The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-02 00:00:00

THE EXECUTIONS AT ROME.

The judicial murder of Locatelli by the Papal
Government has called forth in all the org ens of
1 public opinion throughout Europe, with the single
exception of those representing Ultramont an e views,
a loud cry of indignation, horror, and astonishment.
It is but natural that indignation should be excited
by9eh an act, perpetrated by the ministers of the
religion of peace and mercy; that horror should
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present Pontiff and his advisers have constantly
displayed towards all political offenders. When,
three days ago, we spoke of Locatelli's fate, we had
occasion to remark that the slaughter of an inno-
cent man would at most call forth from Cardinal
Antonelli a sneer akin to that indulged in by
Mephistophiles on the fall of Margaret, " After all,
she is not the first victim," we stated a plain, simple,
downright matter of fact, the correctness of which
has long been placed beyond the possibility of doubt.
An extremely interesting contribution of the curio-
sities of criminal law, a treatise of most startling
and thrilling interest, might be furnished by the
histories of all the men executed by orders of the
Papal Government for crimes which they have never
committed, which they were proved never to have
committed, which the real perpetrators came for-
ward and avowed, only during the last three Pon-
tificates, those of Leo XII., Gregory XVI., and the
reigning Sovereign, Pius IX. The criminal admi-
nistration of the Papal States under Cardinal Auto-
nelli has been in all respects worthy of a scion of
the bandits of Sonnino. In those collections of
official documents which are in the hands of every-
one at all interested in recent Italian politics, but
which the Mai quis of Normanby and his client the
ex-Duke of Modena find such difficulty in obtaining,
the statistics respecting the executions of innocent
men are absolutely appalling. For example, in the
year 1855, in the town of Ferrara, the following
case occurred :—The Papal Government had deter-
mined to get rid of three individuals belonging to
the Liberal party, Giuseppe Cesellini, Ignazio
Rosettani, and Enrico Venezia. It accordingly
suborned a notorious bandit, promising that no
harm should befall him if he would accuse these
three persons of having been his accomplices in a
murder. The bandit came forward and bore his
false testimony. The most incontrovertible evi-
dence established the innocence of the three men
acete,ed ; one of three, Cesellini, was seriously ill
on the night when the deed was perpetrated ;
many witnesses proved this ; the apothecary
produced the entries in his books made on
that very night. All the witnesses were seized by
orders of the Government, and thrown into prison,
where every one of them, by means fair or foul, met
his death. The three men accused were of course
sentenced to death ; but before the day of the exe-
cution came conscience had awakened in the breast
of the false witness, and had spoken to him in tones
of thunder. The very day before the execution he
came forward, publicly confessed the guilty part
which he himself had played, publicly proclaimed
the innocence of the three men whom he had ac-
cused, publicly and most circumstantially narrated
all the details of the murder of which he alone was
cognisant. But the remorse of the false witness
did not avail to save the lives of the three innocent
men. All four were made to perish on the scaffold.
In the same collection of official documents will be
fiund narrated the terrible story of the fate of
Piet roVentroni, Benvenuto Cavalieri, and Bonaven-
tura Stefanini, whom their judges declared to have
committed the offence of firing off musket without
the intention of killing any one, for which offence
all three were beheaded. The executions, previously
resolved upon, of men who, because no other offence
could be laid to their charge, were shot for stealing
two pence, figure amongst the most defensible and
plausible examples of Papal justice. Under the
Government of Leo XII. a case occurred so exactly
similar in all its features to that' of Locatelli that
the second might almost be deemed a reproduction
of the first. The valet of one of the prelates of his
court was charged with the assassination of his
master. In the remarkable deficiency of proofs
the tribunal of the Sacra Consulta condemned him
to death, but recommended him to the mercy of the
Pope. The Pope would hear of no mitigation of
the punishment, and ordered his execution with-
out delay. No sooner was he dead than the real
murderer came forward and confessed his crime.
Gregory XVI. was so resolved to slake his thirst
of blood that he arbitrarily sent to the scaffold
victims whom, by the letter of his own criminal
law, he could only condemn to perpetual imprison-
ment. The criminal code of the Papal States did
not allow of capital punishment except when the
criminal had reached the age of twenty. When
Bonaventura Valetti, in 1835, was charged with
taking part in an insurrection at Viterbo, he could
not be condemned to death because he had only
reached the age of seventeen ; but the Pope decreed
that an exception should be made, and that he should
be sentenced as if he were already twenty. When,
in 1844, a lad of nineteen was charged with stealing
from a church a pis, Pope Gregory decreed, in the
same way, that he should be tried and executed as
if he were already twenty.
But it would be idle to heap up a very Ossa on the
Pelion of damnatory evidence already in existence
to prove the ruthless and bloodthirsty character of
the Papal Government. The history of Locatelli's
case, from the first stage to the last, is a fitting pen-
dant to the other we have narrated. When, after
being taken by the gendarmes to the hospital Della
Consolazione, fainting from the effects of four seri-
ous wounds, on the very night of the disturbance,
the animus of the Papal Government manifested it-
self so clearly, in the outrages to which he was sub-
jected to the gendarmes, who remained stationed
round his couch of sickness, that the medical offi-
cers attached to the hospital protested, in the name
of common humanity, against their establishment
being made the scene of such foul indignities—
the Papal Government replied, after its own cha-
racteristic fashion, by throwing all the medical
officers into prison. Locatelli's fate, it is well
known, had been determined many weeks before he
was even tried.
And this is the rule of the Vicar of Christ. Even
the last days of the perjured despot, the late King
Ferdinand of Naples, appear encircled with a halo
of beneficence and mercy when compared with the
hard and heartless cruelty of the Court of Rome.
Words of pardon proceeded from the lips. of the
dying tyrant of Naples, and at that very time, we
are now significantly reminded by the leading organs
of the Italian press, Pope Pius IX. sent forth his
executioners to carry into effect no less than five
hundred sentences of capital punishment. Well
may the children of this Holy Father comment on
his paternal Government in the spirit that once
prompted the sarcasm of Colonel Titus, and declare
that until their kind parent shall mercifully be re-
moved there is very little chance of their ever sue-
! ceeding to those rights and liberties which they
Iregard as their legitimate and just inheritance.—
Morning Post.