CALABRIA. buildings have been brought to view by recent excavations, exhibiting to some extent the domestic life of the ancients. Since the commencement of 1828, the government of Naples has caused further excavations to be made, by which one of the most splendid private dwellings has been discovered. It has a court in the centre, a suit of chambers, and separate apartments allotted to females, after the manner of a modern seraglio. It has a garden surrounded with arcades and columns, and a grand saloon which might have served as a place of meeting for the whole family. Another house contained a large quantity of provisions and delicacies, none of which have been disturbed for eighteen centuries. The provisions found in the store room consisted of dates, almonds, chestnuts, figs, corn, oil, pies and hams. The internal arrangements of the house, the manner in which it was ornamented, and the quantity of provisions with which it was furnished, indicated great wealth in the proprietor. These discoveries in Pompeii and Herculaneum, have given rise to an interesting question in natural philosophy: how they should have remained in such a state of preservation for so long a period? It is to be accounted for only by the consideration of the total exclusion of air and moisture. CALABRIA. The refuse of the Italian population is to be found in Calabria, the southern portion of the kingdom. It is 160 miles in length, and from 20 to 60 broad, extending across the peninsula, and to its southern extremity. It contains little short of a million of inhabitants. They are characterized, probably with some exaggeration, and with many exceptions, as being cruel as the Moor, wild as the Tartar, and rude and ignorant as the negro of Senegal. The peasant labors little, and subsists almost entirely on the spontaneous productions of the SICILY. ETNA. earth. His habitation resembles rather a hovel than a dwelling for human beings; exhibiting in striking colors, what human nature is, when destitute of ambition, and not compelled to labor for subsistence. An individual never goes abroad without a dagger under his black mantle. The clergy are as ignorant as they are corrupt. Superstition pervades all classes. The robber carries relics in his bosom, which he supplicates to aid him in his depredations. In February, 1783, Calabria was visited with an earthquake, which destroyed three hundred villages and thirty thousand inhabitants. SICILY. Sicily, ancient Trinacria, the largest, most fertile, and populous island in the Mediterranean, is separated from the southern extremity of Italy by the straits of Messina, two miles wide at the narrowest point between the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis. Geographers have amused themselves with conjectures, relating to its former junction with the continent, and its separation by an earthquake. But as no historical records or traditions of such an event are to be found, the question is yet unsettled, and is of no practical importance. Sicily forms an important part of the Neapolitan kingdom. Its population amounts to nearly 2,000,000; 300,000, or one seventh part of which, are ecclesiastics, or persons living on church funds. There are 1100 convents, containing 30,000 monks, and about the same number of nuns. The nobility consists of 2440 persons of various grades. The climate is warm, but pleasant; the winters mild, and the heat of summer tempered with sea breezes. The soil is fertile, abounding in corn, wine, cotton, silk, olives, and various kinds of fruit.. The fine climate of Sicily and the south of Italy receives a considerable drawback from the Sirocco, a south-east wind, which coming from the heated sands of the African desert, produces a painful sensation of heat and languor. ETNA. Etna, the famous volcanic mountain, is situated on the eastern coast of Sicily. Its circumference at its base is 180 miles, and its height 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. On its sides and base are seventy-seven cities and villages, containing upwards of 100,000 inhabitants. From the city of Catania to the summit of the mountain, the distance is thirty miles, embracing three distinct climates or zones. The lowest, called the fertile zone, abounds with pastures, orchards and fruit; it extends from the base fifteen miles towards the summit. Then commences the woody or temperate region, extending upwards ten miles, and encircling the mountain. It presents a picture of bright green, forming a pleasant contrast with the desolate region above. The upper zone is marked by a circle of perpetual snow and ice. Nine eruptions are related in CITIES OF SICILY. STATES OF THE CHURCH. history before the Christian era, and fourteen considerable ones since. In later periods the eruptions have been less frequent, and less terrible in their extent and effects. The last was in 1819. They have ceased to be an object of terror to the surrounding inhabitants. Etna supplies Sicily and Italy with snow and ice in summer. The trade in these articles is monopolized by the bishop of Catania, who draws from it a revenue of $4,000 a year. CITIES OF SICILY. Palermo is the principal city of the island and contains a population of 175,000. Syracuse was anciently the chief city, and contained a population of 300,000. It is now reduced to 13,000. It has an excellent harbor, and is used as a place of rendezvous for the United States ships of war in the Mediterranean. Messina is a considerable city, lying at the strait which separates the island from the continent, in latitude 38°. It has a population of 50,000. In 1831, a volcanic island, about one mile in circumference, rose from the sea on the southern coast of Sicily, to the height of 150 feet. After a few months it disappeared, but rose again in the spring of 1832. STATES OF THE CHURCH. The temporal dominions of the pope, or the States of the church, as they are called, are situated in the centre of Italy, and extend across the peninsula ; bounded on the south by Naples, on the east by the gulf of Venice, on the north by the Austrian dominions in Italy, and on the west and south-west by the Tuscan sea, Modena, and Tuscany. They contain an extent of 17,185 square miles, and 2,500,000 inhabitants. The government of these states is unique in its character, consisting of a singular compound of ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction in the same person. Under the pope, the government is conducted by a number of cardinals, who with some laymen occasionally admitted to places in the magistracy and army, fill all the important offices. The cardinals are ap pointed by the pope. One performs the duty of minister of finance, who presides in the apostolic chamber, a council to whom the revenues of the state are entrusted. Another has the office of secretary of state, who corresponds with the nuncios and legates to foreign powers. The detanio is entrusted to another, who has the nomination to vacant benefices, and the granting of dispensations, or exemption from certain duties. A vicar, besides his episcopal duties, has the office of minister of police. Different assemblages of cardinals are called consistories or congregations, and deliberate concerning the nomination of bishops, nuncios and legates. They pass sentence on murderers who claim the right of asylum or impunity, by taking refuge in a church, and examine the complaints of the people against those who immediately govern them. An assemblage of cardinals, called the congregation of rites, regulates the ceremonials of the church, and confers the honors of canonization, that is, of declaring a person after his death to be a saint, to whom prayers may be addressed by the living. The chief of these congregations of cardinals exercises the holy office of the inquisition, assisted by a body called the index or council of censors, whose business it is to point out the persons subject to its cognizance. A certain number of cardinals over whom the pope presides in person, constitute a supreme court of appeals, both in civil and ecclesiastical cases, and determine when it is proper to extend pardon to convicts. The rota is a tribunal which takes cognizance of civil causes in the first instance, and is composed of laymen. The accustomed divisions into provinces, counties, and duchies, common in other countries, are abolished in the States of the church, and they are divided into seventeen legations, over each of which a cardinal presides, subject to the orders of the government of Rome. Laymen assist in the administration of justice, their decisions being subject to a revision by the cardinals. One part of the official duty of the cardinals, is to act as the pope's ambassadors to such foreign powers as acknowledge his jurisdiction, and are there always to be addressed under the title of the king's cousin. Another of their most important official duties is to elect a pope. THEIR POLITICAL CONDITION. The papal government in these states, in the creation of which the people have no agency, and over whose conduct they have no control, exercises an absolute despotism over the persons and property of its subjects. They are not allowed to read the Bible, but must receive their religious tenets implicitly from the priests, being taught that the traditions of the church, and the bulls or edicts of the pope, are of equal authority with the scriptures; and that the pope and his clergy are the only legitimate interpreters of them. Where a main principle of the government is to keep the people in ignorance, schools for the common people, newspapers, or any means of diffusing knowledge among them, are not to be expected. The inhabitants of the states of the church are deplorably ignorant. ROME. Rome, the residence of the pope, and the capital of his dominions, once the largest city in the world, and the seat of universal empire, is still a considerable city, though only a shadow of its former greatness. It is situated on both sides of the river Tiber, twelve miles from its entrance into the sea, in latitude 42° north; and is thirteen miles in circumference. In its most flourishing period, ancient Rome numbered 3,000,000 of inhabitants. Modern Rome contains 144,552, 6,000 of whom are ecclesiastics. CARNIVAL AND LENT. The Jews are tolerated, and allowed to live by themselves in a particular quarter, on the left bank of the Tiber, to the number of ten thousand. They are despised and mal-treated, but care little for it, as long as they are allowed to possess most of the wealth and profitable business of the city, in the capacity of merchants and brokers. Rome still contains much to attract the attention of the learned. Many of the remains of ancient buildings are still to be scen. Of its modern ones, the church of St. Peter's is said to be the most magnificent in the world. It was upwards of a century in building, having been commenced in 1506, and finished in 1614, at an expense of 45,000,000 Roman crowns, equal in value considering the difference in prices, to $100,000,000 at the present time. The cross upon the dome is 450 feet above the pavement. Contiguous to the church is the Vatican, the winter residence of the Popc. Its interior is divided into twenty courts and as many porticos. It has 1200 apartments. The library contains 70,000 volumes, and 40,000 manuscripts. The Pope's summer residence, is a palace built on the Quirinal, one of the seven hills on which Rome was originally founded. This building, though much less than the Vatican, is a magnificent palace, with extensive gardens. During the ages of superstition and ignorance, the popes levied a tax upon their subjects throughout Christendom, under the denomination of Peter pence, under the pretence of honoring St. Peter, for the purpose of erecting these buildings, and supporting the dignity of the successors of that apostle. CARNIVAL AND LENT. The carnival at Rome immediately precedes the forty days fasting of Lent, and usually lasts eight days, commencing about the 25th of January, forty-eight days before the Sunday following the 14th of March. It is a time of universal festivity, as a preparation for the succeeding fast. The name carnival, derived from the Latin words, [carni vale] taking leave of flesh, denotes the object. The last three days are the most licentious. Persons of all descriptions lay aside restraint. Priests and prelates, under the scruples of conscience the rest of the year, now give indulgence to their passions, and go about the city in quest of pleasure forbidden them at other times, and find abundant means of enjoyment. The more modest wear masks; others take no pains to conceal their ex cesses. The carnival corresponds in its principal features with the Saturnalia of pagan Rome. The Italians being free from the vice of intemperate drinking, the parent of most other vices, their revellings are consequently not attended with that tumult common to such occasions. At twelve o'clock at night, on the commencement of Lent, all merriment ceases, and for the forty succeeding days, the appearance of the city is as silent and |