" But he is now gone where
he will scarcely have the opportunity even of such conversation. I
cannot honestly suppress my conviction that the object in the case of
Poerio, as a man of mental power sufficient to be feared, is to obtain
the scaffold's aim by means more cruel than the scaffold, and without
the outcry which the scaffold would create.
Mr. Gladstone said that it was time for the veil to be lifted from
scenes more fit for hell than earth, or that some considerable
mitigation should be voluntarily adopted. This letter was published in
1851--the year of the great Exposition in London--and a copy was sent to
the representative of the Queen in every court of Europe. Its
publication caused a wide-spread indignation in England, a great
sensation abroad, and profoundly agitated the court of Naples.
In the English Parliament Sir De Lacy Evans put the following question
to the Foreign Secretary: "If the British Minister at the court of
Naples had been instructed to employ his good offices in the cause of
humanity, for the diminution of these lamentable severities, and with
what result?" In reply to this question Lord Palmerston accepted and
adopted Mr. Gladstone's statement, which had been confirmed from other
quarters, expressing keen sympathy and humanitarian feeling with the
cause which he had espoused, but Lord Palmerston pointed out that it was
impossible to do anything in a matter which related entirely to the
domestic affairs of the Government at Naples.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259