crimes of the deepest dye, and brings accusations against him, the falsehood of which the most superficial enquiry would have demonstrated. Lord Shrewsbury confined himself not to expressions of sympathy only; he forthwith set himself heartily to bring what personal influence he possessed to bear towards procuring alleviation of the sufferings of the hapless criminal:— “Palermo, June 26th, 1851. “It was this day’s post that brought me your favour of the 4th. I cannot say how distressed I am at what you tell me of the fate of poor Poerio, for however guilty the man may be, his punishment is barbarous, inhuman, and unchristian. I cannot doubt what Mr. Gladstone saw. I really had no idea that, in these times, old habits and ways of thinking in these matters had still prevailed in Naples, to the exclusion of those more becoming, polite, and enlightened methods of dealing with State criminals. Our worthy Chief Governor is not yet returned from his tour, but I hope to see him before our next post leaves, and shall not fail to press this point upon him; and too happy shall I be to be able to report that the rigors of Poerio’s confinement have been already mitigated. Though I know full well that no man is more capable of discriminating between truth and falsehood than Mr. Gladstone, still I have heard so much of Poerio’s criminality as to leave no reasonable doubt upon my mind that, whatever defects there may have been in the evidence upon which he was convicted, there is no question of his guilt. He was, I think, an exile for his conduct in ’30, lived at Paris on terms of intimacy with Mazzini, and there published several Revolutionary Pamphlets, in fine, the whole Ministry, of which he formed a part, Dragonetti’s, perhaps, excepted, were noted and proved Republicans, such as Pepe and Saliceti. How, then, can any one doubt their determination to dethrone the King by means of the _Constituent_ Assembly into which they were determined to transform the new Chamber, in May, ’48? No one at Naples doubted it.... “June 29th.