The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-04 00:00:00

TSB EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 4, 1857.

sum of the statement, pat librwordliy big vre ebetald
be dlepeeed to dime& We Elbe from bin is by
MOW exoneration of Lord Canning from all
Wane in a series of promedinp and ism-proceedings
for which he mart and will assuredly be held jointly
responsible with Mr. Nrantcon Bunn, unless he can
show, to the surprise of all the world, that he
knew what was requisite, and called for it
promptly, while his sagacity and vigour were
thwarted and rendered nugatory by fatuity and
incompetence at home. But the luckless Plestncer
of the Bolan of CONTROL appears to have been the
special object of Lord Dminv's damaging attack.
With pitiless precision he recounted the oft-told
tale of Mr. Sorru's incredulity of danger when the
mutiny was at its height, and of his surpassing
rashness in talking publicly of things and persona,
cities and armies, possibilities and imposeibilitiee,
about which in reality he understood nothing. The
dims consisted in a statement of a letter said to have
Um written ly the Minister for India to the Chair-
mond ems clear great Steam Companies, suggesting.
es on origiosl bright thought of his own, a scheme
grr transporting troops to the East which had acts.
ally been in operation for several weeks at the
time. Lord DRILST challenged contradiction; add-
ing, that be was prepared with what he termed
irrefragable peed d the statement he made.
We shall no doubt beer more about this matter.

Inc first night in the Home of Commons has
been a sufficiently tame affair. Mr. MARTIN,
the mover of the address, on the whole,
acquitted himself fairly well of the func-
tions of a Royal Echo. The reverberations were in
some respects unnecessarily prolonged ; and the
House listened in somewhat significant silence to a
protracted dissertation on the history of the Bank
Charter Act—a law which was obviously regarded
by the honourable gentleman as, on the whole, •
model of financial wisdom. Evidently, if Mr. MAR-
I= WAS to be taken as the exponent of the monetary
Awe of the Cabinet, no modification of the Act of
1111114 vas stctemplated by the framers of the
I soya Ilpecti. We shall see directly bow
ter We lallwence is to be trusted. On India,
Me Weer at the Address indulged in those
Ink pee& sentiments on the unexampled heroism
jet Army in the Past with which a very mode-
Nab metal Of recent addressee at provincial meet-
meet have rendered our readers sufficiently
Ibr -. On the subject of Parliamentary Reform
he eadined himself to the expression of en unbounded
essidenoe in the discretion of Ministers ; and, on the
whole, meritoriously got through his allotted func-
tion of expressing truism' which just escaped being
platitudes, in sentences which lulled theme without
offending the taste or stimulating the intellect. He
was succeeded by a mend another order. Lord PAL_
MISSION has committed the same mistake in the case
of Mr. A KROT D which he committed last session in
the case of Mr. BUCHANAN. This man was not made
to be an echo. Without the academical training which
fits him for Parliamentary elocution, he has the
robust sincerity which utterly incapacitates him for
the tame repetition of decorous plausibilities. Mr.
AKILOTD spoke like a man who had himself felt the
pinch of the Bank serew—upoke for other', his
friends and neighbours, who had imffered from it
more disastrously than himself. A manufacturer
coming fresh from a district where manufacturing
rain and operative distress were freely attri-
buted to the theoretic worship of a cur-
-1 rency dogma, he produced an effect on the House
by the evident earnestness of his reply to the Mover
et the Addis's, and by the rough vigour with which
be 'simpered certain contemporary dissertations on
tie Bank Act to the operations of a surgeon who
watches with complacency the dying agonies of some
martyr to science, better pleased that the man should
scientifically parish than be " empirically" saved.
Mr. AIMED is evidently one who has hitherto
studied rather how to act than how to speak. When
be has pined, if he ever does gain, the powers of
expression, he is one whom the House of Commons
will listen to with attention. He carries with him, in
spite of all present defects of elocution, a weight of
character, and a sense of latent power, which in all
assemblies of Englishmen are certain sooner or later
to find their due laveL
11 The centred between the struggling thought and
imperfect utterance of Mr. AK ROT I), and the brilliant
but artificial rhetoric of Mr. Disnerti, who sue-
semis& hie in the debate, was sufficiently striking.
Moe senamplished leader of her M.O TT'S Op.
pities was " prosperously delivered " of one
et Ide root successful harangues. In the art
af teaching vivaciously on all topics, and
eiveincingly on none, few speakers exceed
Mr. DtsatlU when in his happier moods. Last
*labia display was eminently characteristic. The
session wee grave, the topics were momentous, and
be contrived so to improve the one and deal with
the other, that none of his hearers could for a mo-
ment have had a suspicion that he ever by any chance
lapsed into earnestness, or had indeed any higher
function than that of filling an hoar with the ex-
pected sleight of tongue, and executing the usual
cut and thrust play with the accustomed sword
of lathe. Nothing could be better in this way
than the comic dilemma (meant however to be taken
with all gravity by the heavier kind of county mem-
' has) on whose horns he made a *bow of fixing
Meister" for what they had done in relaxing the
Peek Charter Act. If they intended to abandon
Peat's Act he should not oppcee the Bill of
I Indemnity ; if they meant to abide by it, he should ;
in either case they ought long since to have made
up their minds on the subject, and to have declared
their intentions to Parliament instead of referring
the matter again to a Committee of Inquiry.
One of the orator's best points was his criticism
on that passage in the Qrzrv's Speech which
informs us, that " the nations of Europe are now in
the enjoyment of the blessings of peace, which
nothing seems likely to disturb." The suggestion
that the concluding words of this paragraph were
unconsciously querulous—that they betrayed the
disappointment of that world-pertarber PALMER-
STON at the failure of his best efforts to throw
Europe into a blase, was irresistibly funny; and not
less dexterous was the use made of the belligerent
and defiant tone of the PREMIER in his famous
address at the LORD MATOR'S banquet. On the I
subject of India, the general tone of Mr. Disa•et.l's
remarks were guarded and in good taste; he, of course, I
carried the House with him in the homage which he
acted, in well-chosen words, to the memory of the
* intrepid " NICHOLSON and the "fiery" NMI.;
end it may perhaps have been felt that he was not
wholly unjustified in recalling to mind the °berm
tiara which he had addressed to the House last see-
arse to the important bearing of the annexation of
Onde on the development of the mutiny. With I
reference to Parliamentary Reform the remarks of
the Opposition Leader were discreet and guarded;
and, both as regards that subject and the future
government of India, he strongly urged on the
Ministry that, as of were they bed both measures
matured, they should lay them on the table of the
House before Christmas in order that they might be
carefully considered during the recces.
To a sham attack of this kind, Lord PAtarasron
had obviously very little reply to make. His remarks

were brief and to the point. Leaving to the CHAN-
CELLOR of the Examine' to state the precise cir-
cumstance' under which the Bank Charter Act had
been relaxed, Lord PALMERSTON, amid the general
cheers of the House (whose feeling in favour of a
permanent alteration in the law seemed pretty
decided), declared that its temporary relaxation
was both necessary and beneficial. With regard
to his Mansion-house speech, the notion that
he hod ever alluded in a tone of defiance to
our excellent ally the Eurssoa of the FRENCH
was declared to be utterly absurd, in proof
of which his Lordship stated that Louis NAPOLFIoN,
with the view of expediting the traumas' ion of our
troops overland to India, had offered every accommo-
dation for their transit through France. It will be for
Lord PALMERSTON to explain hereafter why that offer
was not accepted. Peeing to the subject of our Indian
Heroes, Lord PALMERSTON proceeded to tell the
House what we were some days since enabled to in-
timate to our readers, that it was the intention of
Government to proper* for Sir HENRY HAVELOCK
a grant of 1,0001. a year, the East India Com-
pany making a similar provision for Sir ARCHDALE
WILSON. With reference to Mr. Drava& s
suggestion for an immediate production of the
Government schemes for Parliamentary Reform and
Indian Government, the lively PREMIER jocularly
declined to impair the vacation festivities of Mr.
DISRAELI by any work so dry as the study of Indian
or Parliamentary Reform. Nothing would be com-
municated on either point until the House as-
sembled after the Christmas recess. After having
thus explicitly falsified the predictions of those
prophets in the Ministerial press who an-
nounced that the Company's deposition from the
government of India was to be decisively declared
to Parliament as the collective decision of
the Cabinet, the PRIME MINISTER sat down amid
the mild hilarity and subdued cheers of the
House. And thus ended, with an interchange of
conversational repartees scarcely elevated above the
level of • club smoking-room, the first night of a
session in which the QCEEN of GREAT BRITAIN has
tesommended to the attention of her Parliament the
regulation of the currencies for the greatest of all
mercantile communities, the modification of the
Government of the wealthiest dependency that any
Power of modern Europe has ever swayed, and the
Reform of that Parliament on whose counsels de-
pends the destiny, not only of the British Empire,
but of the whole civilised world.

GROSS ILLTREATMLNT OF TILE
BRITISH SUBJECTS
IMPRISONED AT NAPLES.

was a prisoner, said that, had it not been done, his
life would have been sacrificed. He is now sub-
ject to violent palpitations of the heart, and there
were good reasons for saying that Parks
ought to be apprised beforehand of the arrival
of his father. Watt is still evidently af-
fected in the head. He speaks little, though that
little was sensible—is sad and melancholy. He had
distributed a portion of his clothes amongst the pri-
soners, and a gold watch. On Parks inquiring for
it, he said it was in the box or in the bag ; but when
it was not to be found, he confessed that he had
given it away. A custodi was called, the watch
was found, and Parks now wears it as a precaution.
Watt, too, has been bled onoe, if not twice. The
room in which we were when Mr. Pugh visited us
(maid Mr. Parks) was small." " Perhaps," said the
father, speaking from the description of the son,
"about seven feet by twelve." There were two beds
at the lower end of the room packed close against the
wall. Then came a small table, large enough for one
person, and then another bed. Standing on the
bed or the table, one could manage to look out of a
small window, the remainder of the room would
form a space of four feet square where we walked,and
we had worn it down with our footsteps. Such was
the room, which was a comfortable Paradise in
comparison with what they had occupied in the
Viearia in Naples. Nov. 21, Mr. Parks arrived
with instructions for Lord Clarendon, for Mr.
Acting-Consul Barber. Sunday, Nov. 22, Mr.
Barber, saw Signor Carafe, and made a formal
demand to be permitted to see the pri-
soners. A telegraphic commenication was
void with his Majesty at Gaeta. On
Tuesday, Nov. 24, we were placed in another larger
and better room, where you now see us. We could
DM explain the reason of it, for none of us knew
what was passing without. A permission was then
eat to Mr. Acting-Consul Barber and Mr. Pukes
to visit the prisoners. I had given the result of
that visit. Mr. Pugh's report was less full, and
apparently more favourable; but his position was
peculiar and delicate. He announced that he went
es
a priest, and from honour abstained from many
questions, declaring that it was not his ob-
ject to increase the unpleasantness between
the two governments. His report of their comfort was
comparative, for no man in Naples knows better, or
better appreciates the state of things, than he does ;
but he confined himself to his clerical duties. In
the room which they occupy are five prisoners—the
two engineers, the captain and second commander,
sad the commander appointed by the insurgents.
This man understands English,—does this explain
why he, one of the chiefs of the accused should be
imprisoned together with the others of the party ?
At all events the engineers enjoined precaution in
speaking before him. Mr. Perks offered his son a
copy of a London weekly paper, but he refused
it, as he was afraid that in some way or
other it might be used against him. And
this may explain why the engineers were less
precise in their details to Mr. Pugh, for pri-
soners, who have been liberated have said that in
their reports they were compelled to speak favour-
ably—they were fearful of an advantage being taken
of them. The visitors included Mr. Acting-Consul
Barber, the British Vice-Consul at Salerno, Mr.
Parke, and two officials." "The captain of the Cag-
liari appears to me like a man regularly broken
down" said Mr. Parke. "He begged me
to see Signor Robertini, the chief of the
steam company at Genoa, describe his position,
and declare his innocence. He has a young wife
and two children—one having been born since his
arrest, and she has been in a state almost of
destitution. The captain had all his property in
money and goods on board, but all is in the hands
of the Neapolitan government."
How the Sardinian prisoners were treated the
Sardinian government well knows; and, on authority,
I may say that their treatment is worse than that of
the English. As for the Neapolitan prisoners,
alas! alas! the imagination will conceive it.
Call to mind the statements of Mr. Glad-
stone—call to mind what has been stated
in my letters during the last two years. They are
in a deplorable state, so much so, that the party in
the English room have sent them a few coppers sad
some tobacco. "In one part of the gaol, as we
walked along," said Mr. Parks, " we passed some
iron bars, and some half naked, miserable-looking
human beings came up and begged of as ; we gave
them a trifle." Such is a detailed report of what'
has been communicated to me by one of the visitors
to the prisons of Salerno on Nov. 25, and I send you
his voucher for the truth of the statement. And
such is the treatment to which men, bearing
the once honoured name of British subjects,
have been exposed. The reason they have been cut
off from all intercourse with their countrymen is
obvious. Law for it there has been none. Nothing
but an arbitrary police regulation, coined for the
pulses.. And what will my Lord Clarendon do?
heaven knows. What has Lord Clarendon done?
Hoisted a Chinese standard, painted all over with
bogies to frighten the King—that is to say, we sent
down a telegraphic despatch in French some weeks
since, which all Naples knew, demanding im-
mediate admission to the prison for the Acting-
CossaL The demand was laughed at and refused.
It is more to the point to oak what will the British
public do?—for the case of the English engineers is
theirs, and it is to the interest of every British sub-
ject to insist that their countrymen in every part of
the world should be treated with legality and ha-
manity. One naturally asks—if British subjects have
thus been treated—and if all accounts agree in stating
that they have been distinguished above the others—
what must have been the treatment practised to-
wards Neapolitans?
I believe I may state that a telegraph despatch
has been sent to Lord Clarendon with the result of
the visit, and asking for directions with regard to
Mr. Parks' movements.
Exchange on London, 560.