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

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)

Wind E.
Arrived May 7.—Valetta, steamer, from London; Foyle,
steamer, from Dublin ; Havre, steamer, from Havre.
Arrived, May B.—La Poule, from Cherbourg ; Alceste,
from Cardiff; Alarm, Susanna, and Gertrude, from New-
port ; L'Etoile and Argyll, steamers, from Carenton ;
Black Eyed Susan, from Cardiff; Margaret Lloyd, from
Swansea.
Sailed, May 7,--Sultan, steamer, for Lisbon ; Foyle.
steamer, for London; Georges, and Le Coq, for Cher.
bourg.

LIVERPOOL, Monday Morning.

Wind S.E.
Arrived—Onward, Windermere, L. E. Smith, Celestial
Empire, all from New Orleans ; Rotunda and Consul, from.
Savannah ; Argo, from Mobile; Gertrude, from St. John's,
New Brunswick.

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.
tide I ebb.; weather very fine.
. N.
y-B.—Dart, from Antwerp ; Two Broders,
Wind,Arrive Arrived, E. ;
from Warborg; /Eolus, 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 _Averpool ; 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.
PLYMOL May 8.--Wind S.W.—Arrived—Her Ma-
jesty's ship Curapa, 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 affording 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
hz the good work is earnestly entreated by the committee.

AUSITIA IN MEI I.

(From the 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 vioient 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 duringthe hours of work. His food is to be
bread and water, soup once in two days,no meat. His
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 brought
before what is called the " Tribunalo 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 a
syllable, while if otherwise, they are sure to
give their testimony against the prisoner.
Thus, says Giovini, the learned author of " Austria
in Italia," the accused having no one to defend hint
may be condemned without knowing his crime, and
learn it only when he is informed " that in half an
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 of
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 in
the balcony of a well-known courtesan, " all the
passers-by were seized, dragged before a military
tribunal, and condemned to different degrees of
corporal punishment, according to the degree of
their offence," says the Gazette Officiale of Milan,
24th August 1849. Among the accused were men
of high standing and irreproachable character,
merchants, barristers, students, many of whom.
probably were utterly ignorant of the whole,
affair, and two young girls, also perfectly, re!
spectable. The latter were condemned to forty
strokes each. The sentence was executed instantly
after being pronounced on the public place before
the castle, in the presence of a troop of Austrian
officers, who laughed with contemptuous cynicism
at the indecent exposure and the cries of the victims.
So far the tale. Now for the episode. The military
commandant of Milan, sent the municipality a bill
for 33 florins, 9 kreuzers, (£2 19s. 6d.) for the ex-
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. lh
addition the Marshal commanded the town to in-
demnify the courtesan who had been " terrified bY
the scene," with the sum of 20,000 livres (L 600).
How touching is the care of such a paternal govern'
ment.
It may be objected, that these disgraceful bar'
barities were committed only.immediately after the
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 01
tyranny and brutality commenced from the very
moment that Italy was handed over in 1815 to the
mercy of her Austrian masters, that it is one froth
which Austria has never deviated, and which she
imposes wherever she is mistress. What scenes
have I not beheld at Leghorn, Bologna, Ancona:
Ferrara, wherever the Austrians had established
garrisons. Under pretext of defending Pius IX.'
they have taken justice or vengeance into their own
hands, condemning to a summary and ignominious
death, often without trial, hundreds of men, many
completely innocent ; levying enormous taxes in
the name of the Pope, who never received one far'
thing of them ; living in free quarters on the un"
fortunate inhabitants, and rewarding them by the
bastinado, administered literally at pleasure wiw,",
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 paper
unduly partial to the Italians.
" Captain 1., commanding officer of the 21st
Austrian regiment of the Line, posted at Perousef
has commanded forty blows to be administered in
the public place to an estimable citizen, M. g°11:
ganelli, simply because he refused to receive
second Austrian officer when he had one already
quartered on him. (There were only ten to be
divided among all the inhabitants.) This arbitrary
sentence was preceded neither by inquiry It°'
formality. The same officer, a few days before, in;
flitted forty blows on a poor peasant, who happened
to have a cotton handkerchief round his neck
which once had been of three' colours, though they
were nearly obliterated by repeated washings.
Not less deplorable is the universal venality °
the Austrian administrator, civil and military,
Italy ; they regard it as a conquered country, to be
plunder ad libitum. This will account for these
enormous fortunes which so much have accumulated
Nowhere is this exhibited so unblushingly as?
the conscription, where youths utterly unfit vl
bodily infirmities for military service are inscribe,
as fit, merely for the purpose of extorting money
to obtain their release. If they are suspected °,
patriotic or liberal sentiments, a different course
...
adopted ; they are first permitted to pay for a slit;
stitute, and then seized and compelled by thr
and blows to enroll in an Austrian regiment, to LI
sent to the marshes of Croatia, to be forced to flg,Pe
against their own flesh and blood. It is said that °it
Lombard soldiers have returned with alacrity to Ole
regiments. If so, the reason lies, doubtless, in th
er
fact that the communes to which they belong n
heavily fined for every soldier missing; that, e o
l
addition, their relatives are liable to the most ci 11.0
treatment in case of their desertion. Several ces!.,
of this description came under my own observativo
Austria appeals to the treaties of 1815. Esc
li
supposing that any treaty can be sacred in whica
one nation is recklessly sacrificed, bound hand an
foot to the ambition of another, how can Austr,
dare to invoke them ? Did she remember theri:
when she annexed the republic of Cracow to he
of
dominions, in defiance of the protestations of
Europe, under pretext that the tranquillity
Poland demanded that annexation ? Dares s'oc
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, sui,
independent, is preferable to one perpetually a
tated by the convulsions of agony and despair, am
in its turn agitating all surrounding nations.