Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-15 00:00:00

THE NEAPOLITAN EXILES

IT makes one feel all the prouder of one's country,
assuredly, to find it chosen as the refuge of the
persecuted. and oppressed in the cause of liberty ;
and the case of the Neapolitan Exiles who landed
last week at Cork, under such peculiar circum-
stances, must have been the occasion of no ordinary
experience of such feeling wherever, throughout the
United Kingdom, it has come to the knowledge of
the people. "We have all come out," is their own I
recorded avowal, " from the Neapolitan prisons and
galleys. A decree of grace sends us to perpetu
banishment from our own country, and with a minis-
terial order was inflicted to us a punishment which
is not in our laws : that is the transportation to
America." Yes—for ten long years, we believe, did
they suffer not only the weariness and pain of im-
prisonment, but the inhumanity of a lingering
torture from the treatment they had to endure,—and
all for nothing more than seeking to obtain rational
liberty under their ruler. Surely such victims of a
despot's wrath have a strong, an irresistible claim on
the sympathy and support of those whose more fortu-
nate lot it is to be the dwellers in so much happier a
land, and one where such acts of tyranny and
cruelty could in no case be inflicted': It was to
America they were sentenced to be expatriated ; and
glad no doubt they were to escape, on even
such terms, from the fangs of their tormentor.
But why, they naturally thought, as they approached
our hospitable shores on their way—why not avail
ourselves of a British refuge —of the protection of a
people and a Government ever ready to shelter and
to succour the oppressed, and especially those who
suffer, as we are doing, in a cause so dear to them as
that of liberty? "If you ask us," they have declared,
" why we would not go to America, such a fine, free
and civilised country, we shall answer for several
reasons. Look at our figures. Great many of us
are old and of decayed health ; buried for ten years
in galleys, being thirty-five days at sea, how could
we support a long navigation in a sailing ship ?
Whoever is banished from a dear country for whom
he has fought and suffered, wishes to be far from it
as little as possible." They had it in their power,
they found, to make their choice ; and very naturally,
and we think very sensibly, they decided to spare
themselves the fatigues of a transatlantic passage,
when a country equally ready to afford shelter and
protection was at hand to receive them. "In this
way, and for this reason," continues their appeal,
"we are here asking hospitality of the generous
people of Great Britain. This noble people know
our misfortunes, and their Government two years
ago made every effort in our favour, advising our
liberty, but seeing that its reasonable and authorised 1
counsel was not heard it broke the diplomatic
relations with the Neapolitan Government. We
hope, however, to be received by the British people
that respecting themselves also respect those
men that have fought and suffered for the liberty
and civilisation of their country." And they have
not asked our hospitality or our protection in vain.
To the honour of the City of Cork, where they
landed, they have been properly ministered to ; and
a subscription has been set on foot for their more
general relief, and in order that they may be enabled
to return to some part of Italy—probably to Pied-
mont—where they may yet be restored to something
like their native home, and to better and safer
opportunities of manifesting their patriotism.

There is one result of this interesting event which
one cannot but rejoice at, far reasons very distinct
from those of one's satisfaction and pleasure at the
exiles' safety and succour here among ourselves,
instead of their having passed on over the broad
Atlantic to.secure a refuge and protection in another,
and such a distant hemisphere. It is this,—not
riolns will be disappointed,

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