The Express.
London, England, 1858-04-08 00:00:00

THR CASE OP THE CAGLIARI.

MR. PARK'S NARRATIVE.
We bare been favoured (ear the Masektakr
Guardian) by a gestleinan connected with this city with the
followli;narrative, taken down by him front the recital of
Mr. P the second engineer of the Cagliari, two days
miter Er. ark had beta set at liberty by the Neapolitan
authorities :

YcnskOow that the Vicaria is the worst of the prisons
In Naples, and it richly merits its notoriety, for it is beyond
belief that in a European country such en abominable den
should exist, or that • government laying claim to being a
Christian one, should dare to ofkind the dignity of human
nature by confining human beings in such damp and filthy
PitF". . . .

first proceeding upon snivel at the prison was to
unclothe at entirely, and search our clothes and pawns,
even to the hair on our heads. We were than conducted by
a dark pump through a number of massive doors, each of
which was unlocked and locked again se we paned, until we
arrived at • cell into which eight of us were put. This cell
was so small that our mattresses plead round the walla
were touching each other ; we had no chairs, but eat on
the bed. ; and the only light was furnished by a window
Wouly grated, and which we were prevented looking
out of, as a Newry (s Swiss mercenary), who paced the
courtyard, had orders to shoot any prir who might
stand at the window. Besides, oar all was horribly damp,
so that we nearly all suffered from its of In pains in
the legs; and it was so inhaled by rata, that in one night
shortly after our arrival I caught Novae large cam, having
made • trap of one of my boots. But the worst evils were
the bad air and bad water. There was no ventilation, and
a large wooden tub, which served us for the most near-
nay wants, emitted such effluvia that we lived in •
constant state of nausea. This was heightened by the
turnkeys neglecting sometimes to empty it, in order to forts
• bribe from us, and In which they were generally successful.
The water, too, was served to us in • wooden pal which
was so dirty that it gave • taste to the water, which 'rude It
unfit to drink. This was also made • sauce of emolument to
the gaolers, for they served us with drinkable water for one
halfpenny • glass.
"The King of Naples allows his prisoners siren end •
damp floor to sleep on, vermin and rata for bedfellow., •
email loaf of black breed and a plate of soup for food, • pes-
tiferous atmosphere to inhale, end musty sale water to
drink; but he also allows his gaolers to sell victuals and
drink, and to let beds to such prisoners as are so fortunate as
to have friends with money to pay for them.
" Upon our entrance into the gaol, the first queseloa we
were asked by the attendants was, 11 we wanted bade?'
we could have them by paying 4d per night. Of coarse we
asked for and received each. • low bedatoek and mat-
tress, which latter was however extremely tmoosatonable,
owing to its being made of unpicked oakum. Still the greet-
ed evil of the beds' was one which discovered itself after-
wards—namely, their being full of vermin, with which we
hand ourselves soon covered.

" I must not forget to mention another sort of companions
whither'', sufficiently numerous—namely, fiat lizards, which
run up and down the walk, and added not a little to the re-
pulsiveness of the 17ladl.
As we two (the English engineers) bad some 60 trance
en as when we entered, and as we boaleved we were eddy
going to stop • few days, we spent it pretty freely (getting
at the some time very link kr our money),), rinati. as day after
day came and no signs of liberty, we to get rather
anxious for our tabus candidate, more ly as we bad
hilly expected to have been visited by the English Consul,
or some one in his name. But no consul, no friend, and we
were just on the verge of being obliged to content aureoles'
with the black loaf and plate of bean water yclept soup, and
to see our beds taken away, and substituted by the truss of
anew and the damp door of ear cell, when succour arrived
by the kind exertion" of some private individuals resident In
Mirka, who, aware of our desperate condition if left without
help, hod emended in bribing the turnkeys to take us money
in, so that we were throb, soribkd to avoid the miserable lot
of the Sardines caw, who were pat into large filthy dun-
geons, and obliged to sleep on the floor without covers, and
upon a straw litter that was dirtier than any lamer would
allow to lie in stall or stable.
"Thus we two English subjects were kept for three long
months rotting in • filthy dungeon, awaiting our trial in a
town in which tended an Engfiah Consul, and within gun-
shot of an English man-of-war, whilst the authorities at
home were blandly explaining to the home that the jails-
diction of trhee.cernment was beyond all doubt.
"I believe being since informed) that upon being moved
by the afo friends, the English Consul at Naples had
at the prison ler admittance, but was refused, so that
wealted perished In our prison, the fault would have lain
at the door of the government at horns ; sad perished we
certainly should, bad we not been sided, as already explained,
by our friends ; for who could live three =cake in such
a dreadful condition without succumbing, if obliged to put
up with the mina allowance f It hoe been sfermal, and as
stoutly denied, that torture wee practised in these primes,.
and, although not appertaieing to my own tiler it will
perhaps be not amine to state what Ma come my
observation as an inmate of the prison in regard to this
subject.
" A prisoner who, when we saw him, was in the momastwretchedd =Widen, shaking his limbs as if labouring aids:
an attack of paralysis, told us be wee arrested whilst in bed,
conveyed to the prlsoa, and being tied by • in the way
known as pinioned, was in twro as to his knowledge of
the robbery. As he denied all knowledge of it the rope wee
tightened up behind, end the question put spin, followed up
by another strain, until hie elbows were brought together;
but still denying all knowledge, he wee after a time taken
sway, sad confined in • subterranean' cell for 26 days, sad
was, when we saw him, upon the point of being set atliberty
upon his promising solemnly that he would never reveal out-
side to what usage he Lad been subjected.
" Thim is what the man himself communicated to as so
fellow- miscues ; and it it is not torture, it appears to me to
Do something very synonymous.
" One of their proceedings with myself appears also to be
of rather a terrorising tendency—perhaps the With* kind of
torture.
" I was taken oat m osll, handcuffed, end mooned
by three gaolers, we prooes down a deck peonage. When
at some dioramas, the men told me to stop, sad stood whir
perbur behind me. Then they told me to ggoo on again, and
then again to stop, followed by the woe . Thia
promo wee repeated several firms, we still (Sig through
the dark panages, until, I most woken the thee& °c-
armed le my mind that they were going either to make away
with ne norody, or, at the very beset, apply some smoke of
torture. But thar all the whispering, and -asending and &-
months and taming in the pumped the priontore arrived
st the Ambles of the Procurance Generals or AParsey-
Chmerel, Whoa I was salgooted to as intiongadoa; the
hind peithwees Aka Wing to get me to ethelow
Inn ninth assertion width he ask. Bat to than to
the halmidethea wthlos. When ho lad MEW hie hew-
roplhow and the at eadwie won about to warm maim
way
telte hi.,' said the Ationsy-kennell dtt saw
way ansilo! I wee ba my all in a tertakthg, having
rood thumb nothing bat tee
Whatever might be nil of theiSe= fh•
IfsMba penmen kr the meth, osiedits paw
Wed by the Shwa udbrairde lowans of the
Yin,* cossoatro the bleorlos Num
of
swagged of spathe of itherewtheg.
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you not thaw the kis gusatibi cs ask