Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1851-07-23
ITALY.

letter from an American citizen az florence'
under dale Of 22nd June, published IN Inc Newark
Daily Advertiser, has the following statements res
pecling recent political prosecutions In tuscany
Several foreign journals have spoken OF me pro
tests OF England against the Punishment from US
cany OF the well known banker Pakenham-a rel
alive of The British General who fell IN Inc battle
of New Oreans-about year ago on lhe charge
Of being protestant propagandlsl. After spirit
cd correspondence between the MINISTERS OF me
two countries, the Tuscan government mas endorsed
the act Ut Punishment, and refuses tne demand OF
Great Britain that the exiled banker be restored to
his domicIe and his rights as an unnlfending brlt
ish subject. The most significant inference drawn
from this audacity OIL the part of so feeble Slate.
is that it acts with the counsel and IS sustained by
the power of Russia and Austria Perhaps II is
but The beginning Of a new epoch. we Will see
Have patience. The time is coming for an eucl-
dation.
Corporal punishmenls are still daily inflicted in
all the cities of Italy for political Offences but espe
caly fu the Anti Tobacco movement, and neither
sex nor age is spared. Maria Biagl. worthy wo-
man Of Romania, received twenty lashes OF the
basione on the bare back for having urged her own
sons not TO smoke tobacco, that pays lax TO the
oppressors of her country! There was also an old
woman Of YEARS, (Mara Domenica MONTH"; in a
company of27 victims doomed 10 perpetual Danish
ment for similar offence, and The detention OF arms
in their houses. Mrs. Ceccanari, the wife of a
member of the Roman Constituent Assembly, du-
ring the late Republic landed at Civlia Pecchia a
few DAYS ago with her, child, on her return to her
native country, with view to visit her old parents
and was seized by the police, taken to their office
and completely stripped naked, under the vile sus
piciun that she might have concealed in or on heI
person sumo reasonable matter While some OF
The official brules handling her person, raising
her arms 10 look under her arm-plts and perpetra-
ling still more indecent researches others were rip
ping open her shoes and the hens Of her bonnet and
garments! Finding nothing, they left her to re-
dress herself, but carried of her portfolio.
Reports of similar outrages come to us from Lom-
bady and other partrs of the Italian possessions OF
Austria. A repetition ofthe names and sentences
that daily swell the various official bulletins oil
prescription would fill sheets of paper. 1t is with
in bounds to say, that thousands of the worthiest
men and women are at this moment langnishing in
the prisons of Italy for no other offence than advs
ing their friends not to smoke tobacco, and perhaps
deprecaling The foreign rule oflher own native land.
The very spirit ofcruelly seems 10 have become in
canale, and its physiognomy is Austria.
| The slate OF things IN this city has become IN
tulerabe, and many families are seriously medllat-
ing removal to Sardinia, now the only free cuun
try in all Southern Europe. Our lustrous coun-
nyman, Hora,o Greenough, the sculptor. has bro
ken up his establishment, and gone on to Paris with
his whole family. Mr. Browning, the British poet,
and his gifted wife-Elizabeth Barret Browning
have also left for the same city, sick at heart with
what they have witnessed and felt since the inau
guration Of Austrian tyranny in the city Of their
residence.