The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-16 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Nov. 15.
An explosion of gas, which occasioned great
alarm, occurred yesterday morning in the Court-
house, Green-street. It was at first supposed to be
the work of Fenian incendiaries, especially as the
part of the building in which it occurred is occupied
by Crown witnesses and jurors. On examination,
however, it became evidenttbat it arose purely from
accident. The gas bad been allowed to escape dur-
ing the night in the Clerk of the Peace's office, and
when a servant woman entered the apartment,
shortly before 9 o'clock, to light the fire it exploded
with destructive effect. The roof and windows were
blown away, the doors of a set of zooms along a
corridor outside the office were burst open, and the
furniture smashed to piecs. Windows on the oppo-
site side of the street were also shattered. As the
unhappy jurors are doomed in the present unsatis-
factory state of the law to be imprisoned within the
Court-house during the trial of the case in which
they are sworn, apprehensions for their safety were
at once excited. Fortunately, however, some of them
had left a room in which they had slept imme-
diately before the accident, or, in all probability,
they would have been seriously injured. A party of
six policemen occupied the room for Crown wit-
nesses. All the occupants of the building escaped
unhurt. The woman who lighted the fire had her
hair burnt, and was rendered insensible, but, except
the shock to her nervous system, she sustained no
injury. It is reported that three women living in
Green-street, whose condition rendered them pecu-
liarly susceptible of fright, are the only sufferers
who claim any sympathy, having had their domestic
calculations thrown into sad confusion by the effects
of the accident.
The trial of Costello was resumed at the sitting of
the Commisssion Court with the further eroas-exami-
nation of the witness Corydon. He stated that he
attended the Fenian meetings in Liverpool as an
American officer. He was known personally to
more than 1,000 Fenians. He knew eight or nine
Centres in Dublin, and also knew Fenians in Cork.
He attended a meeting of 1,000 Fenians in London,
at which a subscription was raised for the defence of
the Manchester prisoners. He expected to get more
than £lOO from the Government for bis informa-
tion. John Devany, another informer, gave evi-
dence as to the connection of the prisoner with the
conspiracy. Daniel Buckley, one of the "Erin Hope"
expedition, repeated the statement which he made
on the first trial, as did also Gallagher, the pilot,
and some Coastguards and fishermen. Constable
Irwin, who arrested the prisoner along with Buckley
and Lawless, after the landing near Dungarvan,
swore that he was wet to the waist. On cross-exa-
mination he said he had no information, and was
not examined on the last trial. Mr. Redmond, re-
sident magistrate, who was present at the arrest,
corroborated the constable as to the three prisoners
being wet. On cross-examination he said he would
not swear that he felt Costello's clothes. Other wit-
nesses were examined to prove the arrest of the
whole party after landing, and the rising of the sth
March in the county of Dublin. 'lwo warders of
Kilmainham Gaol, along with the governor and
deputy governors, gave evidence respecting docu-
ments in the prisoner's handwriting which were
given in proof, and the Court was adjourned until
this morning.
John F. Nugent, one of the prisoners who was
acquitted at Manchester and re-arrested, has been
conveyed to Drogheda, his native town, where his
return created no little sensation on Wednesday after-
noon. Precautions had been deemed necessary to
prevent any attempt at rescue. The prisoner, who is
about 23 years of ago, and 6ft. in height, served his
time to his father, who is a builder. His Fenian
sympathies brought him under the notice of the police
at an early period, and in Oct., 1865, he was arrested
on a warrant from the Lord Lieutenant, and after
four months' imprisonment was liberated ou giving
heavy bail. In May, 1866, he was again arrested by
the police, who found him in a back parlour in his
• father's house. lie contrived,: however, to engage
them in conversation while suddenly throwing up
the sash, and springing from the window, a height
of from 12ft. to lift., with extraordinary agility, he
succeeded in effecting his escape. The most careful
search was made for him, but without effect. He
got off from Drogheda in disguise, and made his
way to Manchester, where he followed his trade as
carpenter until he again fell into the hands of the
police in consequence of the attack upon the police
van. He was not present at the rising in Drogheda,
having, it is said, left the town four months before
the outbreak.

A man named Foley, who stated that be was a
blacksmith, wa3 brought up at Kenmare petty ses-
sions on Wednesday, charged with the illegal pos-
session of arms. He was remanded for further in-
quiry. Some importance is attached to his arrest
by the police. It is stated in a Cork paper that
straggling parties of Americans are hovering about
the locality in the hope of being able to organise
another " rising." No evidence of their presence
has yet been a fforied, and the police are constantly
on the alert.

DUBLIN, Friday Evening.
Costello has been convicted, and will be sentenced

to-morrow.

It is understood that Warren and Halpin wil
also be sentenced to-morrow.

The proceedings of the Commission have termi
nated, except the sentences.
The remaining prisoners will be tried at Sligo.

THE ROMAN QUESTION.

A letter from Rome, dated Nov. 9, says :

After I had posted my letter to you last week I
met the Holy Father on the Bridge of St. Angelo.
He was looking fairly well but a little pale and
thoughtful. He takes the greatest interest in the
sufferings of the wounded soldiers, and has ordered
every available space in the Quirinal to be devoted
to affording additional hospital room. He gave
up his animal visit to St. Carlo in Corso, on the
4th, I hear, because he felt the pomp and ceremonial
which accompanies it out of place amid present
anxieties. On the sth he received in private audi-
ence his Excellency lion Alessandro de Castro,
accredited Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-
tentiary from her most Catholic Majesty. The
Spanish Ambassador visited Cardinal Antonelli the
same day, according to usual etiquette.
Yesterday there was a Mortuary Mass in the
Sixtine Chapel for the souls of all those who have
fallen in the late action. The Holy Father was
present, and gave the absolution. His voice was
much agitated as he did so.
I spoke last week, but I think I hardly dwelt suf-
ficiently, of one of the most remarkable and signi-
ficant incidents of the present struggle, namely,
the way in which the guardianship of the Vatican
is confided almost entirely to Romans and volun-
teers. The historic Swiss guard, indeed, in their
gorgeous apparel, walk up and down and make
unsurpassed foreground incidents to its time-
honoured vistas, but they carry never a gun,
and their slender lances looked as if they might be
snapped in twain by a child. The real defenders
of the person of the Roman Pontiff are the Pala-
tine or National Guard, composed entirely of
towns-people, who volunteer their services freely
without counting the cost in the interruption of
business and family arrangements. More than
this, they have lately offered to devote themselves
to any military service for the defence and &Jen-
rity of the city. The Roman Government is under
so little apprehension as to the tdmper of the
Roman people that it does not feel called upon
to interfere with *the papers for reproducing the
bombastic proclamations of Garibaldi and his
" Generals," ,or the most mischievous and spiteful
misrepresentations of the Italian papers. On the
contrary, they fill sheets with these things every
day, and contribute one large item of mirth at
least, amid all that is sad around us, to the con-
versation of our lengthening evenings.
The French troops continue to come in in small
detachments, but they have not as yet, at least,
taken the prominent part they assumed when last
here. They have so far
,only acted as auxiliaries,
which is very well, in so far that itputs the Pope's
troops in their proper place ; but it does not look
As if the Eniperca meant to be very energet- •
-•

is as yet most difficult to guess what his intenti_ons
are. The men appear to show a better spirit,, than
when here before, towards the local troops. The
latter have shown themselves such thorough. soldiers
that every one, not utterly blinded byl prejudice,
must honour them. The French have held out
their hands to them with frank and. soldierly cor-
diality. I extract the following on the subject
from a Roman paper :
" On Thursday evening the wl. tole staff of tini
Pontifical officers entertained at a banquet the
officers of the various French c, nips which have
come to share with our brave def anders the great
cause of the Roman Pontificate. The greatest
cordiality reigned on both sides. The soldiers of
the great French nation pressed. the hands of our
men, expressing aloud, and in the -warmest terms,-
the admiration they entertained fop the Pontifical.
army, which in the space of Mile more than a
month has given the world such brilliant evi-
dences of their military bravery, honour, and
loyalty. This acknowledgment, offered by the
noble and generous army of France is a first and•
welcome recompense to our good and brave sol-
diers, while a more solemn and general testimony
will shortly be rendered them by the most culti-
vated and civilized
,nation of Europe."
You know by this time that the Italian troops
entered the Pontifical territory at several points,
among others Orte, Civita Castellana on the north,
and Ceprano, Frosinone, and 'Terracing on the
south, the very day that the French entered Rome,
the 30th of October. Between these positions and
Rome were posted the Garibaldini as the pioneers •
of the regular army. At Velletri they organized,
or pretended to organize, a plebiscite under the
auspices of Nicotera ; votes of mere children were
taken, but even so the final result was miserable.

The Garibildians were divided into three bodies
—that of Nicotera at Velletri, of Acerbi at Viterbo,
and of Garibaldi at Monte Rotondo, in all more
than 15,000 men. Under Garibaldi were 12,000.
Acerbi and Nicotera gave each other the title of
pro-dit-tatori, of course pointing to Garibaldi as
the dittatore. They issued proclamations, in which
they declared the Pope bereft of his temporal
sovereignty, and gave regulations for what they
called the Ministry of Public Instruction. I have
no such precise information as to the numbers in the
effective detachments of the Italian regular troops ;
but there was this difference in the conduct of their
leaders that they affected an appearance of re-
spect for the temporal sovereignty. Thus at
Civita Castellana they set up the Pontifical arms
which had been torn down by the " patriots ;" it is
true they whispered under breath as they did so,
" Wait a little, our time is not yet come."
Meantime, at Florence it was being published
that these commanders had been assailed by peti-
tions from the Roman population, imploring an
immediate annexation. Of course this is false. if
any such petition was sent in it was from a small
knot of individuals, and not from the population.
The revolutionists do not generally show them-
selves very courageous in this part of the world ;
they never compromise themselves until they have
a certainty they can do so with impunity ; they
remember too well how in 1860, when the whole
province of Viterbo was occupied by the Italian
troops, they had organized a plebiscite producing,
of course, the most prodigious results, they thought
their whole work done. Duke Sforza Cesarini
was already named a royal commissary. Then one
fine morning General De Goyon received orders
from Paris to send 1,500 French troops down from
Rome. Here was a dilemma. General De Goyon,
wishing to hurt no one's feelings, wrote the night
before "Al Signore Sindaco di Viterbo," to an-
nounce that 1,500 French soldiers would arrive on
the morrow, and he would be good enough to ap-
point them quarters. The letter thus addressed
was, of course, taken to the Pontifical Sindaco,
who sent it on to the Sindaco created by the Pied-
montese. This closed the farce, for the next day
there were neither Italian troops, nor Commissary
Royal, nor Piedmontese Sindaco, to be found in
all 'Viterbo, and the day after the French marched
in without let or hindrance.

On the 2nd of November Garibaldi divided his
men between Monte Rotondo and Mentana. These
two little towns are about two miles apart,' on the
left bank of the Tiber, about sixteen miles from
Rome. Monte Rotondo has a population of 2,500;
Mentana not more than 6000. He seems to have
kept up a certain amount of discipline. He is said
to have had four of his men shot for stealing
sheep, but he seems to have had no regulation
against blasphemy, outraging women, or insulting
and ill-treating priests. His followers kept their
horses in the church of Monte Rotondo, regardless
of the indignation of the inhabitants.
At four o'clock in the morning of the 3rd inst.,
about 5,000 men started from Rome for Monte Ro-
tondo. It was an expedition indeed. There were
about 3,000 Pontificals, commanded by General de
Courten and 2 ,000 French, under the command of
Brigadier-General de Polhes, General Kanzler
holding the supreme command. The French had
only two or three priests from St. Luigi dei Fran-
cesi, who volunteered to accompany them in place
of chaplains ; but each Pontifical corps had one or
two chaplains of its own. In time of war the
Pontifical chaplains ride on horseback, but in
secular dress. They bear on their breasts a silver
custode, containing the sacred particles, so that
they may give Communion to the dying soldier
without spending time in casting about to find a
church. The French ambulance service and vic-
tualling department was admirably organized, but
the Pontifical carps was badly appointed in both
these respects ; however, several pious laymen,
just arrived from Paris—MM. Keller, Ozanam,
Benoist-d'Azy, &c., had followed the Pontifical
volunteers into the field with Sisters of Charity
and carriages and appliances for the wounded.
With them was also a courageous English lady,
Mrs. Stone. This lady has been seen quietly
attending a group of wounded, paying no more
heed to the balls flying about her than an old sol-
dier.

It would not be worth while to fill up your
columns with minute details of the battle which
happened on the 3rd and 4th, seeing that this
account cannot be published till the 16th. The
following particulars, however, will be interesting
to your readers, as they were collected on the spot,
and will not be found in any other paper.
The Pontifical column marched at the head of
the expedition, and arrived at the scene of action
at 1 p.m., on the 3rd. The French column marched
a few miles behind as a corps of reserve. The
Zouaves marched first. It rained up to eight
o'clock, but without damping the ardour of the
men. They halted at ten for breakfast on a slice
of bread moistened by the rain, and a bit of meat
which each man carried in his knapsack. Up to
one o'clock they saw no signs of the enemy ; for,
it would seem, Garibaldi had been informed of the
line our troops were to take. His agent in this
affair is thought to have been Mrs. Mario (White)
again, whom he had sent into Rome as a spy two
nights before (she has now been recommended by
the police to keep quietly in her hotel) ; and thus
he was enabled to establish his outposts very
wisely about two miles on the Mentana-road.
They received the Zouaves with a murderous fire,
and this brave corps had to lament a heavy loss
in dead and wounded ; among the former was
Captain de Veaux. The other corps came up one
after the other ; and while the sixteen pieces of
ordnance brought with them thundered against
Garibaldi's artillery pointed at them from behind
the walls of Mentana, the other Pontificals sur-
rounded the town. The French, who came upon the
place at about half past three, did wonders with
the Chassepot rifle, that day brought into service
for the first time; and yet, at nightfall, the day
was still undecided, and the night was spent by
both sides in the open field.
The next morning, while a reinforcing column
was on its way from Rome under the orders of
General Dumont, a few rounds of artillery, and a
charge at the bayonet's point, determined the
Garibaldini to surrender. They were utterly de-
moralized by the enormous losses of the night be-
fore, and also by Garibaldi having, as usual, run
away when he found the tide against him. He was
also accompanied by his son Menotti. At nine
the town capitulated ; but the paribaldini were
Still go numerous, that it was found necessary to

let them depart in peace on laying down their arms,
lest they should have created a dearth of pro-
visions as prisoners. They are supposed to have
lost 400 or 500 killed, and wounded in proportion,
and there are 1,600 prisoners.
I must now send you, to compare with this ac-
count, some passages from a narrative of a Gari-
baldian combatant in the action, calling himself
Carlo Cacciani, which appears in the Nazione. It
corroborates the above account in all the main
particulars, which is noteworthy, being from a
writer of very different politics and calibre.
• . . "In consequence of advices received
from Florence, orders were given in the night that
all our various columns should rendezvous at 11.30
next day on the road leading to Mentana. Accord-
ingly, at midday on the 3rd, the various columns
were in motion for that place, with our three bat-
talions of Genoese Bersaglieri at their head. . .

The commander of the battalion confided to me
the charge of regulating the service of the van-
guard. . . . We had got within a kilometre
and a half of the village without scent of an ene-
my. . . . I pursued my way boldly, therefore,
and occupied every bit of rising ground on our
passage. . . . But this security was not to last
long ; for, having climbed a hillock somewhat
higher than the others, I found myself the object of
a volley of shot. I returned in something quicker
than haste to the level road, and posted the best
shots under my command in various positions
calculated to obtain observation of the enemy's
movements, and to offer resistance in case of attack ;
but, in my doubt whether the volley had not been
fired by mistake from some of our advanced posts,
I determined to make one more investigation before
I gave the alarm to the column. Accordingly, I
sallied further:on in company with an officer of our
company, and holding my revolver in my hand.
Before we had advanced 200 metres, keeping our-
selves well under the cover afforded by the nature of
the soil, we soon convinced ourselves that the enemy
was advancing slowly upon us, protected by a
line of Zouaves drawn out Bersaglieri fashion.
We now lost no time in returning to our vanguard
to acquaint the commander of our battalion with
our discovery. I sent a guide on horseback to
him in all haste, with injunctions to beg a rein-
forcement of two companiesto assist in holding the
position committed to me, a most important one.
But the said guide did more harm than good, for
he first wore out his horse by tearing along at a
furious gallop, and then contrived to get himself
into such a state of agitation and excitement, that
he filled all the:surrounding volunteers with panic,
thinking some fearful reverse must have befallen
us ; and the end of it was, he never made my
request for reinforcements understood. at all."
[Doubtless the said " guide " was some faithful
peasant subject of the Pope, who was doing his
little best to damage the invaders of his country.]
" Finding it impossible to hold out with the small
force at my disposal, I again sent to beg reinforce-
ment, but every man of the army had his hands
full by that time. . . . Those who had good
legs and stout arms cut themselves a passage through
the ranks:of the enemy ; the rest fell upon the spot
or were taken prisoners. Meantime the battle had
assumed vaster proportions, and our men, in order
not to be taken in flank, had to fall back on Men-
tans, but not without disputing every scrap of
cover by the way. As battalion after battalion of
the enemy came up, they at once threw themselves
into line, and you may well believe that at every
fresh arrival the struggle grew frightfully more
fierce, till the ground was lost to view under the
bodies of the dying and the dead. . . . I have
nothing to say against the conduct of our leaders,
for the greater number fell where the. danger was
greatest. . . . But the losses we had suffered
in killed and wounded, as well as in defections
from the ranks, and a multitude of other causes,
contributed to prostrate the strength and courage
of the volunteers, and so hour:by hour their ardour
went out, and by night all was lost. The retreat
was not carried out in the best possible order, it
must be confessed ; but by seven o'clock all the
forces that could be called together had re-entered
Monte Rotondo. At first it had been intended to
enter into new measures for its defence ; but, by
Garibaldi's express order this, was given up, and
.the evacuation commenced next morning. Our
losses are very great—l should calculate not less
than 1,000, between killed, wounded, and prison-
ers.'

On the Roman side nearly 250 men were put
hors de combat, among them five Pontifical and
four French officers. The large proportion which
the Zouaves bear of this loss is to be explained by
the impetuosity with which these brave but impru-
dent soldiers throw themselves upon the enemy
without thinking of cover for themselves.
There have been many instances of Christian
courage which deserve to be put on record. Thus
a Peruvian Zouave, Sevilla by name, who received
five wounds, coolly made the sign of the cross on
each, saying, 44 Viva Gesii ! viva Maria I" Another
Zouave had, at the beginning of the battle, made
a vow to eat nothing till he had communicated ;
and as he could not receive communion till the next
day, and that in the afternoon, he continued all
that time cheerfully without food. A Roman
trumpeter, who had his right hand shot through,
continued through the action to hold the trumpet
with the left.

The wounded Pontificals and French have been
brought into Rome, overflowing the military hos-
pital of San Spirito, and other hospitals also.
Numbers of Romans sent their carriages out to
fetch them, and have even taken them into their
own houses to nurse.

Amid all their pain the same spirit of cheerful
devotion continues to prevail, and as one passes
from one sufferer to another, the words one hears
from each sound like the voices of the early mar-
tyrs of the faith rather than those of the nineteenth
century soldiers ; the same breathings of enthu-
siastic love of God and ardent desire to be spent
in His cause uttered in the various idioms of every
Christian country. There lie side by side one
from Nantes and one from Madrid, wounded by
a splinter from the same shell. Neither will pro-
bably ever see his home again, or should we !not
rather say they will both go together to their new
true home. A young Swiss is next who knows no
rest night or day but while some ministering hand
drops the snow upon his wound, and as we are
busied with him, his opposite companion, hearing
our English name, writes his own on a slip of paper
with his left hand, for he has a ball in his right
elbow, and sends it across to us, begging us to
let him have an English book tomorrow. He
comes from a far:off colony. He is not at the
worst yet. To-morrow he will have the fever,
poor fellow, and will be in no condition to read;
but he is so cheery now, you would think he had
hardly a scratch. The Garibaldian wounded are
also being attended to in convents by Italian and
French surgeons.

On Wednesday the victorious companies marched
back into Rome. The hour of their arrival had
been announced in the papers, and Rome accord-
ingly turned out to meet them at the gates. Rome
has, of late, amid all these distractions, been look-
ing her loveliest ; a slight tramontana glazing her
pure atmosphere, and bringing out every countless
variety of tint of purples on the mountains, and
madders on the ruins, and greens upon the grass
and trees, each with a separate value, like a vast
world all of jewels, and her own sun shining
through their transparency, and surrounding them
with a golden setting as it never shines out of
Rome. Every one who has seen the country round
Porta Pia on such a day can represent it to himself
as it was on Wednesday, for it is a vision of beauty
which cannot be forgotten; but the spirit-stirring
scene which followed no one can imagine. A few
more English have arrived since last week ; but I
regretted there were so few of them to witness it, as
such demonstrations can hardly occur many times
in a lifetime. The following is the dry list of the
order of march :—First, the staff of generals of the
two armies, and the superior officers of the different
corps, took their stand on the Piazza :di Termini
to see the troops defile. Then marched past, by
way of vanguard, a company of Zouaves, a divi-
sion of Roman Artillery, two battalions of Zouaves,
a battalion of Carabinieri esteri, a battalion of the
,Roman Legion, a battery of Artillery, followed by