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    184 THE STAR Of MKIHJI. L^tobe r3q

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    "JUSTICE—IMMUTABLE , UNIVERSAL, ETERNAL....

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    ^^pn ^ain ^^^>fce ^g 5 ^^ B Wl&t&tt^ SK^...

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    NOTICES TO COUUESPONDMTS

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    Letters to the Editor. All communication...

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    For the future, to prevent confusion, an...

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    THE REFUGEES. For list of monies receive...

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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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    184 The Star Of Mkihji. L^Tobe R3q

    184 THE STAR Of MKIHJI . L ^ tobe

    "Justice—Immutable , Universal, Eternal....

    " JUSTICE—IMMUTABLE , UNIVERSAL , ETERNAL . " ITALY'S SUFFERINGS AND ENGLAND'S SHAME . Twenty-four Italian patriots shot in cold Wood . " They marched to death shouting for Mazzini , and singing the MarseilliGiise " ^ Countrymen and brothers , let us once again confront this tragedy—narrated in words , so few , simple , and sublime . Let us attempt to realize its meaning as regards Italy , and its command upon England . When an ordinary murder takes place at our own doors , we iully

    comprehend the character of the atrocity , and while the victim claims our pity , the murderer exacts our verdict of retributive justice . Even the consideration of " extenuating circumstances " —such as the ill-cultured childhood , and brutalized youth of the ordinary assassin , cannot neutralize the horror and indignation inspired by the murderer s crime . It is well even when carried to excess , —the excess of vengeful feeling . —the- popular sentiment is better , truer to Humanity , than is that sentiment of false philanthropy which commiserates the criminal rather than his victim , and which , on a grander scale—in the names of Peace and Nonintervention , —abandons entire nations to the doom of sabre-sway ,

    rather than do justice upon their homicidal oppressors . The popular instinct is ' just and true as regards crime committed by man upon his fellow-man , each in his individual capacity ; but is defective in reference to crimes of which nations are the victims . Yet tbe difference is merely of degree , or number , not of principle . Murder is murder , though the blood be shed upon the shores of the Tiber or the Theiss instead of the Thames . Murder is murder , though the victims be political prisoners ; and the more horrible that they murder twenty-four , instead of one or two . Murder is murder , though committed by a Pope and his cardinals , or by an Emperor and his nvlitary bandits ; and against the murderers should be invoked the justice recognised by men of every clime .

    Shocking as are ordinary murders , they are less atrocious than the assassinations at Sinigaglia . Usually the victim of a common murder is struck down with little or no warning , and though dying by violence , suffers but momentary pain . It was far otherwise with the political prisoners shot at Sinigaglia . They bad passed long and weary imprisonment in one of tbe vile and filthy

    dungeons in which so many victims ' of Papal and Austrian rule are at this hour suffering . They bad experienced tbe misery and tortures which are brought to bear upon political prisoners in Italy , with the intent of shaking their constancy , and inducing treason to their country . And they had known the * heart's agony , —less for themselves than for their families , —consequent on the long uncertainty as to their ultimate fate . It must also be borne in mind

    that the excuses sometimes advanced to extenuate political bloodshedding , cannot be urged in mitigation of the Sinigaglia slaughter . It was not an act of " mob violence , " or military license excited in hot blood , like the murder of Egbert Blum , perpetrated within twenty-four hours of the capture of Vienna ; or an " act of safety " to " strike terror" into a newly vanquished population—the excuse Haynatj might have pleaded for his atrocious butchery of the noble patriots and brave warriors at Pesth and Aarad . Three years had elapsed since the victory over the Republic , and the date

    of the popr-victims being first thrown into prison , —ample time for the most vengeful hate to cool . It was reserved for Pope Pius" God ' s viceregent" and " Christ ' s representative "—to give his name and sanction to a deed which out-blazons in infamy even the atrocities of Hatnau . "The Sinigaglia slaughter is but the first of anew series of butcheries designed to take place throughout the Papal Sta & s , —Tesi , AnWa , and other towns are already indicated as the intended theatres of similar crimes , commanded by the Holy Catholic . Pontiff , and—01 shame to the land of Tell . '—executed

    by Christian Swiss mercenaries . And this Pius is the man who , when the Romans demanded of him to Vpreach the holy war of Italy ' s liberation , refused because , as he said , the Austrians were Christians , and he would not sanction the spilling of Christian blood ! The like terror prevails throughout Italy . True , King Bomba , like Nicholas , but rarely sheds blood . He is a " philanthropist " of the ** anti-capital punishment" stamp . His philanthropy has one drawback—his mercy is worse than the vengeance of others . Mr . Gladstone has left nothing to add to his exhibition of the

    horrors of Neapolitan prisons , and the sufferings of Neapolitan political prisoners , save the fact , that since he published his pamphlet , vast numbers have been added to the list of sufferers . Turn to Lombardy and Venice . An extract from the letter of a correspondent of the Times given in another part of this paper , indicates the crushing despotism by which the very life and soul is being ground out of the population of Milan . The writer in the Times speaks of the Milanese with contempt as deserving their

    doom , alleging that they made no vigorous effort in support of Charles Albert . For that Charles Albert , were he still living , might thank his own crooked policy . How nobly the Milanese fought for liberty , if not for royalty , the files of the Times itself attest . The records ' of the past nullify the ungenerous calumnies of the present . It is only some two months since some three or four hundred suspected Italians , residing in Milan , Mantua , Verona , Brescia , Pavia , Cremona , and Venice , were swept into

    prison ; another hundred or more were compelled to seek safety in flight ; and since that time , arrest and exile have largely increased the number of the proscribed . Let me remind the reader of the end of one of the arrested of Milan , — " Giovanni Fezzotti , ' aman of noble character and distinguished intellectual attainments . " ^ Imm ediately after he was arrested , he was found dead in Ids prison . It was at first imagined that he had been strangled by his jailor ; but there is every reason for believing that he strangled himself—incited thereto bv . the apprehension lest his firmnes

    s might give way under the tortures which he knew awaited mm . Austrian ingenuity has devised tortures more infernal than rack or thumb-screw , —such as the administering of belladonna , and other poisonous drugs , to induce a manageable state of idiotcy , and so to . obtain from the wanderings of delirium , names , facts , and fancies , on which to base a wider proscription . Another frightful device , is the forging of documents purporting to be the authentic "confessions" of friends , and designed to wring real revelations from those driven to despair by the supposed perfidy of their own compatriots , often members of their own families . ' By such means tiieAustrian seeks the evidence of brother against brother , and that st his oxin father ! I speak not of physical tor - sink into insignificance by the side of a crime for no name . I might proceed ; I might fill column ' —~ " ' ¦ ¦ ——* See last Saturday ' s Star of Freedom .

    "Justice—Immutable , Universal, Eternal....

    upon column ; but I should need a book , instead of the limits of an article , to do justice to this terrible theme- —a nation ' s tragedy . For mark you , my countrymen , it is not merely a question of the murder of individuals , few or many , —the twenty-four shot at Sinigaglia , and the masses put to death individually , or in batches , within the past three years by Radetzski ; it is more ; it is the question of a nation ' s life or death . There is the settled purpose of Pope and Emperor—corrupt priests and foreign bandits—to

    destroy the Italian life of Italy ' s twenty-two millions of human beings , ' and to make of those beings the wretched , eternallydoomed serfs of Papal imposture and foreign oppression . You , my countrymen , stand by and witness the steady , unfaltering perpetration of this gigantic crime . Do not "lay the nattering unction to your souls" that you are guiltless because yours is not the hand that rivets the fetter and wields the death-dealing sword . Ke who permits a crime which he might prevent , is an accomplice of the criminal ; a rule as applicable to a nation as to a single man .

    But England has more than permitted , —she has indirectly assisted at the assassination of Italy , —as in 1815 , when she deliberately abandoned the Lombard-Venetian territory to Austria ; as , in 1849 , when she abandoned Italy to the Neapolitan vampire ; and as , in the same year , when she gave sanction and countenance to the French expedition against Rome , —witness the words of "Lord" Norman by , our Whi g ambassador to France , who on the 19 th of April , 1849 , expressed in the following terms the wishes and the policy of the British government in reference to

    the restoration o fthe Pope , and the subversion of the Republic : — " I ( ' LoroV Normanby ) told M . Drouyn de Lhtjys ( the French foreign minister ) that the object which the French government professed to have in view—the restoration of the Pope under an improved iorm of government—was precisely that which I had always been instructed to state was that of her Majesty s Government ; . though , for reasons which I had then explained to him , we had not wished to take any active share in the negotiations . " Here is proof positive , founded upon voluntary confession ,

    that England was an " accomplice , " before as well as after the fact , and did encourage the assassination of the Roman Republic by the arms of the French fratricides . But for the Pope ' s restoration , the slaughter at Sinigaglia would not have been ; but for French arms the Pope would not have been restored ; but for England ' s complicity , Bonaparte durst not have sent his expedition against Rome . The blood shed at Sinigaglia is clearly to be traced to England ; at least she shares the guilt of that crime , and the guilt that is at the foundation of that great woe under which entire Italy sweats the blood-drops of her mortal agony .

    w may not speak of Sicily , for want of space , excepting to remark that as regards that island the culpability of England , the shame of mingled weakness and perfidy , is more glaringly manifest than even in the case of Rome . The reader may remember that both " Lord" John Rajssull and " Lord" Palmerston took credit to themselves for bringing about the restoration of Neapolitan despotism , rather than permit the establishment of a Sicilian Republic !• What have been the consequences ? Since the " pacification" of the island , from fifteen hundred to two thousand victims

    have been shot in cold blood , and at least six hundred driven into exile ; not to speak of the numbers confined in horrible prisons and subterraneous dungeons . This Sicilian question I will fully unveil on a future occasion ; enough for the present to affirm that which lean prove , that which 1 could substantiate in the presence of . Parliament or in a court of law , that upon England rests the responsibility of Neapolitan crime and Sicilian suffering . ,.

    It willXbeAssumed that I speak of " official England . " 1 do . But I speak of official England and something more—the England of the people as well as the England of the aristocracy . I admit the fact of a latent sympathy for Italy , and the fact that some hundreds , or more , of Englishmen exhibit their sympathy by their acts . But what of the people ? the nation as a whole , or even its commonalty ? . Can it be denied that inertness , indifference , the Cain-like sentiment : "Am I my brother s keeper ? " proclaim

    too surely and sadly the shameful complicity of the nation with its rulers . Let the . reader note the silence of the press in reference to the Sinigaglia slaughter . That silence is not without its meaning . It means that the national conscience is , for the time being , dead ; for were ; it otherwise , a cry of indignation , a cry for retributive justice would have burst in thunder-tones from the press . The tomb-like silence of the press indicates too surely the death , or at least death-like torpor of the public conscience . Is it impossible to awaken that . conscience—to arouse the soul of England—and send her blood new coursing through her veins ?

    Impossible!—it cannot be . The Society of the Friends of Italy and the projectors of The Shilling Subscription for European . Freedom have commenced the good work of redeeming the national name from the reproach of alliance with Oppression and Cruelty , ; The " Society" through its numerous and excellent publications speaks for itself . The Shilling

    Subscription needs some elucidation , but which must be defered for a week . In my next letter , I will attempt to shew that the time has came to , make an earnest effort to array England on the side of Italy , and on ; the side of the nations generally , against their oppressors ; and that the support of this Shilling Subscription is an imperative duty , , because a means towards the effacing of Italy ' s suffering and England ' s shame . I / AMI DU PEUPLE .

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    Notices To Couuespondmts

    NOTICES TO COUUESPONDMTS

    Letters To The Editor. All Communication...

    Letters to the Editor . All communications intended for publication , or notice , in the Star of Freedom , inuat be a ddressed to the Editor , 4 , Brunswick How , Queen's Square , Bloomsbury , London . Correspondents will oblige by writing on one side only of their letter paper ; and by forwarding their communications as early as possible in the week . Orders tor the Star op Freedom . AH Agents and Subscribers remitting cash ( or stamps ) with their orders will be pleased to address them to John Phillip Crantz , Publisher , 2 , Shoe Lane Fleet Street , London , to whom it is also requested all Post Office Orderson account of the " Star of Freedom , " may be made payable at the chief office , St . Martin ' s-Le'Grandi

    For The Future, To Prevent Confusion, An...

    For the future , to prevent confusion , and to indicate the termination of each subscription , each quarterly subscriber will receive his thirteenth copy in a coloured wrapper , by which he will understand that a renewal of his subscription is necessary , as No Credit can be given . V Our friends in the country would oblige by forwarding to us copies of local papers * .

    The Refugees. For List Of Monies Receive...

    THE REFUGEES . For list of monies received from the date of last Saturday ' s Star t day the 27 th inst . inclusive , see page 10 . < % s . I beg to thank Mr . W . J . Likton for his handsome subscri ption to the Refugee Fund . To the audience at the John-street Institution on s " l 0 s ' last , and the friends at Liverpool , Hamilton , Cheltenham , Bristol , n arn " ^ I beg to express my grateful acknowledgements for their kindness t 0 t ] h ^ Exiles . May their noble example be widely imitated . G . Ju LIAK H , J p 0 o > Liverpool . —Dear Sir , —I am extremely sorry that I have been so ] remitting the sum herewith sent ( 12 s . 6 d . ) to you for the relief of th " * fugees ; hut the lew Democrats here having no regular place of m ^ ^ the difficulty of getting them together , for any purpose , when want ed " " ' reason of our apparent indifference ; and not the wish to avoid sub < e v ** The rrnl Democrats of Britain are , I fear , few , and certainl y poo , ^' have , from time " to time , a deal to do . ' ^

    Yours fraternally , W . L . CoSTlSE ( Dear Sir , —I hope that you will change your mind should the Ttefu „ e have that support w hich is due to them , and not by your retiring eauseV to feel still more severely their unfortunate lot ; but remember , my L ^ that were it not for your powerful advocacy they would not even have L ** ' such assistance as hitherto they have obtained . I do hope that En-Hs ?' will awake from their present slumber to a sense of their duty . " n Yours fraternally , Liverpool , Oct . 23 , 1852 . j , Cqg ^ P . S . 6 d ., as usual . Hamilton ( Scotland ) . —Dear Sir , —I forward 3 s . for the Political Kofu < r am sorry that our countrymen are giving so little evidence of patvi oti '

    certainly they are asleep . May they soon awake , and act the part of men Yours fraternally , Archibald Walkek ' BAKNSLEY . —Dear Sir , —We enclose a Post-office order for 16 s ., which haste subscribed by a few Friends of Progress , for the benefit of the a ^ JJ Refugees . Please to acknowledge it in the next Star of Freedom , th Collected by Wm . Norton and Frank Mirfield , lis . ; collected b y Wn !^ ' ' ton , 5 s „ at Mr . Fox ' s house , Beechfield . Trade has been very bad here fal ' series of years , or we should have attended to your appeals before now . ^ have had to witness much suffering amongst the hand-loom weavers of tl '

    district , and we had not courage to solicit money from our lialf-starvhybrothers ; but for the last four weeks there has been plenty of weaving for 8 « hands ; in fact , if a dog could weave a piece of linen cloth he would be allowed to do so just now , in Bamsley . We have not closed the subscription . We shall do our best a few Sundays more for our brethren , who have been driven fro m their homes by imperial scoundrels . We sincerely hope that both crowns and mitres will soon be kicked to the devil , from whence they came ; for if any . thing ever did spring fro ' m Old Nick , those things did . "W ishing prosperity to yourself and success to the STAR , we remain truly yours ,

    FrAXK MlttFIBMl Wm . Norto >\ Bristol , —Dear Sir , —We enclose 4 s . worth of postage stamps for the Refugees , Please to state in the Star of Freedom whether postage stamps areas good as cash sent by post . We are glad that you consider the Star safe to stand and remain , yours fraternally , Benjamin Newport . John Farr . [ Money sent per Post-office order is preferable to stamps . ] The Works 01 ? Thomas Paine . —J . De Cogan . —See our advertising columns Please to forward your address to W . L . Costinc , 33 , Clare-street , Liverpool .

    J . Sketchley . —The paper shall be sent . The six ftamps suffice . W . R ., Bellingham . —We have forwarded a paper . Our publisher will rectify the error . The Newspaper Stamp . —Sir , —In your last Saturday ' s paper you have given us a useful article on the Knowledge Taxes , setting in a clear light the oppressive nature of those abominable imposts . There is one point , however , in that article on which I should wish to make a remark , as it seems to me calculated to mislead people as to some of the results likely to be produced bf the abolition of the newspaper stamp . You say , in effect , that if the stamp were removed , and it were necessary to put a penny postage stamp upon all

    papers " intended for transmission by the post , " the " spread of knowledge " would be impeded "by confining to one or two the journal that has hitherto passed into the hands of several . ; ' Now , I do not think that " the necessity for paying postage" would have this prejudicial effect upon the " spread ot knowledge . " In the fir * t : place ,-if the stamp be done away with , a large number of newspapers would at once spring into existence , and circulate araonga class which cannot now enjoy tho luxury of taking in a weekly paper , and perhaps never gets a peep at a daily one . This , it strikes me , would more than counter-balance any disadvantage that might accrue from the impossibility of transmitting unstamped journals by the post unless pre-paid by a

    " queen ' s head . " And secondly , it is not the absolute annihilation of the newspaper stamp that we desire , but the repeal of the law which renders it compulsory en us to stamp what the ** authorities" choose to designate nem , What we require is that newspaper proprietors should be allowed to publish an unstamped ;\ u well as a stamped edition of their journals , and thus give the public the option of purchasing which they please . Those persons who wished to send their paper by post would buy the stamped copy , but there are thousands who never post their papers , and would consider that " a penny saved was a penny gained . " Our friend Punch is permitted to stamp only a portion of his impression , and it is surely nothing hut fair and just that this privilege should be extended to all other members of the press . ?

    Yours obediently , Oct . 25 th , 1852 . The Editor of the Stoke Monthly Narrative . [ The October number of the Narrative has not come to hand . —Editor of the Star of Freedom . ] Important to Co-opetators . — -We understand that the Conferences of Professor Maurice with working men will be revived on Wednesday next , November 3 rd , in the large hall 34 , Castle-street , East , the Working Tailor ! Association . The subject will be the Working Tailors Association of Paris , tn be opened by Mr . Pickard , manager of the Builders' Association , who will give an account of his recent visit to Paris . Those interested in the Co-operative movement are respectfully invited to attent .

    Mil . John Shaw . —We are pleased to hear that the friends of Mr . John Shaw have united to give him a benefit at the Standard Theatre , on Tuesday , Nov . 16 th . We trust that the London democracy will muster strong on the occa-: sion and testify their appreciation of Mr . Shaw ' s labours . in tlie cause ol freedom , by ensuring him a full house . We understand that Mr : Thomas Caonm the author of the Purgatory of Suicides , will appear on the occasion am recite Burn ' s Tarn O ' Shanter , the other entertainments projected appear to b worthy of the occasion .

    Ad00808

    SUB-PUBLISHERS OF THE "STAR OF FREEDOM . "' NOTICE TO READERS AND THE TRADE . The following Booksellers and News-agents undertake b supply the London Trade with copies of the Star of Freedom : Mr . Vifcers , Holywell-street , Strand . Mr . Coulson , Playhouse-yard , Wtotai Mr . Purkiss , Compton-street , Soho . cross-street , St . Luke ' s . Mr . Clements , Litile Pultney-street , Mr . Sharp , Tabernacle-wal k , City-roaiD ! Soho . Mr . Harris , 9 , Dean-street , High Mr . Nye , Theobald ' s-road . Holborn . r . Mr . Truelove , John-street , Pitzroy- Mr . Baker , Providence-place , Kentislus

• Citation
  • Northern Star (1837-1852), Oct. 30, 1852, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_30101852/page/8/