The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-12 00:00:00

ITALY.

ROME, Nov. 30.

The international committee resident at Modena
has just published a note, containing the conditions
to be observed by thole contractors aha are willling
to undertake the great and important central line of
railway, which the iron will of Austria has insisted
on carrying out in spite of the coy timidities of the
Papal court. There is no doubt that the direction
of the line is hurtful to the commercial
interests of the Roman States, but what is to lie done
in such a case? Those who are a century behind all
other competitors must of course be outstripped in
the race, and the Austrian line will be in full traffic
before the Roman line through the legationa will be
able to boast of a single rail. The point of departure.
according to t'ie notiticat on of the international com-
missioners, will be on the right hank oF the Po, near
Piacenza, whence it will stretch north of the Via
Etnilia, or Parma ro id, passing the torrents of Ititi-
uto, Sure, Riglio, Chiavenna, and Aria, thence
beyond Sau I)onnino to the Taro, and so on to the
Purina. passing to the south of the city of that name.
Rejoining the Via Emilia, the line will then pass the
Estense frontier, and touching the north side of
Reggio, will cross the torrent of Secchia, and lead to
Nlodena. and thence over the Panari to the north of
Forte Urbuno, to the walls of Bologna. It will then
remount the valley of the Reno to the Appennines,
which it will cross to join the Tuscan railway,
either at Pistoja or Prato. From Reggio a branch
line will lead through Guastallaa to Mantua,
the passage of the Po being effected for the present
by means of a steamer. The first-class stations will
be at Piacenza, Parma. Reggio, Modena, and Bo-
logna; and those of second-rate impsrtance at Fio-
nnizuola, San I)onnino, and Guastalla. The line
will be calculated for double rails, except in that part
which traverses the Apennines, but only one line of
rails will be required at first. The commissioners
invite parties willing to undertake the work, either'
1 altogether or for one of the three branches, to send
in their tenders without delay, specifying all partial-
Mrs. A million of francs will be required for gun- '
ranter of the execution of the work, and 250,000
francs for guarantee of the commencement of the
work within a given term. The notification, which
bears the date of the 21st November, is signed by
the Papal, Austrian, Modenche, Parmesan, and 'f us
can commission.
It appears that brigandage is inherent in the
northern provinces of his holiness's dominions, for no
sooner is one band destroyed than another springs
up. Eight marauders, belonging to a band which
sacked a country house in the territory of Imola, at
the beginning of the present month, are in' the
hands of justice, and have confessed their participa-
tion in no fewer than twelve attacks on houses in the
same province, so that we shall shortly hear of their
execution. That fatal word reminds meof the recent
horrible transaction at Fabriano, where I mentioned
to you in my last, that three young men, of good
family in that city, had been publicly beheaded for
having, as was aanerted, hired an assassin to murder
a priest during the revolution. The only evidence on
which these young men, the youngest of them under
twenty, and the eldest 21 years of age, were sent to
the scaffold, was, that of the assassin himself, a re-
probate, whose guilt was considered sufficiently chas-
tised by a years imprisonment, which he had al-
ready undergone during the trial, so that at the very
moment that his victims fell beneath the guillotine,
he himself went forth scot free. This villain swore
that the three young students, one in medicine and
two in the law, suborned him to kill the priest and
his brother—that he warned the priest's sistet—that
the sister (a most improbable story) had not time to
warn the priest, but that he, the assassin, put off the
attempt until the next evening, when, meeting the
priest and his brother he fired, but purposely in the
air. Now it is proved that he had only one pistol
and one bullet; how then could he have been so ill
supplied if his employers wished him to kill two per-
sons. Ile furthermore swore that, on the papal re- ,
storation, he consulted a person of sense (probably a
confessor) on the occurrence, who advised him, if he
had no other evidence than that, to hold his tongue
and keep his own counsel, but he insisted on reveal- •
ing the affair to the government authorities, and the
tribunal of the consulta found the story suffi-
ciently plausible to warrant the beheading of
the three unfortunate students. The printed
sentence is a rare specimen of ferocity and
stupidity. One of the first clauses dwells upon
the spirit which would naturally impel the young
men to the crime imputed to them, viz., they being
hot republicans, whilst the priest was a noted up-
holder of the Papal government. And so they jump
to the conclusion that as the assassination might have
been planned from party spirit, it actually was so,
and the three victims of priestly vengeance have met
with an ignomi ions death at the evidence of a vile
assassin, who, together with the Pap alino priest,
walks the streets of Fabriano with exultation and
triumph. It is the opinion of the exasperated and
aggrieved citizens that the position and principles of
the young men formed their real crime in the eves
of the government, and that the story of their having
planned and paid for the priest's death was a mere
tale trumped up for the occasion by their enemies,
and this idea is corroborated by tho slight penalty
inflicted on the aseasain himselL