The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-01 00:00:00

THE I3IPRISONED ENGLISH ENGINEERS
AT SALERNO.

VA) following is a copy of the oil apers
relative to the imprisonment of the engineers,
Watt and Park, at Salerno, which ware yeAtrday
printed by order of Parlloaneut :
ACTING-CONSUL BARBAR TO THE EARL OF CLARENDOK.
(Received Dec. 5.)
(Extract.) Naples, Nay. 28, 1857.
I have the honour to report to your lordship that on
the 25th inst. I proceeded, together with Mr. Park, to
Salerno to visit the two engineers.
On reaching that town 1 applied to the Attorney-Ge-
neral, in order that he would issue the necessary orders
to the prison authorities for our admission, and I availed
of the opportunity to express to him my regret that
when 11 of the crow of the Cagliari had been released
from prison the engineers Watt and Park had not been
included, and I requested to be informed when the trial
would come on,
He replied that they were not released, because a
letter of Miss Whyte's of a serious nature had been
found on Watt, or in his cabin on board the Cagliari,
which had been conveyed to him from the shore at
Genoa Park, and that he could not state when the trial
would commence.
Oa entering the prison where the two engineers were
cenfincd I strictly examined them both on the subj-ct
of the letter in question, and I am happy to say that the
Attorney-General's report to me was completely false.
Park never took any litter on board, and Watt never
received one. Park assured me that some days since Le
was brought before the Attorney-General, where he
found already waiting there one of the insurgents, who
was brought to give his evidence. This individual
deposed in favour of Watt and Park, completely exo
aerating them from any complicity in the affair of the
seizure of the Cagliari, and stated that he (deponent),
wi h others, had forced a notice upon Park by holding
daggers at his:throat till he took it ; that the notice was
to the effect that if he did his duty no harm would hap-
pen to him (Park) and his companion ; but if otherwise
they would forfeit their lives." That both engineers
were then forced down the engine-room, and one of the
insurgents stood over them with a pistol, while another,
also armed, stood at the top of the engine-room pre-
pared to fire on the engineers if the insurgents perceived
anything to rouse their suspicions. Park further informs
that when the witness bad stated thus much, the Attor-
ney-General, who had apparently taken down the depo-
sition
as it was uttered, had purposely so altered the
wording that on reading it to deponent he refused to
sign it, as the Attorney-General had contrived to make
the deposition against the engineers, instead of a com-
plete acquittal.
The deponent insisted upon that page of the procs
being torn out, and the Attorney-General finally, but
reluctantly, did an.
I was informed at, Salerno, by good authority, that
en the 19th Oct., when the engineers were pronounced
to have been lawfully arrested, the President of the
Grand Court was very desirous of setting the engineers
at liberty ; but the Attorney-General insisted that it
should be otherwise.
'lnclosed, I have the honour of transmitting a state-
ment which I have drawn up from the reports of Watt
and Park, ma le to me in the presence of the father of
the letter, who has signed it with me; it is too full of
the misery which the poor men have suffered to require
any comments from me.

ENCLOSURE.
Statement drawn up by Mr. Acting-Coisul Bsrbar from
the report verbally made to him by Henry Watt and
Charles Park, Briiish subjects, late engineers of the
Sardinian steamer Cagliari, now.coofined in the prison
of Salerno, near Naples, and testified by Mr. Charles
Park, father of the fore-mentioned Park, who was
likewise present.
Watt and Park were landed from the steamer Cagliari
at the end of June last, together with the captain of that
ship, her crow, and passengers. The captain, engineers,
and passengers were at once conveyed to the Vicaria
prison unbound, but the crew were handcuffed.
As soon as they reached the prison the engineers, as
well as the others, were desired that if they had any papers
they would give them up. Watt had none. Park gave up'
his pocket-book,iwherein he had a copy of a note which the
insurgents had forced upon him when they took posses-
sion of the steamer shortly after leaving Genoa ; the
original remained on board.
This note was not signed by any person, nor addressed
to any one, and was worded nearly as follows, viz :
" We have resolved to free our country from the yoke
of slavery under which we have so long suffered, and we
call upon all upright men to aid us. If you do your
duty, no harm shall befall you ; but if otherwise your
lives are sacrificA."
They (the engineers and others) on arriving at the
prison were stripped naked by the police or prison
authorities, and in that pozition were jeered at by them
. . .

After allowing them to dret,s again the two engineer?,
with the passengers were conveyed to a prison on the
ground floor, consisting of two small room., which were
very damp, with one email iron-barred window, which
looked into the prison yard. Through this window the
sun never entered, and scarcely were they able to distin-
guish daylight through it.
To the misery of damp and bad ventilation was added
one greater—viz., that, in lieu of watercloset, a wooden
tub was placed in the middle of each room. These two
tubs were emptied every evening, if the engineers paid
some person to do so, but not otherwise. They were
never washed, and the stench, especial), at night, whin
the small barred window was closed, was very great ;
and their health soon began to suffer. These two men
were kept in those rooms duringthe three hottest months
in the year—viz, July, Aug., and Sept. They were taken
cut of them when required by the police authorities to
submit them to an interrogatory. On such occasions they
were handcuffed before leaving the room, and brought
back in the same manner. Park mentioLs that on one
occasion they c nducted himthrough damp undergrAind
prisons before bringing him to be interrogated ; and from
the manner of the men who guarded him, he understood
that the intention was to intimidate him.

The atowana ) mad, to them by the Neapolitan
Government is—black bread of a ♦ery bad quality, and
soup of so nauseous a nature that they turned always
from it in disgust, and four grani per day each (less than
2d.) in money.
Money was occasionally sent to them by myself and
some English engineers resident at Naples, by which
they were enabled to buy better food.
Their beds consisted of boards supported on wooden
trestles, with ono mattress stuffed with bad tow, mixed
with bite of straw. They suffered much from vermin.
In the beginning of October they, with the captain and
crew, were removed from the Vicaria prisons to those of
Salerno.

The manner this was effected was as follows :

The police handcuffed Park, and passed a leather
strap besides, through both arms ; they attempted the
same with Watt, but he resisted the indignity as long as
he had strength, but being overpowered, he was hand-
cuffed and strapped in the same manner as Palk. They
were then tied together, and put into a carriage into
which three gendarmes likewise entered. The windows
of the carriage were drawn up ; and thus suffering from
the tightness with which they were bound, they were
forced to perform at a slow pace a journey of about 30
miles by night, in a carriage hermetically closed.
They begged repeatedly that a window might be let
down for the sake of air. Their request was net complied
with.
When they reacho 1 the prison of Salerno the crew of
the Cagliari were placid in two rooms—one a large airy
room, the other smaller, but well ventilated.
The captain and the tao en;iseers were put into a
small room immediately under those occupied by the
crew, which belonged to the gaoler. The morn being
situated very low, and the space occupied by their three
bobs leaving them little space to walk in, Vie captain
commenced suffering from bowel complaint ; Watt has
threatened insanity ; and Park, who enj eyed very good
health before his imprisonment, no es suffers from fits.
A petition was sent by them to the Attorney-General,
begging that they might be placed in the same rooms
with the crew, which was granted one day before our
going to Salerno—namely, on the 24th of November.
They hove now a certain space to walk in, in the
larder room of the two.
" Since their arrival a Solerno the engineers have fre-
quently been conveyed from their prison to the tribunal
to be examined by the Attorn:y-General. Oo these oc-
casions they have been paraded through the streets of
Salerno, strongly guarded and handcuffed.
They have repeated'y begged that they might be q a-ed
the pain and humiliation of nandcuffi, but their prayer
has always been refused.
The handcuffs are made of iron. Park states that for
several days after they reached Salerno the marks
were still visible on their wrists and arms, from the tight
ness wiLla which they were bound when they were taken
from Naples to Salerno.
" The small sum of four grani per day, allowed to each
man by the Neapolitan Government, enables them to
pay for the hire of their beds.
" The beds are of a better description than those they
had at Naples.
"The company to whom the Cagliari belongs allows
22 persone, helps about 12e. 2d. daily to assist the crew in their subsis-
tence. but this small sum, having. to be divided among
may speedily be
"The earnest prayer of the engineers that they
until within the lbasrtoulgO
them but very little.
been confined for five the without teiog allowed,
months
onthe onethem
in theoccasion,
prison
wtetn
Nledtt:
to tr isaele.
any They o
one, excepting
already
an engineere.ples moments ; and,
if this just prayer is not immediatelya
the undereiened, fear to
which are likely to befall these we complied with, we,
upon the consequences
(Signed) LEWIS J. ZerleneiArt, Acting
Cclaigarulaelsi, Pnoesvrki,lnlat.e nerneer of the
CHARLES PARK, British
setnio.ri 'a'laer of
Nails, Nov. 26. pi waned at Salerno.

SMOKING NOT ALLOWED.—On Wednesday last, while
Lard Stanley was being conducted over the norther.
docks and works at Liverpool, Mr. Charles Tomer of.
fered a Havannah cigar to his Lordship, a• d both having
provoked the perfume consequent on ignition a police-
man suddenly appeared wit—" No smoking allovu3 I
here, Sir." " Nonsense," said Mr. Turner, " lam the
chairman of the dock committee." "Then," responded
the constable, " you ought to know better than to
vi' ate the law—you niust not smoke here." The
policeman applied fur and obtained a sninnaons against
Lord Stanley and Mr. Turner ; but Major Greig, on
Saturday, applied to Mr. Dixon, then on the bench,
and obtained permission to withdraw the suromors.
The rumour, however, is that the constable was an un-
conscious instrument in perpetrating a hoax; for his cor-
rect sense of duty was practised on by Mr. Alderman
Bold, who, with the other members of the committee,
enjoyed the joke.—Liverpool Poet.