The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-11 00:00:00

THE WESTMINSTER BELL.

We (Tines) have received another abusive letter
on the Westminster Bell from Mr. E. B. Denison,
which we do not mean to publish. When Mr.
Denison wishes to make a plain and reasonable
statement on this subject our columns shall be ,open
to him as they have often been before; but so long
as he continues in his present frame of mind, pouring
out peals of jarring abuse, not only against our-
selves, but against everyone else who dares to say
a word on the subject which does not chime with
his fancy, we must consider him somewhat in the
position of his own bell—as something to be taken
down—to be lowered from that position as speedily
and. as silently as possible. We are indeed quite at
a loss to imagine what there can now be left for
Mr. Denison to do in this line. 'The clock is finished
at last and going. The bell, and not one bell, but
two, which he designed and certified to, are gone
—wretched failures—cracked brass and nothing
more. The last of these was, according to Mr.
Denison's theory, imperfect and a fraud when he
certified to it. Why, then, did he pass it ? Where
was his judgment ? According to another supposi-
tion, it was not imperfect at first, but cracked
afterwards, either from the way it was struck or
the way it was hung, for both of which operations
Mr. Denison was responsible. Not as a designer,
then, nor as a judge, nor as a bellhanger, do we
think that he has shown such skill as to render it
a matter of public interest that he should design,
certify to, or hang a third bell. We think, in short,
that in these branches of art his occupation is gone.
We wish him every success in any other career, but
we do not wish him to have anything to do with a
third bell, and we shall be much mistaken if the
public in general, and Mr. Fitzroy in, particular,
are not of our opinion.

THE JESSOP MURDER.--A man named Cregh has
been arrested near Clare, in King's County, on tho
charge of being implicated in the agrarian murder uprdroero,eas4faTe
(hi o as
0.
Jessop. A man called Mahon has also been lodged in gaol.
Both were seized in bed, and on the bolster being raised a
pair of pistols, capped and loaded, a bullet-mould, and pow-
der and shot, were discovered. The prisoners were evi-
dently prepared for resistant, but the police
cautiously that a scuffle did not take place.

MEW THEATRE - ROYAL, AD ELPHI.
1I Sole proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.
Open for the Winter Season.
THIS EVENING will be performed ICI ON PARLE
FRANCAIS. Messrs. J. L. Toole, Chas Selby, and Miss
Kelly.
After which, THE WILLOW COPSE. Luke, Mr. Ben.
Webster ; Hulks, Mr. David Fisher ; Augustus, Mr. J. L.
Toole ; Staggers, Mr. Paul Bedford.
Followed by LOVE AND HUNGER. Mr. David Fisher,
Mr. Paul Bedford, C. Selby, C. J. Smith, Miss K. Kelly, Miss
Laidlaw.
Doors open at half-past six—Commence at seven. Box-
Office open from 10 to 5. No charge for securing seats,
nor fer bills of performance. All fees to servants of this
establishment are strictly prohibited.
Acting Manager—Mr. Win. Smith.

ROYAL ST. JAMES'S THEATRE,
King-street, St. James's. Lessee, Mr. T. B. Chatter-
ton. The nearest Theatre to Chelsea, Pimlico, and West-
minster, the Park being open to carriages and foot passen-
gers all hours of the night.
THIS EVENING, THE WIDOW'S WEDDING.
After which the successful Ballet Farce, by John Oxen-
ord, Esq., entitled MAGIC TOYS, supportA:by Miss Lydia
Thompson, Miss Clara St. Casse, and a numerous Corps de
Ballet.

To conclude with the New and Original Burlesque, by L.
_Buckingham, Esq., of VIRGINIUS ; or the Trials of a Fond
Papa. in which Messrs. C. Young, Barrett, A. Denial, Francis;
Mesdames Frank Matthews, Clara St. Casse, Eliza Arden,
C. Itanoe, Lydia Thompson, and a numerous. Corps de Ballet
will appear.
Reduced Prices—Gallery, 6d ; Pit, is. The Box-office open
trot:111 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past six ; perform'
ance commences at 7.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborough
THIS EVENING, THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN
EGGS.
other
After which THE GREAT RUSSIAN BEAR ; or, An-
Retreat from Moscow.
And CAUGHT BY THE EARS.
Followed by THE VERY LATEST EDITION OF THE
LADY OF LYONS.
Commence at 7 o'clock.

CANTERBUR V' HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EVENING.—The Music of Verdi's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
certs), the extraorainary Violin Performances of the cele-
l•rated Infant DELEPIERRE FAMILY, and the usual
Vocal Concert.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critahfield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated end
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
Will shortly be produced, a Grand Selection from Meyer-
beer's new opera of DINORAH.

THE WEATHER.—Svw OFFICE, OCTOBER 11.
THERMOMETER, IN THETSHADB.
61—highest since soon yesterday.
56—lowest this morning and during the night.
59—this day at noon.
Binomwrzn-29.54.
WIND, N.W. ; light, with dull cloudy weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAY.—Morning, lh. 25m.—Afternoon, Ih. 41m.
To-Moßßow-Morning, lh. 55m.—Afternoon, 2h." lOnt.

It is im possible to contemplate without a shudder
the dreadful tragedy which has recently desecrated
the streets of Parma—the hideous and brutal mur-
der of the unfortunate Colonel ANVITI. Further
particulars have now enabled us to recognise only
too vividly the whole horror of this atrocious and
most lamentable catastrophe. Musing over those
particulars, one cannot but instinctively call to
mind that despairing cry which rang from the lips
of the beautiful ROLAND when she stood upon the
scaffold of the guillotine awaiting her own turn
for execution—that lamentable cry which will re-
sound for ever down the lengthened perspective of
history—" Oh, Liberty ! in thy name what crimes
are perpetrated !" Here, in this detestable assassi-
nation of the Count ANVITI, is the latest and not
the least execrable of these peculiar atrocities.
Until ANVITI was "dose to death" in the streets of
Parma, during one of the earlier days of this
month of October (the Fifth)—the calm, ma-
jestic, resolute, and tranquil attitude main-
tained by the population of the Duchies from
the moment when their respective Princes
had fled to the camp of the Austrians (there
flagrantly to draw the sword amongst the foes of
Italian independence), this calm, majestic, resolute,
and tranquil attitude on the part of the population
of the Duchies had been the theme of very general
and of nobly-deserved admiration. Sympathising
here in England with the loftier hopes and aspira-
tions of the Italians, we all said exultingly, in the
presence of that superb self-command on the part
of the inhabitants of those central portions of the
Roman peninsula—They are worthy of realising
those glorious dreams of their social and political
emancipation ! Suddenly, in the midst of which
emotional greetings of applause from their sympa-
thisers, come from Parma the tidings of this most
unlooked for calamity ! Happily—(it is about the
only thought by way of compensative mitigation
left to us)—" It all passed," we do believe, as it is
said to have done by an eyewitness, or rather by one
who was there in Parma at the period of the asFassi-
nation—" It all passed in a sudden whirl." It was
—we are firmly persuaded—the act resulting from
an outburst of popular delirium : a deed—abrupt
and unpremeditated.

Intelligence suddenly falls like a bombshell into
the midst of the city of Parma—news that Colonel
ANVITI, commander of the Parma soldiery during
the brief interval when martial law was enforced,
that Colonel ANvITI of all men, he who was among
the most detested among all the adherents of the
late dynasty (as his dreadful death, indeed, has but
too signally demonstrated)—that Colonel ANVITI
had been discovered on the frontiers! That the
ex-commander of Parma had been discovered there
—disguised—in company, it was said, with an Aus-
trian general—he himself (ANvrrt) having in his
possession letters, money, and a Papal passport. To
gether with these sudden tidings came the knowledge
that Col. ANVITI had been placed in the custody of
the gendarmes (by the patriotic volunteers by whom
he had been captured), and that he was then actually
at that moment in Parma in the barracks of the
gendarmes under temporary confinement. Here
obviously was the error of the authorities. A pri-
soner of such importance, one so especially hateful
to the population, ought in reason to have been
encircled by a guard proportioned in energy and
determination to the extent of AN VITI'S unpopularity
and to the exceeding gravity of the time and cir-
ourotances. The tidings of the wretched prisoner's
capture, we are told, " ran suddenly like a shock
through the city "—it passed mysteriously througii
all Parma with "a thrill of execration." The cor-
respondent who recounts the murder to one
of our principal morning contemporaries, the
Post, sums up the deed o f
,A bloodcrowd
gathered in a
single sentence when he writes_
gathered round the barrack, and on a suddpenopmuolavcee-
merrt a number of the most brutal of the
burst in, stabbed the wretched man to devaitno.
h,
draped his body through the streets, and ha
out cdf his head, placed it upon the column of the

piazza." And he adds in words, which, notwithstand-
ing their intentional vagueness are only too fright-
fully suggestive—" It is a painful fact that none of
those hideous outrages which usually accompany
these acts of popular fury were spared on this oc-
casion, and the murder wants no single element of
atrocity. I spare you the loathsome details." Ex-
planation unhappily is needless to those who have
conned (and who has not ?) the records of those
epochs of glory and of shame, of sublime hopes and
of utter despair, when the rule in France was the
Reign of Terror, and when the insurgents of June
(1848) were fighting for three days at unnumbered
barricades all over Paris in a deadly encounter with
the Soldiers of ORDER rather than of the Republic
under the command of CAVAIGNAC, the heroic
Dictator, born of the Provisional Government.
Reverting, however, to the horrible crimes per-
petrated upon the person of the unhappy Colonel
ANvITI by the most brutal of the Parma populace
—while it is undeniable that this hideous atrocity
admits not of any syllable of palliation, of any
whisper of extenuation—(demanding, in truth, from
none more loudly than from the friends and lovers
of Italian liberty, expressions only of the uttermost
abhorrence)—it admits, nevertheless, it does abso-
lutely admit of Explanation ! Let us but read in
testimony of this what has but just now been
written from Parma, on the 6th of October, by the
correspondent already quoted from the columns of
our contemporary. Alluding to the population of
Parma, he writes thus recently from the very midst
of it, he writes, remember, fresh from the recol-
lection of the crime he has been relating: "Itis a
population at all times violent, goaded into habits
of outrage by the rule of a mediaeval monster of
tyranny in the late Duke, and it is the only popu-
lation amongst whom an armed conflict withthe late
Government had in any way commenced. I fear,"
he adds, " the sinister elements then called forth
are not under the contrel of the actual Government."
Observing yet further, " Certainly an outrage like
that of last night requires a strong remedy, which
those in power are hardly capable of exercising." But
now comes the Explanation we have referred to,
and which is thus gleaned from the evidence
afforded us through the truthful record of events
vouchsafed to us by this (in every way) uncom-
promising correspondent. " The people," he
reminds us, " are only a few years relieved from
one of the most incredible tyrannies in his-
tory. Men who have been bastinadoed, impri-
soned, and seen their wives, brothers, and children
murdered at the caprice of a Caligula, a mad-
man like the late Duke, have no common feelings
of execration towards his principal agents. Certain
it is that the indignation against this man is incon-
ceivable. They say, when in exercise of martial
law, he shot, bastinadoed, and imprisoned men by
wholesale without the remotest form of trial, and
upon the occasion of an attempt upon his life,
executed his vengeance upon 30 persons who were
standing near the spot, as well as upon others taken
from a private list of ' suspects.' Man, woman, and
child utter his name with loathing, and the most
trustworthy persons have assured me that he was
the type of a military tyrant." That is the Explana-
tion. But having said this much of the murdered—
quoth the same honest heart in reference to Col. AN-
VITI'S blood-stained murderers—" Be this as it may,
his death blackens this city and this country, and
the grief and indignation of all honourable men of
this city and the sense of stupefaction and remorse
with which even the masses of the people reflect
upon the deed, and all the efforts which the Go-
vernment are making, will avail nothing to remove
the stain from the Italian banner". Alas ! he adds,
yet further, " Those who have seen it borne aloft
hitherto in honour must sorrowfully admit that the
iron has entered into their souls, and that their
fetters have to some extent corroded and poisoned
the frame, though the heart is still untouched and
the gangrene has reached no vital part.' The
anguish caused by the news of this shameful mur-
der is the same among all the true friends of Italian
Liberty—it is literally the same as that which,
more than sixty-five years ago, drew from the
dauntless Madame ROLAND that mournful cry
1 which we have here already articulated.

Somebody has actually at last been proved, upon
official inquiry, to be really blameworthy ! It
may sound incredible, but the fact is so, neverthe-
less. The prolonged investigation which has been
recently winding its slow length along at the
Greenwich Police-court, with a view to the dis-
covery, if possible, of the actual cause of the wreck
of the unfortunate Alma, has at length terminated.
And the result arrived at is positively, for once,
distinct and comprehensible, and—so far, at least,
as the public are concerned—we cannot but think
also highly satisfactory. There is the cause of
the calamity explicitly stated. There is the finger
of Justice placed upon the Delinquent.
As to the circumstances under which the Alma
was lost those surely need not now be recapitulated.
The melancholy story of the wreck is by this time
tolerably familiar to the public. And it is not so
simply from its bearing a resemblance to one of
the popular fictions of Mr. NATHANIEL HAW-
THORNE by being entitled over and above
measure to be catalogued among the number of
" Twice Told Tales." The particulars of the whole
catastrophe have been very recently and very vividly
revived by means of the very official inquiry which
has now been brought to a conclusion—again, we
must observe, so satisfactory to the public, though
(of course) so peculiarly painful to one individual,
the person proved to have been blameworthy !
The investigation, it will be remembered, took place
at Greenwich, before Mr. TRAILL and Captain
WALKER—the two principal officers of the lost
Alma, Captain HENRY and Mr. DAVIS, the chief
officer, being represented by Mr. WILDE, Q.C.,
and the Board of Trade by Mr. CUMBERLAND.
The decision pronounced yesterday morning at the
close of the proceedings so admirably epitomises the
whole subject under scrutiny that we cannot pos-
sibly do better than repeat here the very words
in which it was pronounced by the worthy mania•
trate. Addressing himself to Captain HENRY and
to Mr. DAVIS :—Mr. TRAIL thus expressed himself :
—" We have been considering," he said, " during
our absence, as indeed you may be sure we have
been doing throughout this inquiry, as to the
persons blameable for the cause of the wreck, and
I am sorry to say that we can come to only one
conclusion, which is that the vessel has been lost
through a fault. The only question is as to whose
fault it is ; and it is our opinion that not you, Captain
HENRY, but Mr. DAvis, the chief officer, was in
charge of the ship, and that in altering the course at
12.45, if he had consulted the chart he would have
found that the course was not altered sufficiently,
but that the vessel was nearly in a direct course to
run on to the rocks where she became a wreck. We
are also of opinion that you, Capt. HENRY, in
him directions to haul up, and referring him to the
chart, gave him all the information you possessed,
and placed him in charge of the ship ; and that if he
had not been in charge of the vessel it would have been
his duty to have consulted you. These are only some
of the points to which we shall have to refer in
making our report to the Board of Trade, and in
doing which we shall not fail to refer to the good
character which we have received of Mr. DAVIS as

.:LV,, .; * ,
'''
~,, T. 6J•lk 4 A , Vr''
, . '
..,.°/31...,, .1"...'••‘."
•
, 4 , , •:',4 ' ..5.4 ~."! i.,,t;
••, • .4 .- ... ~ .. o • ,
, - „t„, , .-•,,,1"."4",?'' A
~......., .„..,. „r.
-.. 0p.1.,. - _..., ~•..itteatio. . :-.i ..,,,..f.....,
~. ,
~,
~,,0 .•
r,N,..4.1
, , , ~.,,,-„,, ~,...5.2,.. ~,,
_,

THE SUN.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1859.