The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-04-14

The paternal government of the Papal States
has been again compelled to chastise its rebellious
children. Instead of the cannon and rifles which
were so effectively used to restore order in Peru
gia, the swords of the sbirri were last month
brought into requisition for similar purpose at
Rome. political demonstration of as peaceful
and lnotlensive a character as could well be de-
vlsed, was attempted in that city, when the people
were unceremoniously set upon by the gems d armes
and the police and put to fight, after many
persons had been seriously or MORALLY wounded.
1t is scarcely worth while to discuss the question
as to whether this occurrence shall be termed a
fight or a massacre. Call it what we will, it is
another fact, added to the many heretofore
furnished, to prove the unappeasable disaf-
fiction of the people, and the determination of
their rulers to suppress, Dy the most violent and
arbitrary means, any NANTES alton of opposition
or discomfort in which the former are disposed to
indulge. Nor is it of much Importance to inquire
on whom the responsibility for this collision
principally rests. When the governed and the
government are at mortal ISSUE and a desperate
struggle between them is evidently impending it
matters little who strikes the first blow, or
whether there was sufficient provocation to Justify
it. In this case the people were unarmed, and
they had, apparently, not the slightest intention
of committing breach of the peace or viola
ton of the laws. But they were offer
ing a silent protest against misrule, and
testlfylng their respect for the cause of
independence in Central Italy, and in the eyes of
the purblind and despotc authorities these were
crimes of revolutionary nature, and of course
most heinous promenade upon the Corso to
which any political significance is supposed, by
the public, to be attached, is enough to alarm the
vigilant police of Rome: and the fact that thou
sands of men are there collected together, among
whom a unanimity of sentiment prevails, on any
subject concerning the affairs of State, suices TO
brighten the keepers of that Maynard flock
Weak, rotten and despised, the Roman Govern
ment cannot withstand shocks which the estab-
lished institutions of other nations would scarcely
feel. We do not WONDER therefore, that it took
the initiative and prevented the people from in
dulging in the peripatetc political demonstration
they had contemplated. Repressive measures of the
harshest kind have been for so many years resorted
to, both in Rome and Naples, to enforce an uncom-
planning obedience from the ill-governed inhabi-
tants of those countries, that little bloodshed
more or less rather illustrates than aggravates the
despotic systems which the PoPE and KING, re-
spectively, have sanctioned. 1t is TO be regretted
that the people thus far have gotten the worst Of
the conflict wherever the feud between them and
their rulers has brought the parties to blows But
more momenous crisis than any they have yet
passed through is approaching, and, backed by the
assistance and encouragement OF the free Italian
States and the sympathes of the whole civil
lied world, we look to see the Romans, and the
Neapolitans also, at no distant day, secure the
reforms they demand, or achieve successful revo-
luton