The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-08 00:00:00

IMPERI

lAMEN T.

ROUSE OF LORDS, June 7.
Their Lordship] met at Five o'clock.
DEFECTS IN LEASES BILL.

Lord CAMPBELL moved the second reading of the
Defects in Leases Bill.
After a few words from Lord BROUGHAM, the Bill
was read a second time.
BANKRUPTCY LAWS CONSOLIDATION BILL.
Lord BROUGHAM moved the third reading of this
Bill, and in doing so expressed his objection to any
proposal that might be made fur the diminution of the
salary of the Chief Commissioner. He thought that
nothing could tend more to create a zeal in the execu-
tion of their duty on the part of officers than the pros-
pect of promotion, and he should be sorry to see this
stimulus taken away from the junior Commissioners
in Bankruptcy. He was aware that his own
recorded opinions as to the propriety of the
2romotion of puisne judges might seem to militate
against this view of the question, but the cases were
entirely different. The puisne judges would owe their
promotion to the Government, and it might appear to
be holding out a temptation to them, seeing that they
bad to decide in cases in which the Government was a
party; besides, they performed a high executive duty,
and the case was entirely different from that of the
Commissioners of Bankruptcy.
After a few words from Lord CAMPBELL, the
Bill was read a third time..
On the motion that the Bill do pass,
Lard BROUGHAM congratulated their Lordships on
the Bill having arrived at this its last stage in their
Lordships' House. He would take that opportunity of
alluding to a petition which had been forwarded to him,
sinned by eighty-seven attorneys of Manchester, against
the Bill, for the purpose of stating that nine••tenths of
the objections made to that Bill in that petition had been
met by the amendments which had been introduced into
the measure; for example, the objection that the Bill
proposed to inflict the punishment of imprisonment with-
out giving the accused the benefit of trial by jury
was entirely obviated. Again, the petition asked that
Lome classification of bankrupts should be made; that
was done by the Bill. Bankrupts were divided into
three classes—the meritorious, the careless, and the
fraudulent, and their certificates were awarded accord-
ing to this classification, and the allowance was also
granted in accordance with it. The Bill would go
dawn to the other House as a digest and code of
the laws relating to bankrupts, which was the most
difficult portion of the general law of debtor and cre-
ditor, and he hoped that that system of digest and code
would soon be extended so as to embrace the whole of
the civil law. Before he sat down he could not but ex-
press a hope that as their Lordships had given
their support to this Bill, so they would also
give their support to another Bill which he
had introduced, which was a similar digest and code of
the whole of the criminal law. He hoped the Learned
Judges would give their attention to the subject
for the purpose of assisting their Lordships ; but
if those learned persona should not think proper
to do so, he hdped they would not complain if their
Lordships should proceed without waiting for their
assistance—that assistance would be thankfully received.
Ample time had been afforded them to state any objec-
tions they might entertain, and it was no fault of their
Lordships if only two of them had availed themselves of
the opportunity.
After a few words from Lord CAMPBELL in defence
of the Judges, the Bill was read a third time.
Earl NELSON. presented several petitions in favour of
the Bill for the Protection of Women.

Petitions with a similar prayer were presented by the
Marquis of WESTMINSTER and the Bishop of LONDON.
Lord SON DES presented a petition praying for
agricultural protection,
PROTECTION OF WOMEN BILL.
The Bishops of LONDON and OXFORD presented peti-
tions in favour of this Bill.

On the motion of the Bishop of OXFORD this Bill
passed through Committee.
On the bringing up of the report, the Bishop of
OXFORD moved the omission of the 2d clause, which
was agreed to.
The report was then received, the Bill ordered to be
reprinted, and the third reading fired for this day week.

Thomas Tapp, Ist Bombay European Fusiliers.
John G. Glassfurd, Bengal Engineers.
William Pitt R.ibbins, 15th Bengal Native In-
fantry.
Robert Rains Kinleside, Bengal Artillery.
Barre William Goldie, Bengal Artillery.
Alfred Iluish, Bengal Artillery.
John Clarke, 25th Bengal Native Infantry.
George Biddulph, 45th Bengal Native Infantry.
Henry Marion Durand, Bengal Engineers.
William Abercrombie, Bengal Engineers.
James Duncan Macpherson, 22d Bengal N.I.
William Maunsell Gabbett, Madras Artillery.
Edward Griffiths Austin, Bengal Artillery.
Murray Mackenzie, Bengal Artillery.
James Roger Western, Bengal Engineers.
James Alexander Duncan Fergusson, 6th Bengal
Light Cavalry.
William Kerby Warner, Bengal Artillery.
George Palmer Whish, 60th Bengal Native In-
fantry.
Michael Dawes, Bengal Artillery.
Charles Hogge, Bengal Artillery.
Henry Siddons, Bengal Engineers.
Cairns Threshire, 10th Bombay Native In-
fan,ry.
Markham Ecles Sherwill, 2d Bengal European
Regiment.
Thomas William Hick, Bombay Artillery.
John Frederick INembhard, 56th Bengal Native
Infantry.
John Abercrombie, Bengal Artillery.
Sydney Turnbull, Bombay Artillery.
John Ramsay, Ist Bombay European Fusiliers.
Rubert William Disney Leith, Ist Bombay Euro-
pean Fusiliers.
Alexander Cunningham, Bengal Engineers.
Edward Wiggins, 52d Bengal Native Infantry.
John Nicholson, 27th Bengal Native Infantry.
TO HAVE THE LOCAL RANK OF MAJOR IN THE PIINJAUB.
Lieutenants—Edward John Lake, Bengal Engineers.
Reynell George Taylor, 11th Bengal Light
Cavalry.
Charles Herbert, 18th Bengal Native Infantry.

SUPPRESSION OF THE
INQUISITION.
Memorial regarding the tribunal of the holy office
at the time of its supression in February, 1849.
In consequence of a decree of the Roman Consti-
tuent Assembly by which the suppression of the
tribunal of the holy office was resolved, the Govern-
ment ordered that the Fathers of the Dominican
order then inhabiting that vast locality should re-
move to the convent called " Della Minerva," the
chief seat of their order. They were in number eight,
exercising the functions of commissary, chancellor,
&c. The doors were then carefully sealed by the
Roman notary Caggietti, to prevent the abstraction
of any object, and a keeper was appointed to the
premises. These precautions taken, the inventory
was commenced. The first place visited was the
ground floor of the edifice where were the prisons,
and the stables, coach-houses, kitchen, cellars, and
other conveniences for the use of the assessor and the
father inquisitors. This part of the building was to
be immediately prepared for the reception of the civic
artillery with the train belonging to it.
Some new doors were opened in the walls and part
of a pavement raised ; in this operation human bones
were found and a trapdoor discovered, which induced
a resolution to make excavations in certain spots
pointed out by persons well acquainted with the
locality. Digging very deep in one place a great num-
ber of human skeletons were found, some of them
placed so close together and so amalgamated with lime,
that no bone could be moved without being broken. In
the roof of another subterranean chamber a large ring
was found fixed, It is supposed to have been used in
administering the torture. It still remains there.
Along the whole length of this same room stone steps,
rather broad, were attached to the wall—these
probably served for the prisoners to sit or recline
on. In a third underground room was found
a quantity of very black rich earth, inter-
mingled with human hair, of such a length
that it seemed women's rather than men's hair;
here also human bones were found. In this dun-
geon a trap-door was formed in the thickness of
the wall which opened into a passage in the flat above,
leading to the room where examinations were con-
! ducted. Among the inscriptions made with charcoal
on the wall it was observed that many appeared of very
recent date, expressing in most affecting terms the
sufferings of every kind endured in these chambers.
The person of mcst note found in the prisons of
the inquisition was a bishop named Kasner who had
been in confinement for above twenty years. He
related that he arrived in Rome from the Holy
Land, having in his possession papers which had
belonged to an ecclesiastic there. Passing himself for
that person, be succeeded in surprising the court of
Rome into ordaining and consecrating him a bishop.
The fraud was afterwards discovered, and Kasner
being then on his way to Palestine was arrested and
brought to the prison of the holy office, where he
expected to have ended his days, less, as he expressed
himself, to expiate his own fraud, than the gross
blunder of the court of Rome which had no other
means of concealing his character of bishop, its own
absolute laws preventing his being deprived of it.
The inventory of the contents of the ground flat
being finished in a few days, it was then thrown open
to the impatient curiosity of the public. The crowd
that resorted to the scene was very great, and the
public indignation rose so high that there was a loud
and genera! cry for the destruction of an edifice of
such detestable memory. This feeling was so strong
that on a Sunday afternoon in March faggots were
thrown into the cellars and other underground
rooms, with the intention of setting fire to the build-
ing, and this would have been accompliehed had not
a battalion of civic guards rushed to the spot from
the Piazza di S. Pietro. To the truth of all that is
here related thousands, both Italians and foreigners,
who visited the place can testify; and there exists
also a detailed account of everything, written and
solemnly attested with legal forms.
Passing to the upper flat, the attention of the Go-
vernment was especially directed to the chancery and
the archives; the first containing all the current
affairs of the inquisition, the second, jealously guard-
ing its acts from its institution until now. Before
commencing the catalogue of the contents of the
chancery, it was resolved to remove such papers as
might disturb or compromise the tranquillity of those
persons who had had relations with the holy office.
Attention was especially directed to the book called
of " Solecitazione" (it contains reports) and to the
correspondence. This was done by order of the Go-
vernment, which thereby gave another proof of that
moderation which its enemies deny to it. There re-
sults from a careful examination of these documents,
which remain for the inspection of such as desire
proofs, that the past Government made use of this tri-
bunal, strictly ecclesiastical in its institution, also for
temporal and political objects, and that the most cul-
pable abuse was made of sacramental confession, espe-
cially that of women, rendering it subservient both
to political purposes and to the most abomin able
licentiousness. It can be shown, from documents,
that the cardinals secretaries of state wrote to the
commissiary to the assessor of the holy office to pro-
cure information as to the conduct of suspected indi-
viduals, both at home and abroad, and to obtain
knowledge of state secrets by means of confession,
especially those of foreign courts and cabinets. In
fact, there exist long correspondences, and voluminous
processes, and severe sentences, pronounced upon La
Giorine Italia, La Jeune Suisse, the masonic societies
of England and Scotland, and the anti-religious sects
of America, &c. There is an innumerable quantity
of information and processes on scandalous and
obscene subjects, in which the members of regular
religious societies are usually implicated.
Passing from the chancery to the archives, which is
in the second floor, it appeared on first entering as if
everything was in its usual place, but on further in-
spection it was found, with much astonishment, that
though the labels and cases were in their places they
were emptied of the packets of papers and dOcuments
indicated by the inscriptions without. Some conjec-
ture that the missing packets have been carried to the
convent " Della Minerva," or were hidden in the houses
of private persons, while others suppose that they
were burnt by the Dominican fathers. This last
hypothesis receives weight from the circumstance,
the de
that in November, 1848, shortly after
ture of the Pope from Rome, the Civic Geupaarrd-
came in much haste to the holy office, from having
observed great clouds of smoke issuing from one
of its chimnies, accompanied by a strong smell of
burnt paper. But whatever were the means, the fact
is certain, that, in the archives of the Inquisition, the
most important trials were not to be found; such, for
instance, as those of Galileo Galilei and of Giordano
Bruno, nor was there the correspondence regard-
ing the Reformation in England, in the 16thcentury,
nor many other precious records. There remains,
however, nearly complete, a collection of decrees, be-
ginning with the year 1549 down to our own days.
They are divided year by year, each volume contain-
ing the decrees of one year. Of these, of all that was
contained in the chancery and archives of the holy
office, a catalogue has been taken, with every legal
formality of certification. It ought to be added, that
after the above-mentioned threat of setting fire to
the holy office, it was unanimously decreed by the
Assembly, that instead of destroying that vast edifice
it should be portioned into dwellings for poor families
of Rome. In consequence of this decision the
Government was obliged to remove all the papers in
the chancery and archives, along with three libraries
existing in the holy office to the Palazzo dell' Apoli•
nare, which was the residence assigned to the Minister
of Finance.

Of these three libraries, one was private property,
the other two belonged to the Inquisition. Of these last,
one is most important, containing copies of the original
editions of the works of the Reformers of the 16th and
17th centuries, now become extremely rare. The
other is of less consequence. In it are many recent
publications; and it appears that the revisore (" revi-
sori") at the Custo- house of Rome were in the habit
of extracting books consigned to the booksellers there,
without making any compensation.