The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-09 00:00:00

THE NEAPOLITAN EXILES.

We have this day to announce that Poerio, Set-
tembrini, and the rest of the Neapolitan galley
slaves---it is a most honourable distinction—who
were transported to North America by the order of
their dying but unrepentant King, have set his
mercy at defiance, and, with singular blindness and
ingratitude, have declined to accept pardon upon
the terms which King Ferdinand proposed. For
ten years this Monarch had judged it necessary to
confine in chains in the most miserable dungeons
within the knowledge of his, police, in underground
dens, and exposed to the horrors of a most linger-
ing death; but death would not come when they
solicited his stroke. They had been condemned,
not indeed without a form of trial, but after a trial
which had aroused the wonder of Europe, so un-
blushing was the perjury, so scandalous were the
proceedings, so resolved were the judges to insure a
condemnation. The testimon yof thegovern m en t spies,
the production of the forged letter, abandoned after-
wards even by the Neapolitan AttorneylGeneral,
are there upon record to show how and why these
men are condemned. There is, no doubt, in Eng-
land a vague idea that Poerio was the victim of his
Sovereign, but in nine cases out of ten this arises
from the fact that in the year 1851 Mr. Gladstone
visited Naples, and wrote certain letters upon the
state of the Neapolitan prisons. What English
people do not understand is the profound treachery.
of the Neapolitan Sovereign towards these unfortu-
nate gentlemen, and therefore how deeply they are
entitled to our sympathy—we dare not say to our
commiseration—now that fortune and their own
happy audacity have cast them upon our shores.
First, about the fact of how they came upon
the coasts of the British Islands, since here they
are. Pocrio, Settembrini, and their companions
were confined for ten years in the Neapolitan
dungeons in defiance of law and justice. At
length—equally contrary to law and justice—
the King, whether instigated by the sharp
pangs of a death-bed repentance, or under the
apprehension that Europe was about to rise and
bring him and his kind to reason, resolved to
transport these men to the New World, and this he
called a remission of their sentence—mercy ! They
were conveyed to Cadiz, and there a passage was
taken for them in an American ship. 'Melt: IN cit.:
69 in all of these transported men—among them a
bishop and seven priests. They were thrust on
board by the cruel mercy of the King ; the ship got
under way ; and the refugees, who far outnumbered

the crew; rose and overpowered them. We will
readily believe that the crew did not make a very
stubborn resistance. The refugees insisted that
the captain should steer straight for Cork Har-
' bour and, as he refused, they gave the corn-
mantl to the Second Mate. On Sunday morning
last, about seven o'clock, they reached the. Irish
shore, and were free. We cannot entertain a doubt
as to. the reception these gentlemen will meet
with in these islands, for in honouring them we
honour ourselves. They arc no vulgar conspirators
—they have nothing to do with the miserable
backstairs routine of Italian conspiracy ; but when
Europe was convulsed by a movement which they
had not provoked, at the request of their King they
assisted him to. inaugurate a constitutional system
of government at Naples. In the most solemn
way, and with the most awful words which a
human being may use, the King invoked eternal
perdition upon his head if he proved false to his
pledged word ; but after the 15th of May he blew
all these promises to the four winds. These unfor-
tunate gentlemen whom we are now proud to
welcome to our shores had really been guilty of no
more heinous crime than than that of believing in
their Sovereign's word. For this crime—and it
was one which no man will repeal—they were con-
demned to ten years of such misery as few men
have endured, and survived to tell the tale.

We are sick of Leicester-square patriots, but no
man can impeach the patriotism of \IM. Poerio,
Settembrini, and their companions. These gentle-
men are indeed deserving of the sympathy of a
free people. When we supposed that they would
disembark upon the shores of the North American
Union, we ventured to bespeak the good offices of
our Transatlantic friends in their behalf; and, now
that they have found their way to our own shores,
we may, without presumption, address the same
exhortation to our own countrymen. The more
their story is inquired into the more it will be
found that these gentlemen have really and truly
suffered indescribable torments during the last ten
years, because they were foolish enough to rely
upon the word of their perjured King, and to take
share in a system of government which he had
sworn to maintain. The breath of calumny
has never passed upon their lair and honourable
repute. They have never impelled others to
rush into danger which they avoided them-
selves. They have never been accused, even
by the foul voices of the Neapolitan Crown officers,
of peculation. We know not, indeed, of any sug-
gestion of evil which attaches to any one of their
number. The event of 1848 occurred without any
provocation on their part. King Ferdinand of the
Two Sieilies, in order to save his throne and his
neck, made a rush at a constitution. He solicited
earnestly, and personally, the chiefs of these re-
fugees to take part and to bear office under his new
system. They did so. A few months, or weeks,.
passed away, and he found himself in a position to
set his promises and engagements at defiance. He
turned the cannon upon his subjects, and at his
leisure trumped up a miserable charge of conspi-
racy which had no foundation in fact against the
statesmen who had lent him their aid to preserve
his throne in the hour of his dire distress. The
victims of his tyranny and faithfulness arc now
among us. There is an instinct stronger than all
political calculation which calls on us to do honour
to these men.—Mmes.

of Commond on be-
PETITION OF PITMEN.—A petition has been
drawn up for presentation to the house
thiseriegslitrtichtioontz
:I'llllll4.
lund. The mein object of the petitionhalf of the workers in coal ininesofGirsetaot
olbint'atinthaenlidmlirtae:
tpani i
oo
uf
st hreea.sotiworking
sa re urgedtii ei
inn coalli,v
is far more exhausting thanit is under
which are the admitted fact that, working in bad air and•
dusty and dirty, he requires a longer time
our minesof'
away from daylight,
any other circumstances, and that a miner's occupation
being particularly
to clean himself; that he is, in short, not good for anything
• till he has had an hour and a half's time after his work is
over, to wash and refresh himself. The other objects of the
petition.
are, that children under 14 shall only work half
,
time; that coat-owners shall be obliged to use the patent
safety cage, and such other scientific means of saving life as
may be from time to Vane invented ; that a fund lie provided
by law to support disabled miners and the' widows and
orphans of those who have lost their lives in mines; that
the appreriticeship
system be introduced into mines; and
that the machinery
used in raising coals should only be al-
lowed
to work nine hours a day. The apprenticeship systeM
is needed, the petition states, to protect the pitmenfrom the
dangers to which they are exposed from the inexperience of
novices, and in justification of the restriction in the time of
working machinery, they state that if an.eight,hours' bill
were in force without any such restriction, the masters would
Work the pits by relays the • whole 24 hours, and that . the
air would be thus in a continual state of explsive im-
purity.