into the Lower Calabria. Their head-quarters, in December, were still at Cosenza and Fiumo Freddo, in Upper Calabria, though their advanced posts had long before been at Monteleone and Miletto, about thirty miles distant from Scylla. Cotrone did not fall into their hands till the end of the year, nor Amantea, the last place held by the insurgents upon the coast, till the beginning of the ensuing spring.

The Calabrian insurgents, or masse, were composed of the lowest, worst, and most miserable of the country people and villagers. Attracted, by pay or the hope of plunder, to the standard under which

they fought, no confidence could be reposed in their fidelity; and though individually brave, when assembled in bodies no dependence could be placed on their steadiness. While the French were still at a distance, a report was brought to the masse in Lower Calabria, that the enemy was advancing to attack them; on which the capi, or chiefs of the masse, fled in the most shameful manner, and the masse, abandoned by the their leaders, after recovering from their first panic, broke out in such acts of murder, cruelty, and rapine, that it became necessary for Sir John Stuart to cross over to Scylla, and send detachments of British troops into the interior of the country, to put a stop to their excesses. This happened in the latter part of August.

On a subsequent occasion, intelligence having been sent to the Neapolitan generals that the French, who were lying at Nicastro, to the number of 4,000 men, were afraid to cross the river Lamato, lest the English should land and attack them in the rear, it was resolved to attempt to surprise them in that situation, by advancing from Monteleone and Filadelfia, with 1,600 of the masse and 2,000 Neapolitan troops; but when this corps had arrived within four miles of the enemy, a suspicion suddenly seized thr masse that the Neapolitans meant to desert them in the heat of the engagement, upon which they immediately secured the person of Cancelliere, the general set over them by his Sicilian majesty, and refused to deliver him up, when demanded, to the other generals.

Many of the capi or chiefs of the insurgents, were men of infamous character, who had justly forfeited their lives to the laws of their country. Pane di Grano,

one of the most celebrated of their leaders, was a priest whose crimes had been so enormous, that, though a clergyman, he had been condemned to the gallies. Fra Diavolo, who distinguished himself in the neighbourhood of Naples, had been guilty of robbery and murder. Galleyslaves, polluted with every crime and prepared for every atrocity, were collected by order of the court of Palermo, and landed among its former subjects, in order to keep alive the insurrection, and render desperate the hope of accommodation with the enemy. The consequences of employing such agents to con

duct the war may be easily imagined. Murder and rapine spread universally over the country. The lawless and vicious combined against the orderly and well-disposed. Those who had property were oppressed and plundered by those who had none, and many victims were sacrificed to private resentment, under the mask and pretence of performing a public duty.

The French, irritated by cruelties which the humanity of Sir John Stuart interposed ineffectually to prevent, retaliated on the insurgents with a barbarity equal to their own. Prisoners taken with arms in their hands were shot instantly, on the false and monstrous pretext, that they were rebels against Joseph Buonaparte. Villages which refused to admit French troops within their walls, or to pay the contributions demanded from them, were pillaged and burned; and in some atrocious cases, the wretched inhabitants were included, without mercy or distinction, in the conflagration, and, with their wives and children, prevented by French soldiers from making their escape from the flames that consumed their habitations.

wanted. The result of Sir John Moore's inquiries was unfavourable to any new expedition to the continent. He found the populace of Naples discontented, and ready to attempt an insurrection, if encouraged by the presence of a considerable British army; but, without some prospect of co-operation from the upper part of Italy, he saw no advantage to be gained by encouraging these dispositions; and with respect to the war in Calabria, he was satisfied that, by supplying the people with arms and ammunition, and exciting them to insurrection, it would be merely organizing and keeping alive a predatory civil war, ruinous and destructive to individuals, while it was unattended with any real or permanent benefit to the English or to their ally. The information collected by General Fox at Messina, and the conduct of the masse in Lower Calabria, coincided with the report of Sir John Moore, and determined General Fox to make no expedition to the continent, unless some more favourable opportunity presented itself, and in the mean time to withhold from the masse supplies of arms and ammunition, which they were obviously employing in other uses than such as a British general could approve of.

This determination was far from being acceptable at Palermo, where the court listened greedily to every plan proposed to it for the recovery of Naples, and thought always the last project laid be

When Sir John Stuart returned to Messina from his glorious expedition in Calabria, he found Lieutenant-general Fox arrived there from Gibraltar, with a commission of commander-in-chief of the British forces in Italy. General Fox took upon him the command of the army on the 29th of July, and immediately ap-fore it the surest to succeed. The Marpointed Sir John Stuart to conduct the war, which he had begun with so much success, in the two Calabrias. This office Sir John Stuart most readily undertook, and in the prosecution of it made a second expedition to Calabria, for the purpose of restoring some degree of order in that country, and repressing the excesses of the masse; but when Sir John Moore, his senior officer, joined the army with reinforcements from England, and became, of course, second in command, he preferred returning home to England, to continuing third in command in Italy. Soon after the arrival of Sir John Moore, that gallant and experienced officer was dispatched along the coast to the bay of Naples, to collect information of the state of the country, and to confer with Sir Sidney Smith about operations in which the assistance of the navy might be

quis di Cercello, who had been appointed minister of foreign affairs on the resignation of Sir John Acton, was a person of very middling abilities, but high in favour with the Queen, and implicitly devoted to her service. It was natural for such a minister,desirous of pleasing his sovereign, and indifferent or blind to all other consequences, to propose to the commander of the British forces, to engage, in conjunction with the troops of his Sicilian majesty, in a combined attack upon Naples. A temporary possession of that city, he argued, though it were for twentyfour hours only, if it did no other good, would, at least, enable their majesties to take vengeance on their rebellious subjects. Such a consideration was not calculated to dispose a British officer in favour of their plan; but there were other reasons, besides the disgust arising from

the disclosure of such views, which determined General Fox to express, in the most peremptory manner, his decided disapprobation of the project, and to signify that it was totally impossible for the British army to co-operate in such an expedition,

Thwarted in its plan of operations by the refusal of the English general to cooperate in a project, every part of which he disapproved of, the court of Palermo was ultimately compelled to abandon its designs upon Naples; though it affected, for some time, an intention of pursuing the enterprize with its own forces, the greater part of which it assembled on the north coast of Sicily, under the Prince of Hesse, on pretence of inspecting, arming, and clothing the troops. But, when the resolution of General Fox not to concur in the expedition was found to be unalterably fixed, the project was entirely given up, though with much reluctance and ill-humour against the English.

While their Sicilian majesties were thus intent on the recovery of Naples, the importance of Sicily, the resources which it might be made to afford, and the means necessary to be taken for conciliating the affections of its inhabitants, and rousing them against the enemy, seemed never to have entered into their contemplation. When the royal family were driven a second time to Sicily, for shelter and protection, the Sicilians had vainly imagined, that in return for their assistance and fidelity they would be relieved from jealous and injurious restrictions on their commerce and navigation, and raised to greater weight and consideration in the councils of their sovereign, than they had hitherto attained. Their ancient constitution, the venerable forms of which were still existing, they were desirous to re-establish, and no less attached to the English by ancient traditions than by hatred of the French, they fondly expected from the former assistance and countenance in this great undertaking.

THE GALLANT MARINE.

In an attack made on a French setée, armed with four six-pounders, twelve mounted musketoons, and small arms, by the boats of the Melpomene frigate,

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| Captain Parker, off the coast of Leghorn, in the year 1806, Lieutenant Thomson in the barge, and five seamen, were killed, six desperately wounded, and several others disabled. The ship and other boats were at a considerable distance; but the survivors persevered and hooked on. Mr. Butler, Lieutenant Gascoigne, and Serjeant Thomas Milligan, were the only persons enabled to board, at which time the enemy's crew consisted of eighteen men, three of whom were killed, and fifteen made prisoners. The conduct of Milligan particularly excited the admiration of his brave comrades and captain. Being in the bow of the barge, he was the first man that boarded the setée; and on his leaping on the deck, six muskets were presented in his face, the fatal effects of which he rapidly avoided, by throwing himself instantly into the midst of the enemy's crew. Owing to the number of killed and wounded in the barge, and the setée continuing under sail, only five men were able to follow the serjeant; but, after some resistance, the enemy were forced to retreat and disperse, and six of them leaped into their own boat, carrying their arms and ammunition with them. Serjeant Milligan, fearing that they might do considerable mischief with their muskets, and knowing that the barge could not follow, jumped down into the middle of them. He was instantly seized and thrown overboard; but in the struggle, hegrappled and carried one of the enemy with him, whom he killed in the water with his cutlass. The other boats of the Melpomene now coming up, every exertion was made to save the serjeant, who was seen swimming astern of the setée, apparently very faint, having received several wounds during the action. One of the lieutenants of the ship seeing an oar close behind him, called to Milligan to get hold of it, in order to receive some assistance till the boat could get up to him, which afterwards picked him up. On his being asked, when safe on board, if he had gained the assistance of the oar floating by him, he replied, "No, sir, I did not know the enemy had all surrendered; and I could not bear the idea of turning my back on the enemy's vessel." The Patriotic Fund presented this brave fellow with forty pounds, as a reward for his services on this occasion.

SEEING IS BELIEVING.

ADMIRAL CROWN.

THIS admiral was in the service of

Russia, and had the command of the tingent, in June, 1818, from Calais to fleet which transported the Russian conPetersburgh. On his arrival with his squadron in Calais roads, he sent large orders for provisions, good porter in particular, to various contractors on the opposite coast, who had supplied him while lying in the Downs, in the year 1815. The contractors, not forgetting the handsome manner in which, on that occasion,

brutal captain was dismissed, and a reforSOME abuse having crept into the navy,mation instituted throughout the service. more particularly with respect to the horrible impress service, William, Duke of Cumberland, was determined to search into the truth. Accordingly, one morning, being accompanied by a naval officer of rank, both dressed as sailors, they went to Wapping; and entering a public house, desired the landlady to furnish them with a private room, which they would liberally pay for, having heard since they came on shore, that the press was very hot. The treacherous hostess took the money, with a low curtsey, and after lamenting the many hardships and oppressions which the poor mariners were obliged to undergo, she retired, and immediately gave information to a gang, observing, however, that one of the men was so fat that he was perhaps scarcely worth the shipping. Upon this, the press-gang burst into the room; when, after a well-feigned resistance, the Duke and his friend suffered themselves to be dragged on board the tender. They were very roughly interrogated, and severely reprimanded for daring to resist his Majesty's officers. The Duke answered for himself and his companion, and inveighed against them in very severe terms, for using men so cruelly; upon which they

were both ordered down below. This

the Duke refused to comply with, which so exasperated the captain, that he told them they should soon know who he was, and directly ordered them to be stripped and flogged. The Duke exclaimed, "Strip me, if you dare!" This was not to be endured; the captain struck his Royal Highness with a cane, which was a signal to his men to strip their victim by force; this they set about, but they had no sooner pulled off his blue jacket, than they perceived the star on his breast. The tables were now turned: the Duke declared who he was, and in a minute the whole opposing party were down on their knees, imploring his forgiveness. He immediately ordered the captain to be secured, whilst he went below, where a scene of the most savage barbarity presented itself; some poor creatures were bleeding from the repeated lashes which they had received; and others were gasping for life, from the want of fresh air. The Duke, on his return, waited on the Lords of the Admiralty ; the

they had been paid, soon collected a flotilla of small craft to convey the provisions, and arrived off the fleet the day on weather was squally, they could not venwhich the orders were given. As the consequently took shelter in Calais harture alongside the respective ships, and bour. In the morning they weighed anchor in order to depart, when they were ber of custom-house boats, and notice immediately surrounded by a great numwould be allowed to leave the port withwas given them that not one of them the same as if they had been landed. out first paying the duties on the cargoes, This unexpected demand created amongst the victuallers the greatest consternation: they, however, contrived to despatch a sixoared cutter to the admiral, to whom they communicated the intelligence, and requested his interference. Admiral Crown instantly despatched an officer demanding the immediate liberation of on shore, with a letter to the governor, his victuallers, threatening, in the event of a refusal, to bombard the town, and giving the governor a quarter of an hour to consider of it. The governor requested an hour, in order to send a telegraphic despatch to Paris, for instructions how the admiral would not agree, and into act on so novel an occasion. To this stantly made preparations for bombarding the town. The governor perceiving this, immediately ordered the victuallers

to be released.

London:-Printed by JOSEPH LAST, 3, Edwardstreet, Hampstead-road; and published by W. M. CLARK, 19, Warwick-lane, Paternosterrow; J. PATTIE, 17, High street, Bloomsbury, and may be had, by order, of all Booksellers in town and country.

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