The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 22, 1858.

that "On Sunday evening, when I went to

N Lord DvmLuies

with his

"staff, Colonel Fuss= having arrived in town
▪ by the four o'clock train, I totted up the lists,
" and saw that to make the election perfectly
" secure to Lord Donxiimu we shockt briie
" to seine mime, and we wanted 200 Freemen."
Dirtraming alternative; he bad got, he tells us, 300
of the FTISIMSH and many respectable tradesmen, but
he most bribe 200 Freemen, or his kinsman's election
would not be perfectly secure. Did he hesitate ?
No : he says, " I sent a friend to Mr. O'Ftsirmerr's
" committee to say that if they would poll me 100
" split votes by ten o'clock in the morning I would
" give 2501. The rime arrangement was made with
" Colonel FIENCH'S party, from which I was to get
“ 100 more votes, and then I thought I bad made
" myself secure."
Sash is Sir THOMAS Straix's own story. It
is no family resninisoenoe told at some rollick-
ing table in Connaught, while the punch is
hot and the tale and the song go round, but
a deliberate statement related as proper for the
ear of the House of Commons by the chief
actor, who is " neither ashamed nor afraid of any-
" thing he has done throughout the whole trams°.
" Hon." Sir Thomas Bungs treats it all as a piece
of generalship in which he considers he came off best.
The complaint against him is only the cry of disap-
pointed cupidity." This," he mid," was one of the
" moat extraordinary awes ever brought before the
" Home as regarded purity of election. It was
" brought by the Freemen because they did not get
" the money they wanted." He had outwitted the
Galwegians, skilfully played them off against one
another, and saved his money. They had tried to
"do " him, and had instead been " done." It was,
in fact, he said, " the want of spending money that
" had brought up thin charge against them." And
that is all be can see in it.

After what was said on Thursday night, no one
can suppose that this matter can be hushed up with
the disfranchisement of a few Freemen. The wound

is too foal to be skinned over. The character of the
House of Commons itself is in question. The House
most vindicate its reputation if it is to command the
confidence of the country, and not discredit Parlia-
mentary government all over the world. The indem-
nifying clauses of the Statute do not stand in the way
of justice to save from disfranchisement the poor man
who has received a dozen shillings for his vote ; are
they to save from disqualification the Member of
Parliament who buys a hundred votes at a time?
People will never believe that the House has
been in earnest in making laws from time
to time against bribery, or devising con-
trivances to catch bribers, if now, in presence of a
great confessed offender, it shrinks from action. Sir
ThonAs BURKE not only owns that he has incited
others to commit criminal acts of corruption for
which they are liable to fine and imprisonment, but
he has told hie tale in a manner which seemed most
offsesively to claim the sympathy of his honourable
hearses.

Another question will arise, to be very speedily
answered, we should think, as to the right of Lord
Dratest.l.lN to retain his meat. How is it possible
that that noble lord can derive a title to sit in Per-
i •
hansent from votes which men are to be punished
for giving ? But the public will look further. The
Commissioners report that " nothing appeared before
us to show that Lord CLANEICAADE knew any-
thing of the details of the Election;" but they
also state that neither did the noble Marquis, whose
mowers to many obvious questions are so desirable,
appear before them. His lordship was on the Con-
tinent. It is, of course, possible that that little
note to his land agent, opening an indefinite
credit for the expenditure at the Galway election, had
nothing to do with that other note which Bir THOMAS
BUILKII tells us he sent to Mr. OTLAHILITY'S
Com-
mittee-room. If so, we skald think the noble
Marquis would be very anxious to be allowed to ex-
plain the transaction. Without some such explana-
tion the public, which has of late had its attention
turned to the doctrine of Conspiracy, will remember
that heavy indictments for that offence have lately
been preferred where the connecting link between
the parties was not much more obvious than that
which seems to unite the most noble Lord's autho-
rity to disburse with the actual bribery of the
honourable Baronet. These, however, are matters
to be inquired into. We need not anticipate the
results of investigation, for with the evidence
already before it the House of Commons has serious
work on its hands. Unless it be prepared to approach
its task with courage and in a spirit of high and
impartial justice, future inquiries after bribery will
be a dismal mockery, and it would have been better
that the transactions now brought to light had re-
mained in their original and congenial darkness.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

THE REFUGEES IN S'

The affair of the refugees in Switzerland is nearly
terminated. It is proposed to the Federal Council
to give a fixed residence in the interior, or to expel
forty-one persons. Among the Frenchmen twelve
have already left for England, and five have
received permission to remain temporarily at Geneva.
As to the Italians, seventeen are to quit the Canton
of Geneva, and seven will remain until their papers
have been put en regle. It is much more difficult
to reach those who had been in the Canton of
Neufehlitel, for several of them had left before the
arrival of the Federal Commissioners, but a per-
manent surveillance will be exercised.

ITALY.

THE NEAPOLITAN TRIALS.

Mom ova Sint

SALERNO, MARCH 16.

Following out my plan of giving you all remark_
able details of the extraordinary political trial now
pending, I send you a resume of the incidents which
struck me on Thursday, 11th, and Saturday, 13th
instant

Twenty-five of the prisoners were reported ill in
the hospital, with medical oertifioatte, and after the
business of the court had proceeded for some time,
Generate Venezia and Giuseppe Tronchese were
brought down from the hospital to hear their depo-
sitions read, and taken back immediately after-
wards. On their leaving, a man called Antonio
Venturino was brought into court in a litter, very
ill. The clerk began to read his deposition, but was
interrupted by the efforts of the sick man to vomit,
and by his loud lamentations, and finally he did
vomit. Signor Francesca, the advocate, opposed the
continued reading of the deposition, u Venturino was
not in a state to be present, and demanded
that be should be taken back to the hospital. The

judges and the Procurator-General looked at one
another without knowing what to say, till the
president, bursting with emotion, sent him back.
Two medical men in the meantime arrived, and after
taking the oath to tell the truth, gave their report
of the sanitary state of the hospital, and especially
of De Costanzo, Mira, and Venturino. On the day
in which the first had had that attack of madness
in court which impelled him to tear up all his clothes,
as I have already described, and to remain naked
before all, he was removed to the hospital prison.
" He remained," say the physicians, " for three days
and three nights without taking food, without
swallowing even a drop of water, crouching in a
corner, always naked and tearing whatever clothes
they attempted to put upon him. After the third
day, becoming somewhat calmer, he was put into a
bed, swallowed a little broth, and took some medicine,
but, though better, he does not answer any ques-
tions, except by pointing to his head. He is not,
therefore, in a state to be present in court, his
malady being a ' oongestione cerebrale, which
drives him to the committal of mad acts. With
regard to Mira, he is in such a state that he can
live but few days, or even hours." The medical
witness also stated that Ventarino, who is labour-
ing under an attack of acute " gastrieo-biliosa "
fever of a severe character, had necessarily suffered
much, and become worse from having been brought
down to the court—that his malady in seven days
would be decided, but that in his actual state he
positively could not attend the trial After this
report the medical men were dismissed. A question
arose between the Procurator-General and the ad-

vacate, Francesca, with regard to the depositions
of the three sick men just mentioned, the Pro-
curator-General demanding that they should be read
in their absence, and the advocate opposing ; the
decision was reserved for the following Saturday.
The only other incident worth noting is that
Borselli retracted his deposition in tot°, saying that
if he bad made statements utterly false he had done
so at the insinuation of the Intendente, who held
out hopes of pardon to him if he would make
important disclosures; but finding, however, on
the contrary, that he had been put under arrest
by the said Intendente, and that his protection was
of no service, he felt himself bound to deny all that
he had falsely deposed.
The reading of the depositions terminated this
morning. This is the first stage only of the trial,
and how far it redounds to the honour and the glory
of this government I leave it to your readers to
decide. The general correctness of my report you
may rely upon ; verbal errors of course I may have
committed, but to • great desire to tell the truth, and
the truth only, I have united unremitting labour
and attention.

Let us peas on to Saturday's trial. Twenty-five
are still in the hospital: and, looking down that long
line of meagre faces, I fancy that many more might
be so with great advantage to themselves. The me-
dical men are summoned to the court, and business
is suspended. On their appearance, they are threat-
ened with being brought 'down by the "forza pub-
lic° "if they are not may by eight a.m. Of the
three sick men mentioned on thursday, they report
Venturino still in " un stato febrile:" the madman as
he was, or he might get worse, for he had intervals of
disperazione e mansuetudine." Mira is dying
of "twice pulmonare." Is be the only one who will be
so reported ? Look at some of those pallid,
andhaggard faces, and answer. e waiting for
the " medici," a man rises up and sales the " parole"
of the President. It is difficult to catch what he
says, for he is interrupted by the President, as it ap-
peared to me, intentionally, but it seemed to be that
some one, and I think he said he himself, had been
beaten a few days before for singing, the order
having been given by the Procurator-General with-
out instituting any inquiries.
The first witness was now called. His name
sounded like Gaspard Musto, of Palermo. His
evidence was exculpatory of Rubattini and Sitzia,
and I mention it because of its bearing on the mule
of our " brothers," the Sardinians, and on that of
Park and Watt indirectly. Musto said that Captain
Bocci, inspector of the steamers of Rnbattini, had
full 10 months before jokingly said to him that the
refugees in Genoa wanted to engage a steamer, but
that Rubattini bad absolutely refused. Rood said
that they had gone to the wrong man for that. Rocci
was a hly respectable man, who had no
relations with the refugees, and witness never
beard that Rocci's son, one of the accused,
had any relations with the refugees. He had
always heard Sitzia, too, spoken well of. No other
witnesses being in court, a great deal of time was
occupied in arranging when certain witnesses should
be called, in ordering some down from a distance,
and sending for declarations from others. Two or
three declarations were read, one of which alluded
to a general report that a steamer was expected, and
that the French and English were going to interfere.
Another man, a soldier, alluded to an order to the
military to have no connexion with the liberals who
wore beards.

The 12th of April was named ea the day when the
witnesses might be possibly gone through with, and
certain persons were summoned for that time. My
opinion therefore is that very nearly a full year from
the commencement of their imprisonment will have
expired before Parkand Watt will have any chance
of their liberty.
I have omitted to mention a trifling incident
which occurred, perhaps too trifling to speak of in
so serious a case, still it will relieve what has been
so sad. The residence of a witness was in question.
Some said that it was " Spezia," but the Procurator-
General ex cathedra pronounced it impossible, as,
though there was a gulf, there was no city of Spezia.
On which a Sardinian prisoner shouted oat, " /1
passe di Spezia," not being too well pleased, perhaps,
at finding that Spezia was thus blotted out of the
map by a Neapolitan crown lawyer, who, though he
may be learned in his own profession, does not seem
to understand either the management of a steam
vessel or the topography of Italy.