The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-28 00:00:00

THE SIN, . LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1862,

IV O.RTB ITALY.

(From the Cornsponclog of the Times.)

TURIN, APRIL 23.

In the hurried correspondence I very lately sent
you from Parma anti Modena I had frequent occa-
sion to mention several cases of desertion among
the Italian troops, especially among those quartered
on the Austrian frontier. The number of soldiers
quitting their standards begins to be rather con-
siderable, and their defection can scarcely fail to
have a demoralising effect on their comrades and to
cause some alarm in the country. An instance of
this evil practice occurred, however, lately at Lodi;
a brief account of which will afford to English
readers the means of fairly estimating the evil, re-
ferring it to its true causes, and appreciating its
probable results,
On the night between the 16th and 17th of this
month 29 troopers of the Royal Piedmont Cavalry,
the finest horse regiment in the kingdom, left Lodi ;
they were all Neapolitans, Lodi is, as you know, a
considerable way from the Minch), and upon the
alarm being given to the Gendarmes or Caribineers'
station at Creme, the two pickets, both of Lodi and
Crema, set out in pursuit of the fugitives, searching
the country on the right banks of the Adda, which
the deserters must needs strike across if they
wished to reach the Mantuan or the Venetian terri-
tory. After a good deal of trouble they found the
29 runaways hid in a thicket near the hamlet of
Caseletto Ceredano, in the district of Crema. They
had still their military dress on and their broad-
swords by their side. They were bidden to sur-
render, but drew their weapons and put themselves
in an attitude of defence, when the non-commis-
sioned officer (a mareeltal de logis), who commanded
the Carabineers, by name Nannetti, wishing to avoid
a useless effusion of blood, bethought himself, by
way of stratagem, of setting up the cry of " Viva
Garibaldi!" This redoubted name had its usual
spell ; the deserters sheathed their sabres and gave
themselves up,

It is important that T Plinnla state the snare the
rural population of these Lombard districts took in
the pursuit and capture of these prisoners. Some
of the peasants, to whom the fugitives applied for
help and guidance to be enabled to gain the Aus-
trian frontier, pretending readiness to comply
with their wishes, led them about the country till
they had tired them out, then induced them to take
shelter and rest in the bush, where, they said, no
one was likely to fall in with them. The peasants
having thus made sure of their whereabouts, carried
their information to the authorities, by whom the
carabineei s' steps were turned in the right direction.
When the two small Carabineers' patrols had met
at Caselto Ceredan they asked for the support of the
friendly peasants, and although most of them were
scattered about in the fields, intent upon their work,
they succeeded in collecting about a dozen of them,
and armed them with the muskets of the National
Guards. The parish priest of the place named Gio-
vanni Ragazzi, showed great zeal and activity, both
in supplying information and enlisting his
parishioners in the auxiliary service required by the
public force,—a proof that the lower clergy, especi-
ally in Lombardy, is sound and well disposed at the
core. The Carabineers and their 12 rustic allies
would, however, have been no xnatch numerically
for the 29 outlaws. Yet the untutored boors be-
haved with gallantry, and would have stood their
ground creditably, had not the strife been averted
by the little:ruse before described. When the fugi-
tives had been secured and were being marched to
Crema they were met by the batallion of the Na-
tional Guard of that little town, which, assembling
in great haste, was proceeding to the spot. An
equal stir was instantly visible in all the surround-
ing minor communities—a satisfactory evidence of
the good spirit and unanimous readiness of those
good Lombard provinces. The runaways had 122 f.
in their pockets, a larger sum, than could in the
ordinary course of things, be expected to be in pos-
session of mere troopers, and suspicions are natu-
rally entertained that the would-be deserters had
found secret abettors of their projected flight.
The soldiers of all corps and arms who have
hitherto achieved, or attempted desertion, are mostly
and, indeed, almost exclusively Neapolitans, Of
late, however, the evil example has been fol-
lowed by natives of other provinces, and especially
by Venetian emigrants. These, who were induced
to quit their country out of invincible antipathy to
the Austrian rule, and who, from a laudable im-
pulse on their first arrival, enlisted in the national
army, with a view to bear a hand in the deliverance
of their own province, fall victims, it would seem,
to home-sickness and hope deferred, and grow weary
of a military restraint to which they had only sub-
mitted in the expectation of instant hostilities, and
which becomes intolerable to them in this long-
protracted inaction. It is freely asserted, and it is
by no means unlikely, that these discontented per-
sons are not bona fide exiled patriots, but Austrian
emissaries, crossing the frontier on false pretences,
to foster and spread ill-will among their unwary
companions, and, by precept and practice, to encou-
rage dereliction of duty. The Neapolitans, at least
many of them, require no seduction. No doubt the
Southern people will, in the long run, be made into
as dutiful and efficient soldiers as their brethren of
the North ; some of them, however, especially among
the half-reclaimed Bourbon veterans, are incorri-
gible; and, as they are great dissemblers, they can-
not be trusted even when they affect great defer-
ence to their superiors, cordiality towards their com-
rades, and contentment with their lot. They are
the mcst " artful dodgers" that ever were seen, and
the work is incessant. The soldier's life is a severe
trial, and several even of the new and young re•
cruits break, as it were, in the trainer's hands, pt:e-
eit-21y as flawed or sort-tempered bkdes under the
armourer's hammer. The final result will, no doubt,
be satisfactory, but there must necessarily be some-
thing distressing and heart wearing in the progress
of the arduous experiment.
This plague of desertion is, in the meanwhile,
rather disquieting. The Italian army has of late
reached its complement of 300,000 combatants, bet
elements have been introduced into its ranks which
will certainly not add to its strength, and which
must be either better assimilated or carefully
weeded out. The excellent spirit and better dis-
cipline of the Piedmonteso army had created so full
a security, just before the annexations, that all the
military codes and institutions had been reformed
with a view to adapt them to the humane dews
now prevalent. Where the offences of desertion
and resistance to the law of conscription had be-
come very rare occurrences, it was thought that the
mildest penalties were sufficient to meet all exigen-
cies. This was done precisely in the year previous
to the outbreak of the Lombard campaign of 1859.
The military authorities have good reason now to
repent their reasonable, yet, as it turned out, im-
provident resolutions; and I hear a general outcry
that the army can no longer be kept together with-
out severe, and more or less exceptional measures,
strengthening the power of the law, and charging
courts martial with its execution. The press begins
to speak loudly and resolutely about it.

The King left Turin yesterday morning at half-
past eight o'clock for Genoa, where he arrived at a
quarter past twelve. He embarked at eleven in the
evening on board the Adelaide, bound to Leghorn.
A crowd of cheering people accompanied him tothe
Turin station, and he was greeted at Genoa with
the greatest enthusiasm. His Majesty will stay
three days in Tuscany, and re-embark for Naples
on the 27th. He has with him the President of
the Council of Ministers, Rattazzi ; the Minister
of Grace and Justice, Conforti—the only Neapoli-
tan in the Cf..‘bim t ; and the Minister of the Marine,
Admiral Persano. Two of the Neapolitan deputies,
Lazzaro and Pallotto, both of the Left, embarked
with the King, but at their own request, and with-
out any official invitation. The Deputy Mandri
Albanese, who was said to have been asked to join
the King's retinue, is still at Turin; the Deputy
Sandonato preceded the King.

The Prince of Capus, brother of the late King
Ferdinand IL of Naples, died at the Hotel Trom-
betta, in this city, yesterday morning at 3 o'clock.
Ho had been suffering from an excruciating com-
plaint for several weeks. He was in his 51st year.
He is the Prince, as you know, who in 1836 mar-
ried a young 1ri4,11 lady, Miss Penelope Smith,
thereby incurring the displeasure of his brother,
who banished him from Court, and deprived him

of the income of his appanage. He lived for
many years in France, England, Belgium,
and Malta, where he often 3ourted the acquaintance
of Italians abroad, and mule a certain display of
liberal and patriotic tendencies. For several months
he had been a suitor with the Italian King and
Parliament for the recovery of that property of
which he had been deprived by his brother. His
family were with him to thelast hour, and they are
now at the Royal Hunting-box at Stupinigi, where
King Victor Emmanuel oared them a quiet home,
and where they will remain for some weeks.

APRIL 24.

All the political interest ,:onnected with Italian
matters is now removed -fr)m Turin, and concen-
trated in Naples, whither tle King and his Prime
Minister will soon betake demselves from Tuscany.
Ii was always lamented as a great misfortune for
Naples, and for ail Italy, that Cavour never had
leisure to visit the Southern provinces, and to con-
sult their wishes by personal inspection ; and M.
Rattazzi deserves great praise for his determination
to proceed to the South at the very outset of his
administration. How he will employ his time at
Naples, what means he will find to put himself into
direct communication with that dissatisfied and
never-to-be-satisfied people, is what remains to be
seen. He has taken with aim hardly any of the
Neapolitans, for the good reason I have already told
you, that it is difficult to find one man there who
numbers less than a hundred enemies in his own
country for one friend that he may boast, He is
accompanied by Count Alfieri, a Piedmontese De-
puty, a man of great name, a descendant of the
well•known tragic writer, the son of the amiable
and accomplished Marquis Alfieri, the husband of
Count Cavour's sprightly and gifted niece, but a
rather dull, pompous, stiff, indifferent sort of man,
both as a politician, and cotrtier, for what concerns
his own person ; Prati, de poet, also goes with
Rattazzi, and if he hopes to renew at Naples the
miracle of the Orpheus, the choice of that
one member of his retinue deserves praise.
himself, however, puoatzze* tact,
and address, subtlety, and a great variety of
clever devices. I should not be surprised if
great results attended his present move. It is
difficult to say how Neapolitans should be
handled. Nothing hqs been done since the annexa-
tion to concilitate them ; nothing but blunders have
been committed by the Italian Government, be it
under Count Cavour, be it tinder Ricasoli's auspices.
It is already something in the way of success that
the man who reigns instead of those two statesmen
will be received as one who was thought to oppose
their views, and that, moreover, he, at any rate,
takes the trouble to go to Naples in person and see
things for himself.
The Deputies Crispi, Mordini, Lazzaro, and
Marceli, in their own name and in that of 15 others
of their Neapolitan colleagues of the Left, presented,
the day before yesterday. to the Secretary of the
Home-office, Capriolo, a rcemorandum intended for
Rattazzi, in which, after dwelling on the errors
committed by the past Ministers, and proposing a
now system of instruction and education, new ad-
ministrative institutions, the confiscation of church
—at least, monastic—property, the armament of
mobilised battalions of the National Guard, rail-
ways, harbours, roads, and public works of every
description, reforms in the magistracy and the ad
ministration of justice, and the division of domainal
or national lands among the people, giving them in
lots either in fee simple or in long leases, and add-
ing a supply of means for cultivation, they wind up
by recommending Garibaldi's presence in those
Southern provinces, the emancipation of which was
due mainly to him.
I know not whether Rattazzi's actions are likely
to be greatly or at all induenced by these sugges-
tions; but that Garibaldi contemplates a move to
the South, in spite of the gout, which still keeps him
at Brescia, is a positive fact, and if he goes it will
be for Rattazzi to consider whether the popular
hero when there is to be for him or against him.

LAW INT ELLIGENCE.-April 26.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.

(Sittings in Banco, at Westminster, before Mr,
Justice Crompton and Mr. Justice Mellor.)
BIGGS (APPELLANT) V. MITCHELL (RESPONDENT)

GUNPOWDER IN TRANSITU.

This came before the court on an appeal from a
conviction by the Lord Mayor, under the statute of
the 12th Geo. 111., chap 61, sec. 11, relative to hav-
ing and keeping a larger stock of gunpowder at one
time on premises within the city of London than
that statute allowed. The respondent, a London
City police inspector, laid an information against
the appellant, who was a licensed carman, carrier,
and warehouseman, of Swan-yard, Bishopsgate-
street Without, for unlawfully keeping at one
time in his warehouse more than 501bs weight of
gunpowder, he not being a dealer therein. The
appellant was convicted in the penalty of £lO
and costs. On the 15th March, 1861, the appel-
lant had 'six packages of gunpowder, weighing
3001b5., for transmission to different parts of the
country, at what was found by the Lord Mayor to
be a temporary halting place for gunpowder in
transit. Against this decision there was this appeal.
Mr. Hannen, in support of the conviction, said
that it was a case of great importance as regarded
the public safety, as there was a belief that the
railway companies were contravening the act con-
tinually. By the 11th section of the act, dealers in
gunpowder were not to keep more then 2 cwt. at any
one time, but persons who were not dealers in the
article were restricted to 501bs. weight. The mode
of packing and conveying gunpowder was particu-
larly specified in tle 18th and 21st sections of the
act, but no complaint was made against the appel-
lant on those heads, but merely for warehousing,
and the latter was the particular object of the act,
to prevent large quantities of gunpowder being
kept together in one building. _ _

The court observed that tlie case found that the
gunpowder was in transitu, and it would appear
that the conviction should have been under the
carrying rather than the warehousing clauses.
Mr. Ifannen said that parties receiving gnn-
powder in transitu contravened the act, if they had
more than Nibs. at one time.

Mr. Justice Mellor said that unless temporary
halts were permitted the trade could not be carried'
on unless a railway ran through London.
Mr. Hansen contended that such halts should
not be made in London or crowded places; the
halts should be at other places. If this conviction
should be quashed any quantity of powder might
be kept in London, and it would be impossible to
imagine the danger that might ensue.
Mr. M. Smith, QC., and Mr. Sleigh, for the
appellant, urged that if the appellant had commit-
ted any offence at all it was under the carrying
clauses. The object of the statute was relative to
dealers in gunpowder, not to those who were carry-
ing it from one place to another, but found it neces-
sary to have a halting-place ; this could not be
considered a " having and keeping" within the
statute.

Mr. Justice Crompton said that the observations
as to the damage that might arise from keeping
large quantities of gunpowder were very important,
but he did not think this was a "keeping" within
the act, as that meant a "storing." The appellant's
object was to convey the powder from one place to
another, and it was more a shed than a warehouse.
The conviction must therefore be quashed.
(Sittings at Nisi Prius, at Guildhall, before Mr.
Justice Wrightman and Common Juries.)
BALLS V. BOURNER.

This was an action brought to recover £B5 10s.,
the amount of a bill of exchange accepted by the
defendant, and other sums, money lent by the
plaintiff to the defendant. The defendant pleaded
that he received no consideration for the bill, and
that when the other sums were advanced he was a
co-partner with the plaintiff,
Mr. Sergeant Shee and Mr. Beresford were coun-
sel for the plaintiff; and Mr. Toyce and Mr. Cutbill
represented the defendant.
The plaintiff was an omnibus proprietor, living at
Brixton, and the defendant formerly kept the Tem-
ple Bar Hotel in Fleet-street. The parties had been
friends for many years, and tte defendant applied
to the plaintiff for various low, and also requested
him to become security to Messrs. Symonds and
Sharphurst, wine merchants, for goods he wanted.
The plaintiff having agreed to this proposition, the
bill in question was given to Nlessrs. Symonds and
Cox, but it was not met whendue. In April, 1861,
the defendant entered into a deed of composition
with.his creditors, whereby t)ey agreed to accept a
composition of ss, in the pound. In that deed only
one of the loans from the plaintiff was entered, viz.,
a bill for £5O, upon which the plaintiff agreed to
accept 58. in the pound, the defendant undertaking
to pay him the rest of his demand (over £200) in
full. Since that time the pttintiff had been com-
pelled to pay the balance of Messrs. Symonds's bill,
15.3. in the pound on £B5 10s. For these sums this
action was brought.
The plaintiff, in cross-examination, swore he was
not a partner with the defendant in the busincss.
He had signed the composition deed, which was a

generalrelease for£so only,although at that time the
defendant really owed him £344 15s. He had
never ordered goods to be sent to the Temple Bar
Hotel in his name. He might have appointed a
young lady to be a barmaid there in joke, but had
never done so seriously.
For the defence it was stated that the plaintiff
agreed with the defendant to take the Temple Bar
Hotel between them, the plaintiff to find the money,
and the defendant to do the work. The plaintiff
was anxious that his name should not appear in the
business, as he had been lately bankrupt, and his
father objected to his having anything to do with
publichouses. The defendant accordingly carried
on the business, the plaintiff furnishing the money,
ordering the goods and directing the defendant as
; to the manner in which he should carry on the busi-
ness. When it was discovered that the business
did not pay, the plaintiff told the defendant he had
better assign everything to him, and go through the
Bankruptcy Court ; and on the defendant refusing
this, he asked him to dissolve the partnership and
to take care that it did not come to light. The de-
fendant agreed to this, and subsequently sold the
business, And divided the proceeds among the cre-
ditors.
His Lordship left it to the jury to say whether or
not in their opinion there had been a partnership
between the plaintiff and defendant.
The jury, after some consultation, found that no
partnership had been proved.
His Lordship said in that case he must ask them
to say whether the 15s. in the pound paid by the
plaintiff on the £B5 bill was paid before or after
the plaintiff signed the deed of composition. Any
debt that was due from the defendant to the plain-
tiff before the signing of the deed of composition
was satisfied by that deed, and therefore the plaintiff
could only recover the 15s. in the pound in case it
was paid by him after the signing of the deed.
A conversation ensued between the judge,thejury,
the counsel, the w tnesses, and the attorneys en-
gaged in the case, at the end of which it was disco-
vered that nobody knew either when the deed was
signed by the plaintiff or when the money was paid
by him.
The jury found that the plaintiff paid the 15s.
in the pound on the bill after he had signed the deed.
His lordship said that would be a verdict for the
plaintiff for £64 2s. 6d., with leave to the plaintiff
to move to increase it by £2OO in case the court
above should be of opinion that the deed of compo-
sion did not release the defendant from any debt
due before it was signed.

Tll2 YELYERTON DIARRIAGE CASE.