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

EVENING, AUGUST 9, 1861.

probably watchsd public affairs and followed their vicis-
situdes. His copies of letters, or the letters to him
which he may have kept, will contain allasions 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 is construe disapproval into disaffection,
disaffection into an intention of revolution or of regicide)
is entered on the minutes. Suppose there happens to be
soma other, which entirely destroys the force of the
former, and demonstrates the loyalty of the victim : it
is put by as of n) 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 pclitical charge, in these last times, with
less than sixteen or eighteen months of previous impri-
sonment. I have seen men still waiting, who bad 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
the Vicaria, about eight feet square, below the level of
the ground, with no light except a grating at the top of
the wall, out of which they could not see. Within the
space of these eight feet, with the single exception I have
named, Pironte and his companions were confined darii:g
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 a century, was turned out upon the world
a short time ago, for having acquitted the parties
charged with having composed or published an ob-
noxious article in a newspaper. A more notorious case
has recently happened at Reggio. A batch of prisoners
iverd there brought to trial for some matter connected with
the 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,
I believe—probably the docile minority—had only u
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,
th© 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, within
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 Sieilian that he shall not be mo-
lested on account of his attachment to that
constitution, and it is not in the power of Lord
IIIYTESBURY and the Earl of A➢BBDEEN 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. BENTINCH, 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
their 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 Parliatnent to the subject.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday,

The LORD MAYOR and other members of the Cor-
poration of London went at one o'clock to the Elysee,
to take leave of the PRkSIDENT of the Republic, and
to renew to him their expression of thanks for the
cordial welcome with which they had been received at
Paris. They afterwards proceeded to the Hippodrome,
where their arrival was announced by the firing of
cannon, and on their entrance the orchestra played
" God save the Queen." Notwithstanding the heavy
rain, the performances continued, and the LORD
MAYOR and his friends remained to the end, and wit-
netised the ascent of the balloon.

In the Assembly the proposal of a vote of credit
for defraying the expenses of the army of occupation
in Rome gave rise to a discu-sion, in the course of
which MM. AIAGO and JULES FAME warmly re-
newed their protests against the invasion and occu-
pation of the Roman territories. M. BAROCHE in
reply stated that France continued to occupy Rome
in order to keep out the Austrians. In commenting
in this debate the &tick says—
" At Rome. under the authority of the Pope, and in
presence of a French army, sent there, according to the
declaration of M. Odilon Barret, to protect the rights of
justice and humanity; at Rome women are stripped
naked and flogged—wives, sisters, and daughters of men
who have committed political crimes—and God only
knows what highly generous sentiments, what honour-
able actions may be enveloped in so elastic a designa-
tion—yes, in the Holy City they flog women, the
cowards! At Naples. Oh! at Naples it is different:
we who write these lines have met here in Paris an
honourable family whom we could name, only we should
fear to point them out to the police of the embassy, and
who have been obliged to fly their country after the con-
fiscation of their property, because the head of the fa-
mily, a distinguished advocate, had dared to defend a
person accused of a political offonce; and yet to see M.
Baroche and General Oudinot coming to the tribune,
the one with fine phrases and the other with his military
diplomacy, in the fete of such horrors as these! Why
your policy and your diplomacy in presence of such acts,
when liberty is oppressed and justice outrageously vio-
lated, when all the laws of humanity are trodden under
foot, your temporising diplomacy and your miserable
policy which dares not raise its voice, is something
shameful! In the name of Heaven do not, at all events,
make it a matter of glorification!"
The Orleanists are exceedingly sore at the conduct
of the recalcitrant Legitimatists. The Orin gives
vent to its rage in the following terms.—
" What! you have resolved on a meeting of eighty
Legitimatists to spend the three months' parliamentary
vacation in agitating the revision! Are you then re-
solved upon sacrificing to the Montagnards the electoral
law of the 31st May, the law regarding the sale of jour-
nals and pamphlets in the streets, and the law regard.
ing the clubs, of which they demand the complete aboli-
tion? No, far from it, say you, you have no such in-
tention. Then you must know that it is impossible.
Nevertheless, you agitate the question. You are driv-
ing to revision along with those who demand the proro-
gation of the powers of the President of the Republic—
with those who openly call for his re-election in an un-
constitutional manner, although you stand pledged to
resist such taking place, as calculated, according to the
avowal of one of your leading orators, to lead to the ruin
of France. Allow us to tell you that you are involving
yourselves in a tortuous underground way, which is full
of snares, and that your boasted chivalry runs great risk
of going astray."
The trials at Lyons still continue, the city is full of
troops, and every opportunity is taken of endeavouring
to provoke the people to an outbreak ; the people,
however, have been hitherto too wise to furnish the
authorities with a pretext for letting loose the troops.
Their conduct has been admirable.

The illoniteur publishes a denree by the PRESI-
DENT of the Republic, ordering that, in consideration
of the eminent services rendered by Marshal SEBAS-
TIANI during his long and glorious career, his re-
mains shall be interred at the Hotel des Invalides.

The Moniteur states that the Commission nomi-
nated in March last, under the Presidency of General
OUDINOT DE REGGIO, to examine and set forth the
services which railways may render to the country
in the event of a war, offensive or defensive, has re-
ported that it is important in a military and economic
point of view that corps and detachments shall con-
tinue as before to go on foot, but that railway ma-
teriel, after certain modifications not of an expensive
nature, may be immediately employed in the convey-
ance of troops ; that to convey troops by railway is
an easy operation ; and that such conveyance may
have great strategic importance, and add considerably
to the force of the State. The Committee has
submitted a series of regulations on the subject to the
Minister of W ar. It also dwells on the militaryim-
portance of a railway round Paris.
The following are the chief items of the Bank ac-
count for the week :

........
Franca.
Specie in Paris ... ••• ••• 465,823,455
Ditto in branches ... ••• 132,520,563
Bills ia Faris portfolio ... .•• 35,063,662