CRUELTIES OF NAPLES. CRUELTIES OF NAPLES. THE Rev. G. W. Bridges, formerly chaplain-general of Jamaica, has written to the Times, giving a detail of what he saw at Palermo, in 1848, when the inhabitants were in insurrection. The circumstances are so horrible that they would scarcely be believed had not Mr. Bridges actually seen what he describes. The revolutionists broke into the Police Palace, and on removing a bookcase some fresh-plastered wall appeared, which was quickly broken down. We give, in Mr. Bridges' own words, the particulars of what was discovered : equal to that of our own venerable, talented, and highly respected consul, Mr. Goodwin, and adjoining whose house was the prison into which we had seen the forty-eight sbirri, the hated spies and torturers under the Neapolitan system of police, just then humanely brought to save them from the raging venWith that geance of the infuriate mob. gentleman I immediately joined the returning crowd, curious to see the place where they had been captured, which was at the distance of some streets; and when we reached it we found the excited populace venting their harmless indignation by merely throwing from its windows the papers, books, "The senses were almost overpowered by and furniture, until their attention seemed the steaming effluvia which issued from seven to be drawn to a portion of the building into dark chambers communicating with each which they had not penetrated-had not, in other, where, upon clearing the loopholes, a fact, discovered any visible entrance. It secreted scene of horror was before us, such was soon, however, found and forced, as has as wants the best testimony to be believed. been described, and the scene then disclosed There lay human bodies, and the mutilated within excited such a fresh outbreak of quite remains of such, in every state of death and uncontrollable fury, as threatened that foul decay-bundles of rotting rags mingled with and horrible outrage which actually ensued, bones and limbs, and filth filled the corners and which, for our own safety, called us of the smaller rooms, chains hung riveted to homeward, past the prison where the sbirri the walls above, whence some of these remains were secured, but not before we had time to had dropped as they died-some still hold-realize the astounding scene before us, which ing in their iron grasp the arms or ankles of impressed us with the idea that the ill-fated their famished victims. Skeletons, almost apologist for the bodies affixed to the wall fleshless, were piled upon others which were quite so, and placed on stone shelves which had served as their beds while living; naked bodies, black and pulpy, were hidden beneath others more recently dead, yet alive with maggots; and, greater horror still, two human bodies in writhing attitudes were hanging orucified upon the wall of the largest chamber, the reeking, blood-stained "We noticed, moreover, that some of the stones of which held rusty spikes corresponding to the outstretched hands and feet of rooms, all opening into each other, appeared others which had been so suspended, and to have been used as mere charnel chambers still retaining the stringy remains of muscles -not uncommon in Sicilian houses and contorn to shreds, from which the heavier por- vents-their tiers of stone shelves mostly tions had dropped and lay in heaps of pu- piled with bones and rags; others, especially tridity beneath. Shrieks of indignant horror the largest, seemed adapted to living subarose from the infuriate crowd, a portion of jects, for there stood vessels, or the remains which rushed back to the prison where the of them, evidently used for food and water captured sbirri were secured, brought them-sufficient proof of what had been so long out, and shot them down on the instant. transacting there! However, we hastened Others remained, raking and searching homewards, soon heard the volleys of musamong the bones and bodies, examining ketry which disposed of the wretched sbirri, minutely the putrid remnants of those they fancied might have been their fathers, brothers, or kindred, who had long been missing, One of the but whose fate they knew not. sbirri, whose life I tried in vain to save, endeavored to persuade me that the suspended bodies were not crucified while alive, but nailed there to augment the tortures of the living prisoners. "I was at that moment on a visit to Mr. Marston, the American consul there, whose influence among the Sicilians was almost spoke false in the vain hope of saving his life, inasmuch as they hung there loosely, and crouching almost on the floor, their flexible weight bearing them down far below the points of suspension, in writhing attitudes, such as aspiring sufferers might be supposed to die in, and which would not, we imagined, be the case had they been nailed up as rigid corpses. and met the shrieking mob of men, and, From The Press, 30 June. MEETING OF THE DEAD KINGS. though uncrowned, is now recognized as the second of the dynasty,-are all to meet_cof alty is to be made sacred again in France, whoever were its representatives. And in this gathering together of the royal dead, do we not behold a preparation for his own obsequies by him who still occupies the throne of France? KING JEROME is dead, and his mortal re-fined in the dim cloisters of St. Denis. Roymains are not to be gathered to those of his fathers. The humble Bonaparte of Corsica moulders in his grave at Ajaccio; and probably a stately cenotaph may yet be erected to his memory as the father of a race of kings who have played a mighty part in the recent history of Europe. But it is France, This contemplated reunion of the royal the country of their adoption, and with dead of France is as significant in its design whose destinies their kingly career has been as it will be memorable if accomplished. associated, that is to give a suitable resting- Louis Napoleon desires to "close the Revoplace to their remains. At the very time lution" and found a dynasty. His uncle when the first Napoleon was born, France had the same aim, and failed. The nephew was in process of conquering the rugged isl-renews the attempt under more favorable and of his birth; and Corsica, conquered, auspices. Contemplating the history of the speedily avenged herself by giving a ruler world-recognizing that years are but as to the great nation which had added her to days in the life of nations, and that generaits dominions. The last of that illustrious tions in the national existence are but as family has now succumbed to the law of na- years in the life of the individual-he reture; and Jerome Bonaparte, ex-king of gards the last seventy years of French hisWestphalia, brother of the first and uncle of tory as but a period of exceptions,-as an the second emperor of the French, is by and epoch of irregularity and caprice, from which by to be entombed in the old resting-place the nation will emerge and steady itself again of the kings of France at St. Denis. And amidst a new order of things. The Revoluothers, too, of the dead kings, it is said, are tion of 1789 was a sudden awakening of the going there. Napoleon the Great is to be Gallic race, and the hasty and reckless asconveyed from the Invalides to that royal sertion of their will against the feudalism of resting-place. His hapless young son, the the Frankish upper caste which had so long Duke of Reichstadt, will follow, as soon as given to France a steady line of kings and another campaign shall have humbled Aus- nobles. In dethroning that half-alien domtria to consent to the surrender of his coffin. inant class, France parted with her old cleAnd the Bourbon and Orleanist families, ment of stable government; and the new one also, are invited to allow the mortal remains which she sought to develop has hitherto of their two exiled kings to be restored to been buffeted to and fro-the old ideas still France, and deposited in state at St. Denis. conflicting with the new for supremacy, and It will be a strange and memorable meeting preventing the universal recognition of the of the royal dead. It is a strange fact that latter,-even as old habit for long proves too since 1793, when the headless body of Louis strong for the reason which condemns it. XVI. was consigned to a malefactor's grave, Napoleon III. thinks the time has come not one of the successive sovereigns has died when the new ideas may be established, and, or been buried in France. England, Ger- ceasing to be destructive, because no longer many, Austria, and far St. Helena received having any thing to contend with, may give their remains; and it seemed as if France birth to a stable order of things in consohad proscribed royalty even in death. Now, nance with themselves. History shows that however, all that is to be changed. Eng- such a course of events is a natural one; and land, ever first in generosity, twenty years no man is more capable of guiding it to a ago gave back the great emperor to France. safe termination than the present sagacious And now his nephew is about to convey him monarch of the French. We ever desire to in state to St. Denis, and surround him with render justice to that man, though there is the dead of his own and of other royal lines. no one whose policy we so jealously watch. We say again, it will be a strange meeting. We fully acknowledge the benefit he has Charles X. and Louis Philippe are to lie side done to France by consolidating the cause by side with Napoleon I. and his uncrowned of order and developing the industry of the son and less illustrious brother. The last of country. But it is the misfortune of his pothe monarchs of France who ruled, or who sition that France must be made glorious fancied he ruled, by "divine right," the abroad before she will be contented at home. Bourgeois King who assumed a position be- The discordant elements are still too powertween the old doctrine and the new,-and ful to be held in check otherwise than by a the first great emperor, who made himself despotism; and a nation will not submit to the representative of the principle of "uni- a deprivation of its liberties at home unless versal suffrage,”-as well as his son who, it be compensated by glory abroad. This holds good in all cases: but in France the principle obtains peculiar force from the traditions of the revolutionary period through which she has passed. Napoleon III. need not imitate the wide career of conquest pursued by his uncle,-such a career would now be an anachronism, and would be regarded as such by his own nation. But in the wars of the Revolution France reached certain limits which she regards as her geographical frontiers; and whoever puts her again in possession of these will so gratify the vanity of the French, and their characteristic predilection for theoretic adjustment, that he would be forgiven for any amount of domestic despotism, and would become so popular that he might safely relax the constraints of government and restore as much liberty to the Gallic race as they care to have. The very circumstances of his position, therefore, render Napoleon III. a dangerous neighbor for Europe. But were he to live and be successful for other ten or twelve years, we believe his dynasty would be secure, and the transitional irregularities and violence of the revolution-period be brought to a close. We admit that his object is a grand, in many respects a noble one; and, however serious be the prospect to the other governments, the sacrifice of the peace of Europe is a small thing to a Frenchman compared with the consolidation of lasting peace and order in his own country. It is doubtful, of course, whether the present emperor will die in the purple and be straightway entombed at St. Denis. But sooner or later, it is probable, his mortal remains will be deposited there. And certainly there could be no better preparative for such an event than the example which he himself is now wisely and generously setting, of recognizing all the facts of the past, and acknowledging as worthy of royal obsequies every one whom the French nation has taken for their king, under whatever circumstances he was chosen, or by whatever principle he ruled. as the Pontiff is borne along, plainly discerns the scarlet robe of Antichrist under his variegated vestments. The lazy man of fashion who goes to hunt or shoot in the Campagna, and to consort with his like at the evening parties of Cardinals, the antiquary, the artist, the young lady, and the sightseer pure and simple, have each their separate point of view; and, generally speaking, such visitors give descriptions of the locality they have inhabited in which there is scarcely a single feature of resemblance. But now, for once, all are agreed as to what they have seen, and, whether in grief, or in joy, or in surprise, furnish us with a singularly consistent story of the condition of feeling in the imperial city. They report that, with the exception of persons immediately connected with the papal Court, and of a small circle of religious devotees, the whole population of Rome speaks of the Pope's government with a vehemence of detestation not to be imagined out of Italy. There is now no mistake about the extent of the disaffection, for it is perfectly outspoken. Ever since the papal administration despatched every man at its command into Umbria and the March of Ancona, the police of Rome and of the territory on the Mediterranean is exclusively kept by the French; but the French, though they scruple not to put down the smallest disturbance, are too much committed to the Italian cause to punish the effervescence of words, and indeed, for the most part, appear to sympathize heartily with the impatience which they are themselves curbing. The wretchedness of their condition compared with that of the North Italians, the childishness mixed with oppressiveness of the pope's system, the cupidity of the superior grades of the priesthood, and the antiquated foolishness of administration and law, are themes descanted upon to the English traveller, not only by the artists, lawyers, and men of letters, who were never supposed particularly well affected to their sacerdotal rulers, but by the artisan who does a job in his apartments, by the porter who carries his luggage in the street, by the shopkeeper who bargains with him across the counter, and sometimesTHE accounts recently brought home by though only when he is thought to be a the numerous Englishmen who have winPuseista," and therefore comparatively safe tered at Rome are not a little remarkable.-by the priest who is making a mild attempt Generally speaking, nothing like unanimity at his conversion. The determination of the can be expected in such testimonies. There democracy of the priesthood to side with are differences of feeling, almost amounting Italy rather than with the pope, is, in fact, to differences of perception, between the enthusiastic Ultramontane who for the first time sees the countless mystical ceremonies of the Roman Church through a blinding mist of tears, and the sturdy Protestant who, From The Saturday Review, 30 June. becoming less disguised every day; and it is a curious tribute to the inefficiency of the repressive system, that, whereas in Piedmont Proper the majority of the priests have always adhered to the Ultramontane cause, the exact reverse is occurring in those coun- the correctness of the construction put upon tries in which tyranny has had its longest Lamoricière's conduct at Rome, but it is lease, and the bulk of the Tuscan and Emil- assuredly there believed that he accepted ian priesthood are open Constitutionalists. the command as a way of escape from exIt is, too, exceedingly remarkable that with treme pecuniary embarrassment. His apthe aspirations of the pope's subjects for free-pointment has not therefore added particdom and brotherhood with Italy, there min- ularly to the respect felt for the pope's gles no alloy of selfish fear for the imperial government, nor has it succeeded in making supremacy of Rome. Rome has much to it a whit the more feared. The contempt lose by almost any political change which for the pope's soldiers is deeper, if possible, alters her existing relations to the rest of than ever; and the Romans are fully conItaly. Those who have attempted to recon- vinced of their ability to make short work cile her to her present subjugation have not of them, if only the French were out of the failed to remind her that, if the pope quits way. And here we may advert to another her or ceases to be a sovereign, she will sink point on which the prevalent opinion may into a more populous and more accessible be modified if the sentiments of the Roman Palmyra, a city of ruins; and it is certainly population are known. If the friends of the true that, besides the ordinary complacency pope could have taken one step more than of a metropolitan population, the Romans another which was sure to render the ultihave a tolerably firm conviction that their mate overthrow of his government a matter city is the queen and mistress of the world. of certainty, they took it in encouraging the Strong, therefore, indeed must be the feel- formation of an Irish brigade. It is difficult ing which makes them perfectly ready to run to find words strong enough to express the all the risks of a future which is almost cer- disgust and disdain which have been excited tain to diminish the brilliancy of their posi- in the people of the Roman states by the tion, and which promises, for its immediate sight of the Irish recruits who have hitherto consequence, to postpone them to the citizens been seen in Italy. Anybody acquainted of semi-barbarous Turin. Of their willing- with the Roman character might have preness to face all chances there is not a shadow dicted this à priori. The Roman is, as we of doubt. They limit their present desires have said, never otherwise than pretty well to the union of Italy in a single kingdom satisfied with himself, and is apt at all times with Victor Emmanuel as king. This result to regard foreigners in general as barbariis the more surprising, because there is the ans. This feeling has many diverse sources, best reason for thinking that the Roman re- but one principal one is the belief that forpublic, when cut down, left behind it a vast eign artists cannot find specimens of humanassemblage of roots penetrating into every ity fit to be transferred to canvas unless they corner of Roman society. But though, pre- come to Rome. Now, though O'Connell had viously to last year, there were probably once the assurance to assert the contrary, more Republicans, open or unavowed, in the the Irish peasant is certainly not in general Roman States than in any other European a model of physical beauty; and, by some country, there does not now appear to be a accident, the recruits from Ireland who first single Republican remaining from sea to sea. reached Central Italy have displayed in a Not a soul seems to desire any thing beyond most unusual degree the peculiarities of feaone constitutional monarchy for the entire ture, figure, and bearing which distinguish peninsula. the Irish cottiers of the south. The Romans appear to be quite seriously putting to each other the question which is jestingly asked respecting one of the personages in Mr. Hawthorne's last novel "Have they tails under their inexpressibles?" If the tyrant of a cultivated Greek city had surrounded himself with a guard of featureless barbarians from the northern extremity of the Euxine, the measureless loathing he would have excited among a people which halfworshipped its own beauty and grace might have been something like the nausea produced in the Romans by the Pope's new defenders. As each priest-driven levy, uglier, noisier, and more drunken than any thing which the Romans have seen in human form, It is worth while to notice the state of Roman opinion on one or two points, because the ignorant enthusiasm of the pope's partisans in various parts of the world has had a share in forming the impressions which even just minded and candid men have received on the subject. Persons at a distance from Italy have spoken with some respect of General Lamoricière's proffer of his services to the pope. It seems to have been generally considered that very highlywrought religious devotion prompted an act of generous, if ill-directed, self-sacrifice. C'est chevaleresque, mais c'est fou, is said to have been the remark of the emperor of the French. We have no means of ascertaining THE ROMAN STATES. passes before their eyes, a certain number | the attempt to suppress it by an Irish brigade of years are taken away from the pope's is one of those acts of madness which heaven lease of power. It is their sense of their sends before destruction. His Irishmen will own intellectual and physical gifts which doubtless fight well enough for him if well has made the Romans determined that they drilled, well fed, carefully kept from strong will be governed for their own sake, and not liquors, perpetually preached to, and occafor the sport or edification of the Catholic sionally flogged; but, for all that, they are world. That he is perpetually at war with the dearest bargain he ever had on his this aspiration is the pope's misfortune, but hands. DUMAS-GARIBALDI-DWIGHT.-E. Littell, | Sardinia for the carrying out of this very arEsq.-Dear Sir-I thank you very much for rangement; and now, in the debate which took sending me the London edition of Dumas' Gar-place recently in the Sardinian Parliament, I ibaldi; and have been waiting for the opinion find Count Cavour closing his "apology" for of an Italian friend, on the question of his sup- himself by saying: "Gentlemen, I tell you We both now agree in the frankly, I am proud of having advised the king posed piracy on me. opinion, that Dumas had not my book before to sign this treaty. To free Venice from her him, because he omitted all those parts which chains no new cession of territory will be necesWere it proposed, we would refuse it." It Garibaldi wrote at my request, and for other sary. But we are unable to determine is of these last words, in Italics, I wish espewhether he received Garibaldi's MSS. from cially to make a Note, that students of contemhim, with permission to use them, or whether he porary history may bear the assertion in mind, JOHN DORAN. obtained portions of them from some other per- and watch how performance may agree with son, altered before they came into his hands. promise.-Notes and Queries. The translations are often erroneous, and gencrally vary from Garabaldi's original, in style, sentiments, extension, and many large foreign additions. reasons. I have seen no preface which gives any account of the manner in which he obtained the MSS., though in two places, towards the close of the book, Dumas briefly remarks, that what follows, like most of what precedes, is from G. Yours truly, himself. THEODORE DWIGHT. THE SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF COUNT CAVOUR.-Walpole said of himself during a portion of his life which was naturally eventful, that he was engaged less in "reading" than in "living" history. With much greater reason may we say so now, and on the critical contemporary history which is so rapidly enacting, I hope you will allow me to register a note,-not as a partizan, but as a student anxious to preserve for himself and others characteristics of the great actors in such history, which might otherwise be forgotten :-Three months ago, when the idea of the surrender of Savoy and Nice to France was rendering the public mind uneasy, application was made to Count Cavour by men whose anxiety was relieved by that minister's reply, to this effect: that he knew of no intention existing in any party, on the one side to ask, or on the other to consent to, such a surrender. As for himself, he would never agree to such a step, etc. Soon after this, it became public that a treaty had been agreed upon by France and FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN GREENLAND.-The Athenæum (May 26, 1860) quotes from a Copenhagen paper as follows: "In the colony of Godthah, in Greenland, a small printing-office and a lithographic press were established last year, and the first-fruits of their labors have been published a short time ago. The title of the first book printed in Greenland is Kaladlit Okalluktualiallit. It contains a collection of Greenland popular legends, written in the Greenland idiom, translated into Danish, and printed by Greenlanders. The book is illustrated with ten woodcuts, likewise the work of the natives, who are said to be very clever in mechanical things of the kind. A very interesting and original division of the book is formed by eight Greenland songs, the music accompanying the words. A second volume is in prospect." -Notes and Queries. R. F. SKETCHLEY. QUOTATIONS WANTED.-Who is the author of these lines: "With that, she smote her on the lips- Hard was the heart that dealt the blow, (They refer to Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond.) I should be glad to know where the F. L. rest of the poem is to be found.-Notes_and Queries. |