The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-04 00:00:00

he Insurrection at Palermo.

REPORT OF GENERAL OADORNA.
FLORENCE, Sept. 29.
Lieut.-General Cadorna, Extraordinary Royal
Commissioner in Sicily, has forwarded to the Go-
vernment the following report upon the late insur-
rectionary movement at Palermo :
" To his Excellency the President of the Council of

Ministers.

" Palermo, Sept. 244866.

" For some time past rumours of serious and im-
minent disturbances were circulating at Palermo.
It was reported that armed bands in considerable
force infested the neighbouring communes, and, in
fact, that some attempt was to be made upon the
city by attacking the troops and overpowering the
authorities.

" On the morning of Sept. 16, between 2 and 4
o'clock, a sharp musketry fire was heard proceeding
from the north and south sides of the city. Some
carabiniers and police guards, who hastened to the
spot, exchanged a few shots with some bands of
malefactors, who, after showing themselves, imme-
diately dispersed. Two carabiniers were wounded
and one killed. The Governor of the province, who
had received timely warning of what was taking
place, also repaired to the scene of action, and, re-
turning immediately afterwards to the city, con-
certed the necessary measures with the military
authorities, and ordered various movements of the
small number of troops available.
" Meanwhile the Municipal Council assembled at
the Townhall, where the commander of the National
Guard attended. Measures of defence were adopted,
and the greatest possible number of officers and men
of the National Guard assembled, which did not
amount to more than 50 men.

" The insurgents were, however, advancing on all
sides, and either from a large number of persons
having joined them in the heart of the city, or from
their baying been secreted in the town on the pre-
vious night, the firing began simultaneously in all
the quarters of the city.

" In consequence of this serious state of things
the Governor, followed by his councillor-delegate,
proceeded to the Municipality. There a sortie was
made by the few National Guards assembled, led by
the prefect himself and the mayor, with the object
of overpowering the bands that had advanced fur-
thest into the town. But though the moral effect
of this bold attempt was incontestable, the invasion
of the bands continued upon a large scale, so that
the mayor and the members of the Municipal Coun-
cil, as well as those citizens who desired to strengthen
the authorities by their support, were compelled to
assemble at the Royal Palace.
" This took place about 5 o'clock on the same
day. From that time the bands may be said to have
remained masters of the city, except the fort of Cas-
tellamare, the Royal Palace, and the Townhall,
which were always held by the troops. From time
to time on that day, as well as on the successive
dais to the .20th Sept., sorties were made in the first
and, secondly, with the sea, in expectation of the ar-
rival of
ithe fleet ; but almost all these attempts
hall was itetpleAateiFt. On the 17th inst. the Town-
that the few Nifilihai G uaCitikuVal-AscArgL.so_
there assembled, being unable to maintain their
position, profited by the careless guard kept by the
bands to escape, and joined the troops and the au-
thorities at the Royal Palace.
" From that moment nothing was thought of
but to place this edifice in a state of defence, by
maintaining advance posts at the extreme points
of the vast piazza of the palace and erecting barri-
cades. Every possible measure was taken to assure
a supply of provisions, and requisitions were made
bath for them and for ammunition.
" Both the military and political authorities were
agreed it was necessary to defend the Royal palace
at any cost until the arrival of the reinforcements
which had already been summoned and were ex-
pected. Meanwhile every effort was made to open
communication with the first war vessels, which had
already arrived and anchored in the roads, but un-
happily without success. A battalion arrived from
Messina, which was considerably harassed by the
bands in the march it had to make outside the city
in order to reach the Royal Palace.
In fact, until the morning of the 20th inst.,
when three battalions arrived, under General Masi,
all the efforts of the various small forces available,
and all the expedients of the functionaries, who did
not leave their posts, could only succeed in main-
taining a firm front against the threats and attacks
of the bands, who carried their audacity so far as
to request that negotiations should be opened with
them, as if the Government had ever recognised
them as belligerents.
" On the evening of the 20th a battalion of Ber-
saglieri, with General Masi at their head, made a
brilliant charge in the Corso Vittorio Emanuele ;
but, from military reasons, shortly afterwards re-
turned near the Royal Palace. On the morning
of the 21st, however, they returned to the charge,
and took possession of the Town-hall. En the in-
terval some of the forces arrived forming part of
the Longoni and Angioletti divisions, who march-
ing round the exterior of the city from the northern
and southern sides, with the Royal Palace as their
point of junction, succeeded after several severe
conflicts in putting the hands to flight, and thus
communication began to be restored with the inte-
rior of the city, and from this moment anarchy was
decidedly suppressed.
" Relative to the causes and motives of :this dis-
turbance Ishall abstain from expressing my opinion,
as they are connected with facts that oocurred before
my arrival, and upon which I am not
do less
therefore
called upon to judge. I cannot, however
than direct your Excellency's attentiocntances of
re-
prehensible conduct in these recent
o
the
,who not
the intendant of the Royal estabiison
his post, but
only was one of the first to
abaandnd embarked with
even hastened out of the town
Cr Dispaccio, leaving all the
his family on the steamer by their duty to re-
persons who were eornyace
at the mercy of undis-
main in the Ro i
servants, in great part ae-
comPliees of the ciplined and pervertedbands and the reaction.
self the right of addressing to
ti I reserve to my
war a circumstantial report as re-
the Minister of
gar( is the military operations. At the same time I
must already declare that the troops, while execut-
big their duty with energy, abstained nevertheless
from all excesses ; and that, even iu the ardour of
the fight, the conduct of the soldiery was moderate,
notwithstanding the barbarous provocation of the
malefactors.
" 1 must not be silent either on the conduct of

_.. ....... ______.
the monks and nuns, which greatly aided in causing
these lamentable disturbances. It is proved, from
the judicial inquiries already instituted, that their
money was the principal resource which allowed the
organisation and maintenance of armed bands, and
furnished them with arms and munitions.
" Several monks took part in the fighting in the
midst of the brigands; indeed, the latter preferred
to be entrenched in the conventual establishments.
That of the Stigmates made the most desperate re-

" Moreover, the character of the movement as
described up to the present can be more clearly ap- -
predated by the acts of atrocity committed durivg ,
the short period of its duration, either in this city
or in the environs. At Misilmeri 28 men, carbineers
and soldiers, were massacred after having been com-
pelled to surrender to superior force, and after
having handed over their arms to the insurgents.
The troops quartered at the Vittoria barracks, about
one kilometre to the west of Palermo, were barba-
rously massacred ; the furniture was destroyed, the
funds were carried away, and the victims of the
brigands' ferocity were deprived of their clothes and
of everything in their possession. Seyeral private
houses were sacked, among others that of the mayor,
who played so noble a part, and who saved, by his
dignified behaviour and uncommon bravery, the
honour of the country he represents. The brigands
also sacked the hospital of Palermo, the residence
of the military commandant of the town and arron-
dissement, the general goods warehouse, and the
military library.
. _ _

" At Monrea le, Signor Balla, inspector of police,
was massacred. Everywhere the disturbances were
inaugurated by bloodshed and devastation.
" These short observations suffice to show the in-
dubitable necessity for proclaiming, as I have done,
a state of siege.

" Your Excellency will see in my proclamation,
and in the successive edicts which I have the honour
to forward, the motives and expediency of all these
measures of rigour which the gravity of the situation
and the excesses of the wildest anarchy rendered
indispensable.

(Signed) " R. CADORNA,
" Royal Commissioner and Lieut.-Gen. Command-
ing the Troops in the Island."

The King of Prussia.

The most fortunate man in Europe is probably at
this moment the King of Prussia. This monarch,
who is close upon 70, has neither been fortunate in
youth nor in manhood. He was brought up with
excessive strictness and pedantry, and had to listen
from his childhood upwards to the reproach that
his elder brother, the late Frederick William Br.,
surpassed him in every kind of talent. He threw
himself with more industry than abilityinto military
studies, commanded for 30 years at numberless pa-
rades, unceasingly busied himself with military de-
tails, often plagued both himself and his soldiers
with very unnecessary matters, and knew so much
about every regimental button of the whole Prussian
army that he at last thought himself a great general,
and yearned after the moment in which he would be
able to measure his strength and that of his army
with some enemy, which he would have preferred to
be France.

He had taken part in the War of Independence
against Napoleon, but only in his youth, when he
occupied a subordinate position, which gave him no
scope for the development of his military talents.
He therefore wished for a great war, but longwished
for it in vain. Instead of a war, the Revolution of
1848 broke out. He could now only employ the mi-
litary qualities which he had hoped to use against a
foreign enemy against the Revolutionists who fought
at the barricades in Berlin ; but whether be was
seized with a sudden fit of tardiness, or was obliged
to follow the orders of his Royal brother, he allowed
the people who attacked the palace to enter it, in-
stead of defending it to the utmost, while he fled to
London in order to avoid the unpopularity which
was attached to his name. In fighting the Re-
volutionists of Baden he also won no laurels.
The Revolutionary army which had collected
round the remnants of the Frankfort Parliament
was, it is true, at length dispersed, but the Prus-
sians, whose numbers were ten times those of the
enemy, suffered reverses in this unequal contest
which they would never have been exposed to under
more skilful leadership, and the Prussian military
tribunals acted with such severity against the van-
quished under the presidency of the Prince that the
latter is to this day cordially detested in the whole
At Court in Berlin his position was also anything
but a pleasant one. He had for years been on terms
of merely formal courtesy with his brother, whose
jtrsrattretwht‘b e. Y.P.Z nnnnaita_of
of the coldness which existed between his wife and
the Queen. He came more and more seldom to
Berlin, where the Kreuz Zeitung, party intrigued
against him at Court unceasingly, and often in the
coarsest way. The heir presumptive thus lived in
a sort of exile ; and the childless king, although be
had long been sickly, would not die. At length he
was attacked by disease of the brain, which made it
necessary to establish a regency, and from that time
forward the life of the prince, now King William 1.,
became a brighter one ; for, thanks to the evil re-
putation which attached to his former opponents,
the Kreuz Zeitung men, in the whole country, he at
length attained a certain popularity, and entered on
the duties of the regency accompanied by the best
wishes of the people. King William is a man who
cannot very well do without popularity ; the first
days of his regency were, therefore, perhaps, the
happiest he had known since he was a boy.
Unfortunately his happiness was not of long
duration. He could not agree with the Liberal
party and the weak-minded Ministers with which it
had provided him, and by degrees he fell into the
power of those very Kreuz Zeitung men who had
embittered his life when he was Crown Prince, and
who at length pressed upon him Herr von Bismark
as Premier. It cost him a hard struggle before ho
could decide on such an appointment, and it gave
him great pain to perceive that, though he desired
nothing more than to be honoured as the father of
his people, he was no longer cheered by the..
...Ber-
liners in the streets ; but he was still impresse_odr.ol7)
the firm convictionthat all he had done was f
tury has been
that
good of his country. Fortunate old man!
which he had aspired to for half a cell. first, a
given him towards the decline
little war against Denmark, aotils,
and brilliant war
ofci allsihsolurt time of ter
a great, unprecedentedly.galewie
neighbour of Prussia
against Austria, the formidable
his son and the princes
in Germany. He has h
of the battle-field of Konig-
gticht:aslnrsd Prussia the master of Ger-
many nominally held the chief
powerful neighbour of France; he
many and the himself honestly believe) been
commandrhizs' ah whereo us
;e h as
e b vehas
; has (as he may
selected his
et
tohfatllhise
nd
providence ;
Ghoedbasas tphreovsepecidtaol
ds more about military matters than the
Liberal
understands
deputies in the Chamber, who wished to
baulk
his plan for the organisation of his army ;
and he has finally entered his capital in triumph at
the head of his victorious troops, in the midst of
the enthusiastic rejoicings of the whole population,
which is generally not over-disposed to make any
very strong demonstrations of feeling. These are,
in truth, moments of great happiness, such as few
monarchs have enjoyed
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