American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-23

ties of hispredeeessor, and crowd the jails with
helpless victims of political rage. In silence
the accused is arrested and in silence he is
condemned, No complainant meets him in open
court; no witnesses are confronted with him
no choice even of defender is accorded, for
the counsel, If obnoxious to the court, is set
aside, and one pleasing to the judges substi
tuted. Those who are familiar with the judicial
murders perpetrated in England, when a less
/ arbitrary method of proceeding was in vogue,
can imagine what little chance Of justice per
son accused of political offences has in Italy
now The very charge, is, as it were, con-
demnation and wretches are continually found
who take advantage of this condition of affairs
by sacrificing tolpersonal revenge innocent and
honest men by perjuries the most base. In
formers even ipnnder to their own, or others
j guilty lusts by threatening TO accuse husbands
| fathers, or brothers, and thus triumphing over
1 a wires, a daughters, or sisters virtue,
/ The prisons in Rome are not less horrible, ii
appears than the crowded jaiIs in Naples
Those who hayefno money to- purchase luxuries
from sordid jailors are thrust into common
| apartment, the Segretta .piana, where they are
compelled to herd promiscuously together, with
no bed but rotten straw, in the midst Of un-
cleanness impossible to describe If prisoner
indignant at an unjust condemnation, or at the
Iloathsomeness of the, hole into which he has
been thrust, ventures to complain, he is tied to
q post, and beaten with a club on his bare back,
after which an iron weight OF one hundred and
fiye pounds is attached to his feet, which is fire.
quentlyno removed for weeks Sometimes the
victims are placed, in pairs, in narrow and
noisome cells, where an insuficiency Of air,
creeping through confined opening, stiles, as
it were, the sufferers perpetually, prolonging
life only to wear il gradually out, amid the tor
f.rra of -. I.
ton. Often the feet corroded by the irons,
become prey to worms while breath yet re-
mains in the body; and thus the actual horrors
OF the grave are begun before the pangs of
parting What wonder that while some have
attempted suicide, others have gone mad What
wonder that some, dying thus by slow torture,
or others starving, have cursed the hour that
saw them born, the minions who condemned
them, and even the Pontiff who permitted the
atrOcity. tng aaaa. rs E.Gga s8i I'll ryaga.e
The article in La Presse enumerates many
specific instances of the injustice and cruelty of
| the Roman judges. In one of these cases--that
| OF Michael Lucatelli-the unfortunate prisoner
does not even know his crime, nor can all his
opportunities procure the knowledge of either
accuser or accusation, 80 that he will probably
die without having the opportunity so much as
to defend himself. In another case--that of
Silvestra Campetti--the prisoner has been kept
In irons for more than year, and, by a refine
ment of cruelty, has been made to suffer alllthe
agonies of death, by being afforded just bread
and water enough to keep him alive. We might
multiply examples of similar atrocities but our
heart sickens,, our pen refuses to proceed /,
is sufficient to say that human imagination can,
not conceive more awful picture of filth, mis-.
| cry, disease, anguish, and despair, than that
proved, on reliable authority, to be actually ex-
listing in the prisons of Rome at this hour.
Overthe gates of those gloomy cells there might
be written, with even more justice than Dante
wrote over the entrance to his internal realm
"who. enters here bids farewell to hope" Ii
would seem, indeed, as if, in the times of the
great Italian poet, human cruelty had not at
tanned its climax, and as if even genius could
not imagine the future reality; for, while Dante
described his victims in that terrific vision toss
ing from ice to flame, as the acme of agony, his
soul fell short of the awful picture of living
men on whom the horrors of the grave had al
ready begun. ...
In reading these painful accounts of human
sufferings, we exclaim involuutarily, "How long,
oh Lord how long" No people, even though
oyerpowered, can submit alwaysto such cruelty !;
q day OF reckoning must come-and, as bru-
| taEty begets brutality, wol wo! when the peo-
pie, uger-hke, turn on their oppressors. We
| would not, indeed, countenance revenge: bu
men are human aud we fear that n terrible
retribution is preparing for Naples and Rome
IL is as much fenr as cruelty, we believe, tina
dictates these enormities; and ms the storm
grows more threatening the rage and terror o
despotism increases Thank heaven! the sky
still darkens, the thunder rolls the lightnings
| begin to flash, for in the convulsions that will
follow, Italy, perhaps may regain her freedom.
| IL IS this assurance alone that enables us to
hear Of these miseries. Over the groans Of
agonized prisoners, over the moans Of the starv.
ing, over the sobs of women sacrificed to lust
over the curses Of men dying in chains, we fancy
we hear the growl Of the coming earthquake
in which thrones and dungeons will 20 down
while nations shall leap, fetterIess and free, Il
their feet, clapping their hands in gratitude tc
i God.