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Article REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. Page 1 of 7 →
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Review Of New Publications.
REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS .
Travels into different Parts of Europe , in the Years 1791 and 1792 . With familiar Remarks on Places , Men , and Maimers . B y John Owen , A . M . late ¦ fellow of Corpus Christi College , Cambridge . In ttos Volumes . % < uo . Price 14 . J . Cadell and Davies , 1796 .
[ CONCLUDED riioii OUR LAST . ] IN our last we made some general observations on Mr . Owen ' s Travels ; we shall now proceed to the more pleasant task of making some partial extracts . The following picture of Neapolitan manners is abl y drawn . ' As a transient traveller , I pretend not to assign the best investigated reacharacters drawBut
sons for the I . , here , the bold and masculine features vice and profligacy , render it only difficult to find terms sufficientl y forcible to express the genuine colours under which they appear . That the lower orders in this city ( Naples ) should be corrupt and abandoned , is a matter of little surprise to those who see the condition of life to which they are exposed . From twenty to thirty thousand Lasssarouis-, almost unclothed , and totally unhoused , ranging this great city for a precarious subsistenceare a sort of
, people well calculated for corrupting , and being corrupted . It is natural to suppose , that evil , commencing here , will have a wide circulation , and corrupt , by a powerful leaven , the great mass of common people : for these Lazszaroni are not a loose and disorderly number ; they are an army of raggamuffins ,- under an established sort of disci pline , and are considered by the state as an order not to be neglected , or , more properly speaking , not to be
oppressed beyond a certain point . They have , it should seem , an invisible bond of union ; and , when their ri ghts are invaded , endeavour to make their importance felt . So far , however , as I can learn , they have not yet framed a charter of rights , which might not , with equal propriety , include the dogs that follow them . Nakedness , hunger , and exposure to the elements , are Grievances which have never entered into any of their lemonstrances . The members of this corps are generally selected as instruments of" perjury and assassination
crimes very prevalent in this country , from the corrupt state of their courts , and the tenderness of their laws against the sheclders of blood . If credit mi ght be given to the current estimates , five thousand have perished in one year by the knife of the assassin . ' A conference is said to have been latel y held with his Neapolitan majesty upon the subject of assassinations , and the necessity of " punishing the assassin with death strongly contended for . His majesty begged leave to differ from
his learned advisers on the propriety of this ste p -. for , at present , said the monarch , I lose five thousand of my subjects by assassination ; if , therefore I were to put to death every assassin , 1 should lose double the number . This reply will serve to shew , that , in some countries at least , the executive and legislative powers are wisely kept distinct . '
The description of the environs of Naples is just and elegant . ' In human life there is no certainty , ancl much danger : but here uncertainty cannot express how little certain all things are ; nor danger , how dan-VOL . vii . G
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of New Publications.
REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS .
Travels into different Parts of Europe , in the Years 1791 and 1792 . With familiar Remarks on Places , Men , and Maimers . B y John Owen , A . M . late ¦ fellow of Corpus Christi College , Cambridge . In ttos Volumes . % < uo . Price 14 . J . Cadell and Davies , 1796 .
[ CONCLUDED riioii OUR LAST . ] IN our last we made some general observations on Mr . Owen ' s Travels ; we shall now proceed to the more pleasant task of making some partial extracts . The following picture of Neapolitan manners is abl y drawn . ' As a transient traveller , I pretend not to assign the best investigated reacharacters drawBut
sons for the I . , here , the bold and masculine features vice and profligacy , render it only difficult to find terms sufficientl y forcible to express the genuine colours under which they appear . That the lower orders in this city ( Naples ) should be corrupt and abandoned , is a matter of little surprise to those who see the condition of life to which they are exposed . From twenty to thirty thousand Lasssarouis-, almost unclothed , and totally unhoused , ranging this great city for a precarious subsistenceare a sort of
, people well calculated for corrupting , and being corrupted . It is natural to suppose , that evil , commencing here , will have a wide circulation , and corrupt , by a powerful leaven , the great mass of common people : for these Lazszaroni are not a loose and disorderly number ; they are an army of raggamuffins ,- under an established sort of disci pline , and are considered by the state as an order not to be neglected , or , more properly speaking , not to be
oppressed beyond a certain point . They have , it should seem , an invisible bond of union ; and , when their ri ghts are invaded , endeavour to make their importance felt . So far , however , as I can learn , they have not yet framed a charter of rights , which might not , with equal propriety , include the dogs that follow them . Nakedness , hunger , and exposure to the elements , are Grievances which have never entered into any of their lemonstrances . The members of this corps are generally selected as instruments of" perjury and assassination
crimes very prevalent in this country , from the corrupt state of their courts , and the tenderness of their laws against the sheclders of blood . If credit mi ght be given to the current estimates , five thousand have perished in one year by the knife of the assassin . ' A conference is said to have been latel y held with his Neapolitan majesty upon the subject of assassinations , and the necessity of " punishing the assassin with death strongly contended for . His majesty begged leave to differ from
his learned advisers on the propriety of this ste p -. for , at present , said the monarch , I lose five thousand of my subjects by assassination ; if , therefore I were to put to death every assassin , 1 should lose double the number . This reply will serve to shew , that , in some countries at least , the executive and legislative powers are wisely kept distinct . '
The description of the environs of Naples is just and elegant . ' In human life there is no certainty , ancl much danger : but here uncertainty cannot express how little certain all things are ; nor danger , how dan-VOL . vii . G