The Paget Papers.

Letter from Mr. Drummond (Minister at Naples) to the Hon. Arthur Paget (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Austria).

Source: Paget, Right Hon. Sir Augustus B. Paget, G.C.B. The Paget Papers, Diplomatic and other Correspondence of the Right Hon Sir A. Paget. G.C.B., 1794-1807, 2 Vols. Longmans, Green and Co. New York 1896. Vol 2.  Pages 42 - 44.

From Mr. Drummond* to the Hon. A. Paget.

Naples, March 3rd 1802.

The Sicilian Parliament is to be assembled on the 8th of this month. Its duration is to be extended beyond the usual period, but as soon as it breaks up the King is to return hither. I am glad that he has been at last persuaded to take this measure, though I much fear he has delayed it too long. I have reason to believe the scheme for separating Naples from Sicily is by no means abandoned. The Spanish Court has succeeded in establishing a double marriage between the two families.† The friendship of Spain is, however, very suspicious, and not the less so that both the Queen and the Prince of Peace ‡ have held the strongest language in speaking of the French. In a letter addressed by her Catholic Majesty to the Queen of Naples, she says that the interest of Europe requires that all the branches of the House of Bourbon should be united, and, with the assistance of Austria and England, should endeavour to restrain the ambition of France. The Prince of Peace writes in the same style. But when I recollect that the marriage between the Hereditary Prince and the Infanta was proposed by the Citizen Alquier,# I have my suspicions that the language of the Court of Madrid has been not only permitted but recommended by the citizen Lucien Bonaparte.§ I am the more confirmed in this, that an invitation has been sent to their Sicilian Majesties requesting them to go to Spain,¤ and making it a point that the Hereditary Prince should go and reside there until the infanta, his intended bride, shall be marriageable. You will easily see that this is a manoeuvre to get the Prince into proper training, in case. it shall be his fate to ascend the throne. It is decided that he is to go in the month of May, and I imagine the King will be induced to accompany him. In the meantime General Murat is to honour Naples with a visit. The object of this visit is not declared. If he do not rivet the old chains of the Neapolitans, he will certainly forge new ones for them. The Government here gives it out that he only comes to ask a little money, and if he ask nothing else they may be very well satisfied. But Murat knows very well that the treasury is pretty nearly drained. He knows too perhaps the disaffection of the people, and their dislike and contempt for their present rulers. There are many things in this country which may interest him ; and it is not a little remarkable that within these two last months the French have been employed in surveying all the coast from Ancona to Tarento. In case they should think of passing the Adriatic, this may be very useful to them, and must facilitate their progress eastward, the idea of which they have nev er abandoned any more than they have forgotten for a moment their views upon Italy.
I hope soon to see M. d'Italinshi here. We have a little Tartar colony now at Naples, but as I am not very partial to any tribe of barbarians, I hope these Cossacks will soon take their departure. Mr. Hayter¥ has commenced his labours at Portici, but I canllot predict success.
Lord Keith and General Fox continue at Malta. The expense there is enormous. Malta is to be garrisoned by Neapolitan troops.± It has been agreed that the French should pay one half, and our Government the other. I have endeavoured to persuade General Acton that the King of Naples would do better to pay the whole than to give the French an opportunity of buying the army when they please. Of this he seems to be convinced, and has, I believe, offered to our Cabinet to have the article in the treaty changed accordingly.

* Minister at Naples.
† See letters of the Queen of Naples of September 29 and October 22.
‡ The notorious Godoy, who as Court favourite and Prime Minister led to the degradation of Spain, and prepared the way for Napoleon's iutervention in 1808.
# Baron Alquier, French Envoy at Naples ; formerly at Madrid.
§ French Ambassador at Madrid.
¤ The policy of Bonaparte was to drive the Austrian House out of Italy, and substltute the influence of the Spanish House, which he did not dread.
¥ Employed by the Prince of Wales to decipher the papyri found at Herculaneum in 1752.
± By the Treatv of Amiens, blalta was to be restored to the Order, the English troops withdrawn, and zooo Neapolitan troops placed there for a time.

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