Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1860-06-13 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

NEAPOLITAN ATROCITIES IN SICILY. The Rev. G. W. Bridges, of Beachley Parsonage, writes as follows to the Times :  "In one of your powerful appeals to humanity on behalf of the oppressed Sicilians, you lately noticed the atrocities committed under authority by the police of Palermo, in the year 1848, when they last attempted to free themselves from the oppressor, and most true is your unvarnished tale. On the morning of the 17th of February in that year, I was among the foremost, and the only Englishman present, when the rush was made into the disclosed region of death which you refer to. The facts were these .—About forty of the sbirri had been captured by the Revolutionists, treated by them with kindness, and placed in security until they could be sent to Naples,—a friendly precaution to prevent their being murdered by the indignant mob, which then broke into the police palace, and cast the books and furniture from the windows. A portion of the spacious building appeared, however, to be inaccessible; windows and loopholes there were in it, but no opening to on entire wing of the dark prison-house. Presently, on removing one of the huge bookcases, some fresh-plastered wall appeared concealed behind it; a passage was quickly broken through it, and the senses were almost overpowered by the steaming effluvia which issued from seven dark chambers communicating with each other, where, upon clearing the loopholes, a secreted scene of horror was before us, such as wants the best testimony to be believed. There lay human bodies, and the mutilated remains of such, in every state of death and decay; bundles of rotting rags mingled with bones, and limbs, and filth filled the corners of the smaller rooms ; chains hung rivetted to the walls above, whence some of these remains had dropped as they died—some still holding in their iron grasp the arms or ankles of their famished victims. Skeletons, almost fleshless were piled upon others which were quite so, and placed on stone shelves which had served as their beds while living; naked bodies, black and pulpy, were hidden beneath others more recently dead, yet alive with maggots; and, greater horror still, two human figures in writhing attitudes were hanging crucified upon the wall of the largest chamber the reeking, blood-stained stones of which held rusty spikes corresponding to the outstretched hands and feet of others which had been so suspended, and still retaining the stringy remains of muscles torn to shreds, from which the heavier portions had dropped and lay in heaps of putridity beneath. Shrieks of indignant horror arose from the infuriated mob, a portion of which rushed back to the prison where the captured abirri were secured, brought them out, and shot them down on the instant. Others remained, raking and searching among the bones and bodies, examining minutely the putrid remnants of those they fancied might have been their fathers, brothers, or kindred, who had long been missing, but whose fate they knew not. One of the sbirri, whose life in vain I tried to save, endeavoured to persuade me that the suspended bodies were not crucified while alive, but nailed there to augment the tortures of the living prisoners. Further details I could give, from my intimacy with Sicily and its people during those stirring times; this, indeed, was a scene never to be forgotten— enough to sicken the thought that dwells on it, and to attest, were it needed, the usual and very accurate truthfulness of your assertions."