Encyclopaedia Britannica [S6, 6 ed.]

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SUPPLEMENT TO THE

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA.

y SUPPLEMENT TO THE

FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH EDITIONS

OF THE

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA WITH PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS ON THE

HISTORY OF THE SCIENCES.

3Uu£itrateii bg ©nacabmag.

VOLUME SIXTH.

EDINBUKGH: PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH; AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND COMPANY, LONDON.

1824.

upplement TO THE

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA.

NAI r/

.

Nairnshire. J^J’AIIINSHIRE, a small county in Scotland , It is situated between 57° 22', and 57° 4,i Situation north latitude, and 3° 35', and 4° 7' west longitud ^ and Extent, having the Moray Frith on the north, Morayshii 'fc on the east and south, and the county of Inverne ^ on the west. Its extent, from north to south, from 12 to 20 miles, and from east to west from 1 to 13; and its contents are I98 square miles, < 126,720 English acres, of which only about afourl part is in cultivation ; the rest consisting chiefly 1 wastes, with about 10,000 acres of wood, natural an planted, about three square miles of lakes, and small proportion of moss. It has only four entii parishes, Ardclauch, Aultdearn, Calder, and Nain and portions of other five, which belong to the cour ties of Moray, Ross, and Inverness. Two detache districts, Ferintosh and Dunmaglass, belong t Nairnshire, the former lying near Dingwall, in Ross shire, and the latter at the head of Strathnairn, i Inverness-shire. Surface, &c Along the Moray Frith, and for a few miles in ward, the surface is generally low, and much of th sod productive, being partly loam, and partly clav bodi of them fertile. Farther south the countr rises into hills, containing but a small proportion 0 arable land, and this chiefly a sandy loam or grave Ihe only streams of any note are the Nairn and th Findhorn, both of which it receives from Inverness sure. Ihey have a nearly parallel course fron outh-west to north-east. The former flows into th Moray Frith, at the town of the same name, but th VOE.

\i.

PART 1.

•

latter, before entering the Frith, passes into the Nairnshire, county of Moray. The Nairn is, therefore, the only ^ IBr- ^ n place called the Hoar Moor, Macbeth, according to Naples. Shakespeare, met the witches when upon his way Antiqnities that of the latter county. . from the Western Isles to Forres; and a bedstead, said Nairn, the county town, and a royal burgh, is a Towns. to be that on which Duncan was assassinated by the place of considerable antiquity, and pleasantly situ- usurper, is still preserved in the Castle of Caw,dorated; but having no harbour, it is without trade or manufactures, and contains only about 2000 inha- Near the village of Aultdearn, Montrose obtained bitants. According to a survey made by Mr lei-, a great victory over the Covenanters m 1645. Ihe county contains the ruins of several castles, and ford, a commodious harbour may be formed for other remains of an early age. The Castles of Calabout L. 3000. The villages are Aultdearn and der or Cawdor, and Kilravock, both of great antiCalder. quity, are still the seats of their proprietors. This county sends a member to Parliament alterRepresentaThe population of this small county is shown in nately with the shire of Cromarty ; and the town of tion, &c. the following abstract.—See The Beauties of ScotNairn joins with Inverness, Forres, and Fortrose, in land, Vol. IV.; Leslies General View of the Agrithe election of a member for the burghs. The culture of Nairn and Moray; The General Report counties of Moray and Nairn are under the ju- of Scotland; and Playfair’s Description of Scotland, risdiction of the same sheriff, who has a substitute Vol. II.

for the latter county in the town of Nairn, Nairnshire

II

trict do not seem to be very different from those of the contiguous county of Moray, except that it has nQ harbours, yet its rural economy is greatly behind

1800.

i 1,940

OCCUPATIONS.

PERSONS.

HOUSES.

By how many Families occupied.

%

1,945

32

Males.

3,639

Persons All other Persons chiefly em- Persons not ployed in chiefly emcomprised Females. ployed in Trade, Ma- in the two nufactures, Agriculpreceding or Handiture. classes. craft.

4,618

2,901

898

4,456

Total of Persons.

8,257

1811. HOUSES.

1,946

OCCUPATIONS.

PERSONS.

By how many Families occupied.

%

2,021

68

Males.

3,530

Families All other Families chiefly em- Families not chiefly em- ployed in comprised Females. ployed in Trade, Ma- in the two Agricul- nufactures, preceding or Handiture. classes. craft.

4,721

NAPLES The history of Naples, down to the period when Bonaparte bestowed its sceptre on Murat, is given in the Encyclopedia; where also will be found a general description of the country. The succeeding historical events of any importance will be found under the articles AUSTRIA and FRANCE, in this Supplement ; and there is some notice of its stae tistics, under the general article on ITALY. P^ “ sent article is limited to the late Revolution; of which, and of its issue, the Editor has received the fo lowing account from the pen of an intelligent Neapolitan. The last revolution of Naples, although it ended unexpectedly, without advantage or onour to the nation, is very remarkable, i we consider the political death (if we may so speak) to which Italy had been doomed during three centuries, not only as

870

341

810

Total of Persons.

8,251

a power, but as a people ; and when we recollect that this was the first political movement which, for seventy years, merited the name of a national one in Italy. It was attempted and brought about, not foolishly to benefit foreigners, and with foreign troops, according to the old custom of the Italians, but for Italian interests, and with Italian forces. On the fall of the French empire, Murat was ex-Causes'a1 pelled by the Austrian arms from the throne Naples, and Ferdinand restored (May 1815). Thetion cv condition of the new government, though at first sight promising, was beset with great difficulties. The Bourbon ministers found, on their return from Sicily, that an immense power had been usurped by the Crown, during the French government, the period of which was now called the Decenio. All aristocratical hierarchy, all municipal franchises.

NAPLES. Naples,

were destroyed. From the highest affairs of state, ^ down to the meanest municipal concern, the prince ruled every thing by a host of public functionaries. But all this authority was supported solely by a standing army organized by the French, which the king did not trust ; and by a revenue of ] 6,000,000 of ducats, which, having been only derived from the rapacity of the French financier, had, at the end of ten years, become intolerable. They found, besides, the dispositions of the people very much changed. The Neapolitans, who seldom liked their governments, had grown more than ever indifferent to the person of their prince, reluctant to submit to absolute power, and well aware of the only effectual remedy to restrain its abuse. But a cause, more powerful than all these, assisted in imbuing their minds with the principles of libertj'. A political association, known by the name of Carbonarism, had sprung up, and experienced various fortunes under the French. At first it was despised, because its real object was yet misunderstood; it was afterwards fiercely persecuted by Murat, and finally caressed in vain by his ministers, who sought in it a support to his tottering throne. But such a forced retractation of his former steps availed Murat nothing in adversity. The nation was alienated from him, and hoped to gain by a change of princes. King Ferdinand had, in a proclamation from Palermo, promised a constitution, by which the people should be the sovereign, and the prince a mere depository of the laws. Murat, vanquished and despairing, attempted to throw out a lure to the Neapolitans, by causing a constitution to be proclaimed a few days before the Austrians occupied that capital. Chevalier Medici had now succeeded to Count Zurlo, and alone governed the state. This minister felt no blind party prejudices against reforms that had arisen out of the revolution. His objection was solely that of ministerial interest. Esteeming the Neapolitans to be unsteady in their wishes, he would not shock their political opinions, but rather strove to delude and rule, without satisfying them. Every thought of the new minister wai bent upon finance ; for the new government had assumed the discharge of enormous responsibilities. The negotiators for King Ferdinand, at the Congress of Vienna, were forced almost to redeem his crown from Austria, at a time when so much noise was made by the allies about the doctrine of legitimacy and restoration. They bargained to pay 6,000,000 of ducats to the imperial treasury; 1,150,000 ducats a year for the support of the Austrian troops in the kingdom ; and 1,200,000 ducats to Beauharnois, ex-viceroy of Italy, for indemnities due to him by Austria. The disgraces and burdens imposed upon the nation did not stop here. Naples became tributary even to Rome and to the piratical states of Africa. Rome would not consent to satisfy the conscience of the king without a Concordat, by which an annual revenue of 12,000 ducats in land was assigned to the Roman treasury : thirty-six convents were re-established and richly provided for by the state. The ordinary administration was no less tainted with prodigality. Medici, following the example of France,

endeavoured to prop the immense authority of the crown with the order of public functionaries left by the French, who were so numerous, and so closely bound together, by their opinions and interests, that they resembled a new aristocracy. Hence the public offices, which already pressed so heavily upon the nation, far from being reduced, were daily augmented. From all such causes resulted a government that was passive, but rapacious. The prime minister seemed to govern only to raise taxes. The French imposts, chiefly the land-tax, which had been always burdensome to the nation, now caused general complaints, on account of the extreme depreciation of corn and oil, attendant upon the peace of Europe. These chief products of a country entirely agricultural, now scarcely brought a third of the price which they had held a few years before. Yet for a small profit of the treasury, foreign merchants were allowed to import their corn into the kingdom, where it sold at a very low price, and almost entirely interrupted the sale of home wheat. The distress augmented in a short time to such a pitch, that in Apulia, the old harvest was often thrown into the sea to make room for the new one in the granaries. The land proprietors, rich and poor, remonstrated with the government, and offered to discharge the imposts with the very products of the soil; and these soon becoming unequal to taxes and culture, the lands began to be abandoned—a lamentable, but certain mark of the rapacity of the government and of an approaching revolution. The country was overspread with internal custom-houses from one borough to another, for external trade yielded little; contraband commerce increased, and the amount of the loss was surreptitiously overcharged upon the lands. The most trifling transactions were committed to stamped paper, and registered. In short, every expedient, however ruinous, was esteemed good, provided it could afford immediate money. By such means the public revenues were in three years stretched to more than 20,000,000 of ducats ; but, for this augmentation, the subject was wrung, moderately speaking, of half his real income, at a time when the national industry was sinking into a state of unprecedented wretchedness. This fiscal delirium could not have lasted long. The farmers were impoverished, the middle classes were reduced to despair ; discontent rapidly spread into the provinces, and the general wish for a reform was little dissembled. Carbonarism, checked only for a time by the denunciations against all secret societies, which followed the restoration, now rose in double strength. But an event, which had once threatened its extermination, contributed even more to its revival. The minister of police, the Prince of Canosa, detesting the very name of French innovation, designed to force back the nation to the state in which it had been ten years before. He considered the Carbonari as Murattites, or partisans of the French, whilst they are only votaries of liberty and enemies to despotism, by whomsoever exercised. The seeds of another sect adverse to Carbonarism had been sown since the time of the French by a bishop, who was an enemy to their government. This was composed of ^

Naples.

NAPLES. - f i..Voiiots the dress of the people, chiefly species of loyal.su, the aregs ot A f

the partiality of the king towards the military who rehim from Sicily, had greatly mjured the

Naples.

rioters, who had participated in the counter-revo- turned with him from Sicily, had greatly injured the lutionary massacres of 1799. They assumed the name army, and divided it into two adverse parties. Ibis hostile disposition was soon turned to the national adof Caldera). The minister of police exerted all his influence to rally them with mysterious rites and signs* vantage by some patriotic chiefs, the principal among whom was William Pepe. This general had been disand to arm as many of them as he could. In a little posing affairs for a revolution, during two years that time their numbers exceeded 60,000, and they were generally believed to be ready to fall upon the Carbo- he held the military command in the provinces of Foggia and Avellino. He had formed there no mss nari or Murattites on the night of Holy Thursday 1816, than 10,000 militia, chiefly composed of small landand, renewing the example of the Sicilian vespers, to proprietors, armed and clothed at their own exmassacre them ail over the country. I he minister, pence, and commanded by the country gentlemen, thus become master of the state, could have reformed who were exasperated against the rapacity of the adit according to his own will. But the horrible plot ministration. Such a militia was well qualified tor was soon discovered; and Medici, who professed quite accomplishing a revolution ; yet they were tolerates different politics, and was then all powerful, caused the minister of police to be banished to Lucca. by the prime minister, on account of the great seiThus Medici saved his country from a dreadful civil vices, without any expence, he drew from them; for war • the new sectaries were easily disarmed, ana they had, in a short time, scoured the country of soon sunk into oblivion. But the Carbonari, who the banditti, who are ever swarming in that kingwere aware of their danger, and had united more dom. Thus to save money, arms were entrusted to that very class which was most interested in national closely than ever, would no more separate, after having once rallied for their common defence. Nay, reform. So capital an error of despotic policy may three years were sufficient to draw into their asso- well characterize the administration of Medici as enciation all the active part of the people, and £o con- tirely financial. Every thing, therefore, hastened to vert the rest to their political religion. W hether by the a revolution, when the news arrived of the movelapse of time, or by the recent example of the free ment at Cadiz. This example banished from the constitution of Sicily having been overturned at one multitude all remaining doubts as to success. It taught the chiefs how to act; and in a natural spiblow, it had become evident that the promise from Palermo was mere state-craft to hasten the fall of Murat. rit of imitation, they chose the constitution of the Cortes for their model. This constitution, moreThe patriots, judging themselves strong 'llV provmces of Lecce and Bari, reminded the king of his over, seemed to be the only monarchical one fixe