"
There was no name dearer to Englishmen than that of Poerio to his
Neapolitan fellow-countrymen. Poerio was tried and condemned on the sole
accusation of a worthless character named Jerrolino. He would have been
acquitted nevertheless, by a division of four to five of his judges, had
not Navarro (who sat as a judge while directly concerned in the charge
against the prisoner), by the distinct use of intimidation, procured
the number necessary for a sentence. A statement is furnished on the
authority of an eye-witness, as to the inhumanity with which invalid
prisoners were treated by the Grand Criminal Court of Naples; and Mr.
Gladstone minutely describes the manner of the imprisonment of Poerio
and six of his incarcerated associates. Each prisoner bore a weight of
chain amounting to thirty-two pounds and for no purpose whatever were
these chains undone. All the prisoners were confined, night and day, in
a small room, which may be described as amongst the closest of dungeons;
but Poerio was after this condemned to a still lower depth of calamity
and suffering. "Never before have I conversed," says Mr. Gladstone,
speaking of Poerio, "and never probably shall I converse again, with a
cultivated and accomplished gentleman, of whose innocence, obedience to
law, and love of his country, I was as firmly and as rationally assured
as your lordship's or that of any other man of the very highest
character, whilst he stood before me, amidst surrounding felons, and
clad in the vile uniform of guilt and shame.
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