HOUSE OF LORDS, Monday, May 11, 1863. MINUTES.]—PUBLIC BILLS-Second Reading Elections during Recess (No. 84); Marriages, &c. (Ireland)* (No. 93). Report-Corrupt Practices at Elections* (No. 94); London, &c. Dioceses* (No. 95); Augmentation of Benefices* (No. 99). Third Reading-Hares (Ireland) * (No. 52), and passed. Royal Assent-Exchequer Bonds (£1,000,000) [26 & 27 Vict., c. 16]; Local Government Act (1858) Amendment [26 & 27 Vict., c. 17]; Inclosure [26 & 27 Vict., c. 18]; Consolidated Fund (£20,000,000) [26 & 27 Vict., c. 15]. ITALY-CASE OF MR. BISHOP. PETITION. OBSERVATIONS. THE MARQUESS OF NORMANBY rose to present a Petition from the Reverend Alfred Bishop, Rector of Martyr Worthy in the Diocese of Winchester; and in reference to that Petition to call the Attention of the House to the Proceedings of Her Majesty's Government and their local Agents in the Case of the Petitioner's Son, Mr. James Bishop, now a Prisoner in the Fortress of Alexandria, undergoing a Sentence of Ten Years' Imprisonment. A Petition on such a subject from such a source is fortunately without parallel. It required a combination of circumstances hitherto unexampled to induce a person in the station of the Rev. Mr. Bishop to break through the habits of a retired life and to call your Lordship's attention to the cruelties of a foreign Government exercised towards a son who had quitted his home without the most remote idea of dabbling in politics abroad, but simply to seek, through the favourable influences of climate, restored health for his sickly frame, having for many years previously lost the use of his limbs. Before proceeding to state some important circumstances which I think should cause the Petitioner's appeal to be received with favour, I will at once dispel a general prejudice founded on the repetition of a falsehood, that Mr. James Bishop was a convert to the Roman Catholic religion. Now, though I do not hold that the English Government is at all less bound to extend protection to British subjects at home and abroad on account of their religious profession; yet had this conversion been a fact, there is no doubt that it would have been a personal mortification as well as on higher grounds a misfortune to his father, a respectable minister of our own Church. Yet so persevering was this misrepresentation that I myself believed it till I received, a few days ago, a letter from the Petitioner tion for the allegation. saying there was not the slightest founda The necessity for this Petition is, that our agents abroad seem to share the general impression that, for the first time in the history of this country, the Government, in the hands of the noble Lord, has been the active partisan of usurpation when founded on revolution. It is in this spirit exclusively that Mr. Bonham and others are shown to have acted. But it is important, to the fair consideration of this special case, that we should trace the various contradictions of the Foreign Office in dealing with these questions. There is not, in the case of Mr. Bishop, the slightest pretence that he was levying actual war against a Government de facto; his antecedents and his actual physical condition mark this as impossible. But when sympathies are made criminal, to an extent that absolves the Government from any responsibility for the safety of a British subject, it is necessary to point out, that though the noble Lord showed great favour to the Garibaldian insurrection in its first stages, yet when the noble Lord had to decide whether the legitimate authority so long established and so universally acknowledged in Naples was transferred to Victor Emmanuel by the plebiscite, nothing could be more positive than the declara tion of my noble Friend, that the plebiscite was utterly valueless for such a purpose. This declaration must be coupled with his first dictum on taking office that Victor Emmanuel should recollect that his occupation of the territories of others was only provisional, and that no territorial limits could be finally changed except by a European Congress. The remark being made. We continued our way till the carriage arrived at the Delegation, where it was stopped by four policemen, and I was forced out of the carriage-as they pretended-to speak to the Delegato. On going up stairs, I found myself in a room occupied by a number of the police, and two young men who called themselves Dele gati. These were the same who had asked for my they wanted, and what their motive could be in passport but a few moments before. I asked what acting with such suspicion and violence. These official opinions, promulgated only answer I received was an order to the from such a source, may have induced police surrounding me to search me and my lugEnglish residents to suppose that fair lati-gage. I remonstrated, and showed my passport, which had the visé of the British Consul at Naples, tude for the expression of their sincere and that of the Roman Consul. I was answered opinions was left both to them and to the by a coarse laugh, and told to hold my tongue, Neapolitan people, and that to discuss for that I was a Swiss in disguise, and no British those opinions could not fairly enter into subject at all, and that they, the two Delegati, would teach the Government how to deal with all an aggravated charge of conspiracy. It is such reactionists. The order was given to the true, that some months after the noble police to search me (my things lay already strewn Lord had refused to acknowledge the ple- about the floor, where they were left). Nothing biscite, he stated that he would be guided was found among them. They then proceeded to for the future by the result of the Parlia- search my person-stripping me of my shirt, and forcing me to take off even my shoes and stockmentary elections; and when only 30,000 ings. This lasted some time, as I refused to subelectors, out of a population of nine mil-mit, and was held by four men, whilst the rest lioes, voted, my noble Friend, upon this stripped me of my clothes. Great violence was abortive result, recognised the title of used, and I was left completely exhausted, being in a very weak state of health, and told in the King of Italy, although he had repudiated most insulting manner to dress myself. I exposthe act upon the validity of which the new tulated, threatened, asked, but all to no purpose, order of things was alone founded About except to bring down upon me a torrent of abuse a year had elapsed between the date of the and bad language. Nothing had been found apnoble Lord's despatch giving a qualified parently to satisfy them, and there only remained acceptation of des faits accomplis, by re-key. They threatened to break it open if I did my writing desk, of which they had not found the cognising the title of the King of Italy, not open it of my own accord. I refused to do so, and the arrest of Mr. Bishop upon his way declaring that I preferred returning to Naples, from Naples to Rome, when this sickly young or sending a telegraphic despatch to the Questura English gentleman was seized, and has and my Consul, who would be able to satisfy them. ever since been guarded and punished as a the authorities of the place; and as for my Consul, They refused to listen, declaring that they were dangerous enemy to the great design of a I had none, for the Swiss were no longer tolerated united Italy. What the circumstances in the Kingdom, and I was the last to be sent connected with that arrest were, was first away. made known in all its details by a letter to The Times of the 11th of April 1862. The arrest was not founded upon information which justified the step, though this first step was afterwards verted to their own purposes. They knew literally nothing against him, for the police who so brutally ill-used him, told him "that he was an impostor; that his passport was false-that he was a German, and no Englishman." The arrest, with all the needless violence which accompanied it, may be left to Mr. Bishop's own description, which I shall read per Naples, 11th April, 1862. "I left Naples at four o'clock on the morning of the 2nd instant, intending to go to Rome, and occupied the seat which is vacant for one passenger in the courier which conveys the letters par terre traversing the route of Capua, Gaeta, and Terracina. At Gaeta I was asked for my passport; gave it, and received it back again without any could not possibly wait any longer, and that if I "The courier then appeared, saying that he were not ready to go on, he must leave me behind. The two authorities answered for me that I was detained by them, and could not continue my journey. I asked why? and was told I had back to Naples. I protested, but in vain. The come with a false passport, and should be taken room was full of police, who prevented me from stirring hand or foot, for I was surrounded by them. The courier was a Piedmontese, and said to me in German, But you speak German: I don't believe you can be an Englishman, for I heard you talking in German to your friend who accompanied you to the door of the carriage at Naples.' He turned to the Delegati, assuring them that I was either an Austrian or a Swiss. man entered, and poked his fist under my chin, telling me it was all right, I should soon be done for." who had challenged me then came up, and haran- | his entire approbation of the conduct of gued me after the manner of a savage, and told Mr. Bonham, he was aware, that when the me I had given the last proof of not being an Englishman by not accepting his challenge; that Questore of Naples had suggested to the I was a vile Royalist-he was sure of it, and he Consul that he could extend indulgence would teach my entrails to respect Italia, to Mr. Bishop as an English subject and to know what the blood of Garibaldists such that, in short, he could give him condias his was worth.' My answer brought such a tional freedom, the Consul had repliedblow from his fist at my chest that I reeled back, and fell over the chair which stood behind. Another "Treat him as a Neapolitan." This, Mr. Bishop gives as the dictum of the Consul, on the authority of the Questore himself. Even if Mr. Bonham did not recognise the extent of lawless tyranny which these words would authorize if he had not thought it worth his while to inquire into all the aggravation of prison horrors of which we have latterly had many authentic details, still it is necessary we should know whether the Secretary of State approves the principle involved in that declaration; because, if he does, it is evident that his predecessor in the Foreign Office should lose not a moment in repudiating his former dictumthat an Englishman had only to say "Civis Romanus sum" to secure special protection. Such an idle boast is quite inconsistent with the practical interpretation of his duties by Mr. Bonham when his decision If the petitioner's son had been a revolutionist, and the Piedmontese authorities been the servants of a regularly-established Monarchy, can any one doubt that before now the noble Lord would have presented all the facts of the prisoner's statement in the shape of a blue-book? Can it be believed possible that such brutality can have been practised with impunity towards any traveller, much more towards an English gentleman? And still more, that no attempt at redress should be made by the Consul? That, inflated by the importance of his small official dignity, he never condescended to comfort this English gentleman-he never visited him when in prison -he allowed him, without any remonstrance, to be tried for the minor offence of insulting the authorities, because, when stripped, searched, insulted, struck, and challenged to fight, he exclaimed, not unnaturally, "By such acts you will never make a united Italy." It is now eight months since, at the request of the petitioner, I first entered into communication with my noble Friend opposite on the case of Mr. James Bishop, and it is ten months since I have been fully put in possession of all the facts of the case, partly through the father and partly through the mother of the prisoner, a lady whose personal energy, sustained by maternal affection, has enabled her on many occasions to supply the place of her husband when he was detained by various duties connected with his pastoral home. was-" Let him be treated as a Neapolitan." And if the Prime Minister does not in consequence retract his former boast, it is evident he is deceiving British travellers abroad by holding out a promise of special protection, which under the present Government they will not receive. Before presenting this Petition to your Lordships, I saw the petitioner, and requested him to point out the principal grounds for complaint. The answer was, that his son had been kept in prison six months before trial that he was placed in a penal prison, being charged with political offence-and that when he was from severe illness removed to the infirmary, so far from being an amelioration it was the reverse, because he was placed in a room separated only by a curtain from a patient dying of typhus fever. So far as to personal treatment. The petitioner naturally lays great stress on the testimony of Signor Bax, one of the first advocates at the Neapolitan Bar, as to the numerous irregularities and illegalities which marked the whole proceedings. Signor Bax, it should be said, was not chosen by the prisoner on account of poany other cause, but was appointed by the court for that office on the death of the advocate he had selected. I shall as concisely as I can bring some of the main facts before your Lordships, by quoting the account of On the 7th of September last, whilst my noble Friend was still in Germany, I wrote to him a private letter pointing out all the hardships of the case. I will, on this occasion, only press one point connected with that correspondence. In his reply to my statement of the repeated complaints that I had heard of the care-litical sympathies or from less and indifferent manner in which Mr. Bonham had neglected his duties, the noble Lord replied, "I entirely approve of his conduct." Now, it should be known whether, when his noble Friend conveyed VOL. CLXX. [THIRD SERIES.] 3 C the trial sent home by a brother of the | cern them. Even my noble Friend oppoprisoner, an officer in the 22nd Regiment, site, unless he is much belied by his Italian who went to Naples to be present at the trial "You know probably by this time that James is condemned; the sentence is ten years to the galleys! The first part of the day was absorbed in hearing two witnesses from Gaeta as to his having abused them. All they said was, that he had called them assassins and infamous fellows They differed in their evidence; so the first day went for nothing. The second day began earlier, and finished at 5.30 p.m. Not one single witness for conspiracy, which was the main charge. Much as I was prejudiced, of course, in my brother's favour, I was astonished at the lack of evidence against him. Three times did the judge and Procureur General interrupt James's advocate. The latter, Bax, spoke nobly, forcibly, and with the pluck of an Englishman. Even he did not hesitate to address himself particularly to the President, and on his oath declare that the whole of the proceedings were illegal in every point. Who ever, even in our courts, heard of an advocate speaking with more boldness? I commence the defence of Mr. Bishop by declaring that everything that has been done is totally illegal and illogical.' Then with the criminal clared that no one could be found guilty of conspiracy who was not proved to have accomplices, and not even then if they were under three in number. Jem's advocate admitted that his client was cognizant of conspiracy, but read out the new Italian law, which does not allow a man to be guilty of conspiracy merely for being cognizant of it. The consul did not attend the trial, but sent a clerk. No wonder the judge was severe when he saw the consul thus disowning James." code in his hands he read out the law which de As is said in the Petition, it is not our province to deal with the verdict, except inasmuch as the apparent unfairness of the trial furnishes additional ground for making diplomatic efforts against so severe and so unjust a sentence. But the complaint of Signor Bax is consistent with the fact, when he states that Mr. Bishop was only cognizant of a conspiracy, without taking any steps to carry it into effect, and that by the present Neapolitan law such a position is not an offence. How many Englishmen during the last quarter of a century have had cognizance of conspiracies against the Governments under which they have been living, and how much surprised they would have been to have found themselves in consequence undergoing a sentence of ten years' imprisonment. It has been the normal condition of so many travelling Englishmen, whenever there have been complaints against a foreign Government, to like to be flattered and consulted, and their opinions asked upon matters which do not the least con intimates and confidants, ought to feel some sympathy for Mr. Bishop. In the year 1856 he spent some months in Italy, principally in Tuscany. Except when I had the pleasure of seeing him in my house, my noble Friend lived exclusively with that set which was called the Piedmontese set, and who were afterwards known as Count Cavour's Conspirators. He hardly ever entered into any discussion with me on Italian affairs. But the Prime Minister, Signor Baldassaroni, told me that the members of his set boasted to all who would listen to them that he was acquainted with all their plans and approved them. I told Signor Baldassaroni that I was sure there was no truth in these assertions, because I knew the language he had held only four years before in Parlia ment, whilst still Prime Minister, as to the miserable results of the last revolutionary attempt in Italy, and the praises he had specially lavished upon Tuscany and its Government, as he had recollected it formerly. Signor Baldassaroni accepted these assurances in good part, but said that this did not prevent those with whom he lived from attributing to him directly contrary opinions. In the year 1858 the Avocato Salvagnola, who was constantly in the noble Lord's house whilst he was still at Florence, went to England, and returned in the autumn, saying that he had had many confidential conversations with Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, and they might depend upon their assistance. Soon after the Peace of 1859, I was told by many Tuscan friends of mine that the Avocato Salvagnola had just returned to Florence from Turin to urge the annexation; and referring to the change of Government which had just taken place in England, said, "It is all right now, since all this was settled with Lord John in 1856." My Tuscan friends said that all, whether reactionary or revolutionary, believed the statement as to the solidarité of the noble Lord with the origin of the conspiracy, from his having, a very few days after the Peace, recommended in a despatch that the Piedmontese Commissioners, whilst still at Florence, should summon a popular Assembly to settle the fate of the country. On the other hand, it is right to give the noble Lord the benefit of the untrustworthy character of his chosen companion. It was Signor Salvagnola who promulgated what my noble Friend would call his dogma-Colla verità non si governa; but taking into account the difference of age and station, I think Mr. Bishop had nothing to learn in the article of prudence from the noble Lord. during the first four nights of my imprisonment I had slept on the earthen floor, beds not being buy my own; that I applied to the directors, the allowed to political prisoners; that I had had to gaolers, all in vain ; and I should have had to lie on the ground in my all but dying state had it not been for a fellow-prisoner who lent me the tressels from under his own bed." "Dec. 11. I am still in the half of the room I told you of. The other poor fellow remains on the other side of the curtains. I cook the little I can eat on the earthen stove, which is on the sick man's side of has been to see me, but was obliged to light a the curtain. Dr. Pincoff says I must eat. Ile cigar, owing to the stench from that poor man's side. When the cigar was burnt out, he left me. "The second case of typhus had died in the division of the room I occupied." It has been stated that when Mr. Bishop was asked whether, if he obtained a pardon, he would leave the country, he replied, "No!" That statement was not correct. On one occasion young Mr. Bonham went to Mr. Bishop, and said to him in a patronizing manner, "Supposing we were to get you released, would you consent to leave Italy." Mr. Bishop, very much annoyed and excited, replied by asking whether Mr. Bonham came to make him the offer; "Oh no!" said Mr. Bonham, I am quite at a loss to understand why "I only want to know what you would the Piedmontese authorities should view do in the case supposed. Mr. James with such peculiar severity the offence of Bishop said, in describing his sufferings, constructive conspiracy. It shows a comthat he had been so ill-used that he won-plete absence of all moral consciousness. dered he was still sane. Perhaps I may best bring his case home to your Lordships by reading a part of his letter in his own words, as addressed to his parents "Santa Maria Apparente, Nov. 22. "A fortnight ago I was taken very ill, with cold and dreadful pains, &c. I sent several letters to Mr. Bonham, and got no answer. I begged the director to have something done for me, as I was daily getting worse-my room being constructed between two currents of air. No one came to me, and I lay getting worse. Then an affair occurred in the prison which well-nigh killed me. The prisoners in the lower part of the prison had made an attempt to escape, which was discovered, and the informer was assassinated by them. The result of this was, we were all put under lock and key; and in my state I was left alone without help for twenty-four hours. This completely did for me; and when the brutes came their second round, they found me in a dreadful state; and had it not been for a young surgeon, a fellow-prisoner, I should have been again left to my fate. He insisted on leeches being sent for, and sat up all night nursing me. I had paper brought, and wrote again to Mr. Bonham, and about noon his son came up, quite astonished to find me so ill. The dreadful vomiting returned while he was there, and he left me, for I could not speak. On the the third day young Bonham came again, and brought Dr. Pincoff. I got a little better till the next day, when my throat became nearly closed, and I was unable to lie down. What I have gone through in suffering no pen can tell. While I was so bad, they repented, I suppose, of having let me get so ill in that room, and moved me into another where I now am. ... I only wonder that I am still sane. Racked with pain, my head swollen to an enormous size, unable to swallow. . . . . To remain in prison during the winter will be my death. . . There is not only no place to make a fire, but none is allowed. To give you an idea of how they treat me, when I was at Ask for another bed, the worst Dr. Pincoff said, Not only did their arch-apostle Count Cavour boast in their own Parliament that he had been a conspirator for twelve years, but conspiracy is the basis of their whole system. In bringing forward the case of the petitioner, I have endeavoured as far as possible to avoid touching on any points not indirectly or directly connected with it. This has not arisen from any want of materials the most authentic, confirming statements which I have already made in this House during the last few years. To all who do not continue wilfully blind, the light of truth has begun to pierce through the dark mysteries and intrigues which envelop Italian affairs. But I feel that, in the interest of my client, I had better on this occasion omit many topics on which in connection with past events I might have much to say. I will now conclude, and bring the question to its practical issue by quoting an extract from the last letter of the prisoner to his parents "Alessandria, April 23. "I begin to feel all that I have lost in flesh and strength during this year's confinement. It is not so much in the failure of my physical strength that I feel the sad effects of all this, but in my mind; I often quite lose my memory, and cannot regain it. Sometimes I become profoundly ignorant of even the simplest things, and make use of words and objects quite in a wrong way. I often find the greatest difficulty in fixing my attention even on a thing that interests me much. "God knows whether I can hold out strong to the end." To any one who has anxiously studied the indications of that sure process by which the human mind is overthrown, there |