The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-04 00:00:00

birt Milton

QUEEN'S BENCH.-( THIS DAY.)
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
LIBEL-LEATHA3I V. SIHMONDS.
This was an action to recover compensation in da-
mages for two libels, published in Simmonds' Colonial
Magazine, of December, 1844 and March 1845. The
case was undefended; bat the defendant had put several
pleas of justification upon the record.
It appeared from the statement of Sir F. TRESIGER,
who appeared for the plaintiff, that the articles arose
out of the negroes of Rossi, in the island of Dominica,
revolting in 1844, because they imagined that a census
of them, which the Governor had directed to be taken,
was preliminary to restoring them to a condition of
slavery. The plaintiff, a member of the Assembly, an
attorney, and an estate-agent in the island, interested
himself in quieting the infuriated negroes, with whom
he had some influence. It was alleged by some that
be had committed acts of violence towards the negroes,
a bill for felony was preferred against him in conse-
quence, but it was ignored by the grand jury. Not-
withstanding the magazine of the defendant renewed the
charge against him, and accused him of brutal and vio-
lent conduct.

The purchase and publication of the magazine having
been proved,
The jury (a special one) found a verdict for the
plaintiff for the amount at which the damages were laid,
namely, 5001.

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH

INDIA.
(From the Liverpool Albion.)
We have been favoured with the following copy of a
letter from the Colonial Under-Secretary to Sir Thomas
B. Birch, M.P., on the subject of steam communication
with Australia:—

"Downing-street, 30th November, 1848.
" Sir,—l deferred answering your communication
of the 18th August last, because the arrangements
were still in progress for the establishment of a sys-
tem of steam communication with Australia. I am
now directed by Earl Grey to acquaint you, that,
from a letter which has very. recently been received
from the Board of Treasury, it appears that there is
every reason to believe an engagement will soon be con-
cluded with the India and Australian Steam Packet
Company for the conveyance of the mails between Singa-
pore and Sydney, for a period of not less than seven
years.—l have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient
humble servant, " W. HAWES.
" Sir Thomas Birch, Bart., EP."

THE REVOLUTION IN ROME.
The following details connected with the revolution
at Rome are given in a letter from that capital, dated
the 21st ult.:—
" The situation is still the same—fear rules all. The
common people await the will of God. Most of the
princes, prelates, and nobles are not sorry to behold their
rancour satisfied, rancour which they felt against the
liberal measures and tendencies of the Pope. The
sons of M. Rossi wanted to see the body of
their father. The youngest had enrolled himself
amongst the Italian volunteers. He had obtained leave
of absence to come to Rome to see his father. He is a
young man, full of fire. When the civic guards wanted to
prevent his entrance to where the body lay, he drew his
sword and forced his way through them, crying out,
`What! you murdered him, and you want to insult
him af,cr his death! My crime is to have served
your cause, but I will expiate it!' He then tore the
cockade from his cap and the epaulettes from his should-
ders, and trampled them undev his foot. The crowd re-
mained wondt r-struck. The two young men hurried
to the Pope, and, falling at his feet, demanded ven-
geance on the murderers of their father. The Pope,
raising them up with gentleness, said, My children, we
have no resource except in the tribunals;' an expression
which has been wrongly blamed, in my opinion, for the
Pope could do nothing, and bravadoes would have
been misplaced. The conduci of M. d'Harcourt cannot be
too much praised. He received at his house the family of
the victim, prot cted them, and sent them away in safety.
You know what horrible scsnes took place under the win-
dows of the hotel inhabited by M. Rossi during the night
which followed the murder. I saw them from a dis-
tance, and I can affirm that the mass of the population
had nothing to say to them. It was a band composed of
about a hundred madmen, who with torches in their
hands danced round a fire which they had lit, bellowing
forth a hymn to the avenging dagger, and demanding the
heads of the victim's widow and children. In M. Rossi's
pocket was found a letter from a Roman lady, telling
him not to go to the Chamber; also a speech which
would have had the effect cf conciliating the public mind,
and restoring order in Rome for a long time. Already
several murders had taken place in Romagna, and
amongst the rest a Roman priest. The whole of the
city which I went through on foot during the follow-
ing days resembled a garrison town, when the
soldiers had left and the enemy was expected.
Shops and windows were shut ; women were
hurrying away with their children in their arms,
and the men—the men were flying. It was whilst the
piece of cannon named the St. Pierre was directed
against the palace of Monte-Cavallo, that the diplomatic
corps arrived to offer their services to the Pope. He
received them with his usual calm and courtesy. How-
ever, the attack began; the Swiss closed the doors, and
some shots, fired from the windows, wounded, it is pre-
tended, five or six persons. The assailants then set fire
to the upper part of one of the gates, and just at that
moment Mgr. Palma was killed. At once a rumour was
disseminated through the erowd that a prelate had been
seen with two pistols in his hands, and that he had
fired at the people; their fury redoubled. It was
then that M. Martinez de la Rosa offered, in the
name of old Catholic Spain, and of his Sovereign, to
place a vessel at the Pope's orders, and to give him
an asylum in Spain. The Ambassador of the French
Republic then said—' have not received any in-
structions to that effect, but I do not fear to be dis-
avowed if I offer to the Holy Father my assistance to
protect him and secure his withdrawal.' However, out-
side, Cuerovacchio was calming down, or was appearing
to calm down the popular frenzy; the few troops on
whom Pius IX. thought he could reckon fraternized
with the assailants ; the Transteverins did not stir.
Several times the Pope wished to satisfy himself if some
persons remained faithful to him, either in the troops or
in the population, but he found none. ' You see,' said
the Pore to the Ambassadors, all is impossible.' A
list of a new Ministry was then presented to the Pope ;
I cannot sign that,' he said ; it is against my con-
science.' However, the crowd augmented, the danger
increased, and the people demanded with loud cries the
heads of Cardinal Soglio and Cardinal Antonelli. At
last, about seven o'clock, the signature was given; with-
out that, the Quirinal would have been set on fire, and
all the Swiss massacred. Rome was then illuminated,
and the people went through the streets crying out ' The
Sovereign has given us the Republic.' "
The following is a translation of the protest
handed by the Pope to the foreign diplomatic
body :

am. gentlemen, a prisoner. They have taken away
my guards, and I am surrounded by other persons. My
conduct at this moment, when all support fails me, is
based on the principle of avoiding the effusion of all fra-
ternal blood. I make all yield to this principle; but
know, gentlemen, and let all Europe and all the world
know likewise, that I do not take, even nominally, any
part in the acts of the new Government, to which I
consider myself as altogether a stranger. I have, how.
ever, desired that my name should not be abused, and
I wish that they would not even employ the ordinary
form aliti es."

The Contemporaneo, Roman journal, of the 23d
ultimo, mentions as a report that the Abbe Rosmini
had been ordered to Paris by the Pope to request
the French Government to send an expedition to
put down the Roman revolution, and that his
mission had obtained the entire adhesion of the
c??lps diplonzatique, including the Ambassador of
the French Republic. The Contemporaneo then
adds,_

" That report has been circulated by a prelate who is
no longer at Rome, but who took a very active part in
the plot against the Roman revolution. We can neither
confirm nor deny the correctness of those rumours. But
we cannot help observing that France would cover her-
self with infamy if she suffered herself to be caught in
the net of the old diplomacy, and if she sent pto
land soldiers against a revolution now acceptedshi bys the
sovereign Pontiff himself. The Pope's sacred person is
not in question. RIX person would be inviolable even
amidst the
al flames
combat . The
the Roman people assembled before
the Quiri9 to Swiss had sworn to protect
who would have s
at any price the Pontiff,
ff u ered no
outrage on the part of his people."