Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/199

Rh N A P N A P 187 Ac BESvCL. ^4) &amp;lt;7 &quot;^-aiscfliA SS^ijda the soldiers and the inhabitants, and also found time to propound a complete scheme of reform for the govern ment of the island. While he was at Guernsey his brother Charles had conquered Sind, and the attacks made on the policy of that conquest brought William Napier again into the field of literature. In 1845 he published his History of the Conquest of Scinde, and in 1851 the corresponding History of the Administration of Scinde books which in style and vigour rivalled the great History, but which, being written for controversial purposes, are not likely to maintain such an enduring popularity. In 1847 he re signed his governorship, and in 1848 was made a K.C.B., and settled at Scinde House, Clapham Park. His time was fully occupied in defending his brother, in revising the numerous editions of his History which were being called for, and in writing letters to the Times on every con ceivable subject, whether military or literary. His energy is the more astonishing when it is remembered that he never recovered from the effects of the wound he had received at Cazal Nova, and that he often had to lie on his back for months together. His domestic life was shadowed by the incurable affliction of his only son, and when his brother Charles died in 1853 the world seemed to be darkening round him. He de voted himself to writing the life of that brother, which appeared in 1857, and which is in many re spects his most characteristic book. In the end of 1853 his younger brother, Captain Henry Napier, R.N., the historian of Florence, died, and in 1855 his brother Sir George. Inspired by his work, he lived on till the year 1860, when, broken by trouble, fatigue, and ill-health, he died (on February 12) at Clapham. As a military historian Sir William Napier is incomparably superior to any otlier English writer, and his true com peers are Thucydides, Caesar, and Davila. All four had been soldiers in the wars they describe ; all four possessed a peculiar insight into the mainsprings of action both in war and peace ; and all four pos sessed a peculiar and inimitable style. Napier always wrote as if he was burning with an inextinguishable desire to express what he was feeling, which gives his style a peculiar spontaneity, and yet he rewrote the first volume of his History no less than six times. His descriptions of sieges and of battles are admirable by them selves, and his analyses of the peculiarly intricate Spanish intrigues are even more remarkable, while the descriptions and analyses are both lit up with flashes of political wisdom and military insight. It is to be noted that he displays the spirit of the partisan, even when most impartial, and defends his opinions, even when most undoubtedly true, as if he were arguing some controverted question. If his style was modelled on anything, it was on Cresar s comment aries, and a thorough knowledge of the writings of the Koman eneral will often explain allusions in Napier. The portraits of ir John Moore and Colonel M Leod, and the last paragraphs descriptive of the storming of Badajoz, may be taken as examples of the great natural eloquence which arose from the loving recol lection of friends, or the deep impression made by a most terrible scene upon his vivid imagination. For Sir William Napier s life, see his Life and Letters, edited by the Right Honourable H. A. Bruce (now Lord Aberdare), 2 vols., 1862. The dates of his books are given above. The edition of the History published in 1851 is the best, and contains the answers to various criticisms which sum up the contro versies arising from statements in the work. The French translation is by Count Mathieu Dumas. (H. M. S.) NAPLES (Ital. Napoli, Gr. and Lat. Neapolis], formerly the capital of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and since 1860 the chief town of a province in the kingdom of Italy, is the largest and most populous city in the country, and disputes with Constantinople the claim of occupying the most beautiful site in Europe. It is situated on the northern shore of the Bay of Naples (Sinus Cumamis), in 40 52 N. lat. and 14 15 45&quot; E. long., as taken from the lighthouse on the mole. By rail it is distant 161 miles from Rome. No other place in the world combines within the same compass so much natural beauty with so many objects of interest to the antiquary, the historian, and the geologist as the Bay of Naples. Its circuit is about 35 miles from the Capo di Miseno on the north-west to the Punta della Campanella on the south-east, or more than 52 miles if the islands of Ischia, at the north-west, and of Capri, at the south entrance, be included. At its opening between these two islands it is 14 miles broad ; and from the opening to its head at Portici the distance is 15 miles. It affords good anchorage, with nearly 7 fathoms water, and is well sheltered, except from winds which blow from English, fiKt Environs of Naples. points between south-east and south-west. There is a perceptible tide of nearly 9 inches. On the north-east shore of the bay, east of Naples, is an extensive flat, forming part of the ancient Campania Felix, and watered by the small stream Sebeto and by the Sarno, which formerly flowed by Pompeii. From this flat, between the sea and the range of the Apennines, rises Vesuvius, at the base of which, on or near the sea-shore, are the town-like villages of San Giovanni Teduccio, Portici, Resina, Torre del Greco, Torre dell Annunziata, &c., and the classic sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii. At the south-east extremity of the plain, 3 miles beyond the outlet of the Sarno, a great offshoot of the Apennines, branching from the main range near Cava, and projecting as a peninsula more than 12 miles west, divides the Bay of Naples from the Bay of Salerno (Sinus Pscstamis), and ends in the bold promontory of the Punta della Campanella (Promontorium Minervx), which is separated by a strait of 4 miles from Capri. On the north slope of this peninsula, where the plain ends and the coast abruptly bends to the west, stands the town of Castellammare, near the site of Stalise, at the foot of Monte Sant 1 Angelo, which rises suddenly from the sea to a height of 4722 feet. Farther west, and nearly opposite to Naples across the bay, are Vico, Meta, Sorrento, Massa, and many villages. The north-west shore of the bay, to the west of Naples, is more broken and irregular. The promontory of Posillipo,