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TRIALS FOR MURDER IN THE PAPAL STATES.*
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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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¦ boroughs which are to return one member each , are Birkenhead , Burntev , and Staleybridge . These places ¦ have till now been servants to their nearer and more petted neighbours : the proposed Ke- _ form Bill inteHtls making them their own masters for the future , and ri » -l > tly too . These ' towns have Jong : since , to all in tents andpurposes , out grown their political minority , and are quite able to speak ^ and act for themselves . Guildfordand similar boroughs can well aflqrd to lose one member , and let such member get , if he can , on the back of a broader constituency . The population of Guildford does not reach seven thousand ; its ' registered electors are six hundred ana ninety-nine only . Now Slaleybridge , which belongs to the parish and borough ot Ashton-under-Lyne—a place not greatly its superior —has a population of . fifteen thousand , or thereabouts ; is a busy market townand carries on important and extensive manufactures .
, Mr . Milneb Gibson , who represents ^ shton-under-Jjyne , doubtless has it in his power to testify to this ; or take Birkenhead a large and thriving town on the Mersey , with a population ot twenty thousand , and comimmieating by rail and by river with every part of the country . Why should Birkenhead be without a member-t It is as distinct from Liverpool as a broad river can make it . Its inhabitants are numerous , intelligent , industrious , ai . d . as equally deseivin" - of a representative , in Parliament as the constituents of any bbroughhi the country . The members for Liverpool no more represent Birkenhead than they represent the City of London . It is
therefore just that BirUenhead should have a member of . its own . It is the same with Burnley . Here is a population unrepresented which Is double that of . some other places / which have two represeiir tatives in Parliament . There is a considerable trade in cotton and woollen fabrics , in brass and iron , carried on in Burnley , The people of Birkenheaa , Burnley , and Staleybridge will now , however * feel grateful to the concoctors of the "Reform Bill that they did not overlook their just and manifest claims , and they will , we doubt not , accept gladly tlie boon of a real , not a "fancy , " franchise which is ottered to them , while they console themselves with th& ^ reflection ¦ ¦ ¦
that it is better late than . never .. ' We . trust that the places which are . to be boroughs and to return one member each to Parliament , will have the good fortune _ to choose the " right man '' to represent them in a coining day . Eor Sfcaley bridge we have heard it . reported that Mr . John ChetHAM is likely to be the first representative , and we are right glad to hear it , for lie is a inan of great intelligence and energy , well acquainted with public afKurs , and one in whom the people of Staleybridge , and indeed ihe people ' of England , may place any confidence .. The increased franchise would be a miserable acquisition to any people , if they merely allowed a nominee to come down upon them like" the wolf on the fjld" from a metropolitan club , and with the gleaming in . fiue . nce of his gold to succeed in enslaving their minds , perverting their consciences , and handing them over to some self-seeking party . "We would advise the people of Birkenhead , Burnley , and Staleybridge to be wise and firm at the outset of their political career , and choose from amongst themselves an honest representative .
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OF late years , round and about Viterbo , there was a well-known character , Giovanni Ugolini l > y name , a sort of itinerant Jack-of-all-trades ; he wandered about from place to place , picking tip any odd job he could find , and begging when he could turn his hand to nothing else . He is described in the legal reports as a tinker and umbrella-jmender , but he seems also to have hit out . a line of business—new to us at ¦ , any rate—as tomb and monument scraper . By these various trades he scraped together a good bit of money for a man in his position , some persons said as much as seventy scudi , that is , about £ 14 odd . On the 4 th of May , 1857 , TJaoiiiNi left the little town of Ctistel Giorgio , with the avowed intention of going to Viterbo that day for the purpose of changing his monies into Tuscan coin , Being belated oa his road , he resolved to stop ovev the night at the cottage of a certain Andrea Vo&ipi , which lay on hid road , and where he had often slept before .
On , the following morning , about eight o " clock > too left Vpi / Pi ' s house , and went on his way . towards Viterbo . Nothing more is positively known about him , except that on the some day his body was found on a by-path » little oft the direct road to Yiterbo , covered with wounds . No money , . was discovered about his person , while there was every indication of his clothes and pack having been ruinmaged and rifled . Assuming , as one must do , the correctness of these facts , there can bo no doubt that n very brutal murder and robbery had been committed . FoV somo reasons , whioh wo are not told , the suspicions of the polico fell at once on one of Voxpi's sons , called Sb ^ apino , a lad of about twenty-two , and pn a friend of his , a ocrfciun Bonaventuba Staiwa , about two years older than himself , both common * labourers ' , who were arrested in consequence on the 7 th 6 f May . Tl » oy wore not tried , however , till the 27 th of April in the year following , when t | u > y were arraigned before tho Jay criminal and . civil coxirt of Yitovbo .
Tho two prisoners aro , nevertheless , not tried on tho samo ground . Voxpi is arraigned by tl » 6 public prosecutor on tho ohargo of wilful xnni'dor , accompanied with treachery i \ w \ robbery , while Stajrna is only accused as an accomplice to tho crime , not as a principal . JJofoi-o tho actual guilt of cither prisoner * wan legally established , tho public prosecutor , that is , tho 'Government , virtually decided tho
relative amount of their respective hypothetical guilts The justice of " it-liis proceeding may be questioned , but it * motive is obvious enough J There was little or no direct evidence .. a-gainst the prisoners . " With both of them , " says the sentence of the Court , " a criminal motive could be established , in the fact of their avowed poverty , as they e-ieh clearly admitted that iieifeher they nor their kumlies possessed anything in this world , and that they-derived the means of their miserable daily sustenance from their own labour alone . A very close intimacy was proved to have existed between the prisoners ;• so much so , indeed ,, that Stakxa had frequently been reproved bv his parents for his friendship with a man who stood m such ill repute as Voin . The fact that the nmrd-ered man was , or was believed to be , in possession of money , was shown to be well known amongst the YotPi family . Two of Sebafino Volpi s brothers were reported to have spoken to third parties ot Ugolini s savings , and one of them expressed a wish to rob him . Why this brother was never arrested or investigated is one of the many mvsteries , by the way , you come across in these Papal reports . Sekafixo too , had mentioned , himself , to a neighbour , his suspicions of the tinker ' s having saved money . On the morning of the murder , Staexa was shown to have come to Volpi ' s house , to have talked with Sjjkafino , and to have left it in his company shortly after TJgolixi ' s departure . After about an hour ' s absence , Sjzbafijto Volpi returned home , and therefore had had time enou gh to commit the murder . He was also shown to have been in possession of a knife which might have inflicted the wounds found pn the corpse , and about which he could give no satisfactory 3 . C COHYlfc ¦ . ¦¦¦ .- ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . . These appear t 6 ' have been all the facts that could .. 'be ' established against either ' of the prisoners by direct evidence ; and , at the worst , such facts could only be said to constitute a case for suspicion . Previous , however , to the trial , Stakna turned what we should call " king ' s evidence , " and in contradiction to . his . " previous statements made a confession , on which' the prosecution practically rested its case . According to this confession of Staksta , ' on the morning of the murder he called accidentally at the Volpis' cottage , and stopped there till after the . departure of the tinker . Uoohsi , who was previously an entire stranger to hhn . On his preparing to go home himself , Sekafixo Volibi proposed to accompany him , on the pretext of fetching some tool or other . They walked quick , to escape the rain , which-was falling heavily , and shortly overtook TIpousi ; who-exchanged a fewwotds with Volpi about the . weather , and then turned off along a by-road . Thereupon Seratino proposed that they should follow , and rob Ugolixx , saying , "'he has got ; a whole "lot of coppers . " Starxa refused to have anything to do with the business , on which Seuafino said he should do it alone then , and asked Sr vitca to go and fetch the tool and bring it to him where they were standing .. Stakxa then left Sebafixo running across the fields to overtake the tinker , and went to fetch the tool . Very shortly after , as he was coming back to the appointed meeting-place , he met Seeafixo in a great state of agitation ; who told him that the job was done , and the old man ' s throat eut , but that only twenty pauls' worth of copper money ( about nine shillings ) Were found upon him . Staena , then , according to his own story , took eight pauls as his share of the booty , and told Skrafjxo to wash off some spots of blood on his sleeves . He also added that , later in the same day he met Seeafino again , and expressed his alarm at what had happened ; on which he received the answer , " If you had been with me , you would not be alive now . " One can hardly conceive a more suspicious story , or one more obviously concocted to give the best colour to tho witness ' s own . conduct at the expense of his fellow prisoner . No evidence whatever appears to have been brought in support of this confession . The oourt , however , decided that the truth of this statement was . fully established by internal and external evidence , and therefore declared that the alleged crimo was clearly proved against 'both the prisoners . " Considering , " nevertheless , " that though Staeha was an accomplice in the crime , from his having assisted Seeafino and from having shared in tho booty , by his own admission , yet his guilt was loss , both in the , conception and perpetration of tho crime—us there was no proof that ho had tnk . cn tiny actual part in tho murder of Ugqi-ini . " Therefore , " in the moat holy name of God , " tho Court sentenced Sxarna to public execution and Volpi to twenty , years afc . the galleys . , 1 ( . ,,. ' . „ Of course both tho prisoners resorted to tho invariable right of appeal , but thoir caso did not come on before tho lower court ot the supreme ( clerical ) tribunal at Rome till upwards of a ypor—namely , on tho 17 th of -May , 1859 . At'this trial no new facts whatever appear to have been adduced . The chief objoet , however , of tho very lengthy sentence of the courf , recapitulating the evidence already , admitted , seems to bo to establish the comparative innocence of J 3 ta « : na , who for sonio cause or other was favourably regarded . Wo aro told that " tho confession of . STAimA is continued by a thousand proofs ; " that " it is cleavly shown * ' that Stakna in " this confossiou did not deny his own responsibility--a fact which gives his statement the character of an incriminntive and not of an exonerative confession ; and that though ho . might possibly hivvo wished , in his statement of the facto , to modify ana extenuate his own slmro in tho crime ^ yot there was no reason to ' . suspect that lio wished gratuitoualy tonggravato tho guilt of his compunion ; " and , that , also taking 1 into consideration tlio infamous character of Vomm , it cannot bo doubted that he was tho principal in tho orimo . I grathor indistinctly that "VoLia ' s dofenco whs that ho had-not Jolt his futhor ' s h « uso on tho morning of tho murdor at all , bub that thin attempt to provom alihi broke dowix completely . Tine Court of Vitorbo had aeoided that the crime of tho prieonerswas murder , coupled with robbery
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¦ ' : . 232 The Leader and Saturday Anal yst . [ Mabcu 10 , IS 6 Q
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* TUo Xorogoing artiolo 5 a frpm our oorrospondenii ftt Homo , whioh adoounts for the uso of tho flrat porBon . —Mi ) .
Trials For Murder In The Papal States.*
TBTALS FOR MURDER IN THE PAPAL STATES . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2337/page/12/
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