The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-09
WHY ITALY HATES AUSTRIA.
From the London Spectator

are not so impatient +" the wonder is that they
! have borne the nfictiOn of repression, terror,
suffering, loss, and dishOnOr, so long; but since
Englishmen have forgotten how the misery has
come home to individuals, we will give few
passages of the old story. We have lately re-
ceived those Neapolitan eXiles who could ex-
emphfy in their own persons the treatment that
they had experienced under a Government
which daily violates the constitutional law Of its
own existence-a Government against which
our own had made a vain demonstration"
professedly to carry out the policy of 1856. At
the other extremity of Italy, the endurance of
the natives was of an equally practical kind.
Englishmen can have little idea of the annoy
ance which poisOns the life of an Italian-say
in Lombardy but very few facts may posi-
| bly, eXempily the habtual condition of the peo-
pie. The police of Milan may be said to con-
sist of an Austrian soldiery--a police armed with
the sabre, holding the authority of conquer
ing race, and exasperated by inevitable aiena-
| ton. The Austrans, as the reader will pres
emily understand, have rendered themselves 50
! intolerable, that Italians cannot associate with
! them and if you enter the pit of theatre, you
will see the first few seats taken by Austrians,
while the Italians, who are driven to the back,
leave one seat entirely vacant between them
selves and the aliens. If an English officer in
| the Austrian service discovers relatives of his
own amongst the Italians in Milan, he forbears
to notice them, lest they should become suspect
| ed and be driven from Italian society. We
pursue the narrative in the language of an es-
| teemed correspondent, who knows the country
well, and travelled it in recent years:
In recent paper on occupation in Italy, 1t
is observed: If England uphods such sys-
tenn, it is only from ignorance of its enormities.
In order to aid in enlightening this ignorance,
| tbo oil
from the Austrian Penal Code, established in
the Lombardo-V enetan provinces in 1915, with
! which few of your readers are likely to be ac-
! quainted, together with certain facts which
may serve to modify the admiration occasional
! ly expressed for the 'paternal rule of Austria.
| ! could have added many more from my per
sOnal knowledge during prolonged residence in
different parts of Italy, in 1853, 1854, and 1850,
| but | have preferred offering such as can be
authenticated by evidence which the most vio-
lent enemies of Italian independence cannot
| call in question, the O6fctdt Gazette of Milan.
"To begin with the Penal Code. What do
Englishmen say to this /. The proceedings
are to be strictly secret. The defence of the
accused to be given in writing; the prisoner
can claim no defender, nor can he demand that
the charges brought against him should be
| communicated to him. Article 337.
"Coporeal chastiSement forms fundamental
part of the Code High and low rich and poor,
man and woman, are subjected to this degra
ding treatment-as degrading to the full in the
eyes of an Italian as in those OF English
man. True, not more than fifty blows are to
be administered at one time In the case Of
youths under eighteen, and younger women,
rods are to be substituted for the stick. Article
! 20.
When the sentence has been pronounced,
the punishment may be augmented by the adj
diton of fasting and the 6dSttnddO. Article
2,27l.
Imprisonment is of three descriptions--durO,
! piu d,trO daaiSSjnlO The latter is thus de-
scribed in the Penal Code, article II: The
prisoner is to be confined in dungeon, shut
out from all external communication, with Just
air and light sufficient to sustain existence.
He is to be loaded with letters hand and foot,
day and night, and to be fastened by a chain to
an iron ring riveted round his waist-except
during the hours Of work. His food is to be
bread and water, soup once in two days, no
meat. His bed is to be formed Of bare planlls,
and it is forbidden to speak to any one, even
his ailers' Ii was TO this treatment that the
illustrious patriots confined in the Spieberg
were subjected it is beneath similar treatment
that some Of the best and noblest Italians are
now writhing. The Penal Code, section 377,
commands that in everything relating to the
State, TIE rife shall deHOURce tie Husband, the
husband the 'cite tie child the .tather the
.tather the child, on pain Of punishment as &C.
cOmpliceS'
almost all political offences are still brought
before what is called the 'Tribunalo Stadario,
sections jOO-50l of the Penal Code.) This
tribunal is composed Of military officers, Ger
mans, Croats, and Bohemians, who scarcely
understand word Of Italian, and who, from
habit, education, and national prejudice, detest
and Scorn the Italian people They speak Ger
man to each other; the witnesses are question
ed in German, ofwhich, if Italians, they in their
turn, seldom comprehend syllable, while, if
otherwise, they are sure to give their testimony
against the prisoner. Thus, says Givoni, the
learned author Of Austria in Italia the ac-
cused, having no one to defend him, may be
condemned almost without knowing his crime,
and learn it only when he is informed that in
half an hour the rope will be round his neck
The slightest demonstration Of popular feeling
is visited by the most summary and brutal pun
ishment Thus, in lS49, on the birthday of the
Emperor, certain Kisses having been heard is
suing from the midst of the crowd in one of the
most frequented streets in Milan in front of the
Cafe di Mazza, of which the object apparently
was the Austrian flag hoisted in the balcony of
a well-known courtesan, all the passersby were
seized, dragged before military tribunal and
condemned to different degrees Of corporeai
punishment, according to the degree of their of.
fence says the Gazette Oficidle of Milan, oath
August l849. Among the accused were men
Of high standing and irreproachable character,
merchants, OGrTtSterS, students, many of whom
probably were utterly ignorant of the whole at
fair, and two young girls, also perfectly respect
able. The latter were condemned to forth strokes
each. The sentence was executed instantly after
being pronounced, on the public place before the
castle, in the presence of troop of Austrian Off
GERS, who laughed with contemptuous cynicism
at the indecent exposure and the cries of the
victims. So far the tale. Now for the epi-
sode. The military cOmmandant of Milan sent
the municipality bill for 80 forins kreuzers.
G2 l9S. 6d.,) for the expense of ice applied to
the swollen, lacerated flesh, to prevent gangrene,
and for the sticks and rods broken and con-
sumed in the punishment of the seditious in the
revolt of the 9th of August. In addition. the
Marshal commanded the town to indemnify the
courtesan who had been terrified by the scene.
with the sum of 10000 livres, (s6OO.) How
touching is the care of such paternal Govern
: mentl
"Itmay be objected that these disgraceful bar.
barities were committed only Immediately after
the revolution of l848-'49 at a period of great
irritation. Did space permit, could present
you with countless Northumberland cases. to
t prove that this system of tyranny and brutality
: commenced from the very moment that Italy
t was handed over, in 1916, to the mercy of her
S Austrian masters, that it is one from which
+ Austria has never deviated, and which she i'm
/ poses wherever she Is mistress. What scenes
# have not beheld at Leghorn, Bologna, Ancona,
n terrara, wherever the Austrians had established
/ garrisons. Under pretext of defending Plus
y they tn lxa1f :. =