The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-13 00:00:00

IT AL Y.

Accounts from Rome and from Naples concur in
stating that there is not the slightest probability of a
speedy arrival at a settlement of the Roman question.
The POPE continues at Portici, indulging himself in
the pleasures of the table, and leaving the affairs of
State to be settled by Cardinal ABTONELLI and his
coadjutors. He is received by the population of
Naples with silent respect, but without enthusiasm.
The red Cardinals at Rome still continue their reign
of terror and their persecutions of Protestants,
notwithstanding the remonstrances of the French.
Dr. A cluLLi is still a prisoner in the dungeons
of the Inquisition.
The following memorial from the Italian Commit-
tee has been presented to the French Government, on
the subject of the continued incarceration of this
gentlemen:—

The respectful Memorial of the Committee of the Lon-
don Society for the Religious Improvement of Italy
and the Italians:—
" Humbly Showeth,—That since the former memorial
which the Committee laid before the French Govern.
ment, no improvement has talien place in the condition
of Dr. Giacinto ©chilli, who remains closely confined
in the dungeon to which he was consigned by parties
professing to act under the orders of the French Pre-
fect, and at a time anterior to the open assumption of
the Government by the delegated Cardinals, and, there-
fore, while Rome was still under the military rule of
France.

" That Dr. Achilli's friends have been allowed no ac-
cols to him, neither has been allowed to communicate to
them in writing, so that your memorialists cannot even
be certain that he is yet alive.
" That yonr memorialists hare been informed that

the Papal authorities have asserted to the French Go-
vernment, that it is not on account of his Protestantism
that Dr. Achilli has been arrested, but in consequelce
of certain other charges brought against him, which
charges, your memorialists are informed, are as
follows :

" ' lat. That Dr. Achilli, previous to taking orders,
was attached to a young lady, whose friends rejected
his suit.

" ' 2d. That the young lady;retired to a convent of
Dominicans, at Viterbo.
" ' 3d. That Dr. Achilli also went to the same town
in order to become a Dominican.

" 4th. That an intimacy arose between them which
gave riso to much scandal, and caused Dr. Achilli to be
forbidden from the monastery of the Dominicans.
"' sth. That the young lady died—that the Tribunal
of the Inquisition immediately commenced a process
against Dr. Achilli, who fled to England before their
agents could arrest him.'
" These your memorialists believe are the grounds
assigned by the Roman Government for the imprison-
ment of Dr. Achilli, and they at once appeal to the up-
rightness and integrity of the French Government,
whether it is right and fitting—whether it consists with
the honour and dignity of France—that a man should
be imprisoned and judged on charges which, instead of
condescending minutely to dates, names, and particu-
lars, make vague assertions on which insinuations are
made to rest, and which, from their very form, preclude
the possibility of that searching investigation which
truth and justice demand, the witnesses being concealed,
the examinations private, and the advantage of legal
advice, nay, the very privilege of seli•defence in any
form, being withheld from the accused person.
"Your memorialists cannot pretend to have known
Dr. Achilli in all the various positions which he occupied
previous to his conversion to the Protestant faith, nor
can they affirm his blartienessness anterior to that
change; but they are fully capable of appreciating any
discrepancy between the charges brought against him
and the known public facts of his history, accredited as
they are to them by sufficient testimony.
" Your memorialists, therefore, direct attention to the
fact that Dr. Achilli was a Priest, and Dean of the Col-
lege of the Minerva at Rome, and a Dominican Friar,
in the year 1823, and, therefore, if it be true that,
previously to taking orders, he was attached to a young
lady who retired to a convent at Viterbo, and if it be
true that he followed her to that place in order to become
a Dominican, it is at all events a truth of at least 26
years' standing, and of which the authorities took no
notice until be became a Protestant.

Your memorialists are also aware, on the most satis-
factory evidence, that, subsequently to this date, Dr.
Achilli held several very important offices in the order
of the Dominicans; that ho held Ugh offices at Vitorbo
and at Naples; that he was appointed Regent of the
Minerva College and Vicar of the Master of the Sacred
Place; and, to which yonr memorialists would cell par-
ticular attention, Visitor of the Convents of Romagna
and Lombardy, by which appointment it was committed
to him to visit, regulate, and to adjudicate in all the con-
vents from Rome to Florence—an office which would not
have been committed to a suspected man.
" Your memorialists beg also to state, that while
Prior of a Dominican convent at Naples, he became sus-
pected of holding doctrinal viows esteemed heretodox by
the Church of Rome, and that, in consequence, as a test
of orthodoxy, he was required to preach a sermon pane-
gyrical of the Virgin Mary, in which he would have
been obliged to make statements which he conscietiously
disbelieved; that he declined to do so, and was actually
seized by the Inquisition on this express ground, and
brought to Rome; and that, having effected his escape,
and reached Corfu, he immediately wrote, published, and
widely circulated a letter to the late Pope, declarative of
his Protestant sentiments.

" That your memoralists feel satisfied that these
statements, imperfect as they necessarily are, yet for the
correctness of which the Committee are able to produce
most satisfactory evidence—must convince the en-
lightened Government of France that the case is one de-
manding full and searching investigation, that it is a cos.
affecting the honour of the French nation, as Dr
Achilli remained in Rome after the dissolution of the
Republican Government, deeming himself safe under the
French flag, and that the Committee are but expressing
the sentiments of thousands and tens of thousands,
when again, in the words of their former memorial,
they do earnestly entreat the prompt, friendly, and
post erful interference of the French Government, on
behalf of the injured Dr. Achilli, to establish a search-
ing investigation, and that. if he is not charged with any
legal offence, but is punished merely for his religious
opinions, he may be liberated forthwith ; and that if he
is so charged, he may be imprisoned under the manifest
protection of legal authority, and be brought to a fair
and open trial.

" The Committee desire to confide the case of a really
unoffending and injured man to the honour and liberality
and humanity of the Republican Government of France,
who will not, they feel confident, sanction a violation of
the fundamental principle of civil and religious liberty in
Rome, at a time when the flag of Franca still floated on
the Capitol, and under the asssumed sanction of the
name, however falsely used, of the French Prefect, but
that they will at once readily be alive to the pressure,
and meet the exgencies of the case.'
" Your memorialists trust that they will receive from
the French Government such a reply to this prayer as
will set at rest the minds of Dr. Achilles numerous friends
—Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans—who deeply
deplore his present melancholy and dangerous position,
and they desire to repeat the assurances of their profound
respect and high consideration.
" On behalf of the officers of the Committee,
Honorary Secretaries.
(Signed) EDWARDa H. J. CRAIG,
. ort r; A ,
" London, Oct. 4, 1849."