The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-09 00:00:00

probably watched public affairs and followed their vicis-
situdes. His copies of letters, or the letters to him
which he may have kept, will contain allusions to them.
The value of this evidence as evidence would of course
depend upon giving full effect to all these allusions
taken in connexion one with the other. But not so:
any expression which implies disapproval (since nothing
is easier than to construe disapproval into disaffection,
disaffection into an intention of revolution or of regicide)
is entered on the minutes. Suppose there happens to be
some other, which entirely destroys the force of the
former, and demonstrates the loyalty of the victim : it
is pat by as of no consequence, and if he remonstrate, it
is in vain. In countries where justice is regarded acts
are punished, and it is deemed unjust to punish thoughts;
but in this case thoughts are forged in order that they
may be punished. I here speak of what I know to have
happened, and have imagined or heightened nothing.
"For months, or for a year, or for two years, or
three, as the case may be, these prisoners are detained
before their trials; but very generally for the longer
terms. Ido not happen to have heard of any one tried
at Naples on a political charge, in these last times, with
less than sixteen or eighteen months of previous impri-
sonment. I have seen men still waiting, who had been
confined for six and twenty months; and this confine-
ment, as I have said, began by an act not of law but of
force in defiance of law."

Mr. GLADSTONE then proceeds to illustrate the
treatment of prisoners, as yet uncondemned, by the
case of PIRONTE :

"From the 7th of December last to the 3d of Fe-
bruary, Pironte, who was formerly a judge, and is still
a gentleman, and who was found guilty on or about the
last named day, spent his whole days and nights, ex-
cept when on his trial, with two other men, in a cell at
he Vicaria, about eight feet square, below the level of
he ground, with no light except a grating at the top of
the wall, out of which they could not see. Within the
space of th.se eight feet, with the single exception I have
named, Pironte and his companions were confined during
these two months; neither for mass were they allowed
to quit it, nor for any other purpose whatsoever I This
was in Naples, where by universal consent matters are
far better than in the provinces."

In order to secure condemnations, perjury is openly
suborned, and the judges are openly coerced. In
proof of this latter assertion Mr. GLADSTONE cites
two cases :

" In Naples itself, I understand that a gentleman of
eighty years of age, who had exercised the office of
judge for half century, was turned out upon the world
a short time ego, for having acquitted the parties
charged with having composed or published an ob-
noxious article in a newspaper. A more notorious case
bits recently happened at Reggio. A batch of prisoners
vero tnere brought to trial for some matter connected with
he period of the ill-fated Constitution. They were ac-
quitted; and the arm of vengeance descended upon the
judges. After such an outrage on their part, the entire
Court, as if an Augean-stable, was swept clear. Two,
[ believe—probably the docile minority—had only a
nominal deprivation, being classed as disponibili, and
held qualified for new appointments, which, for all I
know, they may now have received. But six judges,
cite offending majority, were mercilessly and absolutely
dismissed."

The attention of Mr. GLADSTONE has been confined
to the atrocities committed in the kingdom of Naples.
Although he communicated with Reggio, withi❑
half-an-hour's sail of Sicily, he did not think
it worth his while to visit that island, and to
ascertain by his own observations the truth of
the accusations brought against FILANGIERI, who,
as the inventor of those cruelties to which he
subjects the inhabitants of the unfortunate island,
might give a hint even to the King of NAPLES
himself. This is the more to be regretted, as Mr.
GLADSTONE states that he feels he is precluded from
calling the attention of the British Parliament to the
atrocities of which Naples is the theatre, be-
cause, according to the law of nations, we cannot
interfere in the case of Naples. Such, however, is
not the case with regard to the affairs of Sicily ; we
have solemnly guaranteed to Sicily her con-
stitution ; we have most solemnly guaranteed
to every Sicilian that he shall not be mo-
lested on account of his attachment to that
constitution, and it is not in the power of Lord
HEYTESBURY and the Earl of ABERDEEN to absolve
us by any conceivable amount of equivocation, of pal-
tering with the truth, from the obligations entered
into in the name of England with the Sicilian nation,
as contradistinguished from the Sicilian SOVEREIGN,
in 1812 by Lord W. BENTINCK, and ratified by the
Marquis of 'WELLESLEY, as Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs. By that treaty we are bound to in-
terfere for the protection of the Sicilians, and if Mr.
GLADSTONE knows, or has reason to believe, that there
are at this moment any Sicilians who, on account of
rheir attachment to the constitution, are suffering im-
prisonment, or exile, or confiscation, or any other sort
of duresse, it is his duty as a British senator at once
to draw the attention of Parliament to the subject.