The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-31 00:00:00

MR. GLADSTONE'S ACCOUNT OF THE
TRIAL AND IMPRISONMENT OF
POERIO AND HIS COMPANIONS.

(From the Daily News.)
In the Daily News of Saturday week we supplied
some extracts from the letters addressed by the
Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone to the Earl of Aber-
deen, in 1851, on the cruelties and iniquities of the
Government of Naples. The portions which we have
already quoted are a general description of the in-
tolerable perversion of official power and wholesale
practice of lawless violence, fraud, and inhumanity,
which have so long been permitted in that unhappy
kingdom, and which are the practical consequences
of the Austrian domination throughout Italy. We
now resume our examination of Mr. Gladstone's
pamphlet, taking from it his account of the mon-
strous prosecution of those distinguished men—a
very few out of the hundreds and thousands of
victims since 1848—who have just been received
with so much respect and sympathy in England :
" And now, perhaps, I cannot do better than fur-
nish a thread to my statement, by dealing particu-
larly with the case of Carlo Poerio. It has every
recommendation for the purpose. His father was a
distinguished lawyer. He is himself a refined and
accomplished gentleman, a copious and eloquent
speaker, a respected and blameless character. I
have had the means of ascertaining in some degree
his political position. He is strictly a constitution-
alist ; and while I refrain from examining into the
shameful chapter of Neapolitan history which that
word might open, I must beg you to remember that
its strict meaning there is just the same as here,
that it signifies a person opposed in heart to all
violent measures from whatever quarter, andhaving
for his political creed the maintenance of the mo-
narchy on its legal basis, by legal means, and with
all the civilising improvements o ! laws and establish-
ments which may tend to the welfare and happiness
of the community. His pattern is England, rather
than America or France. I have never heard him
charged with error in politics, other than such as
can generally be alleged with truth against the
most high minded and loyal, the most intelligent
and constitutional of our own statesmen. I must
say, after a pretty full examination of his case, that
the condemnation of such a man for treason is a
proceeding just as much conformable to the laws of
truth, justice, decency, and fair play, and to the
common sense of the community, in fact just as
great and gross an outrage on them all, as would
be a like condemnation in this country of any of
our best known public men, Lord J. Russell, or
Lord Lansdowne, or Sir James Graham, or yourself.
I will not say that it is precisely the same as re-
spects his rank and position, but they have scarcely
any public man who stands higher, nor is there any
one of the names I have mentioned dearer to the
English nation—perhaps none so dear—as is that
of Poerio to his Neapolitan fellow-countrymen.
" I pass by other mournful. remarkable cases, such
as that of Settembrini, who, in a sphere by some
degrees narrower, but with a character quite as
pure and fair, was tried with Poerio and 40 more,
and was capitally convicted in February, though,
through a humane provision of the law, the sentence
was not executed ; but he has, I fear, been reserved
for a fate much harder. [He is confined, with eight
more prisoners, at San Stefano, in a room 16 palmi
square (rather less than 13 feet square), which they
are never allowed to leave. One of them, named
Cajazzo, is a man condemned for murder 49 years
ago, who boasts of having at different times mur-
dered3s persons. Several of these exploits he has
committed in the prison upon his companions ; and
I have been assured that the murders in this Ergas-
tolo have exceeded 50 in a single year. What kind
of protection, I want to know, is thus afforded to
the life of Settembrini ?*]
" I shall likewise say very little upon the case of
Faucitano, who like Settembrini was tried with
Poerio in the same batch of 42 prisoners during last
winter. This case is peculiar, since there really
was a foundation for the charge. The charge was
an intention to destroy, by means of some terrible
explosive agents, several of the Ministers and
other persons. The foundation was that he had in
his breast-pocket, on a great public occasion, a
single bottle, which exploded there without injuring
him in life or limb ! It is likely that he intended
some freak or folly, but he was condemned to death.
Till within a few hours of the time appointed it was
believed that he would be executed. The Bianchi
were in the streets collecting alms to purchase
masses for his soul. He was in the chapel of the
condemned, with the priests about him, when dur-
ing the night, his case having been discussed at a
council in the daytime, there came down from
Caserta a messenger, with orders for his reprieve.
I have learned the agency through which that re-
prieve was procured, but the notice of it is unne-
cessary for my present purpose.
" Carlo Poerio was one of the Ministers of the
Crown under the Constitution, and had also one of
the most prominent positions in the Neapolitan
Parliament. He was, as regarded the Sicilian ques-
tion, friendly to the maintenance of the unity of the
kingdom. He was also friendly to the war of inde-
pendence). as it was termed. But I have never heard
that he manifested greater zeal in that matter than
the King of Naples; it is a question, of course,
wholly irrespective of what we have now to consi-
der. Poerio appeared to enjoy the king's full confi-
dence ; his resignation, when offered, was at first
declined, and his advice asked even after its accept-
ance.

" The history of his arrest, as detailed by himself
in his address of February the Bth, 1850, to his
judges, deserves attention. The evening before it
(July 18, 1849), a letter was left at his house, by a
person unknown, conceived in these terms,—'
and fly with speed. You are betrayed! the Govern-
ment is already in possession of your correspondence
with the Marquis Dragonetti. From one who loves
you much.' Had he fled it would have been proof
of his guilt, ample for those of whom we are now
speaking. But he was aware of this, and did not
fly. Moreover, no such correspondence existed.
On the 19th, about four in the afternoon, two
persons, presenting themselves at his door under
a false title, obtained entry, and announced to
him that he was arrested in virtue of a verbal
order of Peccheneda, the Prefect of Police. He pro-
tested in vain ; the house was ransacked; he was
carried into solitary confinement. He demanded to
be examined and to know the cause of his arrest
within 24 hours, according to law, but in vain. So
early, however, as on the sixth day he was brought
before the Commissary Maddaloni, and a letter
with the seal unbroken was put into his hands. It
was addressed to him, and he was told that it had
come under cover to a friend of the Marquis Dra-
gonetti, but that the cover had been opened by mis-
take by an officer of the police, who happened to
have the same name, though a different surname,
and who, on perceiving what was within, handed
both to the authorities. Poerio was desired to open
it, and did open it, in the presence of the Commis-
sary. Thus far, nothing could be more elaborate
and careful than the arrangement of the proceeding.
But mark the sequel. The matter of the letter of
course was highly treasonable ; it announced an
invasion by Garribaldi, fixed a conference with
Mazzini, and referred to a correspondence with
Lord Palmerston, whose name was miserably man-
gled, who promised to aid a proximate revolution.
I perceived at once,' says Poerio, that the hand-
writing of Dragonetti was vilely imitated, and I
said so, remarking that the internal evidence of
sheer forgery was higher than any amount of ma-
terial proof whatever.' Dragonetti was mie of the
most accomplished of Italians; whereas this letter
was full of blunders, both of grammar and spelling.
It is scarcely worth while to notice other absurdi-
ties, such as the signature of name, surname, and
title in full, and the transmission of such a letter by
the ordinary post of Naples. Poorio had among his
papers certain genuine letters of Dragonetti's ; they
were produced and compared with this, and the
forgery stood confessed. Upon the detection of this
monstrous iniquity what steps were taken by the
Government to avenge, not Poerio, but public jus-
tice ? None whatever, the papers were simply laid
aside.
"I have taken this detail from Poerio himself, in
his defence ; but all Naples knows the story, and
knows it with disgust.
" Poerio's papers furnished no matter of accu-
sation.

" Tt was thus necessary to forge again, or rather
perhaps to act upon forgeries which had beeen pre-
pared, but which were at first deemed inferior to the
Dragonetti letter.
"A person named Jervolino, a disappointed ap-
plicant for some low office,t had been selected for
the work both of espionage and of perjury ; and
Poerio was now accused, under information from
him, of being among the chiefs of a republican sect
denominated the Unita Italiana, and of an inten-
tion to murder the king. He demanded to be con-
fronted
with his accuser. He had long before known
and named Jervolino to his friends, as having
falsely denounced him to the Government, but the
authorities refused to confront them ; the name was
not even told him ; he went from one prison to
another ; he was confined, as he alleges, in places
fit for filthy brutes rather than men ; he was cut off
from the sight of friends ; CYCII his mother, his sole
remaining near relation in the country, was not
permitted to see him for two months together.
Thus he passed some seven or eight months in total
ignorance of any evidence against him, or of those
who gave it. During that interval Signor Antonio

* This passage between brackets will not be found in Mr.
Gladstone's first letter of 1851, but in his subsequent letter,
"An Examination of the Official Reply of the Neapolitan
Government," published in 1852.
t He had solicited Eoerio, when minister, to get him ap-
pointed one of the ushers or door-keepers to the Chamber of
if Deputies, and he vowed revenge on being refused.