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    Untitled Article

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    FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.

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    after Ghosts ; " " The Belt and the PriaeRingj" and " Oddities of Great Men . " We notice that Once a Week still continues its good stories and exceedingly clever sketches . - ¦ . . T / ie JFamily Economist , an illustrated weekly penny magazine , is full of good things for this month , and deserves to be popular . JLe Follet keeps up its reputation as the leader in the fashionable world . The Ironmongers and Meial Trades' Advertiser : a Mbnt 7 dy Trade Circular , is a useful and unique journal , which is not only a good medium for advertising among the large and important trades of which it appears to be , to a certain extent , the organ and representative , but aims also , in its enlarged form , at providing those into whose hands it may fall with literature and politics . As a journal for reference as to things invented and patented , it seems to have a special province . In the leading article , the subject of * Trade Marks and Useless Legislation" is wisely and forcibly discussed .

    Untitled Article

    SPECIAL Como , 3 rd June , 1860 . PAPAL TRIALS AFTER THE AMNESTY . S OME weeks ago , in giving an account of the mode of procedure in criminal trials at Rome , I concluded my statement by remarking that , though I had no reason to suspect that in the particular case I commented on the sentence was not substantially just , jet that the manner in which the law was administered was such as to leave room for the grossest injustice , when political bias or

    theological ' " . animus " came into play . Since writing the above words , I have-come across the official records of certain political trials , which occurred shortly after the Papal power was restored by Frenchi bayonets . One of these trials possesses a peculiar momentary interest , from the fact that Gabibaldi is one of the persons implicated in the charge , and that the gallant general , if captured on Roman territory , would be l i able to the judgment passed on him in default . It is , however , rather with a view to- show how the Papal system of justice works in political iflatters , that I" propose to narrate the story as I-have learnt ~ it . The words between commas are verbal translations from the

    sen-Salvatobi was elected Mayor of the town during the republic ,-the next four all held the office of " Anziani , " an office which e < responds somewhat to that of alderman in old civic days . The ch witnesses for the prosecution , on the other hand , were all connect with the priests . Bearing these facts in niind , let us see the stc that the * prosecution brought forward , and the evidence on whi that story re-sted . .,, •« Romttlo Salvatobi , we are told then , had long borne ill-will the priest Santuni , on account of an old quarrel about some woe belonging to theChureh , of which Salvatobi had possessed hims wrongfully , and for which he had been forced to pay , in consequen of Santuni ' s representations . He had a grudge , too , agaii De Angelis about a fine of 10 s ., which he conceived ought have been inflicted on De Angelis , but which the latter h :

    somehow or other , escaped paying . He also entertained a persoi animosity against a certain Pietko Latini , as a partisan of t priests in general , and Don Santtjni in particular . For th ( very adequate reasons , he resolved to abuse his powers as Mayor , bring about the deliberate murder of these three persons . In Ms 1849 , we learn that " the Republican hordes commanded by t adventurer Garibaldi , after the battle with the RoyaLNeapolit troops in Velletria , had occupied a precarious position in t neighbouring towns , and a good number of these troops w < stationed in JValmontone , under the command of the so-cal ] Colonel De Pasqualis . The time was now come for Sala tobi ' s vengeance . He drew up an accusation against Santuj De Angelis and Latini , saying that they were intrigui against the republic , stirring up the peasantry of Giulianel

    and offering rewards for the head of any soldier ot Gaeibali To give a colour of probability to this report , he induced t above-named Anziani to sign it , and then sent it to Coloi De Pasqualis pn the 27 th of May . " Such accusations , " I s told , " sent to the commanders of these freebooters , were * cient to ruin every honest citizen . But in order " to accoi plish his impious design , " Salvatoei sent Vincenzo Fjeni with a private letter to De Pasqualis , couched in th < words , on which much stress was laid : " The bearer of this the guide I agreed to send ; the delay arose from the badness the weather . I shall have another guide waiting to inform i of the arrival of your soldiers , that I may meet them first , a give them the necessary instruetipns ^ -don ' t spare a few men exti and we may hope that all will be well . "

    The following night a detachment of sixteen soldiers arrived Gitftianellb . They were met by Salvatobi , who learnt the sj where the priest was to beJbuhd , by a casual inquiryi ' rom a certs Angislo Gabeielli , one of the prisoners before the cou The three accused persons were then arrested , and brought Salvatoei ' s house . With the aid of Gbassi and Vinces ? Fenili , andj as some persons alleged , with that of Teee Fenili , his sister , a search was made through Santuni ' s papei but the search " produced no discovery favourable to the b * design . "

    For a few hours the prisoners were detained at Salvatob house , during which period he was alleged by Latini to have us insolent language towards them . They were then conveyed Valnioiitone . and brought before De Pasqualis , who inform them they would be executed the next morning . This extraor nary" decree was not , " for some unknown reason , " carried ii effect , and the prisoners , were next day removed to the little to ' of Anaqui . After two days more , an officer of Garibaldi , call David , and " pretending to be " a military auditor , came and int rogated them , and concluded with the intelligence that they woi be shot in a lew minutes . Santuni ; , the priest , fell on his kne and begged for mercy , but was told in reply that " priests mig pardon , but Gauibalm never . " Shortly afterwards the prison ') were taken out to the cemetery of the town , and there the pri < was shot , in the presence of Latini und De Angelis , who w < then informed thai Gaeibaldi had pardoned their offence , and tl they were at liberty .

    Whoa Salvatoei learnt that his vengeance had only been pi tially accomplished , he is alleged to have gone at once to De 1 \ qualis , und induced him to issue fresh instructions for the re-cupti of the two pardoned offenders . De Angklis \ yas arrested ag « the following day , and executed at once—Latin i , happily for himsi had escaped into the mountains , and ifc was on his evidence that t prosecution principally relied . Whim the wife of De Angei learnt that her husband was again arrested , she hastened to Sali tori , and at . last obtained from him a letter to Dr Pasqual interceding on buhalf of De Angblis . Salvatoui , huwev < delayed purposely , so we are told , grunting this letter , till he kn it wus too lute , und in consequence , when the wife arrived at V montoue , the execution had nl ready taken place .

    This , in nliort language , is the Pupul version of the story . It of course impossible to dispute the individual statements . All tl can bo dune is to point out certain inherent improbabilities in i statement ; The execution-of Santuni » md De Anoklis was v < likely an unjiiHt , probubly an illeyul act , but the real and only qu tion before the court whs not hh to . the abatrnot merits of the en but us to whether the execution was u political matter or a priv ; crime . ' Now , in the first place , the evidence of Saxvatori having 1 any personal ill-will to his victiinH is vague in tho extreme . ' Anqet . 18 in asserted onco to luvvo tln-eutened to ulioot Salvato but tliis is hardly sufficient proof that ' therefore Salvatoei v resolved to murder De Angelis . Againat Latini no ill-will even Btnted to have existed on Salvatori ' s part . Second

    tence . . - '¦ . . •• _ , ¦ __ On the 4 th of April , 1851 , the first court of theTsiipreme tribunal of the" Sacra Gonsulta" assembled at the Monte Citorio Palace in Rome to try certain persons accused of the murder of a priest during the days of the Roihan republic . The court , as usual , was composed of six ecclesiastics of high' clerical rank , and the only important difference I observe "in the ' mode of procedure from that of the other trials for murder I have already described , is that the preliminary ' trial , before lay judges , seems to have been omitted , ' probably because . the : alleged crime had been perpetrated on the person of a priest . As in the former cases , the only official report of the trial is given in the sentence of the court , published after the execution of the-chief prisoner . From that sentence I have endeavoured-first—of— all-to-exti ^ act-the-modjcum—of—facts-wJiicliuseeaihave been admitted without dispute . During the death-struggle of the Roman republic , when the Neapolitan troops had entered the Papal territory on their fruitless crusade , and when Rome , surrounded by enemies , was fighting against hopeless odds , the country round Velletri was occupied by Garibaldi's soldiery . Near Velletri there is a little town called Giulianello , and a certain Don Domestico Santuni was the head priest of the place . Whether justly or unjustly , this priest and two inhabitants of the town , whose names were Latini and De Angelis , were suspected of plotting against tho republic ; were arrested by order of one of Garibaldi ' s officers , and tried by martial law ; the priest was sentenced to death , and shot at once ; the other two were released . Subsequently , orders were issued for their re-capture .

    One of them , Latini , had made his escape meanwhile ; the other , less fortunate , was arrested again , and executed . How far these persons were really guilty of . the crime for which they suffered , I have no means of knowing , A Government , driven to bay , fighting for dear life against foes abroad and traitors within , is obliged to deal out very rough and summary justice , and can hardly bo expected to waste much time in deliberation . When the Papiil authorities were reinstalled , the Pope , on the requisition of the French , declared a general amnesty for all political offences . The promise , however , of an amnesty , like many other Papal promises , was mude with a mental reservation . The . execution of Santuni and De Angelis was declared not to have been u political offence , but a matter of private vengeance , and the " indignation of the public _ A ^ f * Al . _ l . " A ? _ . II 1 n » - * -wa r . • strongthat called for Within

    was so , " justice was imperatively . a few weeks of the Papal restoration , seven inhabitants of Giulinnello were arrested on a charge of being implicated in tho murders of Santuni and De Angelts . Tho lmines of th > prteonora wove :- ^~ Romolo Salvatoei , Vincenzo Feniu , Luigi Grassi , Fuancesco Fanella , Domenico Federici , Anoelo Gabrielli , Teresa Fenili . Besides these , Giuseppe Garibaldi , HeH ' -stvled general , De Pasqualis , self-styled colonel , David , self'Styled military auditor , and several soldiers , names unknown , were summoned to appcurand answer to the charge , or else allow judgment to ko by default . The trial , us usun ) , did not tnke place till nearly two years after the incarceration of the prisoners . It is curious , to ony the lensl , Ilixit all the prisoners appear to hove been leading members of the liberal party at Giulittnello .

    Untitled Article

    550 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 9 , 1 S 6

    Foreign Correspondence.

    FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 550, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2351/page/18/