The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1847.

to the mode of enunciating his opinion, adopted by
the honourable baronet the member for Mallow. But
Sir D. NORBETS very fairly stated that he wished
to place his opinions in the most distinct manner be-
fore the pnbho, and that he printed his remarks in •
letter to a public journal, in preference to taking
the chance of astching the SPA&KER'S eye in a
crowded house, and running the risk of
being
.badly . heard at the end of a debate,
ands bang misreported. We think that the mem-
ber for Mallow took a sensible course, and
we recollect that his letters were generally noticed—
a compliment justly due to their writer, who, though
no orator, possesses an enlightened intellect, and is
one of the very best infwma. men amongst the Irish
members. _ _

To apply. these remarks practically, we would say
that there is a party of Irish members now elected for
the first time to whom many of their countrymen look
with some eagerness. We allude to that moderate
body in which are included Mr. Moons, of Mayo, and
Mr. Mortszu., of Terror, with others already
named. These members, to whom we more particu-
larly refer, number about one dozen. They are men
of large fortunes, and well connected. They are also
well educated, and superior to vulgar prejudices. Now,
we confess that we should be very glad to see them
taking the initiative in the discussion of so important
a question as tenant right. We should be glad to see
some of these gentlemen enlarge in detail upon the
important relations which timid subsist between
landlord and tenant. At present, upon the question
of tenure reform, the Irish public mind it; all abroad.
The subject is not brought forward with the promi-
nence and particularity due to it amongst the great
leading topics of the day. No att. mpts are made by
the more intelligent class of Irish members to elucidate
the difficult problem. The state of opinion on the ques-
tion is crude ; and certainly it is by no means desirable
that the public mind should be left in this condition
upon so important a subject. It is for the leading
Irish members, whose characters are not damaged by
adherence to systems of useless agitation, to come
forth in public and shape the popular opinion upon it,
so as to enable parliament to legislate thereon with a
reasonable confidence of success..

In saying so much, we think it right to add, that
we do not expect any good to result from Mr. JOHN
O'CorrNELL's summons to the Irish members to meek
together, and form a council of national safety. Both
Mr. JOHN O'CoNNELL and Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN are
professed agitators, and though rivals for popular
support, they are each morbidly anxious to have some
society or council in which they may hope to figure
prominently. An aggregate assembly of the Irish
members will not be of any practical use at present,
while most of the questions requiring legislation
are so unsifted, uncanvaseed, and unexplored.
Persons of station and of social importance
in Ireland ought to manifest their opinions
'on tenure reform, and not leave the question to come
before the legislature in a mere abstract, speculative
form, divested of political support, and void of the
animation and healthy vitality infused by the breath
of public opinion.

A SPECIAL delegate meeting of the operativrs
engaged in the cotton-trade of Lancashire and
the neighbouring counties, held at Manchester
on the 29th of last month, deliberately passed
a resolution declaring that, in the present con-
dition and prospects of the trade, it was their
"confident opinion that it would be highly desirable
to diminish the probability of a continued and even
increased depression during the winter months, by
entirely suspending operations in cotton-mills for a
few weeks during the present mild and genial season,
when, in consequence of the abundance of vegetable
food, and the warmth of the weather, and the possi-
bility is many instances of finding out-door employ-
ment, the privations to which the operatives would
be exposed would not be so severe." The
delegates declared themselves prepared, in the
event of this proposal meeting with the con-
currence of their employers, to recommend its
adoption to their fellow-labourers. The secre-
tary of the meeting was requested to forward
the resolutions to Messrs. WILSON PATTEN, BRO-
THERTON, MARK PHILIPS, and CHARLES HINDLET,
with a request that they would obtain the opinion of
the masters on the course proposed. So far as we can
learn, no opinion has yet been expressed by the
Imasters; but the provincial press, which has natu-
rally been filled with discussions on the subject, ap-
pears for the most part favourable to the suggestion.
It is impossible to contemplate such a movement
without serious anxiety. Among rather more than
800,000 persons who in 1841 were engaged in the
manufacture of textile fabrics, little short of 400,00(1
were employed in the manufacture of cotton. By
far the greater part of this number are collected
in Lancashire and the adjoining counties ; and, with
respect to the rest, there can belittle doubt that the
example of these districts, whatever it may be, will
be followed. Were this numerous body composed
exclusively of masters and of the intelligent class of
operaives who take the lead in the appointments and
deliberations of delegates for the trade, we should
have no fear as to the result. But a majority of the
400,000 consists of the females employed. as weavers,
the children employed as piecera, &c., and of the less
skilful and intelligent among the men who engage
' in the departments of factory labour in which inferior
workmen suffice. "To work, or not to work," will
be decided by the votes of the masters and of the
Inistoaacy of the operatives—the spinners, dressers,
=Ninnies, &c. When these classes have made up their
Wads not to work, the mills must stop ; and as they
are the most intelligent, and, in their circumstances,
the least dependent on the trade, they are the leaders
of its public opinion, and generally persuade a majo-
rity of the rest to sanction their opinions. These con-
siderations lead us to fear that a general resolve to
stop work for a season may be carried, notwithstand-
ing the despondent reluctance of a majority in the
trade.
Even this reflection, grave though it be, is not
what rests most heavily upon our minds while think-
ing of the proposal now in agitation in the cotton dis-
tricts. We should not oe.,ch mind the wishes
of the less intelligent portion of the trade being
overborne were we perfectly convinced that an
entire cessation from labour would be really
for their good. As to the masters, we can have of
course no apprehension • and as to the sagacious
and manly body on whom:for want of a better descrip-
tive title, we have bestowed the epithet "aristocracy"
of the cotton operatives, we know that their iutellee-
tual resources, in seasons of voluntary or compulsory
idleness, areas respectable and improving as those of
any of the master-class —much more so than those of
some among them. But we do fear the consequences
of two or three weeks' idleness for the lees prudent
and intelligent of the workmen; and, above all, for
the immense number of mere bl,fs end girls employed
in the mills. Accustomed to live from hand to mouth,
and with minds and dispositions utterly uncultivated,
it were hard to say whether the privations or the
temptations with which non-employment threklem
them are meet to be deprecated.
We have, however, much confidence in a body
of masters, of whom men like Messrs. WILSON
PATTEN, BROTHERTON, MARK PHILIPS, and MED-
LEY are the representatives. And we have not
less confidence in the sense of justice and honest
pride in acting aa the guardians of their class
which pervades the real ol'eratir kaders in the ma-
nufacturing districts. IN e rely upon them for only
taking the extreme step in contemplation at present,
in the event of the prospects of the trade for the next
seven or eight months being such as render the like-
lihood of an entire cessation of work during some
time of that period almost a moral certainty.
The beet information we have been able to collect
sakes us fear that this almost moral certainty does
Celt It is beyond a doubt that the stock of cotton
on hand throughout Europe and America is below
the average. And there is every reason to expect
that the supplies of the next few years will be short
of *ow which have last elapsed. The price of the
raw material can scarcely fail to rule at higher prices
for soma years to come. Combined with this state of
of *if not a positive stagnation of demand far
oottoa goods, yet an uncertainty as to what the de.
mend may be, that forbids the raising of the primed
cotton goods to rates remunerative at the actual prices
of cotton and yarns. The last overland mail brought
unfavourable accounts of trade in India; and, from
some accident or another, we are left quite in the
dark as to China. The war in Mexico is still waging;
and the state of affairs in the Ricer Plate
seems main to be surrounded with difficulties.
The condition of Spain and Portugal leaves no hope
of an increased trade with those countries at present.
In the nearer continental markets generally, the ne-
cessity of repairing former losses prevents the imme-

diets impairment of trade which might otherwise
have been looked for ; and in the more distant various
impediments continue to exist. The consequent pros-
=La continued depression of prices in the mann-
article, combined with high prices in the raw
material, compel us to look forward to serious diffi-
culties in the cotton trade throughout the winter.
The disturbance in the ordinary operations of the
money market, though arising from circumstances
quite alien to the cotton trade, is also of necessity felt
reflectively in that business. Towards the close of lest
month recourse bad been had by some Manchester
bankers to discounting the paper for their regular
customers in three months' drafts on London, which
bills were handed over to the spinners and manufac-
turers instead of cash. Such a mode of payment,
though perfectly legitimate, increases the difficulties
of these masters, seeing that they require ready cash
for the payment of their work-people. The cash re-
quired for this purpose in the Manchester district
alone amounts weekly to 100,0001., which must either
be procured from the purchasers of goods or the
bankers.
Two things are re-assuring while contemplating so
grave a seeming necessity as that which we have
been passing under review. Serious embarrassments
are as yet confined to the grain trade, and are even
there more immediately referable to erroneous calcu-
lations in point of time than to any other cause. The
exaggerated fears of another bad harvest raised for a
time the prices of grain higher than the realities of
the case warranted. The universal abundance of
this year's harvest has reduced the real (not merely
the speculative) price of grain more rapidly than
could have been anticipated. But the difference be-
tween the prices at which holders purchased, and
those which corn can bring now, or will bring for
the next ten or twelve months, does not of itself
entail such losses on them as to account for the large
amount of failures. It is the rapiditT of the decline,
and the temporary excess of the decline, owing. to the
alarm occasioned by its rapidity, rendering parties un-
able to realise at the moment their liabilities come upon
them, that has in most instances caused the failures.
The property of the country at large has scarcely, if
at all,-been 'diminished in amount or in value; and
even with respect to the losing individuals, a little
more time would have enabled the greater number of
them to get out of the scrape at a bearable loss. The
pressure in other branches of business has taken no one
by surprise ; and those engaged in them therefore stand
firm, though complaining. This—the aseured stability
of our national resources is the first ground forcongra-
tulation to which we have alluded. The second is still
more encouraging : it is the spirit of manly fore-
thought—of intelligent courage that prompts men
to incur voluntarily a minor suffering now to escape a
greater hereafter—displayed in the proposal of the
operative cotton-spinners which we have been discus-
sing. The same brave spirit, we feel convinced, ani-
mates the country at large. It has been the source
of all Britain's greatness ; and while it survives we
utterly fearless as to the future of our country.

A CASE which was reported in our paper of the 25th
of August as having been tried at the Central Criminal
Court strikingly illustrates one of the reasons which we
lately offered for dispensing with the interference of
grand juries in criminal proceedings. Two persons,
HUMPHREYS and PHEASANT, Were convicted of a con-
spiracy to extort money from various individuals by
unlawfully preferring bills of indictment against them.
With respect to one of them there was also, as the
Reeorder observed, abundant evidence to have sup-
ported a charge of perjury ; and it was evident
that the offence of which they were found guilty was
committed in the ordinary exercise of their calling.
The profession, indeed, by which they seem to have
lived requires so little labour or skill beyond a know-
ledge of the helpless passiveness which grand juries
combine with their constitutional powers, that we
have no doubt of it supplying at all times a recognised
livelihood to a limited number of practitioners.
The mode of proceeding was very simple. Httm-
puttees, who assumed the character of an attorney's
clerk, and who probably had learned his business in
that capacity, on at least two occasions preferred balls
of indictment before the grand jury for London 'Oust
various persons for keeping houses of ill fame, and sup-1
portei them by the evidence of his accomplice 1
PHEASANT, who undertook the swearing department of
the business. The grand jury, having no means of
testing the credit of an unkuowa witness, and no
power to hear the other side of the question, in both
cases returned true bills, which the confederates, in
pursuance of their plan, proceeded to use as instru-11
meats of extortion. It seems that in each case one of
the parties indicted was liable to the charge, but that I
the others were altogether unconnected with
the houses spoken of. Both the guilty and the inno-
cent, however, were indicted without any intention of
prosecuting the charge effectually. One of the persons
included in the second indictment, had been in the,
habit of paying HUMPHREYS 1/. a month as black-
mail to secure her against informers. From the
other defendants be demanded sums of 51. or lel. u
the price of discontinuing the prosecution ; and it is
evident that with a true bill already. found against
them, the most innocent persona, anticipating at the
trial a repetition of the perjury which must have been
committed before the grand jury, might be tempted
to yield to the most insolent extortion rather than
appear in open court to meet a charge of disgraceful
conduct. A mere threat of accusation might be de-
spised; but in this case the conspirator was armed
with a preliminary decision, by the competent tribunal,
that his victims were guilty of the charge on which
they were threatened with prosecution.
It may be worth observing, that in this case,
as in all others, if the scheme had been conducted
by a single criminal, he could not have been
convicted of conspiracy, a misdemeanor which is
necessarily collective. HUMPHREYS might have ten-
dered himself as a witness, and, if the grand jury had
been satisfied with his evidence, he would only have
bow liable to the charge of perjury, which it was in
ray sass necessary for himself or his confederate to
risk. He might probably be aware that, in conse-
quence of our complicated system of criminal plead-
ing, an evil which also arises, as we have shown on a
former occasion, from the existence of grand juries,
a conviction for perjury is even more difficult to
own than one on an indictment for conspiracy. In
the present instance he was, probably, deterred from
mai; alone by a fear that the grand Pry ould be
diseraufted with the evidence of the prosecuting
attorney's clerk.
The mere recital of HUMPHREYS'S plan will satisfy
most persons, that so obvious and easy a kind of
swindling must, in the competition of dishonest in-
dustry, which is always proceeding in a community
like sier cows, be not unfrequeutly practised. Even
the known facility of procuring bills of indictment, to
be found for the purposes of extortion, must make the
mere threat of commencing a prosecution more for-
midable than it would appear if the accuser and ac-
cused were necessarily confronted in the first in-
stance. For victims of firmer nerves, or for greater
security of success, it will be desirable actually to
prefer the indictment. Sometimes a misfortune may
occur as in the conviction of HUMPHREYS and
PHEASANT, but the expense and uncertainty of a pro-
secution for conspiracy forms part of the stock in
trade of Loudon swindlers from horse-chanters to grand
jury extortioners. It must be remembered, also, that
profit is not tke only motive for which a fraudulent
=lleedon may be undertaken. No person can
lhad much experience in criminal courts, with-
out knowing cases of indictments preferred in conse-
quence of malice, which would have been at once
detected, if the parties had been brought face to face
before a magistrate. Some years ago a wealthy and
respectable tradesman was tried for stealing a piece
of paper from his own nephew or eon-in-law. On
the trial it appeared that the prisoner had written to
require payment of a debt from his young relative :
but bad afterwards, from feelings of kindness, deter-
mined to give him further time. He accordingly
called upon him, and was talking to his wife when
the letter arrived. The prisoner told the prosecutor's
wife the nature of the letter and his own change
of intention, took the letter, and put it into the
fire. From this simple fact, the debtor, on a sub-
sequent demand of the debt, trumped up a
charge of larceny, and proved it to the satisfaction
of a grand jury. For some months, the person ac-
cused, and a Mend, who, having accompanied him in
his visit, was brought in as an accomplice, had to lie
under a charge of felony, and, at the assizes, he bad to
stand is the dock among common thieves, till the
indignation of the court, and of the jury, caused the
case for the procecntion to be dropped. Shiftier
malignity is not, perhaps, so common es the disho-
nesty of HUMPHREYS and his associate; but of this
case, also, it is impossible to say that it stands, or
is likely to stand, alone.
•

We cannot see how it can be denied that, in both
classes of cases, the power of extortion, or of perse-
cution, arises from the competence of grand juries to
institute prosecutions. They have no power to reject
any charge without hearing the evidence,nor can
call upon the accused for explanation. When
a preliminary examination before a magistrate
has taken place their functions are superfluous if
they confirm his decision, and a grave impediment to
justice: if they hinder the case from being tried.
When they are applied to in the first instance there
is always a possibility that the prosecutor may have
bad undue motives for withdrawing the case from the
more searching investigation of the magistrate. In
the grand jury room he can shape his case as he
thinks fit, nor is there any security that the statements
of hie witnesses in open court will be identical with
those on which the bill was found. In such a case,
the insufficiency of the evidence to support the charge
can only be known by hearing it at length. A
magistrate, on the other hand, must forward to the
court the written evidence on which be has pro-
oeeded ; and when he has committed the accused on
insufficient grounds, it is usual for an acquittal to
be taken, at the suggestion of the judge, without
ant evidence being offered to the jury.
It seems to us at least necessary for the protection
of innocent persons, that the interference of a magis-
trate to commit or hold to bail, which is usual in bond
fide prosecutions, should be made compulsory in all
cases, before an accused person can be put upon his
trial. The institution of grand juries is too ancient
and too agreeable to some of those who perform the
duties to be got rid of without a repetition of attacks ;
but we should not anticipate any seriousopposition to the
measure which we now
.propose, if it was judiciously
brought forward in parliament. Let grand juries be
secured against the liability tote made the instruments
of malice and extortion, and it may then, after
taking care of the intimate of the innocent, be
considered whether it isfgrorth while to maintain
them for the greater impunity of the guilty. On this
point elso we see no reason to change our opinion.
The very same institution which made it easy for
HUMPHREYS to threaten the innocent gave him a
chance of escape by rendering a long and complicated
indictment necessary to his conviction. If them bad
been no grand jury at the Old Bailey he must have
gone to a police magistrate, who would have extin-
guished his plan at the outset; or, supposing him to
have completed it, there would have been no long and
technical history of his misdemeanor, in the form of an
indictment, to tie down the evidence on his trial, and
procure his acquittal if a variance should occur. It
may be useful to repeat what we have said on a
former occasion, that the use of indictments, and
all the technical impediments to justice which are
connected with them, arise wholly from the theoreti-
cal necessity of identifying the verdict of the petty
jury with that of the grand jury. Dispense with the
preliminary tribunal, and criminal pleading falls of
itself—cessante ratione cessat ter : which, being inter-
preted, is, when an unreasonable system is dropped,
the legal fictions and absurdities connected with it
drop at the same time. If the recent trial at the
Central Criminal Court tends in any way to the aboli-
tion of grand juries, even Hemel:MEV; and PHEASANT
will not have been wholly without their use in
the world, as martyrs, after a certain rascally kind,
to the amendment of criminal law.

The disturbances which we have already mentionei
as prevailing in Paris, in the rue St. Honons, owing
to some dissensions between a tradesman and his
journeymen, continued on Friday evening, and the
police and municipal troops were actively engaged.
Several arrests had taken place, and much irntation
prevailed against the police, owing to charges of im-
proper violence towards unoffending persons. As to
the rest, this affair has nothing political in it.
Nothing can exceed the coolness with which the
journal of the court and cabinet sits down and devours
its words in reference to the state of Italy. It was
only last week that it refused to believe the aggres-
sion of Austria in Ferrara—all reports from Italy
were exaggerated and unworthy of credit. On
Monday tne word of order was to attack the
Pope and the English. His Holiness woe
accordingly charged with being an agitator and
incendiary. He inflamed the Italian popula-
tion with his protests. He sanctioned by the cen-
sorship a radical press. English sympathy was self-
ish and interested, having no care either for the
Italian people or the liberal cause. On Friday and
Saturday the key-note was altered. All the news
from Italy, which had been.given by all the journals
of Paris for the preceding ten days, were pro-
duced for the first time in • the Debats, as if no
one had yet heard of them. The tone was al•
together changed. Pius IX., who, on Mon-
day, was an agitator and an incendiary, be-
came, by a marvellous prestidigitation, on Friday " the
illustrious Pontiff, engaged in his glorious work of
reform," and a panegyric of two columns is given to
what, until that day, was discredited and anathema-
tised. What all this prognosticates on the part of
those from whom the Journal des Debuts takes its in-
spirations, we leave to others to determine.
The regents of the Bank of France have postponed,
for the present, the proposition to lower the rate of
discount. It is, however, understood, that if the pre-
sent improved state of affairs shall be sustained, the
redaction will, erelong, be adopted.
The assassination attempted 157 the Prince d'Eck-
m dhl continues to be the subject of conversation in
society, and of comment in the press. The course pur-
sued by the ministerial organs on the subject is
severely reprehended. When the rumour was given
with circumstantial consistency, it was met by ar,
authorised contradiction, expressed in unqualified
terms by the official and semi-official journals of the
court and cabinet. Next day this was flatly contra-
dicted, and the act admitted in all its aggravated cir-
cumstances, bat coupled with the assertion that the
victim was not dead, and that the assassin was mad.
To this it has been fairly enough rejoined, that these
allegations should, in the interests of the public, be
established before a competent tribunal, as would
unquestionably have been the case had a like act been
committed by an individual in a less elevated position.
To this nothing has yet been answered.
A new journal, called Le Con terrateur, appeared in
a specimen number in Paris on Saturday. The regu-
lar publication of this paper will be commenced on the
15th inst.
The greatest solicitude prevailed in Parisem Satur-
day respecting the expected intelligence from Madrid,
and much disappointment ensued on the arrival of the
Bordeaux courier without the Spanish mails. innu-
merable and discordant rumours were in circulation.
The Madrid letters and correspondence of the 29th
were received on Friday in due course. Nothing
conclusive had yet been effected towards the formation
of a cabinet. Narvaez, after going mind times to the
palace without being admitted to an audience, was
at length received. The joursele at the sae and the
other party give different reports et his reception, the
one affirming that it was most gracious—the other,
that it was the reverse of agreeable. It was reported
that Narvaez requested all the ministers to retain
their portfolios, which, however, they declined to do.
The attempts made by Narvaez and the Bishop of
Curia to induce the King Consort to resume his real-
, dente in the palace were-unzneceasful. It was stated
that Narvaez had a long interview with the King, in
which he in vain used every means of persuasion of
which he was master.
In the absence of the regular despatches due on
Saturday La Presse gives, on the authority of its
private correspondents, moat important news, of the
authenticity of which it expresses no doubt. Advices
received by that journal to the 30th ult. (which must
have arrived by an extraordinary courier) are to the
effect that Narvaez had renounced the task of forming
a cabinet ; that hie attempts were rendered abortive
by the superior will of the Queen, influenced by the
British minister, who is said to have " moved heaven
and earth to accomplish this object." According
to these accounts Mr. Bulwer alarmed the Queen
by the imputed projects of Narvaez, whom
he represented as the agent of, a conspiracy
against the royal authority, hatched at Paris ;
that he also worked on Isabella by the promise to
obtain a divorce, to bring about an alliance with a son
of Queen Donna Maria, to whom she is to be affianced,
until be shall attain a marriageable age. Meanwhile
the Queen is to be maintained in the plenitude of her
authority and power, and General Serrano is to be
raised to the office of major dunk, of the palace. These
anticipations, say these accounts, have completely
fascinated the Queen, who has entirely changed the
reeolutions she had previously taken, and rejected in
an unqualified manner the councils and assistance of
the Duke of Valencia.
Since the above was written we hare received a pri-

Irate letter from Madrid, dated the 30th ult., in which
it is affirmed, that on the evening of the 29th, at six
o'clock, the political chief of Madrid, M. Patricio de
la Escoeura, called on General Name:, to inform
him that it would be necessary to include in his pro-
posed arrangements M. Salamanca. The Duke of
Valencia, without complying with this demand, pro-
ceeded to the palace at seven o'clock, when he pre-
sented to the Queen a list of thirteen names, from
which he prayed her Majesty to select seven for the
cabinet. The Queen, glancing at the list, replied, that
at midnight, on her return from the theatre, she
would give him her answer. At midnight, accord-
ingly, Nervier was again received, when her Ma-
jesty, after examining the list, expressed herself
dissatisfied with it, and observed that she in-
tended to see whether she could not pro-
ceed with the actual cabinet. Narvaez then
asked her Majesty whether the cemmiesion
which had been given him to form a cabinet was
withdrawn, to which her Majesty replied again that,
she would consider, and see whether she could not go
on without any change of ministry. In effect, it may
be considered that Nervaer's commission is at an end.
lie went from the palace to the hotel of the presi-
dent of the council, where he communicated to the
cabinet, then sitting, what had passed between him
and her Majesty. Soon after this, the ministers
separated.
It may be considered certain that Narvaez has been
put aside, and that Pacheco will retire. A cabinet
will probably be formed under the auspices of Sala-
manca and Serrano.

ROME, Ave. 24.
We have iiews from Ferrara that the steamer em-
ployed between Venice and Trieste had been taken
up for war purposes, and had been freighted with 800
Tyrolese jagers, who are now landed at the mouth of
the Po, the only harbour on the Ferrarese coast
(called Logo Oacuro). This force, I need not tell you,
cannot be relied on by Austria; as I would bet a
wager that if one of our capuchins from Perugia I
were to confront them with a crucifix they would
down on their marrow-bones, and, like true children
of Hofer, arise with a thundering shout of Viva Pio
nono ! A large body of Croats has made its appear-
ance at a place called Polesella, 12 miles from Ferrara,
and 2,000 men of Hungarian uniform arc reported to
be seen in Rovigo, on the left bank of the Po.
Pins hiss dispatched Gen. Bentivoglio to Forli, with
a staff' of first-rate military talent—Lieut. Bocesnera
of the Dragoons, Col. Bini of the Caccialori, and
Major Bersanti of the Artillery. When the order for
marching northwards was read on parade here,
the cries of jubilant enthusiasm shook the welkin.
The old days of Aedrubal encamped on the Me-
taunts, and Scipio starting to the rencontre, seemed
come again :
Et pulcher rugatia
ale Men Law tenebrls
ttul primus abut deg culoreh !
The despatches of our nuncio at Turin, Monsignor
Antonucci, have coma in to-day, and though yet un-
disclosed, sufficient has transpired to gladden the
public. 100,000 Sardinian men and 28 war ships are
with us. From Milan we learn that it has been impos-
sibleto keep our " protest" from the ken of the Longo-
bards, for suddenly, as if by magic, every street-
corner became a focus of insurrectionary perusal, and
the Austrian cannon with which every open square is
encumbered, could not disperse the thousands bent on
reading what the Pope had to say to Europe. The
King of Naples, with an hypocrisy equal to that of
LOMB Philippe, has now come forward with offers of
"protection !" whereupon the Almada, a semi-official
paper here, compares his kindness to that of the
East India Company's benevolent protectorate of the
King of Nizam, whose territories are to be garri-
soned, and whose tribunals furnished with English
judges. "Beat° it Re di Nizam,quindiinanzi non arra
die a bore e a mangiare, fin die piare la compagnia.
Non vi pare the sia una bella cosa la Pride:km?'"
At this very juncture, credible reports have reached
us that the Neapolitan autocrat will have enough to
do to protect himself, the whole kingdom being up in
revolt, and every wheel of the government out of
gear. Sicily is in utter confusion, and from the toe
of the Italian boot to the instep and ancle upwards,
shooting pains are felt and muscular convulsions. The
royal chiropedist has quite enough on his hands. To
the eternal disgrace of his character, he has been re-
viving in this century the by-gone practice of torture
at Naples, and several poor devils of printers (or
poor printers devils) have been subjected to the
thumbscrew to extort the authorship of clandestine
placards, denouncing public wrongs ; the atrocity
practised on one Seguin, a French subject, suspected
of typographic treason, is too horrible to divulge, and
were not prance sunk in the lowest abyss of servility
would challenge exemplary vengeance from his coun-
trymen. The " Freddie" of Naples know their turn
will soon come, and those grim hyenas of humanity
stop at nothing.
The learned and pious canon Graziosi was buried
yesterday. He was the early instructor of Pius IX.,
who visited his death-bed and cheered his departure.
The students of the university, the Apollinari and
Propaganda, followed his hearse, with all the Reman
clubs and battaillons of the guard. The Gregorian
College, under Jesuit management, did not show.
These misguided fathers are getting deeper every day
in the slough of despond. They have not even tact
to keep aloof from popular gatherings, though fre-
quently reviled and openly insulted. On the Longara
yesterday I saw two padres, surrounded by a mob;
and I heard one of them exclaim, turning round on
his assailants, " Questo e [Vett° del Progresso 1' A
more infelicitous speech could not have been made.
Their ministry among the people is stricken hence-
forth with utter sterility.
Arc. 28.—1 t is stated to-day that a reply from the
Aulic Council of Vienna to the Papal protest, is in
town, and the substance is understood to be that RA-
detzkey had acted in strict accordance with the impe-
rial mandate, and had simply carried out hie instruc-
tions, which were to occupy the city of Ferrara when
deemed opportune or necessary to the upholding of
the treaty of Vienna in its obvious meaning, viz., the
sustainment of Austrian authority in Italy ; that
such occupation should continue until the pontiff, by
disbanding his national guards and revoking his de-
cree about representative government, should give a
guarantee of his adhesion to the principles of the holy
alliance, the very basis on which matters were ar-
ranged at the Congress of Vienna ; that the temporal
principality of the Popedom was reconstructed on
this understanding, failing which, its continuance in
Italy could not be tolerated, and the Pope had but to
choose between the mere bishopric of Rome, shorn of
its independence, or the sceptre with subserviency to
the Kaiser. These are not, of course, the words of
the document, but the drift of the despatch is clearly
to that effect.
The indignation of our sovereign may be con-
ceived. The idea of being held in the light of a
mere Austrian bailiff or tipstaff in the Peninsula, is
too much of a dull German joke to be addressed to
an Italian nobleman, in the prime of life, at the head
of the oldest elective monarchy in Europe. 'Twere
enough to create a soul under the most octogenarian
ribs, baldest scalp, and feeblest limbs, that ever tot-
tered under the tiara. Ferretti resents the insult
more after the fashion of Pope Julius IL than of
blind old Dandolo. We see him mounted on his new
white mule, beaming with proud anticipation of
eventual triumph : and all betokens war. If none of
the church fathers I'M it, Tully once spoke words
those holy men might not disavow :—"Est nomen
pads duke et ipsa res salidaris sed inter paCe7II et
serritutem plitrimum interest. Pax eat tranquilla
libertas. Serritus malorum oninium extremum, non
belle solo sed mode quoque repellendum! "
The activity of the war department is at its
height. Colonel Gabrielli has replaced the mild
geologist Medici Spada, of whose dismissal I made men-
tion on the Bth instant. Spada was a concealed Gre-
gorian, and the Pope's hand requiring all trump
cards, a knave of spades would not suit. To arrest
further inroads of troops from Lombardy, orders
were issued last night which, if carried out, will
prove the energy as well as military skill of our
" Horseguards." The Po for forty miles on our
northern frontier, from Piedmont to the Adriatic, runs
between artificial mounds of earthwork, which have
to be annually raised, owing to the constant deposit
of
.gravel in the bed of the river, so that in some
districts the flood runs fifteen or twenty feet above
the level of the plains. To deluge the whole country
for miles on both banks will be the work of a few
pickaxes, and mill lea Allemands dans reau ! The
harvest being all garnered io, no harm can ensue, but
abundant benefit from the monster irrigation. The
hint has been borrowed from a memorable act of
Dutch patriotism.
The camp at Forli is being reinforced every day by
detachments from the south and volunteers from all

quarters, The Albion and Rodney, 90 gun ships, are
expected at Ancona, from the Pirwus (with or without
the garrison of Corfu), and I need not tell you what
vigour will be infused into our measures from the
glorious moment that your " winged ministers of
=Tbearing British thunder in their pouches"
r; anchor before the mote of Augustus,
familiarised to you by the pencil of Stanfield—
ante dowsurn Valerie quern Doric& eustinet Ancaa
indeed the support of England is the main reliance of
all hares from the monarch down to the hawkers of
penny broadsheets, who bawl out in every direction
their hopes from that quarter. " Per un hajoecho
rapoggio dell Inghilterra ! " Yours is the only power
that can give disinterested aid! Hawking poli-
tical news is quite a new trade here, and one bajoccho
the general price of a paper; but yesterday the criers
in every street raised their charge, for the arrival of
Minardi from Tuscany. " Due bajoechi per l'infarne
Minardi.'" •• due bojecehi rinjam e!" The Grand
Duke is understood to have stipulated for his life
being spared before he would hand him over to our
government. A holy horror of episcopal non-resi-
dence (newly felt) still keeps Lambruschini in his
diocesan seaport, where he is to be seen, with a few
attendants, pacing the sands, and, like the priest in
Homer, confiding his sorrows to the roaring main:
Bq saramr rapa Boa IC.T.X.
I went down to Civita Vecchia last week to have a
good view of him, and now that the sporting season
has begun he does right to keep out of the way. The
nationals might diversify the toujours perdrix by
bagging some red legs.
Dr. Wiseman left Rome early this week for the
small town of Fano, on the Adriatic, where his sister,
married to an Italian nobleman, resides; thence he
goes direct to England. As he will be near the
theatre of war, he will probably write another long
letter to the Times under his signature of " Anglo-
Romanus." The account which he furnished of the
conspiracy here was thought heavy and lumbering,
nor did it contain a fact that had not been previously
published by you. The appearance of a bishop in the
newspaper world is foolishly blamed by men who
are behind their generation. 'the press has long since
taken the office of the pulpit, and those who wish to
influence opinion must adopt the current instrumenta-
lity. Abbe Genoude in France is editor and proprietor
of the Gazette de France: Abbe de lionnechose con-
tributes to La Prow front Rome ; and the Dublin
Freeman Lea from Rome the benefit of Father Kirby's
wisdom,which, amid pious ejaculations, unfortunately
mixes up much malignant slander.
Three days ago the Princess Donna Chiara Colonna
died at an advanced age. The family honours lapse
into the new-fangled house of Torlonia, who have
quartered their arms (?), viz., a comet, with the old
lonic pillar of the Roman house. Torlonia, the
tobacco broker, married the accomplished and bean-
udaughter of Donna Chiara, tif 1
identified his house (?) with that of Colonna, by
printing for priva'e circulation 500 copies of the son-
nets of Vittoria Colonna, on every page of which the
watermark of the paper exhibits theafors said frond
and pillar in juxta position!
Next Monday the fair daughter of Bonaparte,
Prince of Canino, weds an accomplished Italian
nobleman, the Marquis do St. Collo.
Reverting to the position of Pius IX. in bold defi-
ance of his Austrian foe, it seems a fatality from the
days of the fourth Henry and Hildebrand, to those of
Joseph IL and Pius the Sixth, that Vienna should be
the grand antagonist of the Vatican. Yet there was
a time when the house of llapeburg, in its humble
origin, gloried in being the meek creature of the Ro-
man pontiffs, and wore engraved on the circlet of gold
which formed its barbaric diadem the following sig-
nificant inscription :
Pere Mil Vitro. furls Maras assorts.