The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-06 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILT NEWS.

Stu,—l beg to address you these few lines, which
I hope you will think it worth your while to publish in
your columns, as many of your readers will, no doubt, be
interested in the sad news they contain.
This day is the anniversary of the battle of Curtatonc and
Montanara, in which two places, during the Italian struggle
for independence, the few Tuscans who figured in the cam-
paigns of Lombardy withstood fur seven hours the fury of
the Austrian hordes.

Duriug the last two years this day has been allowed to be
commemorated by a service for the dead in the church of
Santa Croce, which is our Pantheon. Everything passed off
quietly in 1849 and MO, and it was a touching sight to
behold the widow, the orphan, and the parent, bereft of his
brave boy, come forward in deep mourning and strew
Bowers over the tomb-stone, on which the name of those
who fell an that memorable day is engraved in golden cha-
ncing.

This day, however, has not only not passed of quietly, but
the church has been profaned by the bayonet of the Austrian
and the report of muskets from our own harden gendarmes.
The church was filled with perhaps 12,000 Florentines—
men, women, and children—and the solemnity of devotion
prevailed at the beginning of the service, when about ten
gendarmes, or policemen, stationed in it were seen to with-
draw. Presently, however, cries of distams echoed , loud
through the aisles of the church. What caused it ?
Would you believe the cruel and barbarous scheme con-
cocted to put an end to that sad and touching homage
thus rendered to our beloved dead ?

Several gendarmes, dressed in plain clothes, approached
the tomb-stone above described, where old men and youth
ful children, where aged matrons and young maidens, were
scattering wreaths of dowers and shedding tear. Without
any provocation, and yielding blindly to orders received,
these wretches began to strike right and left with their
sticks this ineffensire and sorrowful group.
The alarm thus raised, Austrians and gendarmes ap-
peared with their muskets on several points of the church,
as if by enshantmeut, the former pushing with their
baymets the peaceful and unarmed crowd before them. A
sense of confoirm missed which it would be impossible to
describe. When ea the squire before the church, the
meter pieties Milts thousands assembled were making the
beet et their way to their homes, a company of carabineen
or gendarmes received orders to lire, which they did, with-
out the result being yet ascertained.
The indignant and horror-struck citizens removed in the
greaten disorder from that barbarous spectacle, worthy of
• heathen, but certainly not of a Christian and civilised
town, such as ours has for ages prided itself on being.
Hedged in as we are by the Austrian bayonets, we can
only mother in silent despair the deep-rooted hatred and
choler which preys upon Our minds and hearts, and weep
overeat unfortunate country, appealing to all men of dis-
cernment and justice to say whether our populations will
not be justified in committing examen, when these are the
means need to ensure them • lasting peace and the blessings
of sober institutions.

It b reported that there are two dead and twenty
wounded.

I write in the greatest coolness of mind, and by enbse-
quent news you will And that what I have said is strictly
comet. I remain, sir, your sbediont servant,

PIONMON May 29.

A. Z.