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550 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. fJu...
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FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. SPECIAL. Como, 3...
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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.
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Serials. We Have Received The " Journal ...
; : - - - - i . , i —i— - - - ¦ ' . — ¦ I . after Ghosts ; " " The Belt and the Priae Kings" and " Oddities of Great Men . " , . , We notice that Once a Week still continues its good stones and exceedingly clever sketches . The Family Economist , an illustrated weekly penny magazine , is full of good things for this month , and deserves to be popular . Le Follet keeps up its reputation as the leader in the fashionable The Ironmongers and Metal Trades' Advertiser : a Monthly Trade Circular , is a useful and unique journal , which is not only a eood 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 iournal for reference as to things invented and patented , it seems to have a special province . In the leading article , the subject oi *• Trade Marks and Useless Legislation" is wisely and forcibly discussed . - ¦ ¦
550 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. Fju...
550 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . fJu * E ° > 1 S 6 ° -
Foreign Correspondence. Special. Como, 3...
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE . SPECIAL . Como , 3 rd June , 1860 . PAPAL TRIALS AFTER THE AMNESTY . SOME 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 , vet 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 havecome across the official records of certain political trials , which occurred shortly after the Papal power was restored by French bayonets . One of these trials possesses a peculiar momentary interest , from the fact that GABiBALDr is one of the persons implicated in the charge , and that the gallant o-eneraV if captured on Roman territory , would be liable to the Judgment passed on him in default . It is , however , rather with a yie > v to . show how the PapaL system of justice works in political ifiatters , that T propose to narrate the story as I have learnt it . The words between commas are verbal translations from the sentence . ' . "'¦'¦ ' ¦ . ¦ ¦ _ , ¦ __ - On the 4 th of April , 1851 , the first court of theTsilpfeme tribunal of the '" Sacra Consulta" assembled at the Monte Gitorio Palace in Rome to try certain persons accused of the murder of a priest during the days of the Roman 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 endea--voured-first-of—all ~ to- ^ xti ^ ct 4 he-rnodicum- ^ £ Lf { icts-wliich-seein-tahave 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 Gaeibaldi ' 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 the republic ; were arrested by order of one of Gabibaldi ' s officers , and tried by martial law ; the priest was sentenced to death , and shut 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 Pupul authorities were reinstalled , the Pope , on tlie requisition of the French , declared a general amnesty for all political offences . The promise ,, however , of an amnesty , like many other Papal promises , was mnde with a mental reservation . The exoeution of Santuni and De Angelis was declared not to have been a political offence , but a matter of private vengeance , and the " indignation of the public was so strong , " that justice was called for imperatively . Within a few weeks of the Papal restoration , seven inhabitants of Giulianello were arrested on a charge of being implicated in the murders " of Santuni and De Angelis . The " imiii . es . of th * "prisoners wove :,- " -: ; Romolo Salvatobi , Vincenzo Feniu , Luigi Gbassi , Francesco Fanella , Domenico Fedebici , Anoelo Gabbielli , Tebesa Fenili . Besides these , Giuseppe Gabibaldi , HelC-stvled general , De Pasqualib , self-styled colonel , David , self-styled military auditor , and several soldiers , names unknown , were summoned to appear and answer to the charge , or else allow judgment to go by default . The trial , as usual , did not tnke place till nearly two years after the incarceration of the prisoners . It incurious , to any ' the lentil , tluit till the prisoners appear to have been leading * members of tlie liberal party at 'Giuliunello .
_ Salvatobi was elected Mayor of the town during the republic , — the next four all held the office of " Anziani , " an office which corresponds somewhat to that of alderman in old civic days , lhe chiet witnesses for the prosecution , on the other hand , were all connected with the priests . Bearing these facts in niind , let us see the story that the-prosecution brought forward , and the evidence on which that story re-sted . ¦ ' , ' . ¦ , ' . „ .. « ¦ *¦ Romttlo Salvatobi , we are told then , had long borne ill-will to the priest Santuni , on account of an old quarrel about some woods belono-ino- to theChurch , of which Salvatobi had possessed himselt wron g fully , and for which he had been forced to pay , in consequence of Santuni ' s representations . He had a grudge , too , against De Angelis about a fine of 10 s ., which he conceived ought to have been inflicted on De Angelis , but which the latter had , somehow or other , escaped paying . He also entertained a personal animosity against a certain Pietbo Latini , as a partisan ot the priests in general , and Don Santuni in particular . For these very adequate reasons , he resolved to abuse his powers as Mayor , to brin <* about the deliberate murder of these three persons . In | May , 1849 , we learn that " the Republican hordes commanded by the adventurer Gaeibaldi , after the battle with the Royal Neapolitan troops in Velletria , had occupied a precarious position in the neighbouring towns , and a good number of these troops were stationed in JValmontone , under the command of the so-called Colonel De Pasqualis . The time was now come for Salvatobi's vengeance . He drew up an accusation against Santuni , De Angelis and Latini , saying that they were intriguing against the republic , stirring up the peasantry of Giuhanello , and offering rewards for the head of any soldier of Gabibaldi . To give a colour of probability to this report , he induced the above-named Anziani to sign it , and then sent it to Colonel De Pasqualis pn the 27 th of May . " Such accusations , I am told , " sent to the commanders of these freebooters , were sufficient to ruin every honest citizen . " But in order •' to accomplish his impious design , " Salvatoei sent Vincenzo Fenili with a private letter to De Pasqualis , couched in these words , on which much stress was laid : " The bearer of this is the o-uide I agreed to send ; the delay arose from the badness of the weather . I shall have another guide waiting to inform me of the--aiTival ' - 'Of . yo . ur--SQldiers , -: i : t . hat . ; . l .-may meet them first , and give them the necessary Instructions—don't spare a .. fewmen extrg ,, and we may hope that all will be well . " The following night a detachment of sixteen soldiers arrived at Ghrlianellb . They were met by Salvatqbi , who learnt the spot where the prie _ st was to bejbuhd , by a casual inquiry from a certain Angelo Gabbielli , one of the prisoners before the court . The three accused persons were then arrested , and brought to Salvatobi's house . With the aid of Gbassi and Vincenzo Fenili , and ^ as some persons alleged , with that of Tebesa Fenili , his sister , a search was made through Santuni ' s papers , but the search " produced no discovery favourable to the base Fora few hours the prisoners were detained at Salvatobi ' s house , during which period he was alleged by Latini to have used insolent language towards them . They were then conveyed to ValnloutQiHV and brought before De Pasqualis , who informed them they would be executed the next morning . This extraordinary" decree was not , "" for some unknown reason , " carried into effect , and the prisoners , were next day removed to the little town of Anaqui . After two days more , an officer of Gaeibaldi , called David , and " pretending to be " a military auditor , came and interrogated them , and concluded with the intelligence that they would be shot in a few minutes . Santuni , the priest , fell on his knees , and begged for mercy , but was told in reply that " priests might pardon , but Gabibaldi never . " Shortly afterwards the prisoners were taken out to the cemetery of the town , and there the priest was shot , in the presence of Latini mid De Angelis , who were then informed that Gaeibaldi had pardoned their offence , and that they were at liberty . Whoa Salvatobi learnt that his vengeance had only been partially accomplished , he is alleged to have gone at once to De Pasqualis , und induced . him to issue fresh instructions for the rc-cupture of tlie two pardoned offenders . De Angelis was arrested again the following day , and executed at once—Latin i , happily for himselt , had escaped into the mountains , and it was on his evidence that the f > rosecutkm principally relied . Whon the wife of De Angelis earnt that her husband was again arrested , she hastened to Salvatobi , and at . laat obtained from him a letter to Dr Pasqualis , interceding on buhalf of De Angelis . Salvatoui , however , delayed purposely , so we are told , granting this letter , till ho knew it wus too lute , und in consequence , when the wife arrived at Valmontone , the execution had already taken place . Thin , in tshorb language , is the Pupal version of the story . It is of course impossible to dispute the individual statements . All that can be done ia to point out certain inherent improbabilities in the statement . The execution of Santuni jmdDis Angelis was very likely an unjiiHt , probubly an illeyul act , but the real and only question before the court wits not hh to the abstract merits of the case , but us to whether tho execution was u political matter or a private crime . ' Now , in tho first place , the evidence of Salvatobi having had any personal ill-will to his victims is vaguo in tho extreme . De Anoems in asserted bnco to have threatened to , shoot Salvatobi , but this is hardly sufficient proof that ' therefore Salvatobi was resolved to murdur De Anoelis . Againat Latini no ill-will is even Btnted to have existed on Salvatobi ' s part . Secondly ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061860/page/18/
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