SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES AT NAPLES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 967, 15 February 1862, Page 5

SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES AT NAPLES.

At last the project of law for the suppression of monasteries has been signed. If I mistake not, this event took place on the 13th instant, and the country may congratulate itself on its deliverance from an army of locusts. Of late years monastieism has been the resource of indolence, and monasteries have been the nursuries of superstition, vice, and political subservienc}', 80 that society may be expected to benefit in every respect from the change. By many, it is probable, the monastic life has been chosen because no better career presented itself, just as public offices have been crowded by the youth of the country, who would willingly have devoted themselves to any other occupation, if such could have been found; but, as almost all the paths of industry have been closed, the church, the monastery, and the publice o(H«e alone remained ||| supply the wants and satisfy the ardour of thosfl who were just entering into life. The suppression' of one of these careers sets at liberty a great amount of talent and of labour that lias never been utilized —creates, in fact, a vast public want. To meet that want the resources of the country niust needs he developed, and it is consolatory to think that the tendency of the new system of government is to do so. Those.two facts will, therefore, act and react upon one another; for, as the cessation of the monastic life will increase the demands of labour, an enlightened government will, and must, bestir itself to meet thorn, and, not merely in following out a philanthropic dream or a financial speculation, but from absolute necessity, the hidden treasures of the country must be worked out and brought to'light. "'Let me not, however, wander from the subject of my letter. 1 cannot enter into details, but thus much I know,1 that: the Benedictine monasteries of the Monte Casino, and of La Oavft arc spared, for in them are preserved the

national archives, and both have done good service to the cause of public instruction. So also are certain houses spared (not the orders) of the Phillipini and the Theatini, for similar reasons. The mendicant friars are entirely suppressed, and with great advantage to the country; for. .though their'habit of collecting and distributing alms has won them much favour with the multitude, and with all who do not look beneath the surface, they have more than any other order paralyzed industry and nurtured indolence and dirt. Wait outside one of their buildings, as I have often done, about midday, and watch the crowds who throng there to receive their basin of "mmestra verde" or of soup. "Poverini!" says the thoughtless passer-by, "what holy men those monks are, and how blessed those institutions are for the poor!" Wait a moment; look at the sturdy ruffians who often present themselves • listen to the quarrelling and blasphemy which never fail (and there is not a man in Europe who can utter such blasphemies as your Neapolitan, though his spiritual interests have beeen so well provided for), and your admiration will be modified. Follow them to their homes. Homes, indeed! They can scarcely be said to have any, for the regular supply of soup diminishes, if it does not altogether destroy, all motive to exertion and all self-respect. They will linger about the streets, eking out existence for the rest of the day by begging for grani, sleep in a doorway, or under a roof which covers and shelters a number of other such un-Christianized animals as themselves, and return the next day at the " tocco," as midday is called, sure of finding their dirty jugs and basins filled again. Such is the daily life of hundredi and thousands in Southern Italy, and, if they beg without shame and refuse to work, it is because those " blessed" institutions of mendicant friars have destroyed all motive to one, and have removed all sense of the other. Tlie returns which have recently been made show that there are at present ten thousand and odd of these interesting characters in this province. In a romance, or at an annual exhibition of paintings, with girdle, crucifix, and rosary, nothing can be more picturesque than one of these figures, but in reality, in their influence on society, the charm is broken. I have described the appearance of the outside of one of .their monasteries, and the effects which this mistaken charity produces on the population ; now, then, for the means by which ; this charity is supplied. Daily and almost hourly ; you will find some licensed beggar with a cowl prowl- ;■ ing about the streets. He stands by the stall as the fish are brought in from the sea, and, laying his rope girdle on one of the best-looking, says by that action, in the words of the comedy, "Now, that fish is mine!" and so it is—who dares dispute it ? The same he does in the early morning in the markets, when the fruits and the green vegetables are just brought in from the country, and I shall never forget the scene which I witnessed one morning about sunrise in the market* in Mas3aniello^square. The prime agent walked about from one basket to another, pounced on some article without saying a word, and tossed it into the double bag which his lay brother carried across his shoulder. Again he stops at the shopdoor, and calls out " San Francesc'!" and out comes sometimes the willing contributor, who gives in kind or in money, takes a pinch of the monk's erba santa, and kisses the figure of the saint; at other times the offering is made with a bad grace, and the contributor asks change for a five-grain piece. But just after harvest time is the great feast of the meudicants. " I have known," said the Syndic of a small commune to me not many days since, "the annattoni of 27 monasteries visit this small place in the autumn. In the name of San Francisco! they viiit every cottage when the hard-working peasant can scarcely keep body and soul together, and carry off grain, beans, peas, even silk-cocoons, and nearly everything, indeed, that presents itself." By the end of the season a heavy tax has been laid on the population, which would have created a revolution had it been levied by the Government; and thus thousands of ducats are collected to encourage indolence, and to destroy habits of self-respect and of independence, when hot as many grains would have been forthcoming to teach a brutally ignorant population to read. I know country communes at this moment which are pay ing schoolmistresses £5 a-year, and yet throw away in church fetes and monasteries nearly ten times that sum. It is, therefore, a great and a bold step which the Italian Government has taken, and let it receive the full measure of praise for the deed. It is a guarantee of an intention to do everything for the development of industry, for no Government which, by a stroke of the pen, destroyed a career so much pursued as that of monastieism, and threw large masses of future generations on society, could exist six months without straining every nerve to awaken all the resources of the country. As to the actual tenants of monastic houses, I have already explained in former letters that no injustice will be done to them. They have all pensions assigned to them adequate to their wants, and they have the option of returning to their homes, or else of clubbing together in certain houses which are reserved to them.