The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-22 00:00:00

THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT AND
ITALIAN BRIGANDAGE.

A few nights previous to the adjournment of
Parliament for the Easter recess, Sir George
Bowyer called attention to the affairs of Italy,
and aeimadverted in strong terms upon certain
cases of alleged oppression and cruelty sanctioned
by the " Piedmontese" Government. He in-
sisted that the people of Italy never could be
reconciled to Victor Emmanuel's Government,
and that the British Government were, to a
certain extent, responsible for what had taken
place in Southern Italy, which had been the
result of their policy, and of their gross violation
of the principle of non-intervention. The debate
that resulted from the intemperate charge thus
made—the speeches it called forth from Mr.
Layard, the Under-Secretary of State, backed
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the
Prime Minister—placed us in pi:suasion of facts
relating to Southern Italy, which, were they not
derived from undoubted authority, would be
deemed almost incredible. It seems now un-
questionable that there is a system of organized
brigandage, prepared under the direction of the
King of Naples, with the sanction of the Pope,
and by the almost open connivance of all the
Papal authorities. These proceedings are not to
be likened to the gallant efforts of an exiled
monarch to regain by force the throne of his
ancestors, but are the mere vindictive cruelties
of a baffled man to inflict suffering upon his re-
volted subjects, to pillage, burn, and slay in the
territories those that have cast off their allegiance,
and to make the establishment of peace and
prosperity as difficult as possible to the Govern-
ment that succeeded him. "The loyal subjects,"
whom Sir G. Bowyer represented as rising up to
defend their " King and country from the
tyranny of itra gels," are simply bands of buc-
caneers sent across the border, composed of the
worst ruffiaus that can he folind in Rome, who
are unlit ly :ore'Lners, and willing for the sake
of pay, to undertake any work and to commit
any crimes. No landholder had joined them.
They had nowhere maintained or attempted to
establish themselves. These men are often ac-
companied by priests, and are led by notorious
criminals. They show peculiar ferocity against
soldiers and policemen, whom they not only
murder, but mutilate horribly, and even burn
to death. Mr. Bonham transmits the account of
an eye-witness, who, with thirteen other iinof-
fending travellers, was captured by a band of
these ruffians under Croces and Schiavone. The
passengers were bound, stripped of their money,
and even their clothes ; the ear-rings of the only
lady present were taken from her. One of the
passengers was an old sergeant of veterans ; he
was shot. Another was a policeman ;he was
thrown bound upon a heap of faggots, and burnt
alive. Nineteen men who had lost their way
we: e recently put to death in this manner by the
" royalists." The brigands who do these deeds
then recross the frontier, are received, thanked,
rewarded, and decorated by the unworthy
monarch who sent them in their villainous
errand. So much for the character of the insur-
gents and the man for whom they work. They
are as cruel and remorseless as a set of
Thugs, having no claim to be treated as bellige-
rents or even as pardonable rebels. But not-
withstanding all these incessant and harassing
atrocities, notwithstanding all the manifold diffi-
culties and disturbances inseparable from a
change of Government and a state of almost war,
both the Neapolitan States and those which for-
merly made part of the Roman Kingdom are
rapidly improving in all the elements of social
well-beine.. Energy seems to have taken the
place of supineness; roads and railways are every-
where in course of construction to employ the
people and pave the way for future wealth ;
ports that had long been forgotten, save by the
student of ancient geography, are opened by
great public works to steam navigation; the cus-
toms duties of "the Two Sicilies' has been re-
duced by 80 per cent, of their old amount under
the Bourbon dynasty ; importations have quad-
rupled, and English commerce alone has doubled;
Judges are made irremovable, and trial by jury
has been established. The prisons are compara-
tively empty—partly because crime has dimin-
ished, and partly because every accused man is
dealt with as soon as possible, instead of often
remaining, as they used to, till both witnesses
and accusers had disappeared, and till the very
crime with which they were charged had been
forgotten. Education, formerly discouraged or
neglected, has taken an extraordinary start. In
the ancient territory schools have been
freely opened ; new schools in city, town, and
village have been established for children and
adults ; the communes have contributed largely
for their support, and the population have
flocked eagerly to profit by the opportunities
thus afforded them. Pauperism is disappearing
with monachism, u all convents but those of
public utility are suppressed. Altogether, con-
sidering what the Government of Southern Italy
had been, how fearfully the people bad
been trodden down and oppressed, how
effectually in many districts they had been sapped
of all enterprise and morality, the state-
ment elicited by the recent discussion in our
House of Commons' is far more favourable and
hopeful for Italy than we should have ventured
to anticipate. In spite of all the representations