The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-09 00:00:00

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)

GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.
Wind, E. N. E. ; tide 11 ebb ; weather very fine.
Arrived, May B.—Dart, from Antwerp ; Two Broders,
from Warborg ; fEolus, from Wismar; Unity, from
Brussels ; Annechina, from Marstrand ; Capello, from Ot-
tendorf ; Buchanan, from Table Bay ; Eagle, from St.
Vincent; Mary, from Cardenas Hope, from Abbeville.
DEAL, Monday Morning.
Wind N.E. ; moderate.

Passed (in tow)—Malabar, from Moulmein for London ;
John Masterman-' from Woosung for London; Excelsior,
from London for Salcombe.
Anchored:—Concord, of Cowes, brig, from the west for
the north,
Passed.—Harry Smith, bark, from the north for Alex-
andria; Sir George Pollock, for Auckland ; Ashburton,
for Liverpool ; Julia, and St. Nickol, for Cardiff ; Laurena
Rita, for Liverpool; Gustav, for Quebec—all from London ;
Her Majesty's ship Royal George, from Sheerness, for
Portsmouth, at p.m., yesterday.
Six ships towed through very early this morning for the
river; names not ascertained.
PLYMOUTH, May 8 —Wind S.W.—Arrived—Her Ma-
jesty's ship Curagoa, from New York.

CITY OF LONDON HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES OF
THE CHEST, VICTORIA-PARK.—The number of patients
relieved at this institution during last week was 1,202; of
'Which 172 were new cases.
ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL GRAY'S-INN-ROAD.--
The number of patients relieved at this hospital, during the
werk ending May 7, is 2,317, of which 673 were new cases.
NEWSVENDERS' BENEVOLENT AND PROVIDENT
INSTITUTION._ The anniversary festival of this institution
will be held on Tuesday the 24th instant, under the presi-
dency of Mr. Mark Lemon. This institution was estab-
lished 20 years ago, for the purpose of affonEnfs temporary
aid to newsvenders, whether employers or assistants, who
might, from accident or sudden reverse, require pecuniary
aid, and to afford pensions to members of the society in their
declining years. These objects it has steadily pursued to
the present day, and the assistance of the trade and others
in the good work is earnestly entreated by the committee,

AUSTRIA IN ITALY.

(From thc Spectator.)

In a recent paper on occupation in Italy, it is
observed—" If England upholds such a system it is
only from ignorance of its enormities." In order
to aid in enlightening this ignorance, may I ask
you to insert the following extracts from the Aus-
trian Penal Code, established in the Lombardo-
Venetian provinces in 1815, with which few of your
readers are likely to be acquainted, with certain
facts which may serve to modify the admiration
occassionally expressed.for the " paternal" rule of
Austria. I could have added many more from my
personal knowledge during a prolonged residence in
different parts of Italy in 1853-'54-'55, but I have
preferred offering such as can be authenticated by
evidence which the most violent enemies of Italian
independence cannot call in question, the " Official
Gazette of Milan."

To begin with the Penal Code. What do Eng-
lishmen say to this ? 1. The proceedings are to be
strictly secret. The defence of the accused to be
given in writing ; the prisoner can claim no de-
fender, nor can he demand that the charges brought
against him should be communicated to him.
Art 337.

Corporal chastisement forms a fundamental part
of the code. High and low, rich and poor, man and
woman are subjected to this degrading treatment,
—as degrading to the full in the eyes of an Italian
as in those of an Englishman. True, " not more
than 50 blows are to be administered at one time."
In the case of youths under 18, and younger women,
rods are to be substituted for the stick. Art. 20.

When the sentence has been pronounced, the
punishment may be augmented by the addition of
fasting and the bastinado. Art. 2721.

Imprisonment is of three descriptions—duro,
piu duro, durissimo. The latter is thus described
in the penal code, art. 14. " The prisoner is to be
confined in a dungeon, shut out from all external
communication, with just air and light sufficient to
sustain existence. He is to be loaded with fetters
hand and foot, day and night, and to be fastened
by a chain to an iron-ring rivetted round his waist
—except during the hours of work. His food is to be
bread and water, soup once in two days,no meat. Hi
bed is to be formed of bare planks, and it is forbidden
to speak to any one, even his gaolers." It was to
this treatment that the illustrious patriots confined.
in the Spielberg were subjected; it is beneath similar
treatment that some of the best and noblest of
Italians are now writhing. The Penal Code, section
377, commands " that in everything relating to the
State, the wife shall denounce the husband, the
husband the wife, the child the father, the father
the child, on pain of punishment as accomplices."
Almost all the political offences are still broup,t,
before what is called the " Tribunal° Stadario
(sect. 500-501 of the Penal Code). This tribunal
is composed of military officers, Gemans, Croats,
and Bohemians, who scarcely understand a word of
Italian, and who, from habit, education, and
national prejudice, detest and scorn the Italian.
people. They speak German to each other • the
witnesses are questioned in German, of which, if
Italians, they in their turn seldom comprehend
syllable, while if otherwise, they are sure
give their testimony against the prisoner.
Thus, says Giovini, the learned author of " Austria
in Italia, the accused having no one to defend hirn,
may be condemned without knowing his crime, sun%
learn it only when he is informed " that in half en
hour the rope will be rouud his neck." The
slightest demonstration of popular feeling is visited
by the most summary and brutal punishment. Thus
in 1849, on the birthday of the Emperor, certain;
hisses having been heard issuing from the midst al
the crowd in one of the most frequented streets in
Milan in front of the Café di Mazza, of which the
object apparently was the Austrian flag hoisted
the balcony of a well-known courtesan, " all the
passers-by were seized, dragged before a militari,
tribunal, and condemned to different degrees 01;
corporal punishment, according to the degree 01
their offence," says the Gazette Officiale of Milani
24th August 1849. Among the accused were men
of high standing and irreproachable character,
merchants, barristers, students, many of wholn,
probably were utterly ignorant of the when)
affair, and two young girls, also perfectly Iv
spectable. The latter were condemned to forty
strokes each. The sentence was executed instantli
after being pronounced on the public place before
the castle, in the presence of a troop of Austrian
officers, who laughed with contemptuous cynicion
at the indecent exposure and the cries of the victims'
So far the tale. Now for the episode. The militant
commandant of Milan, sent the municipality a bia
for 33 florins, 9 kreuzers, (£2 195.. Gd.) for the es:
pense of the ice applied to the swollen lacerated
flesh to prevent gangrene, and for the sticks and
rods broken and consumed in the punishment of the
seditious in the revolt of the 10th of August. In
addition the Marshal commanded the town to
demnify the courtesan who had been " terrified b
the scene," with the sum of 20,000 livres .(£6OO
How touching is the care of such a paternal govern'
ment.

It may be objected, that these disgraceful b4'._
barities were committed only. immediately after tlo
revolution of 1848.9, at a period of great irritation.
Did space permit, I could present you with countless,
well authenticated cases, to prove that this system
_,c°'
tyranny and brutality commenced from the very
moment that Italy was handed over in 1815 to the
r
mercy of her Austrian masters, that it is one fro!
which Austria has never deviated, and which -011_,°
imposes wherever she is mistress. What scene'
have I not beheld at Leghorn, Bologna, Aneonal
Ferrara, wherever the Austrians had establish
garrisons. Under pretext of defending Pius 120
they have taken justice or vengeance into their 011
hands, condemning to a summary and ignominiol
death, often without trial, hundreds of men, walk'
completely innocent ; levying enormous taxes is
the name of the Pope, who never received one far-
thing of them ; living in free quarters on the Inv
fortunate inhabitants, and rewarding them by the,
bastinado, administered literally at pleasure NVitj';
out distinction of rank or sex. (A recent " reform
appoints women to bastinado women.)
The following will be found in the Augsburg,.
Universal Gazette, January, 20, 1852,—a PaP43'
unduly partial to the Italians.
" Captain 1., commanding officer of the 210 t
Austrian regiment of the Line, posted at Peron,
has commanded forty blows to be administered 111
the public place to an estimable citizen, M. M°11;
ganelli, simply because he refused to receive
second Austrian officer when he had one alreaal,
quartered on him. (There were only ten to ou
divided among all the inhabitants.) This arbitrate
sentence was preceded neither by inquiry 11
formality. The same officer, a few days before, 11_1;
flitted forty blows on a poor peasant, who happen
to have a cotton handkerchief round his net
which once had been of three colours, though the./
were nearly obliterated by repeated washings." f
Not less deplorable is the universal venality
the Austrian administrator, civil and military, ~,°`
Italy • they regard it as a conquered country, t°'
plunder ad libitum. This will account for fbo7
enormous fortunes which so much have accumulate!.
Nowhere is this exhibited so unblushingly as IV'
the conscription, where youths utterly unfit
bodily infirmities for military service are inscrib
as fit, merely for the purpose of extorting mop/
to obtain their release. If they are suspected °.
patriotic or liberal sentiments, a different coureeul-
adopted ; they are first permitted to pay for a a%,
stitute, and then seized and compelled by threat()
and blows to enroll in an Austrian regiment, to the, sent the, marshes of Croatia, to be forced to fight
against their own flesh and blood. It is said that the
Lombard soldiers have returned with alacrity to the;
regiments. If so, the reason lies, doubtless, in
fact that the communes to which they belong a-;
heavily fined for every soldier missing ; that, 11
addition, their relatives are liable to the most erllB
treatment in case of their desertion. Several easy',
of this description came under my own observation;
Austria appeals to the treaties of 1815. Ev.S,
supposing that any treaty can be sacred in schlL'ci
'one nation is recklessly sacrificed, bound hand an
foot to the ambition of another, how can AustrlP
dare to invoke them ? Did she remember theme
when she annexed the republic of Cracow to herf
dominions, in defiance of the protestations °f
Europe, under pretext that the tranquillity
,_°o
Poland demanded that annexation ? Dares
invoke them now, that the peace and security °`
Europe, the best and holiest interests of humanity'
are at stake ? Surely, the time is at hand when
Europe will perceive that, even in an interested
point of view, an Italy, strong, tranquil,
independent, is preferable to one perpetually oga
tated by the convulsions of agony and despair, a°
in its turn agitating all surrounding nations.