On this page

• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    746 . «f> * arafcrr. [Satprdav,

  • 

    JUSTICE AT ROME. ( A. SEQUEL TO MR. GLAD...

  • 

    C ONT1N M N T A L NO T K S. Apart from t...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    746 . «F> * Arafcrr. [Satprdav,

    746 . « f > * arafcrr . [ Satprdav ,

    Justice At Rome. ( A. Sequel To Mr. Glad...

    JUSTICE AT ROME . ( A . SEQUEL TO MR . GLADSTONE ' S REVELATIONS . ) ( From La Presse of the 3 rd instant . ) Can the system I am about to describe be ca . 'led iustice ? Can the following statements , of the authenticity of which I am well assured , be deemed credible ? No ! surely the y w ere past belief , d id we not know how the cruelty of despotism broadens , like a pyr a mid , from crown to base . Justice is distributed at Rome with closed door 3 , and upon bare information . The accused is indeed permitted the choice of counsel to defend him , —only , if the advocate be not to the taste of his jud ges , he must either s elect a noth e r , or accept any nominee of ihe

    President of the Court , for a substitute . The counsel is served with the indictment ; but neither he nor the prisoner is confronted with his accusers , or with the impeaching witnesses , whose identity remains a secret to the " defence . " Under these dark forms of trial , it may well be understood how difficult it becomes to establish innocence ; and , o n the other h and , how personal enmity or a private grudge may wreak revenge on the victim of anonymous denunciations ! Yot ° notwithstanding the authority to condemn at pleasure any object of their spite , these petty inquisitors dare not brave the public horror of human

    sacrifices : they seldom pronounce the extreme sentence . But if their victims escape the headsman s axe or the auto-da-fe in the public square , they are not spared the moral and physical tortures of the gaols and of the dungeons , in whi c h a P owe r o f darkness , on the pretext of a necessary delay in framing the indictment , claim s th e ri ght of indefinite detention , and so deals out , drop by drop , the lingering anguish of a cruel death ; and all this savagery is "fulfille d , " according to the jargon of fanatics , "for the greater glory of God , and of his C / iurc / i . "

    The lloman gaols have one common room for the herd of pris o ners , or such as have not the wherewith to pay for the privilege of one of the detached cells , i n w hich ea c h prisoner is granted a couch of straw , or a squalid mattress , instead of the foul and putrid truss which is thrown to the inmates of the segretta pi ana , as the common room is called . A hideous sty of infection , misery , desolation , wh e re human bein gs ar e h e ap e d together like uncl ea n b ea st s in loathsome filth ; and if from some poor wretch despair

    extorts too sharp a cry , a hundred weight ot iron is attached to his feet ; but not before he has received a more o r less severe scourg ing on the shoulders or the loins with sticks or rods . This latter punishment , as humiliating as it is savage , is c all e d the Cavaletto , and in the " good old tim es , " was inflicted publicly on men and women naked . The squeamish decei cy of tha present governors of Home no longer oaring to make a public show of this revolting cruelty , they make amends to their sense of duty by confining it to the recesses of the gaols . No othtr mitigation ot the

    sufferings of captives can these successors of the Apostles devise than to restore the ignominious atrocities which the Republic had found time to suppr e ss , in abolishing by the same decree cap ital punishment . Not content with restoring , they aggravate ; bclo . e the Republican regime , the weig . t of iron attached to the prisoners' ancles was only fifty pounds ; it is now increased to ninety-six : No language can give a just conception of this heartrending spectacle of all the tortures of humanity driven to despair , humiliated , degraded , debasi d by tlie most ign ble usage , in this ward , or rather in tins cavern , reeking with deadly nuphitu ; exhalations .

    Passing from the tiryretta piuna to the detached cells you lind two prisoners shut in each . These cells are about H ft . 11 in . in length , 7 It . 7 in . in breadth , and 7 ft . 10 in . in height . The allowance of air is barely sufficient for one man ' s life , where iuo are buried alive , devoured by lever and by the ¦ vermin that fes er where the iron has lacerated and torn . It is thusth . it a government of priests " obtain the scaffold's aim by means moie cruel than ihe Hcaffold , it ml without the ; outcry which the scaffold ¦ w ould create . " As to the wards destined for

    prisoners " at . large , " or tho-e who are confined by nig ht only , and who in the daytime have the privilege of walking in the inner court , these rooms designed to hold ten piisoner . s eaeh are made to hold twenty . Think of the agonies to b , > endured by these unhappy men , pent up during the ; suffocating heats of a Roman BUiiim . r , in a < len to which light and iiir can ( inly jncrce through one solitary crevice placed at a heig ht of nearly bc . ven feet from tin- ground . The only relief to be obtained in this pestilential lurnace is l > y their mounting upon each other's shoulders in turn to gulp a faint and momentary breath of . stilled air .

    The allowance of food to each prisoner is . sixteen ounces of bread daily , two oinitca and a half of meat , weighed raw , and three ounces of bouillon ; the ine . it and the bouillon arc replaced on fust days by v « getablcH boiled in salt und water . Only once a month can they receive u visit from relatives or friends ; mid then they must apeak with tlieni through it double grating , and in the pre . se nee ol two gao . ers . Within " " the lust lew days six prisoners have literally died of aiurvaiion in their cells . Two attempted uicide , tuul have been put in iron !* for flip uUojnpt ,

    to undergo a further condemnation . Two others , raving m ad , have been carried to the hospital ot La Longara . , The prison of San Michele contains more than 400 p o litic a l prisoners , the Bagni , and the new prison more than 200 ; in the latter the politically accused are crowded indiscriminately with robbers and assassins . Here every new comer is subjected bvtb . ecn . iet of the community to the most disgusting offices , and .

    if he happen to be a youth , to exigencies the most revolting , if he cannot pay his ransom ! Thi 3 " chiet o f the compan y is an elective despot , to whom nis com p anions aw a r d th e titl e of Sovereign Pontiff . It is the most distinguished thief and murderer who attains to this supreme dignity of crime ! lo him his fellows pay imperial honours ; and it is his privilege after meals to be carried round the yard on the shoulders of his subjects . is stri

    By this despot ' s orders every new comer pped of his good clothe ? , and even of his sh oe s , and it need scarcely be added , of his money . If the victim lodge a complaint with the governor of the gaol , what is th e result ? A perquisition by the turnkeys , toho be i n g t hemselves re mi tted conv i c t s , are accomplices to the robbers , and never find the objects lost . The complainant gets a murderous attack the next nig ht , and a savage beating for his pains . If in this pestilent atmosp h e re , o r fr o m ill usa g e , a prisoner fall seri ou sl y ill , he is carried to the infirmary , where the assistant-surgeons and dressers are also robbers and assassins of repute , to whom Valori , the senior physician , an d B accelli , the chief surgeon , delegate their

    authority and their functions . I n the midst of all thes e to r tu r es , and all these tlaily and hourly moral and physical degradations , these unfortunate martyrs of tneir political faith preserve an admirable courage , a noble dignity ; each is proud to suffer , and happy to die , to assur e the triumph of justice and of liberty , whose advent is at hand for all mankind , in spite of the selfish hate of oppressors , who would fain arrest the very dawn !

    To such excess has reached this blind hate at Rome , that the Cardinal-Vicar has dared to suppress the passage of the Catechism which recommends the Christian duty of visiting and succouring the captices ! Nay , certain alms , and th e revenues of pious foundations , bequeathed for the relief of prisoners , are di v erte d from th e ir d e stinati o n , and e mplo ye d in the service of the Jesuitical Propaganda , at home and abroad . Here are the names of a few prisoners , actually detained at this moment , or condemned , on political

    : — Silvestre Campetti , of Rome , h a s been in g aol for more than a year , kept in solitary confinement , and in irons . He suffers all tiie tortures of starvation , as the allowance of bread and water is barely sufficient to prevent bis escape— throug h death . The pretext for accusation is , iliac it in hi . power to g ive information of a pretended Republican p lot , of which , throughout his agonies , he persists in asserting entire i gnorance .

    Bonafttle Ippolito di Fuligno was arrested in a cafe , notwithstanding a safe-conduct fr . un General Ro . tolan , an l a passport delivered to him by the police . He is detained in pnsou , and treated with the same barbaro-is rigour as Campetti , and on the same pretext of a fabricated plot . Krmand Clavari de Rubino , t : x-commissary of police of Rione du Horgo , at Rome , was arrested at Uibino and brought back to Rome , kept in solitary confinement , and forbidden to write to his family , or to receive news of them . Up to ibis day he "has not learned the cause of his arrest .

    Ripmi , of Cremona , physicim-m-chief of the military hospitals , who had only remained nt Rome at the instance of ( ieiieial Levaillant , in charge of the wounded Lombards , was airested und thrown into prison , where he still remains . jJemardino Federici , of Monte-Rotondo , advocate , win arrested and condemned tothegatlejs for live year .- , on a charge of profanity and impiety , he having when suffering from a eold in his head , coug hed und cleared his throat in the paiish church , dnnng tin : sermon ! Now , as he passed fora " Liberal , " this fit of coughing was imputed to him as an insult to God and to His minister , and such is the crime for which he is condemned .

    . Scipione Aiuici was imprisoned with his fatuer on a ehirge of Liberalism . They leave two young girls ( one aged thirteen and the other nine years ) in most dreadful distress . The young man is dangerously wounded and ill from the intolerable brutalities of the vile desperadoes with whom lie was herded in the gaol . Michele Lue : it (> lli ( capo popolo ) of Rione ; dei Monte , at Rome , is incarcerated on an accusation which entails ips ;> facti ) , be is informed , excommunication . They refuse to tell him his crime : and no judge will examine him , for fear of incurring exfo / nmunicdtwn by u tsort of infection , from inert : eontiu l with the accused . IJy this unheard-of denial of justice , a man must rot in gaol , unconvicted , uncondciiined ! Or .-eHli , Hiihutini , Duart , IJruni , Catenncci , arc the live young men who were iinealed on tlm yoth of

    April , J 850 , with several of their companions in an artist's studio , on a charge of having manufactured the Bengal lights , " which were let-off at Rome on the anniversary of the Republic . Although , in the course of a domiciliary visit which was made in their presence , and lasted three hours , not a vestige of proof was discovered in support of the charge , they were chained , and plunged into prison . The judges , accompanied by s b irr i an d carabinie r s , paid a second visit to the studio , which had been left open all night ; and in that second perquisition , in the absence of the accused , was foundthepowder , fusees , and matches they had sought in vain for on the previous day . It was on these materials for conviction , which

    constituted a simple misdemeanour and not a crime , and which , by common report , had been introduced into the studio during the night , that these young men were sentenced to the galleys for twenty years . This sentence , it should be added , is not founded , even ostensibly , upon any criminal act : it refers neither to Bengal lights , nor to fusees , nor to powder : it rests on the simple and sole consideration , " that , under present circumstances , it is requisite , by a severe punishment , to put a stop to the subversive manoeuvres of factious men . " In such haste was the court to deliver this iniquitous sentence , that they pronounced it without waiting for their oion official nominee to present the defence of the accused .

    These youths , at first incarcerated in Fort St . Angelo , were transferred to the prison of St . Michael after the escape of the accused Offreduzzi . On that occasion the young Droesti , on the bare suspicion of having assisted the escape , had to unJergo the cavaletto . He was then plunged into a dungeon , from which he was only dragged after fifty-two days to the Infirmary , reduced almost to a skeleton by a wasting fever , and b y the lacerations which ninetysix pound weight of iron attached to his feet night and day had worn into the flesh , and the crawling vermin had made festering sores !

    Another prisoner , who had complained of the gaoler for str iking him b ruta l l y with the heavy keys because he returned to his cell but slowly , was condemned to the cavaletto , and then to fourteen days of solitary confinement in a dungeon , and in heavy irons . An old man , after three months' earnest entreaty , had a t l e n g th obtai n e d permission to visit his son , who was in prison as a Republican . The si ght of his lean and famine-wasted son , who looked like a walking spectre , made so painful an impression upon the old man that he was seized with a convulsive ne rvou s atta c k , and carried out of the prison dying . The son , berrayed into some hasty expression at this sad seizure , was thrown into a dungeon and loaded with irons .

    It is two prelates of the Church of Jesus Christ , Monsi « nori Matteucchi and Benvenuti , the one Seccretary of the Consulta , the other Fiscal General , who are the directors , the ingenious designers of these refinements of cruelty towards miserable prisoners ; and it excites wonder that their victims should repulse with indignation their ironical message of charity and mercy , and that in tin ir despair they should strike or insult their relentless persecutors

    when they dare to present tin maelves in tln-ir forlorn abode to gloat over the tortures of captivity ! And it is at Rome , in the capital of the Christian world , in the midst of the traditions and relics of the great Apostles of universal charily and freedom , that human beings of all classes of society , men o f property , merchants , advocates , officers of all ranks , and young men of exalt , d patriotism are barbarously thrown into dungeons of filth and infection , and subjected to the most cruel tortures , moral and physical trusted and be

    —for why ? because , forsooth , they - lieved in the solemn promises of a Sovereign Pontiff , of a man who calls himself the Vicar of the In < arnate God who died for the emancipation of Humanity It is in these prisons of Rome that fresh and stainless youths are forced to provoke ; Kohtary confinement by any breach of discip line , even to violence and insult , an an escape from the intolerable pollutions of the abandoned convicts with whom they aio herded : pollutions of which some have died and others have prayed for death as a rescue from

    indescribable disease ! It , is rxt Rome th . it a judge refuses to interrogate , a prisoner , for fear of contact with an excommunicated person ! It is at Rome that honourable women and pure girls are forced to prostitute themselves to the persecutors of their husbands or their fathers , to obtain their liberty , or , if only nom « respite and alleviation to their sufferings , whilst others become the instruments of denunciation against their fiit rids , relatives , and neighbours , as the only means of obtaining somo relief from an inquisitorial police , and the only escape from . starvation for them- ' selves and their children ! This is what the " Party of Order" call the reestablishment of legitimate authority ! O Liberty-Kmii . I ' , l ) li GlHAK ' lilN .

    C Ont1n M N T A L No T K S. Apart From T...

    C ONT 1 N M N T A L NO T K S . Apart from the Parisian fetes , French news is without interest ; the notable event being the decision ol tn (! As e . nbly , by 3 i . > to 2 HH , authorizing the city <>* P- 'j to contract it loan of fifty millions of francs , lor t no purnotiu of building now murkyta mid continuing tu 0

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1851, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09081851/page/6/