It is not stated when the sentence was submitted to the Pope,
but on the 20th of January, 1860, the rejection of his final appeal is
communicated to the prisoner, and on the 21st the execution takes place,
and the report is published.
Now, if I had wished solely to decry the Papal system of justice, I
should not have given the report of the last trial, which seems to me far
the most favourable specimen of the set I have come across. I am
inclined to believe, from the meagre narratives before me, that all the
criminals whose cases I have narrated were guilty of the crimes alleged
against them, and fully deserved the fate they met with. My object,
however, has been to point out certain features which must, I think,
force themselves on any one who has read these cases carefully. The
disregard for human life, the abject poverty, the wide-spread
demoralization in the rural districts indicated by these stories, are
startling facts in a country which has been for centuries ruled by the
vicegerents of Christ on earth. At the same time, the great protraction
of the trials and the utter uncertainty about the date of their
occurrence, the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence, the want of any
cross-examination, the manner in which strict law is disregarded from a
clerical view of justice, and the identity between the court and the
prosecution, the abuse of the unlimited power of appeal, and the extent
to which this appeal from a lay to a clerical court places justice
virtually in the hands of the priesthood; and finally, the secret and
private character of the whole investigation, coupled with the utter
absence of any check on injustice through publicity, are all matters
patent even to a casual observer.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80