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

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 31, 185 c).

process is shortened by the omission of many forms
most valuable, as I am assured, for the defence of
the prisoner. Above forty persons on that single
occasion were thus robbed of important aids with a
view to expedition, and yet these men had been
sixteen or eighteen months and upwards in prison
before they were brought to trial.
" I shall now give an indication not of the im-
partiality of the court, but of the degree of decency
with which its partiality is veiled. In two cases
it happened to be within the knowledge of the
counsel for the prisoners that the perjured wit-
nesses against them did not even know them by
sight. In one of these the counsel desired to be
allowed to ask the witness to point out the accused
persons among the whole number of those charged,
who were all sitting together. The court refused.
permission. In the other case the counsel chal-
lenged the witness to point out the man of whose
proceedings he was speaking. If lam rightly in-
formed, the judge, Navarro, whom I have so lately
mentioned, affecting not to hear the question, called
out to the prisoner, Stand up, Signor Nisco ; the
court has a question to ask you.' This was done,
and counsel then informed him that he might pur-
sue his examination. A laugh of bitter mockery
ran through the court.
" I must now place before you an example of the
humanity with which invalid prisoners are treated
by the. Grand Criminal Court of Naples. The state-
ment is not mine ; but it proceeds from a gentleman
and an eye-witness, and one who thoroughly
understands the language.
"'The original number of the persons under trial
for forming part of the imaginary society chris-
tened by the police the " Unita Italiana," was 42.
The list was headed by the name of Antonio Leip-
necher, now no more. His illness prevented the
court sitting for some days. At last, Navarro in-
formed the medical men attached to the prisons,
that their consciences must find means to certify the
possibility of Leipnecher's attendance on the fol-
lowing morning. On the following morning I was
on my way to the tribunal with a friend, when we
met one of the doctors, with whom my friend was
acquainted. He began to talk about Leipnecher,
and said the man was dangerously ill, but that his
own position was such that he could not safely
certify to the impossibility of his attendance, and
that he had consequently informed the President
that Leipnecher might be brought into court in a
sedan-chair, provided restoratives were allowed him,
and no questions were asked him. I entered the
court, and after the other prisoners had taken their
places, the sedan-chair was brought in, from which
Antonio Leipnecher was led, or rather carried, in a
state of mental and bodily prostration. Navarro
opened the proceedings by calling upon the cancel-
liere to read the interrogatorio of Antonio Leip-
necher ; and when finished, called upon him for his
observations. His lawyer said that he had already
endeavoured to speak to him, but that he was unable
to answer or understand.: „Navarro then addressed
him in a menacing tone, cautioning him that by
shamming illn es, he was ruining his own cause.
Leipnecher made some inaudible observations,
which were repeated by another prisoner, to the
effect that the doctors had not taken any pains to
cure him. " Oh," said Navarro, " write down that
,he says the doctors would not cure him." The Pro-
curator-General, A. elillo, then desired that the
doctors might be 4ain called in to give their
opinion as to his present state, which they did in
an hour, and reported him suffering from an acute
fever, and unable to remain ? "But," said Ange-
lillo, as he is here, why can he not remain." "He
cannot," said the doctors, " without immediate
danger to his life." The court then broke up, and
when it again met, in the course of two or three
days, Leipnecher was in his grave:*
" Three of the 41 prisoners in what I may call
the Poerio case were condemned to death—Settem-
brini, Agresti, and Faucitano. Poerio himself was
condemned to 24 years of irons. I believe the
vote on him was as follows :—Three judges for
acquittal, two for irons, three, including the deli-
cate, scrupulous, and impartial mind of Navarro,
for DEATH—on that testimony of Jervolino, which
I have sufficiently described. The two latter
sections then joined in voting for the lighter
punishment, and thus the majority was obtained,
one vote having been at first drawn off from the
side of acquittal by the bullying process to which
I have before referred, and which was fitly en-
trusted to the delicate, scrupulous, impartial, and
generous Navarro.
" A strange error is said to have occurred. It
seems that the Neapolitan law humanely provides
that when three persons are found guilty capitally,
the sentence can be pronounced only on one; but
that this was forgotten by the judges, and only
found out by the procurator-general, or some other
party, after they thought they had finished. I
have even heard it stated that Settembrini and
Agresti received, as of mercy, a reprieve, to which
they were entitled as of right. As to Faucitano,
[ will not enter into details of what occurred at
Caserta in the palace, but I have heard them, and
minutely too ; and there appears to me too good
reason to believe that the threat of the withdrawal
of certain useful support from the Government of
Naples, and not humanity, dictated at the last
moment the commutation of his punishment. But,
whatever capital punishment may be in other
points of view, I do not hesitate to say it would
be a refined humanity, in respect to the amount of
suffering which it inflicts, in whatever form,
through the agency of men, as compared with
that which is actually undergone in the kingdom
of Naples, in sentences of imprisonment.
" I have spoken of Settembrini and his reported
and too credible torture. I come now to what I
have either seen, or heard on the most direct and
unquestionable authority.
" In February last Poerio and sixteen of the
co-accused (with few of whom, however, he had
had any previous acquaintance) were confined in
the Bagnio of Nisida, near the Lazaretto. For
one half-hour in the week, a little prolonged
by the leniency of the superintendent, they were
allowed to see their friends outside the prison.
This was their sole view of the natural beauties
with which they were surrounded. At other times
they were exclusively within the walls. The whole
number of them, except, I think, one, then in the
infirmary, were confined, night and day, in a single
room of about 16 palms in length by 10 or 12 in
breadth, and about 10 in height ; I think with some
small yard for exercise. Something like a fifth
must be taken off tkese numbers to convert palms
into feet. When the beds were let down at night
there was no space between them ; they could only
get out at the foot, and being chained two and two,
only in pairs. In this room they had to cook or
prepare what was sent them by the kindness of
their friends. On one side the level of the ground
is over the top of the room ; it therefore reeked with
damp, and from this, tried with long confinement,
they declared they suffered greatly. There was one
window—of course unglazed ; and let not an Eng-
lishman suppose that this constant access of air in
the Neapolitan climate is agreeable or innocuous ;
on the contrary, it is even more important there
than here to have the means of excluding the open
air—for example, before and at sunset. Vicissitude
of climate, again, is quite as much felt there as here.
and the early morning is somtimes extremely cold.
"Their chains were as follows. Each man wears
a strong leather girth round him above the hips.
To this are secured the upper ends of two chains.
One chain of four long and heavy links descends to
a kind of double ring fixed round the ankle. The
second chain consists of eight links, each of the
same weight and length with the four, and this
unites the two prisoners together, so that they can
stand about six feet apart. Neither of these chains
is ever undone day or night. The dress of common
felons, which as well as the felon's cap was there
worn by the late cabinet minister of King Ferdi-
nand of Naples, is composed of a rough and coarse
red jacket, with trowsers of the same material—
very like the cloth made in this country from
what is called devil's dust : the trowsers are nearly
black in colour. On his head he had a small cap,
which makes up the suit; it is all of the same
material. The trowsers button all the way up,
that they may be removed at night without dis-
turbing the chains.

" The weight of these chains, I understand, is
about eight rotoli, or between 16 and 17 English
pounds for the shorter one, which must be doubled
when we give each prisoner his half of the longer
one. The prisoners had a heavy limping move-
ment, much as if one leg had been shorter than the
other. But the refinement of suffering in this case
arises from the circumstance that here we have
men of education and high feeling chained inces-
santly together. For no purpose are these chains
undone; and the meaning of these last words must
be well considered ; they are to to be taken strictly.
" Well, it may be thought, the practice is bar-
barous, and ought not to prevail; still, as it does
prevail, it might be difficult to exempt these per-
sons, though gentlemen, from it. But this, my
lord, is not the true explanation. On the contrary,
it was for the sake of these very gentlemen that
the practice of chaining two and two was intro-
duced into the Bagnio of Nisida. I was assured
that two
ior three weeks before, among 800 pri-
soners n that Bagnio (which to the passer-by looks