The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-01 00:00:00

ITALY.

The Pisdasontem Gazette of the 26th oIL contains
a royal ordonnance, dissolving the communal council
of SaLucca, which had addressed two petitions to the
Chamber of Deputies, demanding certain changes in
the public administration. The accompanying repast
of the Minister of the Interior exhibits the views of
the cabinet on a nice question of representative
government :—" The central power of the state,"
says the minister, "would not be in full possession of
its independence of action, if provincial or communal
representations were to intervene in the affairs of
general legislation and government. The constitu-
tion has decided that every deputy is the representa-
i',7f of the who!" state• and not of that part of it
which has sent him to parliament, and it has done so
in order to avoid giving to votes a local colour, which
might place the various provinces of the monarchy
in opposition to each other. The vote of the majority
should be that of all the provinces; any system
which should permit different provinces to take
diverse colours in the general questions of the
country would violate the national unity."
TURIN, JAM. 25.
The Piedmontese newspapers have no doubt ac-
quainted you with the late arrest of a gentleman of
the name of Mazzinghi at Spezia (on the eastern
coast of Genoa), accused by M. Bronchi, a Itomish
priest, with having, jointly with Captain Pakenham,
an Englishman, distributed among several country
people in the neighbourhood of that town " St. Paul's
Letter to the Colossians, and the literal version of
the Ten Commandments of God."
Captain Pakenham, being a British subject, was
allowed to get safe beyond reach of the Genoese
authorities. M. Mazziughi, being an Italian, was,
after being dragged like a malefactor from one prison
to auother, delivered into the hands of the new holy
inquisitors at Genoa. His trial took place on the
17th inst., not publicly as all otter trials are per-
formed, but after the laudable and edifying meaner
of the old inquisition—namely, in a locked-up room.
No one knows, consequently, what took place in it.
The fact is that poor Mazzinghi has been condemned
to three years' imprisonment and all the expenses of
the processo or the ammenda if these be not paid.
He had already suffered five months' imprisonment
before his trial, but these have not been taken into
account into the sentence. Thus a worthy and re-
spectable Christian is condemned by Christian judges
to be severely punished for endeavouring to promote
Christianity in a Christian • country, under a Chris-
tian government issuing from a constitution which
proclaims " liberty of conscience" to be the lawful
right of every man living under its shelter.
The ultramontanists ure mad with joy at so unex-
pected a result. The priest Bruschi walks as threat-
ening in his look', as if the holy office were again
established and he made an inquisitor. The popula-
tion, however, is furious, and the public press unani-
mous in anathematising the savage action—this real
auto da fe.
What astonishes people most, however, is that it
should have been accomplished after the whole of
Europe has so decidedly and so publicly manifested
its abhorrence for the persecutions the poor Madiais
have been the victims of in Tuscany. The ministers
seem to be in great embarrassment, as interpellations
are expected to be made to-day upon the subject in
parliament. They say that the fault is not theirs,
but of the still existing ancient codes; to which, as
long as they exist, the clerical prosecutors have al
right to appeal. So far they are right ; but why are
not these barbarous codes, which are in perfect oppo-
sition with the articles of the constitution, abolished?
The fact is, that there still remain in every branch of
the public administration a great number of influen-
tial people of the old regime (more or less connected
with the high Romish clergy, and all equally de-
voted to it), who not only throw every possible ob-
stacle in the way of progress, but exert all imagina-
ble means to destroy the effect, limited and preca-
rious as it is, of even our present lame institutions.
As long as these monstrous existing codes are al-
lowed to remain, the constitution is nothing but a

fiction.
I have just received intelligence from Genoa that
the priests there, encouraged by the success of their
prosecution against Mazzinghi, applied for on the
20th instant, and obtained warrants against several
of the inhabitants of Favale, in the province of
Genoa, and particularly against the family of Ce•
reghino, consisting of men, women, and children,
who were all immediately arrested and imprisoned
for the crime of being in the habit of reading the
Bible translated by Diodati. Amongst the impri-
soned is an exemplary girl (Maria Cereghino), not
quite sixteen years old. The place was, at the time
the letter was written, in an uproar ; the irritation
of the inhabitants extreme; "and this (they all said)
is the liberty of conscience granted us by the consti-
tution." (Cries of, " Down with the priests ; "
" Down with the Pope ;" " No inquisition," were
uttered.)
The ministerial organ of yesterday announced that
the King had determined to avail himself of his royal
prerogative on behalf of Mazzinghi; and by an act of
grace to grant him a free pardon. The King is a
noble-hearted man, and anything but a bigot. This
act of clemency, however, does not cure the evil;
the codes or the constitution must be abolished.

ROMAN STATES.

Our Roman correspondent, writing on the 24th of
January, relates the poisoning of the Marquis Ban-
dini and all his family. The Roman government
was much alarmed at the demonstrations of the
Bolognese in favour of Austria. The collection of
the industry tax was suspended in consequence.
The Pope had established statistical commissions
throughout the state. His Holiness visited the King of
Bavaria on the 22nd.
The English Academy bad been re-opened by
order of the trustees.
Gemeau was still in Rome.