The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-08 00:00:00

THE ENGLISH ENGINEERS IMPRISONED
IN NAPLES.

(71011 0171 •WX

SALERNO, MARCH 2.
About five years sins a steamer belonging to
Palmer and Co., of Jarrow, left port for London in
the afternoon of a fine day. Not many hours after-
wards she foundered about Berea miles off Whitby.
The Countess of Strathmore wag the name of the
steamer, and all her crew would have been lost had
not a small vessel, called a " billy boy " in technical
language, been passing near. The crew were at-
tached to ropes, and thus dragged through the raging
sea on the " billy boy," and all except the
captain, the mate, and two men, were saved. One
of those men whilst weeping, aed lamenting his
c:gnr was reproached, and esoonraged by an
el
to remember that he had the same chance
of safety u any of the others. There remained at
Lit one only man—this engineer, fear`ess and an-
shaken in nerve. The steamer was settling down,
and the little boat with the remaining part of the
crew bad again to make a complete round before it
amid throw another rope on beard. In the interval,
this men had the coolness to go below and save boa
watch, and had just time on corning on board to
catch the rope as it was thrown to him. Thug he

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1858.

was dragged through thalempestuous sea, and res-
IMed,from death pia:4ol3ly a cut over his face
Ohio% I have 'Wen), from coming in eon-
tact with the vessel. That man's name was
'leery Watt. Shipwreck shook not his nerves ;
the near approach if death did not throw his mind
off its balance ; and yet he is now of unsound intel-
lect, the inmate of an hospital, of whom it has just
been reported that it would be injurious and dan-
gerous to compel his attendance in a court of justice.
That report is just about to be read to the Grand
Criminal (hurt; but before it is, and until some de-
cision has been come to, let as ask what has occa-
sioned the difference between the present and the
past of Henry Watt ? Is the answer to the qttestion
difficult, after the details which have been illreidy
made known ? Conscious of innocence, and yet im-
prisoned for now full eight months; pronounced
even by a British minister in his place in parliament
to be virtually innocent, and yet with marvellous
indifference left to the tender mercies of Neapolitan
justice ; is it to be wondered at that a right-minded
man should become irritated ? Add to these causes
of excitement all the circumstances of the imprison-
ment acting upon both mind and body, and the
question is abundantly answered. What has occa-
sioned the difference between the present and the
put of Henry Watt ? I have seen much of his
brother since he has been in Naples, and have made
many inquiries as to his recollections of the past, and
his impressions of his actual state. " Henry," be
says, " was always a man of remarkably strong mind,
sober, industrious, and truthful in a very high de-
gree. On my honour, I now find him to be of
unsound mind. He becomes melancholy and talks
to himself if left alone a little ; and a rapid move-
ment of the head, and a quivering in the eye, indicate
that his mind is wavering." To say. that he has
fallen into this state because he was originally of a
weak mind would be contrary to the facts, as 1 have
already shown. There must, therefore, have been
some great and sufficient MUMS for it in the facts of '
his arrest and imprisonment. Yet Lord Clarendon,
in a speech which has made England fall 60 per
cent, in the estimation of Italians, said that Watt
and Park were objects of envy to the Neapolitans ;
the one is insane, arid the other subject to fits.
What, then, must be the state of the Neapolitans ?
" Henry," sap his brother, "is conscious of his aber-
ration of mind, and speaks of it. He felt his body
going first. He had great pains in his back, and
then his mind began to wander; and, amongst other
things, he attributes his illness to the smallness of
the room, which did not allow him space to move
about in." Mr. Acting-Consul Barber and
myself have both described that " comfort-
able " room from personal inspection, and at dif-
ferent times. The court, however, is waiting ; so it
is time to be off. There are present the British
acting consul, the Sardinian consul, William Watt
(the brother of the victim), and myself. Five other
Englishmen enter afterwards, and we are glad to see
them come dawn to manifest an interest in the
fate of their countrymen, for it is a rare virtue in
Naples even for an Englishman to do anything which
may compromise him with the government. Shame
on their cowardly caution! An usher makes the
round of the court in a state of agitation—he ap-
proaches the consul, and inquires if his Excellency
knows who the strangers are. "His Excellency"
does not, which is a bad sign. They may be mul-
tiples of Allaop or Mends of Maxxini. So a book is
brought to them, and they are required to enter their
names. A letter appears to be written and despatched
in a hurry, and after some time an answer is appa-
rently brought in. Who can those suspicious Cha-
racters be? The President proceeds to announce
that 12 prisoners were absent from illness, and ano-
ther has died since the last meeting—he died of con-
sumption ; and, judging from their appearanoe, con-
sumptien will,sunimon many of the men before him
to the bar of Divine justice. Close prisons, bad fare,
and scanty clothing are fins promoters of pulmonary
disease!

Park says that the wretched Neapolitans crowd-
ing close upon him have the scurvy ; and that an
offloer, warning him to take care of infection, men-
tions it to the Acting Consul, and a complaint is made,
and a line of separation drawn directly. There are
doubtless fine elements for the scurvy. in a
prison life in the Two Sidles. The real business of
the day now begins. The medical reports are read,
all agreeing in this conclusion, u I have informed
you, that it would be injurious and dangerous to
compel Watt's attendance. The Procurator-General
moves, therefore, that Watt's trial be suspended ;
and at the instance of Signor Laurie, the advocate
for the engineers, that he be detained in the British'
Hospital on the responsibility of the consul, two
advocates try to get the whole trial again suspended
till some more satisfactory decision be come to re-
garding the health of Watt : their clients, too, felt a
strong repugnance to come into court, but the mo-
tion of the Procurator-General is carried.
Three Sardinians belonging to the Cagliari re-
main to hear their depositions. One of them is the
fiag-bearer, a small boy of 13, called Domenico
Ce4ta. He is a pretty, chubby-faced looking led,
and a general smile is awakened through the
'curt as he rises. It was as a spree he
carried the flag, but it was a dangerous
one, for the shots were flying right and left : both
his companions agree in stating that Captain Sitzia
was in great despair oa his ship being taken from
him, and wept. Of Daneri, the man who was com-
pelled to take the command of the vessel by the
rebels, I must say something more. He denied that
he had used any pistol, or that his family were de-
votedly attached to Mancini. His father had filled
many offices under the Sardinian government, and
was trusted by it. With Daneri concluded the ex-
aminstioa of the Cagliari crew. We now come to
the Nespolaan subjects ; altogether, 19' of them
bad their depositions reed. Of several I have no-1
thing to say, but others made some revelations
which I mast not omit to give. Rocca la Cava de-
clared that of a deposition which bad been read to
him he knew little or nothing; it had been received
and written by a person who was not in authority,
and he was told that it was not too late to save his
life if he would sign it. As he had seen many of
his companions shot, he was afraid of being shot u
well, and therefore signed it. The President, he said,
had told him that it was useless to oppose signing
one of his depositions—he had better sign it. On
being asked if it was his wish to retract what ho
had signed, he answered" Yes." The tendency of
what be retracted was to compromise several pertains,
and, amongst others, Baron Gallotto. Giambattista
Jaceheo said that the crew bad been forced, and
the captain was much displeased at the feet. On
being asked, Rile vented to the deposition read, he
replied that they were all got up by the police, " per
farsi merito. Yon know, Signor President, bow
these things are done to please the government.
(General titter.) That deposition was never read to
me. It was the act of' the police." " But you de-
clared the same things on several occasions," said
the Proouratoe-General. "Then I must have been
asleep, for I know nothing about them." " Have
you anything more to say ? " " Yes, Signor Presi-
dent. After I had delivered up myself, a captain of
the Rifles consigned me to a sergeant, and this man
whilst taking me to the castle in Padula, amnia
himself by striking me with the butt-end of his
musket, by pulling my beard, and pinching me.
More than this, I was robbed of everything I had. I
would not have minded a few earlitu, but they rob-
bed me of a pound of bread and a pound of
sausages,
which I had bought in the morning, and
nothing lett to eat." The careless, easy mode in which
this man replied occasioned much mirth in court. He
had been struck by an sae, he said, and was not in a
state to make any deposition.
Nicola Giordano confessed that he willing! joined
the party of the insurgents, on hearing that had
risen for the sake of Italian liberty. He be
that the first ditty of a man was to his country. I
pus by several whose examination was of no import-
une, till I come to the name of Franoseeo di Mar-
tino. When be made his deposition, be said that-
many others were being examined, and-their words
were confused right and left, so that a great many
errors were committed. He protested against the
anueination of thirty-five of his eompanions in
Paula, without provocation or amenity. Their
bodies were stripped, and lay in the roads. Raffardi
Parole else protested against the barbarities inflicted
upon the insurgents who delivered themselves up.
In Psdela thirty-five bad been butchered, He
himself bad lima robbed of everything. fig a
gendarme--of three Napoleons seven piastres, and
eight carlini. There were several witnesses of the

fact, and amongst others two gendarmes, called io
Rosa and Bandolini. It being now four o'clock, and
the court having sat since nine o'clock, the President
rang his bell, and the business of the day was closed.

PIEDMONT.

(71011 091 OWN C0111181,7r6113179 •
TURIN, )&A c 1 1.

We feel not less cariosity. here than you do to
know whether your new ministry will wholly adopt
Lord Pabnerston's Conspiracy Bill as its own ; and
upon this account our Chamber at present allows the
project of law which has been laid before it, and
which in its substance and object so much resembles
the English bill, to lie dormant a little while. One
of the seven sectional committees (bureaux) into
which the Chamber is divided has not yet elected
its reporter upon this question, and insists upon
previously requiring the communication of all
written and official documents which have passed
between our government and that of France, with
reference to the clime of the 14th of
January. What this bureau hereby seeks
to obtain is, I repeat, merely. a ground for
the postponement of the measure, since its members
know very well, having heard it from Count Cavour's
own month, that no special note was sent by Count
Walewski to our government, but only that
same note was communicated to Sardinia which was
also addressed to England, to Belgium, and to Swit-
zerland. Besides this, Count Cavour as promised
to lay before the committee of the whole Chamber
which will be appointed to examine this project of law,
everything which has passed between him and the:
French Legation regarding the late event in Paris.
Two of the other bureaux. of the Chamber have
elected reporters most strongly opposed to the
.pro-
ject of law, namely Brofferio and Cotta RIMUIIII2O
by two ther bureaht the law is accepted? but
with many amendments ; and lastly, the remaining
two have instructed their respective reporters to
remove from the law, so far as is parable, the cha-
racter of a restrictive measure as affecting the liberty
of the press and the institution of juries. Altogether,
the law, as it will issue from the discussions upon it
in our Chamber, will have undergone substantial
modifications ; and its ultimate fate will depend upon
the course taken by your own parliament.