The Daily Times. — 1860-07-27 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

RETURN OF THE IRISH GENTLEMAN WHO DREAMT OF A MARSHAL'S BATON.  A young gentleman, possessed of an independent income, was induced by the Pope's clerical recruiting officers to join the grand army of invincibles, *liieh iris to preserve the Papacy in spite of itself. -He was guaranteed a commission, and dreamed of a marshal's baton. He furnished himself, at the suggestion of the tempter, with a very handsome uniform—green and.gold, and so forth—and he left our quays in the confident belief that honours and rank were open to him. On Tuesday (says the editor of a Dublin paper) we had an inter View with him; and it was; indeed, difficult to recognise him. He Was lean; ague-stricken; feeble; and squalid. He was dressed like ri• decayed acrobat, whose "properties" had been seized. As long as he travelled through France and Austria, and his own money lasted, he managed to live ; but once he reached the Papal territories he had a more vivid idea of purgatory than any dogmatic theology could give him. At Macerata, a town most appropriately named; his splendid uniform was taken forcibly from him and sold by auction. In exchange he was furnished with an old flannel shirt, and an indescribable pair of knee-breeches. That was the uniform of the Pope's Irish Brigade. He had reserved a second coat, and was once, unfortunately, teripted to display it, when that too was sold by a drum-head auction. He found that remonstrance only subjected him to extra drill and threats of the bastinado. The drill was more severe even than the Austrian, for it was a discipline involving such severe punishments for disobedience, that numbers of Irish have already been shot down by Lamoriciere, others have been flogged, and many have been sent to till the sands of Algeria. Once he had, with others, to march 30 miles, with nothing to eat, or means to procure any. Every day he was given by an agent of the Pope four copper coins, about the size of a halfpenny, bearing the arms of Pio Nono on one side, and an inscription, testifying that its value is one bajoccio, on the other. Even in the Roman territories little could be got for four bajoccio. The recipient was-, at the utmost, able to procure some .macearoni and salt, no very pleasant food to an independent Irishman. • His health naturally gave way, and abiast he managed to procure his release. The man who went away in splendid uniform, full of hopes, and in robust _latiilth, was landed on Monday on our quays., in the remains of the flannel shirt and knee-breeches so worn down that nobody could identify him. There were-about eighty assembled in Abbeystreet, on .Sunday, and as many more on Monday, in the same miserable plight. Those who seduced these unfortunate men had not done their worst when they persuaded them to leave home and kindred. They now endeavour to blast their characters, and they say these Irishmen were driven from Rome in this wretched state solely because they wanted to pillage and plunder the Pope's subjects. A more atrocious calumny, we believe, never was uttered. It 'is a law, of the Roman Court, that if a beggar be hungry he may take the loaves from the bakers with impunity. and, perhaps, in their starvation, some of these poor men may have availed themselves of the privilege. When these men were departing, they were extolled as the chivalry of Ireland, the bone and sinew of the land, as full of piety and faith. Now that they are broken down and cast back upon their own shores, they are accused of being cut-throats, ruffians, incendiaries, and robbers. Had they been such characters, they_vvould have been better treated, for we know, from the precedent of Kalbermatten, that the surest road to honour and emolument, under the Pope, lies through robbery, pillage, treachery, and murder