The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-07 00:00:00

AUSTRIAN OUTRAGES IN ITALY.

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of the limes :

Sir,—The outrages attributed to the Austrian
authorities in Italy, both op Austrian subjects and
those now unhappily committed to their care by
the Pope and the Italian Princes, have been so
frequently denied, that during a recent visit to that
country I was anxious to obtain some positive evi-
dence on the subject. I have now zeceived from
Milan three documents which so fully illustrate
these barbarous acts of vengeance that I consider it
a duty to make them as public as possible.
In the year 1849, on the Emperor's birthday, a
woman of bad character, living near the Duomo, at
Milan, suspended from her window the Austrian
colours. This demonstration on the part of an
Italian created some irritation among the passers by.
In a cafe near were some Austrian officers who,
there is reason to suspect, instigated the woman to
show the colours, and were watching the result.
Altercation soon arose, and a crowd was collected.
Suddenly a party of soldiers closed the street, and
arrested those who were in it. Of the 42 thus
seized 20 were condemned to be flogged, receiving
from 50 to 30 blows each ; 14 to imprisonment
for different periods, in irons, and the remainder
were released. I have before me the original noti-
fication of the sentence. Like other documents of
a similar kind that have been preserved, it
is without signature, even an Austrian officer
having been probably ashamed to affix his name
to so infamous a document. It is simply dated
"Milan, from the Military Government, August 23,
1849." Of those condemned to be flogged many are
very young men, there being two boys of 17. The
list concludes with the names of two women, who
are thus described :

19. Galli Ernesta, from Cremona, aged 20
years, a singer, to 40 stripes ;
" 20. Conti Maria, from Florence, aged 18 years,
a singer, to 30 stripes" ;
Two girls, of 18 and 20, flogged for being guilty,
according to the sentence, " of the blackest ingra-
titude" (la piu nera ingratitudine), and of " scan-
dalous anti-political demonstrations" r seandalose
dimostragioni antzpolitiche ), condemned by a mili-
tary tribunal without trial or proof, and solely to
gratfy the vengeance of a party of Austrian
officers !

But the second document to which I desire to
call attention is, if possible, even more infamous.
It is an attested copy, under the municipal seal, of
the receipt given for the money which the munici-
pality was compelled to pay for the expenses in-
curred in this barbarous outrage. It is signed
Setmutz (chief auditor), Wonesch (Provost), and
Mauler (Major of the Archduke Albert Regiment).
I translate the items literally :
" Paid for bandages prescribed by the doctor
according to annexed account, No. 1 2 16
•' Paid for vinegar and ice used for a similar

purpose, according to annexed fie Count,
No. 2
" Paid six soldiers who were chosen to nurse
these flogged citizens (questi eivil9 coBti-
gati) at 401 r., M. C., a-head 4 0
"For 60 sticks used for the abovernentioned
_ _

purpose at Bit, M. C., each stick 8 0
"In addition, for 40 sticks employed in flog-
ging the citizens arrested on the loth, 17th,
and 23d of July, and expenses

" Total
The order for the paying of this sum was signed
by Radetsky, but it was merely communicated to
the municipality, and then, out of very shame,
withdrawn. But so deeply was this insult felt by
even the nominees of the Austrian Government
that, when on the death of the Field-Marshal, the
municipality was ordered to attend his public fune-
ral, the Podesta alone (one Sebregondi, a mere
creature of the Austrians), obeyed, the entire body
keeping away, notwithstanding the threats of the
authorities.

It may be said that these occurrences are of some
years back, but that this infamous system of flogging
women was persevered in to the last is proved by
the third document in my possession. It is a circu-
lar of the Imperial Vice-Government of Lombardy,
dated Jan. 22, 1859, and consequently immediately
before the war, and entitled, "Relating to the Exe-
cution of Corporal Punishment to be inflicted on
Women." It declares that the Minister of Justice,
in concert with the Minister of the Interior and of
Finance, had determined that the wives of gaolers
and their female servants who should be found best
fitted to the work (che si troveranno a cis piu culatte)
should be employed, and should be paid at the rate
of 20 soldi of new money a•head for each victim.
Of the atrocities committed during their occupa-
tion of the Papal and Tuscan territories by the
Austrians ample evidence has been furnished by
the documents found in the archives, and published
by the order, or under the sanction of the Pro-
visional Governments. That they were committed
in the Legations with the approval of the Pope is
shown by a letter from Radetzky replying to some
proposal (the nature of which has not been yet dis-
covered) of the present Cardinal Savelli for the treat-
ment of political offenders. The Marshal declares
" that he should feel himself dishonoured as a man
and as a soldier" were he to put his name to a do-
cument such as that proposed to him. An Austrian
General outdone by a Christian priest? In the
horrible history of the cruelties perpetrated during
the Austrian occupation of Bologna the Pope is, I
am assured, only found interfering on one occasion.
On the side of mercy and of justice ? No. But to
grant a dispensation to an Austrian officer for the
execution of a boy of 17, who had been condemned
to death when a year under the legal age.
The above facts, to which could be added very
many more inspiring equal horror, are surely suffi-
cient to account for the hatred of the Italians to the
Austrian rule, and to the rule of the Pope and of
those princes who have placed Italy at the mercy
Austrian soldiers. They are well worthy the
earnest consideration of such Englishmen as are
desirous of seeing that rule, at least in the case of
the Pope, restored.

I am, Sir, yom obedient servant,
Jan. 6. A. H. LAYARD.

SIR ZIENRY HAVELOCK'S GRAVE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—l scarcely know what reply to make to the letter of
Sir Henry Havelock in reference to a passage from my book
on India except to add my testimony to that which he bears
to tne character of Major Crommelin, than whom no army
boasts a more zealous or able officer. It is scarcely neces-
sary for me to say that I meant no attack on the reputation
or conduct of an officer whom I hold in high esteem ; and
indeed Sir Henry exculpates me from any suspicion of the
kind. The fact is that I found the grave of a man over
which all England had been weeping—over which poets
were weaving chaplets of verses, if not of illmortelles—was
a mere ditch filled with foul water; that it was in that state
when I saw it many months after the hero was laid to rest
there, and longer after we had established our rule in Oude ;
and in stating the fact, which to me was painful, I thought
it but right to add that certain directions had been given by
the gallant son of the deceased to an officer very much en-
gaged in the most important duties which that officer had,
amid the pressure of his vitally important daily avocations,
as chief engineer of the Government works at Lucknow,
forgotten to fulfil, as he pressed upon me with generous
energy when I talked to him of the neglected state of the
grave. The work, which, I think, after all that was
said and written and sung of the glorious, immortal, heroic
Havelock, should have been a nation's care—if ene is to
credit a nation's words—was begun after I had spoken to
Major Crommelin, not in consequence of what I said, but
in obedience to the instructions of the present Sir Henry
Havelock, which were for a time (as Sir Henry states) par.
donably forgotten, and the subsequent inattention to which
arose from causes with which the publice are not yet made
acquainted. I believe Sir James Outram brought forward
a proposition for the erection of a monument at the public
expense, but, if he did, it came to nothing..
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
W. H, RUSSELL.