The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-20 00:00:00

CENTRAL ITALY.

The people of Central Italy are receiving the re•
ward of their constancy, moderation, and public
spirit. Victor Emmanuel, in accepting the allegiance
of the inhabitants of Parma, Modena, and the
Romagna, and declaring that he will be proud to
c all them "my people," admits them to particips
tion in the ordered and stable liberty of a constitts ,
tional State, and pledges his power for their pro-
tection. The admission of Tuscany to the same
privileges will not long be delayed, and Italian
independence will then be placed on a firmer
basis than its best friends lately dared hope.
The astonishing unanimity of the people of
Central Italy which the late elections have de-
veloped is a great historical fact, and must satisfy
even those Courts which from their history and
traditions are least disposed to recognise .a popu-
lar vote as a source of legal right, that to
respect the desires of the population of Tuscany
and the .Emilian Provinces for annexation to Pied-
mont is the way to secure the truest, safest, and
most permanent solution of the difficulties which
have so long distracted Italy and troubled her neigh-
bours. Circumstances are conceivable-in which ter-
rorism or intrigue might secure a large relative
majority at the electoral urn ; but no power could
have compelled the vast body' of a population of
four millions to vote against its will and to vote on
one side. The Governments of Central Italy have
no power but that which they derive from the
people, yet at their call the male citizens have
come forward as one, man to vote for King Victor
Emmanuel. To please the Emperor of the French
universal suffrage was appealed to, when in
Romagna, Modena, and Parma, 427,000 out of
526,000 inscribed electors gave their votes,
and of these 426,000 voted for annexation to Sar-
dinia and 726 for a separate kingdom. In Tuscany,
where 386,000 persons were inscribed as electors,
326,000 voted for annexation, and only 14,000 for
a separate kingdom. Even the Court of Vienna
appears to have been impressed with this great
demonstration, for upon receiving an official intima-
tion that the troops of France were about to be
withdrawn from Lombardy, joined with the ex-
pression of a hope that Austria would continue to
abstain from intervening beyond her frontier. Count
Rechberg has formally replied that his Government
has no inclination to re-commence a war which
he adds, would soon become European. Neither
can Cardinal Antonelli help bearing his tri-
bute to the power of the impulse which has
carried the people of Italy over to Victor Em.
manuel. This Prince of the Church, in his newest
despatch to M. Thouvenel, accuses France of
frightening the Astrians out of the Roman States,
and declares that all the mischief has been done in
Romagna by a small party, aided by "the malcon-
tents, a class of persons to be found in all countries."
But even if the recent vote had not arithmetically
demonstrated that the malcontents are at least 80
per cent. of the adult male population, and left it
morally certain that they bear a much larger pro-
portion to the indifferent and the loyal, we have the
corroborative evidence of a Minister of the Pope
who, as we lately saw, when asked by the Austrians
to give the names of the disaffected per sons in Ro-
magna, replied Met the people were " all disaf-
fected." Cardinal Antonelli is not so foolish as to
repeat the absurd stories which are palmed upon ig-
norant audiences in Ireland about the contentment
of the Pope's subjects with their Government.
He lays down flatly the proposition that the
Government is good because it is from heaven,
whatever wretched taxpayers may thing about it,
and thence argues that reforms and concessions are,
as far as the Pope is concerned, matters of paternal
grace and indulgence. The first grand aim of a
Catholic Government should be the maintenance of
the patrimony of the Church in all its integrity.
" The past," he says, " offers several reminiscences
which may prepare the way to this great object."
It certainly does. Cardinal Antonelli takes care
not to leave us in doubt as to his meaning. He de-
month; "ciii eaciou s succours"—in other words, foreign
occupation. That perennial curse of Italy, which
the wise3t and best men of all countries have de-
plored, which Europe condemned at Paris in 1856,
and which diplomacy is at last hoping to bring to an
end, the Cardinal desires to inflict on the people
among whom he had his birth, but for whom he has
no feelings of fraternity. To say that the foreign
occupation alone can uphold the temporal power of
the Pope is not only to confirm the votes of the
people, but to justify them. The Romagnols are now
rejoicing, because they are henceforward to live
under the protection of law and in the enjoyment
of liberty. Is their joy heightened or moderated as
they remember the lot from which they had been
delivered ? During seven years of Austrian occu-
pation there were 190 capital executions at Bologna,
and the more people were shot the more crime in-
creased and the security of life and property was
diminished. On the morning of March 17, 1853,
Domenico Malagutti, a young surgeon of Fer-
rara ; Giacomo Surri, a private gentleman ; and
Luigi Parmeggiani, an innkeeper of the same
town, charged with attempting to overthrow the
temporal soldiers of the Pope, were led out by
Austrian soldiers, blindfolded, forced upon their
knees, and shot. These unfortunate persons, and
nine others were incarcerated in the citadel of
Ferrara for seven or eight months. The examin-
ing judge was an Austrian Captain of Hussars.
In the absence of proof this military judge had
recourse to the torture of the accused. They were
kept without food till nature was on the point
of giving way ; they wore chained in the form
of hoops ; they were compelled to witness each
other's misery ; they were constantly told that
a firing party was waiting for them, and that
they were about to be led out to immediate
execution. Each was told in turn that his com-
panion had confessed, and that he might as well
make a clean breast of it ; or, that if he did not
confess, his companions would instantly be put
to the direst torture. The examinations were
written down in German, of which the accused
did not understand one word, and they were com-
pelled to affix their signatures to depositions writ-
ten in characters of which they knew not the sig-
nificance.
For ten years the Holy Father permitted the
Austrians to torment his people in the Ariatic pro-
vinces of his States ' • while, to assist them, Cardinal
Antonelli published an edict, dated 30th July, 1855,
restoring as a punishmerit the use of the chevalet—
an instrument of torture used by Pagan Emperors
against the early Christians. This for centuries
has been the statesmanship of Papal Rome, to
madden people into rebellion and then to call
lin the foreigner to shoot them down. It is said
that for accepting the glad allegiance of a pro-
vince which the Roman Goaernment has never
been able either to govern or protect, Victor
Emmanuel is about to be formally and nominally
excommunicated by the Pope. We seriously
doubt the statement. We believe the Court of
Rome has long been convinced of the jarecepediency•
of employing this rusty mediaeval engine( of spiri-
tual despotism. If, however, the most romantic of
Pontiffs, dwelling too much on the personal bear-
ings of the annexation, should see in the beneficent
act of the King an enormity of guilt calling for
some signal and extraordinary mark of St. Peter s
displeasure, and should pronounce the greater ex-
communication against Victor Emmanuel, the Pope
would damage only his own Chureh, by identifying
it more closely with all that is hideous and inhu-
man in his Government ; while the King would
gain one more title to the gratitude of those who
from henceforth he will call his people.--DeilY
News.

THE MORTALITY
AS MA ON BOARD
IA THE
GREAT TN.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.
To-day the inquiry commenced before the
borough coroner into the caus discharged thereat MOT-
talitv and sickness amongst the soldiers
of the European regiments, late in the service of
the East India Company whilst on board the
Great Tasmania, on their passage home from India.
There is every indication of the inquiry being
made most searching, but as far as it has gone
to-day, the likelihood is that a pretty prevalent
opinion, entertained here during the par the
ttwe o
arrivaldaYtle
will be confirmed. No person doubted, from the
statements eGnrtesatthaTtaosbmtaainnieda, ethurartenan cyafteinquiry
a portion of the men sihnotuol allegations made by
entered upon; but many--those should be
came to the conclusion (31
lar in their mode of o d rs—
q+uiestfioseZhothweerse particu
ie
investigation would show thata a
the properlycharges
nagainst
the authorities 'were greatly exaggerated, and that
most of the men
to their
predisposed, from their style
of living priorradduerdirt embarkation, to sickness.
The evidence aLds showed tthatth a por-
tion of the provisions waso-t
time it was also proved that the seamena the same
the
ship partook of the same sort of food as the soldiers,
and only one of them had died.
With regard to hammocks, it was given in eve-
dcnce that every man on going on board had a
hammock and blanket given him ; that a regular
inspection of hammocks and clothing was made,
and then it was found that the number was decreas-
ing—that a cleanly man was sure to have his good.
hammock taken, and ono fit only to be thrown over-
board left in its place.
The inquiry will be daily continued until exerr
allegation kas received a searching investigation.

An ancient usage, which dates from the time of
Henry IV.—that of giving agricultural lectures on Sunday
after wasps—has lately been revived in some COlllllllllles
France r Government patronage.