The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-26 00:00:00

NAPLES.

THE TRIAL OF THE INSURGENTS AND
CREW OF THE CAGLIARL

(PROM 01111 OWN 0011WIPONOINT.)
BALBRNO, MARCH 17.
I shall content myself with giving a brief digest
of the proceedings of the last two days, more for the
sake of certain suggestive incidents than for details
which would be necessarily uninteresting to per-

eons who look on from a distance.
The business of Monday began with a request on
the part of the counsel for the defence that certain
questions there dictated might be sent to Tunis, to
be answered by the liberated passengers of the
Cagliari residing there. The request was acceded to.
A scene then took place, and very important evi-
dence was indirectly elicited in favour of Rubattino,
the proprietor of the Cagliari, and all concerned
with or dependent on him. The Procurator-
General, it was asserted, had in his posses-
sion an " istruzione " of a very important
character, which had been drawn up in Genoa.
It amounted to this, that, in spite of assertions to the
contrary, the Neapolitan Consul in Genoa could not
in conscience say that he could ascertain any traces
of combination between Rubattino, Captain Sits*
and Pisacane in the offices of Rubattino. The Pro-
curator-General was very irate at what he called his
private correspondence being thus violated and made
public. The advocate for the defence persisted in
demanding that his " istruzione" should be brought
forward, alleging that the law requires the whole
precis to be made known to the accused, and not
that portion only which is adverse to them. This
was opposed, on the ground that there was no obli-
gation to furnish the accused with matter for their
defence, and that the " istruzione " alluded to bore
not so much upon the cause now pending
as upon the case of Rubattino and the steamer.
It was answered, very justly, that the two causes
were most intimately connected, and that whatever
tended to exculpate Rabattino would exculpate also
Sitzia and the crew. As it was evident, however,
that the " istruzione " demanded would not be pro-
duced, it was requested that some persons of high
rank in Genoa should be interrogated as to the poli-
tical character and relationsof the crew, the captain,
and the proprietor of the vessel, hich was at
length acceded to. • A variety of peanuts were
examined to prove theft and violence on the part of
some of the insurgents ; but little interest attached
to their examination, and, indeed, scarcely any sensa-
tion would have been excited but for a point of law
which was raised in the following manner :—A
lad of 14, called Aceto, and sharp u a needle,
asserted that were he to see them he could
recognise those who cut the telegraph. " Let him
be put face to face with that man, and asked if he be
one," said the Procarator•General, indicating one of
the accused. " I protest against it, the law forbids
it," mid La Francesca. After some hot discussion
it was decided that the boy should be taken round,
aid shown the whole number of prisoners. " Per-
haps the men are dead," said the lad. He made his
round, and said that he could not recognise any per-
son there. " I request," then, said the advocate,
" that the persons who cut the telegraph be recorded
amongst the dead."
The scene out of doors was more striking, and
painfully so, than that within. It was raining very
heavily, yet as one of our party visited the court for
the first time, we all determined to wait and wit-
ness the several phases of this melancholy spectacle.
It is unnecessary to say that the same formalities
already described were observed, but the scene was
infinitely more poled to-day in consequenceof the
weather, which seemed to delight in the sufferings
of these half-clothed, miserable-looking creatures.
Bound two-and-two together, they passed slowly by
us, and we followed after. They had not advanced
far, however, before one of them fell down as it ap-
peered in a fit, or it might be from weakness. Still his
groans reached us, and we approached the spot
where he lay on his back in his light dram, with a
heavy rain pouring down upon him. A gendarme
cut the rope which bound his wrist to that of his
companion, who was ordered to take him on his
back and carry him fall half a mile to the prison.
He dragged him across the street, propped him against
the wall, and thus mounted him ; but the bearer
struck me as being as weak as the burthen. We
approached still nearer, and saw the poor fellow's
month full of blood, yet not one word of pity was
uttered, not one act of assistance offered ' • neither
gendarme nor soldier put a finger to raise the man,
whom they seemed to treat as though he were of
much less value than a profitable beast. They went
slowly on, and must have been wet through by the
time they reached the prism. Once the bearer
stopped, overcome with fatigue, for the ascent is
most difficult, and we gave him charity, which was
surlily permitted by a gendarme, who, it is not
unlikely, took his portion. " Qui viene we elm
good," said an officer, impatiently ; and, looking
we saw an old man, lame, very ill, too ill to
walk with his fellows, limping through the
muddy streets, followed by two soldiers. He had
no hat I think, certainly no shoes or stockings,
though his feet were wrapped up in dirty rags on
account of infirmity. His face was lined with hope-
less despair. The lest time I saw this man was in
court, when his equivocal and criminal letter to his
wife was read, expressive of a hope that he should
soon see her ; and the grounds of that criminal hops
were stated to be that, as he was an exile in Pons&
without condemnation, he always hoped for a
" grazia." On returning to his seat his groans were
heard even by the President, and he was taken off
to the hospital on a fellow-prisoner's back. Why
was that man thus dragged through the streets in
the bitter wind and rain, whilst an affectation of
courtesy was used at first towards the foreigners in
bringing them down to court in carriages? Alas!
the lame and sick old man was only a Neapolitan :
" We can do what we like with our own, and we
will show our independence of foreign influence."
'Tie a noble resolution, and nobly carried out!
The trial of yesterday possessed no great features
of interest ; the same class of witnesses were ex-
asked, and similar evidence elicited to prove acts of
theft and violence on the part of some of the in-
surgents. A man called Bello rather gloried in
having shot one of the stragglers whilst perfectly
harmless, making no resistance, and not committing
any act of violence whatever. cello had been alai.
an Urban Guard since that time.
The advocate for the defence begged that Ws
night be held responsible for this murder, and the
President said that it would belong to the Prose}
rator-General to institute any process. The ab-
sentee* from illness on this day were 16 ; and, judg-
ing from their appearance, many others ought to have
been in the hospital Altogether there are about 700
prisoners confined in the prison, and on Monday
93 were in hospital. The cause of the malady
may be readilr imagined, when I state that the mass
of the sufferers are Neapolitans. A Sardinian sailor,
who it is feared is in • oonstimption, was asked what
was the cause of his illness. His 'newer was, a cold
taken from want of clothes, which were not restored
to him till lately.
Two trifling corrections have to be made in my
former letters. The error of the Procurator-General
pointed out the other day was in stating as
knici and Spezia were beth in the same ,it was
of no consequence in which place a mans residence
was stated to be.
The second correction is this. A prisoner of whom
I spoke complained, not of having been beaten again
for singing, but for having been pet in the "Camera

di punizione," and threatened with another prosecu
tion. lie had already received 70 lashes fora first
offence, and this of having sung • second
time was without foundation. The Procurator-
General had not taken the trouble to examine into
the matter.
I may add to what I said the other day, that the
interview of Mr. Lyons with Signor Carafe was
simply to present his letters accrediting him here for
one specific purpose ; not • *ord, I believe, was said
on any other subject.

SALERNO, MAIFt! 20.

The proceedings of the trial are 'Upended until
Monday, and in the interval I give you a report of
the last two days. The sanitary state of the pri.
goners is represented by the absence of 27 on one
day and 26 on the other, with medical certificates in
hospital. One man, Mira, was reported dead of
consumption, and another was taken out of court to
the hospital in a fainting fit. Several English gen-
tlemen were present on the second day, much to my
satisfaction, as many of the things that I report must
sound almost as if they• were inventions. Yet you
may depend upon them es true. " They are a mess
of anew," said my Mends, looking round upon the
Neapolitans. Never was starvation more clearly
written in the human face. As usual, paper, pens,
end ink, were brought to the visitors, who all
wrote their names. It is not to be wondered at
therefore, that scarcely any but gendarmes or mili-
tary should appear among the audience. The bud-
ness of the court consisted on both days in the exa-
mination of witnesses to prove certain alleged acts of
violence, theft, &c. It was evident, moreover, that
there was a broad distinction between two closes of
prisoners. One portion had confined themselves to de-
manding arms, ammunition, and public money, and
paying for what they oonsumed. To these Niootera
belonged ; and it is only due to that unfortunate
person to state that several witnesses bore testimony
to his humanity and his honour. Acts of petty
theft and violence seem to have been committed,
not by the band, but by worthleseeens=
glenfrom it, and such acts were
and in one instance punished by the death
of the offender. There was but one incident
on the first day on which I am inclined to dwell,
and that regarded certain papers which had been
found on the dead body of Pmacani. Amongst them
were some written in numbers and therefore unin-
telligible; there were others called " atture cam-
pions " being indeed en alphabet, but deficient in
the first three letters. By this alphabet the Procu-
rator-General had undertaken to interpret the num.
hers, and by dint of g uessing and adding three letters
to the alphabet, managed to explain the documents
uhe willed. The advocate Tajani protests against
the acceptance of these papers as evidence, and the
prisoner Niootera asserts that they are pure inven-
tions of the Procurator-General, who begs that the
president will insist on the silence of the prisoner,
but ea the president does not comply, and the pri-
soner continues in the same strain, the Procu-
rator-General becomes greatly excited and pro-
tests against the inaction of the president.
The advocate Carelli, therefore, explains that the
reading of those documents was opposed because
they were only the invention and the opinion of the
Procurator-General. The discussion, which was very
warm, lasted an hour and a half, and the court re•
tiring, decided unanimously that the papers should
be read, but not as evidence. The other remarkable
incidents which I have to recite occurred on the
second day—.that is, on Thursday last. A wish leas
expressed Niootera that a priest should be exa-
mined as to the mode in which the insurgents at
Padilla died. It was necessary to the defence to
ask for such an examination (urged the advocate),
and it would be conducted in the most legal manna
and without personalities. The Procurator-General
protested against it, saying, " It is a part of i system
to calumniate the public force."
The court decided that the desired examination
could not be permitted—and, without any violencel,
such a decision may be regarded as an acknowledg-
ment that there is something to conceal. What that
something is, is thus explained in the document of
Nicoters, which the court refused to receive : " We
deliberated about retiring to the mountains, in order
to save as many as possible from the massacre of
Paden, where, by the military authorities, without
any formality of law, about 36 of those who had
the misfortune to fall into their bands were shot."
The only other incident which I shall record occurred
during the examination of a Cape Urbano, called
Gallo. " Signor President," said a prisoner, let
me speak one word. That witness took me to be shot;
but I told him that the ' fucilazione' was all over now.
He then took all my clothes, even to my shoes and
stockings." Another man, alleging the excuse ddeafness came up to the bar, and said, " Signor Pre.
sident, that man robbed me of seven piastres, and
gave me 80 ducats worth of blows." A third
shouted out, " He is an assassin r and another, " He
nearly broke my neck." The Procurator-General said
the court made no note of these denunciations. Al
he left the court, the witness was hissed aad whistled
at by some of the prisoners ; and the President
checked these impertinences, saying they would net
assist their defence. Much has been said of the
good spirit prevailing in these parts of the country.
A little light is thrown on the subject by a question
put to one witness about the previous state of Pe-
dals. About two months before the insurrection, four
were arrested by order of the police, one of them
for carrying a letter found upon him into the
Basilicata. -There were meetings in the house of
the Priset of Padilla, of persons attendibili, but the
witness did not know whether they were for
criminal objects. About six months before, two
monks of Osservantini bad been dismissed as sus-
pected persons, and in the house of that order in
Padilla a man had been arrested with aspirins
papers. Fourteen of the urban guard too had bees
dismissed a month before, for having communise
Lions with persons under the surveillance of the
police. Thus in this country there is a chess d
persons tabooed, by holding intercourse with whoa
any man becomes himself tabooed. A kind of poli-
tical leprosy prevails, and how extensively God only
knows.
Reporting, as lam in duty bound to do, and that
fearlessly, whatever I hear and see, I cannot but
repeat my acknowledgmeats of the personal courtesy
which I continue to receive from the court.