To this he replied in a letter, in 1852. In his reply he
placed, point by point, the answers in the scales along with his own
accusations. There was in the Neapolitan answers to the letters really a
tacit admission of the accuracy of nine-tenths of Mr. Gladstone's
statements, Mr. Gladstone enumerated the few retractions which he had
to make, which were five in number. That the prisoner, Settembrine, had
not been tortured and confined to double chains for life, as was
currently reported and believed; that six judges had been dismissed at
Reggio upon presuming to acquit a batch of political prisoners, required
modifying to three; that seventeen invalids had not been massacred in
the prison of Procida during a revolt, as stated; and that certain
prisoners alleged to have been still incarcerated after acquittal had
been released after the lapse of two days. These were all the
modifications he had to make in his previous statements. And as to the
long list of his grave accusations, not one of them rested upon hearsay.
He pointed out how small and insignificant a fraction of error had found
its way into his papers. He fearlessly reasserted that agonizing
corporal punishment was inflicted by the officials in Neapolitan
prisons, and that without judicial authority.
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