The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-02 00:00:00

THE ROMAN QUESTION.

A letter from Rome, dated the 23rd inst., says :
The Pope continues remarkably well, and may
often be seen on his afternoon drive. On Monday
he gave audience to Baron Pycke, the new Bel-
gian Minister, who afterwards, according to cus-
tom, visited Cardinal Antonelli. Earlier in the
day, being the dedication of St. Peter's, the Holy
Father heard Mass in St. Peter's, and was present
at the exposition of the greater relics which takes
place on that day, attended by the Palatine Cardi-
na2s, that is, those who, by their office, are entitled
to rEsidence in one of the Pontifical palaces.
On Tuesday he visited the Hospital of the Fate-
bene fratelli, in the Isola San Bartolomeo, where

there are about thirty convalescent soldiers, among
them Mr. Laroque, a Canadian, wounded in the face

at Atmtana.

On
O Thursday I met him walking down the Corso ;
he got into his carriage opposite San Marcello.
Among the loyal cries that greeted him I heard
Evviva Pio IX. chi ha battuto l'ltalia !"
The Osserratore Romano and the Giornale di Roma
go on publishing every day a list of voluntary sub.
scriptions collected at the office of the paper, from
the townspeople of Rome, for the three objects of
—(1), the general support of the Papal army ; (2),
the special care of the wounded; and (3) restitu-
tion for damage suffered by the people of Mentana
and Monte Rotondo. It is a good sign that the
Romans not only give to this object, but fearlessly
send their names with their offerings.
The dinner to the returned prisoners of the
Papal army, announced in my last, went off very
successfully on Sunday. It was served at twelve
o'clock in the grand sala of the Palazzo Barberini,
one of the finest rooms in Europe, and which the
Emperor Joseph 11. once drove round with three
carriages-and-six. the vast height of the receding
ceiling, painted by Pietro da Cortona, with subjects
recording the glories of the noble family to whom
the Palazzo belongs, gives it an air of peculiar
magnificence. It was festively decorated for this
occasion with wreaths and festoons of drapery. A
bust of the Pope occupied the centre of one side
wall, and opposite was the following inscription,
showing the objects of the banquet :—" To the
valiant defenders of Monte Rotondo on the days
of the 25th and 26th of October; strong in their
military bearing, stronger still by their noble
constancy in suffering all the horrors of an irapri-

sonment'glorious in its attendant circumstances—
the volunteers and citizens of Rome unite their
testimonies of esteem and gratitude." In the
centre of the hall was a round table on which
was reared a stately trophy' of palm-branches and
weapons of war. Round this sat the sixteen
officers of the lately-captive band, and with them
Marchese Patrizzi and two other members of the
Committee of Romans who have taken on them-
selves the care of looking after all the wants of
the troops. Long tables were ranged all around
the room for the men, a little over 300 in num-
bers, leaving ample space for the easy circulation
of the number of Romans and foreigners, patri-
cian and plebeian, who flocked in to wait on the
guests, and by their presence attest their gratitude
to their brave defenders.

The repast, which, be it remarked by the way
was simply called a dejeuner a la fourchette, was
really a diner complet, accompanied by abundance of
champagne and other wines. The fine band of
the Gendarmi played various airs at intervals.
Towards the close of the meal General Kanzler
pro-ministro delle armi, and Colonel d'Argy, Com-
mandant of the Roman Legion, came in, and were
received with right soldierly cheers. Marchese
Patrizzi made a short speech in eulogy of the
bravery of the troops, to which Captain Costa, of
the Roman Legion, who commanded the garrison
at Monte Rotondo, responded, expressing in a few

well turned phrases his gratitude for the solemn
testimony of esteem rendered to the troops under
his command, concluding with these words—" It is
but little we have done, but we promise you another
time our arms will be found yet stronger in the
defence of the Holy Father and his sacred rights ;"
and he proposed the health of the Papa Re, and of
the Roman people present, which wa3 honoured
with the most enthusiastic acclamations. General
Kanzler also said a few earnest words. " When
Rome was harassed by the menace of an army of
assassins (sicarii) surrounding her very walls, all
the valour of her little garrison would not have
sufficed to distance their hordes but for the fidelity
and loyal beaming of her people, and without the
co-operation of the elect band of distinguished
citizens who so readily took up arms in defence of
the Holy See. Allow me, therefore, to propose
a toast (brindisi) to the health of the people of
Rome, and especially of those generous ones who so
worthily represented them throughout the late
critical circumstances."
When the party broke up and dispersed along
the Piazza Barberini, hundreds crowded round to
press the hands of their brave defenders.
The same evening there was another festive
gathering among the military. The French officers
returned the entertainment given them on their
arrival here by the Pontificals by inviting them
in turn to meet in the Casino of their Head
Quarters in the Piazza Colonna. The reunion was
very brilliant and cordial. Two military bands,
stationed on elevated loggie on either side of the
Piazza, played concerted pieces alternately during
the evening. At the close of the evening General
de Failly proposed a toast to Pius IX. and the Ponti-
fical army, which was responded to by General
Kanzler, who proposed in turn that of Napoleon
111. and the French army.
Two more evidences of the complicity of the
Italian Government in the late invasion have just
come under my notice. A Roman gentleman I
know was staying some few weeks ago at Calvi,
where he has property. It is a place belonging
to the Roman State, but situated a few miles
within the new Italian frontier. He tells me that
when the Garibaldini came through there they
were billeted regularly like soldiers at the rate of
five on each family ; on himself, of course, like the
rest.

The other was at Monte Rotondo a day or two
ago, and is equally worth mention. The thousands
of muskets left behind in their flight by the Gari-
baldians were being tied up in bundles. A French
soldier on duty pointed out to me that these were
old French guns which the Italian Government
had purchased of the French at the close of the
Crimean War ! In leaving these masses of arms
the invaders have left a sting behind, for many of
them would appear to be still loaded and under the
careless handling of the men who were binding
them up. One went off and shot a poor fellow in
the crowd dead on the spot, wounding another. I
had certainly heard them myself repeatedly warned
by the soldiers on guard not to stand in the way
of possible casualties.
The Garibaldians have left no good impression
on the people of the place. "Oh ! what agonies of
fear we have gone through !" said a lovely, dark-
haired woman to me, who with her blue-eyed
boy in her arms, his little chubby head covered
with golden curls, might have sat as a pose to
Raffael for a Madonna. " All this was a fortnight
ago, and yet I have scarcely had courage to eat a
morsel since." " Well," I said, " it's all right now ;
you've got a garrison and you are all safe."
" Ah !" she replied, "the Eccellenza doesn't know
what such terror is—what it is to have your
house suddenly taken possession of by a parcel
of armed men, and then time after time, all day
long, to have a pistol at your head while they storm
at you—' give us something to eat !' And what are
you to do when you have nothing, and they won't
listen to a word, and only shout you must bring
them something to eat ? One does not get over
such fears in a lifetime."
At the Osteria mine host led me through his
empty rooms. "There ! that's what the Garibaldini
have done for me. All my beds gone ; all dragged
out of the house, sent up to Rome with their
wounded, or Heaven knows where, and I and my
household have to sleep on this litter of straw."
The vine -growers probably are the greatest
sufferers of all. The autumn's wine is their for-
tune—their means of subsistence for the rest of
the, year. The red wine of Monte Rotondo has a
gNat reputation round Rollie, 0,11.4 fetches a good

price. Now while the wine-presses outside every
other house are yet moist with its manufacture,
there is not a drop to be found in•the whole place,
nor a single Monte Rotondo grape to be had for
love or money.
It is curious they did not try to conciliate the
people and act a little more in accordance with
their character of pretended " liberators." Some
poor fellows, whose cattle they seized in the field
by a heartless device, they pretended to pay with
bills payable by the Garibaldian Government, to
be established in Rome within a month's date !
On the other hand the ready kindness of the
Roman committee for the wounded, without distinc-
tion between friend and foe, has had the best effect
on the Garibaldians. In the dark of the night, and
with the position of victor or vanquished to a cer-
tain extent undecided, an ambulance was promptly
improvised in a wayside chapel, used for Mass for
the shepherds, and some adjacent buildings. A
quantity of clean straw and soft canna leaves
were quickly spread within and around them, and
all appliances had been brought out ready from
Rome.

Among the Garibaldian wounded prisoners
here were two Englishmen. One is already off
the sick list ; the other was thought at first
to be the notorious " man-slayer" who follows
Garibaldi everywhere ; but it has since been ascer-
tained his name is Scholey. He expresses him-
self (only equally with the rest, but the testimony
of our own countrymen is always the most
interesting), very well pleased with the care he
receives. He was particularly struck with the rapid
and masterly way in which the amputation of his
hand was effected by the Italian operator, the
whole work occupying but a minute and a half. His
own fortitude on the terribly trying occasion was
certainly no less noteworthy. He kept his eyes
fixed on the surgeon's knife the whole time with
perfect sang froid, and afterwards taking up
the severed member he said to the infirmarian
—" Well, I've had enough of it ; it has made me
suffer pretty well. I'll make you a present of it

now !"

I am told 1,500 recruits have applied to be ad-
mitted into the Zouaves within the last few weeks.
One certainly sees great numbers of them not yet
in uniform, but dressed more or less in the na-
tional costume of their various countries, visiting
the holy places under the guidance of one or more
of the corps. In consequence of this increase of
numbers, it is on the lapis to create a third battalion
of Zouaves. Two Englishmen have been raised
this week to the grade of corporal. One is Mr.
Woodward, a young English gentlemen, who,
with so many other generous minded youths, were
not ashamed to place themselves in the ranks of
so noble an army. The other, a young private
named Shea, who has won golden opinions from
all who have ohserved him, for his cool, steady
courage, his accurate eyo in aiming, and his fine
soldierly qualities. In the Trastevere affair he was
seen, I am told, by another Zouave who was pre-
sent, to pick off five to his own share ; and his
only complaint is, that though he has been in the
thick of every encounter, he has never been able
to get a scratch whereby to shed his blood for the
Pope.
The following appropriate epitaph has been
written for young Watts Russell, whom 'mentioned
in my last :

Ileic ad Martyrum cryptas
dormit in pace
Julius Watts Russell Michaelis F.
Anglusprreclaro genera

qui.
pro Petri Sede strenue dimicans
in acie ad Mentanam occubriet
111. Non. Novemb. an. MDCCCLXVII.
an. n. XVII. mens X
Adolescens Christi miles
Vive in Deo.

It is by Padre Cardella, who has also drawn up
a little account of his life and virtues, from which I
extract a few lines.

" A shake by the hand, and a Pater and Ave
whispered together, such was the leave-taking
between him and his brother, detained in Rome
by illness, which had come upon him in the ser-
vice of the corps. With no more secular greet-
ing than this, they parted on the morning of the
memorable 3rd of November, Julian having his
knapsack already on his shoulders, ready to fall
into line. It was the first time they had ever been
separated, and within twenty-four hours the lot
had fallen to the generous boy, to which he had
offered himself up—to give his life-blood pro sede
Petri. The day before, according to this wont, he
had fortified his soul with the holy sacraments.
He fought like hero; and as his comrades bear
witness, he spoke little and prayed much. At the
very beginning of the conflict, his cap was carried
off by an enemy's ball. On several occasions :he
was seen in positions of great danger, and at last,
under Mentana, he fell mortally wounded by a
ball which entered his right eye and lodged in
the brain. The shot was aimed at him by a Gari-
baldian standing quite close lle was
a general favourite ; respected by all by reason
of the innocence of his life, and the goodness of
his heart. One little trait will serve to illustrate
his character better than any description. Some
little time before, it happened that he had some
words one day with his brother on an affair of no
great importance. Instead of continuing to argue
thel matter angrily, he said to him at last, Wilfrid
let us kneel down and make an act of contrition,
and then shake hands.' So said, so done, and thus
ended holily their brief amantium irae. Ile who
can thus conquer his own passions is safe to make
a good soldier. . . ."
It has been sought to diminish the number of
prisoners in order to reduce the expense of their
maintenance. The only condition exacted is that
they shall undertake not to bear arms again
against the Pope, and there are some from whom
this is not easy to obtain. It might be more pru-
dent to detain them a little longer, till it is seen
what the Garibaldians intend to do or attempt.
➢lazzini's circular, which you have had in the
Daily News, is very inflammatory, and it is re-
ported that it has somehow been conveyed to the
Mazzinian agents here, accompanied by secret
instructions, recommending them to continue to
agitate and disturb the quiet of the city in every
way in their power, by bombs, explosions, &c. It
is all very well to " recommend," but these things
can seldom be done .without the preparations for
them being known to some small number of the
inhabitants, and as soon as this is the case, they
are certain to be denounced to the police. There
is no need to fear, therefore, for the people are
determined to give them no admittance.
Some of the disbanded have taken to the moun-
tains, and are showing themselves in their true
colours, performing brigand exploits in the out-
lying districts. They always disperse and dis-
appear as soon as the Gensdarmes come on the
scene. Cervara, a mountain village, not far from
Subiaco, was entered by a band of about fifty of
them, who had formed part of that of the no-

torious Antinori on the 12th. It was such a poor,
high-perched place, that it had not been thought
worth while to garrison it, and doubtless, for that
reason, it was selected by the Garibaldian brigands.
They carried off everything on which they could
lay their hands, and also took with them two of
the richest men of the place, announcing that
they would only release them for the ransom of
8,000 scudi. This need not inspire intending
visitors with fear, however, as their haunts are
quite out of the line of frequented roads. Their
favourite prey is a lone monastery, and the smaller
theicommunity the more likely to receive a visit
from them. Money they always begin by asking,
but they do not object to clear the place ;of its
linen and stores also. After the example of
spoliation set them by their own Government this
is not very surprising. There was a desperately
poor little community of missionary monks who,
having been hunted out of Poland, had found
refuge in a building on top of an exceeding high
mountain, Mentorella by name. So steep was it
that when I visited it last year I had to get off my
mule and leave it behind, finishing the ascent almost
on all-fours. A band of Garibaldian brigands
found its way up here on the night of the 7th,
Having presented live muskets at 'he breasts of the
trembling porter, and exaete..l from hint the infor-
ipatiou that the Luther of the couuutthity was