The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-30 00:00:00

ROMERO ALPUENTE.

We insert a letter from a correspondent, who
calls himself an Italian refugee ; but the chief
interest, we confess, • which ho has excited in
us, is for- a fellow-passenger of his late com-
pulsory flight from Lisbon, the illustrious,
magnanimous, ill-requited, long-suffering, and
now dying sage and hero, Romero Al-
puente, cruelly driven within these few weeks
from Portugal, whither he had just attended an
only niece, who from her youth had nursed hia
infirmities—but now, in the last stage of an in-
curable disorder, sought with him at the threshold
of their miserable country, the refuge of a com-
mon grave.
Romero Alpuente is ox the verge of 90 ; and
through. this preternatural term of existence has
borne a name the most unimpeachable for public
and private honour. When he sat many years
ago as Chief Judge or Fiscal of the Criminal
Court at Madrid, a woman of high rank, an
adultress and a murderess, was brought before
this venerable Judge. She had instigated her
paramour to the murder of her husband. The
evidence was conclusive, and the sentence rested
with the Court. The numerous and affluent
connexions of the culprit beset the magistrate
with persuasions, threats, and unceasing impor-
tunities for mercy. The infamous and all-
powerful Godoy, too, was a cousin of the guilty
woman. This personage offered Alpuente, be-
sides 40,0001. sterling in money, the highest
and most lucrative patronage under the monarchy,
if he would but spare her life ;—with a denun-
ciation of the fiercest enmity if he refused it.
But the intrepid and virtuous Judge had a pre-
rogative which, by usage, was held too sacred for
the minion of despotism to contend with. He
signed the warrant, and the murderess was led to
execution. From that hour open war existed be-
tween B omero Alpuente and the Court of Madrid.
He was throughout the whole series ofrevolutions,
from 1808 to 1823, a stern patriot, never flinching,
esteemed, honoured, and revered for spotless in-
tegrity, by all enlightened Spaniards. Were the
patriarch now but to show himself on his native
soil, the wasted and fleshless form would rally
round it the whole constitutional spirit of the
nation. But the persecuted old man will never
again rouse an assembly of Patriots by his elo-
quence, or guide them by his genius. He went
to Portugal in a state of weal7iess, aggravated
by every want that could pinch and oppress old
age in its extremity. He was expelled from it
without remorse or mercy. Ferdinand's Minis-
ter was in earnest,—those of Portugal were not :
no English authority, or humanity, or feeling for
Spanish interests, individual or national, inter-
posed to save this poor old man.
By his departure to Portugal, in hopes of mi-
tigating under a milder climate bodily sufferings
far more painful to him than his own, he had
forfeited the pittance hitherto allowed him, in
common with other Spaniards, by the British
Government. Since his return, the Spanish
Committee, out of scanty and much-burdened
funds, have granted to him—conjointly with a
female—a born and virtuous lady—sick beyond
the reach of medicine, but not of charity, the
last of his race—ll. per month ! We must end
this heart-wounding relation. Romero Alpuente
is in London, on that bed which grief makes a
death-bed, but famine a bed of agony. There
are in England bold and honest judges, who
would have felt with Alpuente, when riches or
worldly ruin were the alternatives offered to him,
and who now can feel for a brother Magistrate,
not unworthy their generous admiration, but at
his last hour capable of benefit only from their
tenderness and compassion. While a certain •
Spanish officer, who suflers his wife to sing iu
public and for hire, gained by a single concert !
within this fortnight at least 1,0001. sterling, to
which some very generous persons contributed
from a belief that they were assisting the great
body of the exiled patriots, one of the bravest and
noblest among them starves, at 90 years of age !

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, MAY 29.—Yesterday the University Prizes
for this year were adjudged to the following gentlemen :
Latin Verse—" Mexicum," Charles Wordsworth, Christ
Church. •

Latin Essay—" Lex apud Romanos Agraria,"
T. Blake, B. A., Christ Church.
English Essay—" The Influence of the Crusades upon
the Arts and Literature of Europe," Frederick Oakeley,
8.A., late of Christ Church, now Fellow of Balliol.
English Verse--" Pompeii," Robert S. Hawker, Mag-
dalen Hall.