Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/169

 F I L F I L 159 consul, was admitted to the prytande, then the training school for young officers, where he remained for the usual period of two years. Entering the French army, he was promoted to the rank of captain on the field of Auster- litz. He afterwards connected himself with the Neapolitan army, which he accompanied to Spain (1808), where he distinguished himself by a brilliant, though not always considerate, valour. He fought many duels, one with General Frauceschi, whom he killed. In 1815 he was created general by Marat, and decorated with the order of the Deux-Siciles, after being severely wounded by the Austrians while reconnoitring on tho Tanaro. On the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of Naples, FiLingieri opposed the constitution of 1820, and showed himself a most decided partisan of absolute power. He, however, incurred the displeasure of Ferdinand L; but on the accession of Ferdinand IT., he was placed at the head of the artillery and engineers. In 1848 he powerfully helped to check the revolutionary movement, by taking Messina after a terrible bombardment which lasted four days; and six months after, when the armistice imposed by England and France expired, he completed the sub mission of Sicily, of which he was appointed governor- general with dictatorial powers. As a reward for his ser vices he received the title of duke of Taormina. He died in 18G7. FILANGIERI, GAETAXO (1752-1788), an eminent Italian publicist, was born at Naples on the 18th of August 1752. He was the third son of Caesar prince of Arianiello, and through his mother he was connected with the ducal house of Fragnito. Gaetano was from his infancy destined for the profession of arms ; when only seven years of age he received a military appointment, and at fourteen he began actual service. His early years gave no promise c f future distinction ; he seems originally to have manifested a positive dislike for the classics, while his interest in the exact sciences, it is said, was first awakened at a compara tively mature age by a trivial circumstance. His brother s tutor had made a mistake in the solution of a mathematical problem; Gaetano had been acute enough to discover and rectify the error. From that day his great intellectual powers began to develop rapidly, and such was his diligence that, at twenty years of age, besides being well grounded in mathematical science, he had acquired a competent know ledge of Latin and Greek, of ancient and modern history, as well as of the principles of law, and, moreover, had composed a couple of essays, one on &quot; Educational Reform&quot; and another on the &quot; Morals of Princes.&quot; Meanwhile he had quitted the military service, and, yielding to the wishes of his friends rather than to his own inclinations, had entered on the profession of the law. At the bar his knowledge and eloquence soon secured his success, and special circumstances still further helped his advancement. In the year 1774 King Charles III. of Naples, at the instance of his minister Tanucci, had issued a much-needed ordinance for the reform of abuses in the administration of justice. Although this reform had been generally welcomed, it had excited the murmurs of the bar. Filangiori now became the advocate of the court, and published a defence of the royal decree founded upon the most enlarged views of law and equity. The extensive knowledge and matured judgment displayed in this performance called forth the warm commendation of Tanucci, who encouraged its author to pursue the course in which he had already acquired so much distinction. Through this influence and that of his uncle the archbishop of Palermo he received, in 1777, several honourable appointments at court; but his residence there neither broke in upon his regular habits of life, nor interrupted the course of his studies ; nor did he allow it to interfere with the composition of the great work, La Scienza della Legislazione, on which he was engaged, and to which, rather than to practice at the bar, he had all along been devoting his chief attention. The first and second books, containing respectively an exposition of the rules on which legislation in general ought to proceed, and a discus sion of political and economic laws in particular, appeared at Naples, 1780. Its success was great and immediate. Not only in Italy, but throughout Europe at large, the author forthwith took rank with the most celebrated publicists, with his own countrymen Gravina, Vico, and Beccaria, and with the illustrious Montesquieu. Although in the course of his observations he had found it necessary to point out many faults committed by his own Government, so skilfully had he discharged the delicate task of stating obnoxious truths without giving offence to those in power that he was promoted by the king to a commandery in the royal order of Constantine, In 1783 he was married to Caroline von Frendel, an Hungarian lady ; and in order that he might the more fully enjoy domestic happiness, and at the same time have leisure for the composition of his work, on which he became every day more intent, he, with the consent of the king, resigned all his military appointments and his offices at court, and retired to a country seat at Cava, some twenty miles from Naples. In the same year he published the third book of his Scienza, relating entirely to the principles of criminal jurisprudence. Even his earlier volumes had not failed to rouse the antipathies of an in terested and influential class; but in this certain sugges tions which he had made as to the need for reform in the Roman Catholic Church called forth the censure of the ecclesiastical tribunals, and his book was condemned by the congregation of the Index in 1784. In the following year he nevertheless published three additional volumes, dealing with education and morals, these forming the fourth book of his great work. He was proceeding with the preparation of the remaining three books, but his health was now considerably impaired, owing to an excess of application, so that composition advanced but slowly; and other interruptions soon followed. In 1787 the new king, Ferdinand IV., summoned him to Naples to assist in the council of finance ; and there for a time he was wholly engrossed with this important public business. But severe domestic misfortunes, combined with over-work, soon com pelled his withdrawal from office once more. He had just finished the first part of his fifth book, in which he treats of the different systems of religion which preceded Christianity, when he died on the 21st of July 1788. Of the second part of the same book he had only made a rude sketch, in which were noted down the principal subjects of discussion, such as the advantages of Christianity, and the dangers of superstition ; the inconveniences of not distinguishing the spiritual from the temporal power; the evils of an ignorant, venal, excessively wealthy clergy. He was then to have considered the principles of ecclesi astical jurisprudence ; and a chapter on toleration was to have completed the book. In the sixth book he proposed to treat of the laws relating to property; and in the seventh and last, of those regarding the patria potestas and the government of families. It is much to be regretted that the author was not spared to complete his great work. Though unfinished, it has exercised considerable influence on the thought and feeling of Europe, particularly in Italy, where, at the time of its publication, the feudal system of legislation was still in full force. In some por tions, particularly in the chapters on criminal law r, it is not even now out of date. Filangieri had also other important works in contemplation when he died. One, of which he had written a short fragment, was to have been entitled Nuova Scienza delle Scienze ; another was to have con tained a system of universal history.