right to its own peculiar views in the affairs of life and in religion. Superstitious no doubt the lower classes are, but pious to a degree to which I am afraid we must grant that we have no pretensions. They are impulsive, like children, ready to use the stiletto on the slightest provocation; yet with all this there is a kindness of manner and a lovableness that throw a veil over many imperfections.
I might have increased the size of this volume by entering more fully into the history of the various ancient towns which I visited; but I did not care to trouble myself or my readers with matters which have been often repeated, and which can be got in a variety of works that treat specially on such subjects.
I have confined myself in this volume to my tour through the Neapolitan dominions and a small part of the Papal States; but I may at some future period give my wanderings through other regions of Italy.
I have a melancholy pleasure in acknowledging my many obligations to General Filangieri, Prince of Satriano, to whose kindness in giving me letters of introduction to his numerous friends I may say that I was in a great measure indebted for the delightful tour I made in Southern Italy. Indeed, without the assistance of his friends, I am convinced that my constitution would have sunk under the fatigues of the journey. While this volume was passing through the press, I learned with deep regret that Italy had lost one of her noblest and most respected children by the death of the Prince of Satriano.
He was the eldest son of that Gaetano Filangieri who enjoys a European reputation for his valuable works on political economy and legislation. The Prince inherited much of his father's talents, being one of the most distinguished of the Neapolitan nobility; and though, at the time I knew him, he was under the ban of the court, being deprived of all his military employments, he was regarded by his friends as one whom the necessities of government would yet require to call to high command. This was what actually took place, as, on the accession of Ferdinand II., he was reinstated in his former employments and