When One Takes Into
Consideration The Extreme Ignorance That Prevails Among The Neapolitans In
General, One Is Astonished That Such A Prodigy Of Genius As Filangieri
Could Have Sprung Up Among Them.
What talent, application, deep research
and judgment were united in that illustrious man!
And yet there are many
Neapolitans of rank who have never heard of him. Would you believe that on
my asking one of the principal booksellers in Naples for Filangieri's work
on legislation (an immortal work which has called forth the admiration and
eulogy of the greatest geniuses of the age, of which Benjamin Franklin and
Sir Wm Jones spoke in the most unqualified terms of approbation; a work
which has been translated into all the languages of Europe), I was told by
the bookseller that he had never heard either of the author or of his work.
A very curious thing at Naples is the number of public writers; who compose
letters and memorials in booths, fitted up in the streets. As the great
majority of the people are so ignorant as to be unable to read or write, it
follows that when they receive letters, they must find somebody to read
them for them and to write the answers required. They accordingly, on the
receipt of a letter, bring it to one of these public scribes, ask him to
read it for them and to write an answer, for which trouble he receives a
fixed pay. These writers are thus let into the secrets of family affairs of
more than half of the city; and as some-of them are in the pay of the
Government for communicating intelligence, you may guess how formidable
they may become to liberty and how dangerous an engine in the hands of a
despotic Government.
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