CRIME IN ITALY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 5, 25 May 1883, Page 23

CRIME IN ITALY.

The condition of the Bomagna is getting worse every day. Formerly the crimes were laid to the sacerdotal rule. For twenty-five yean there las been no such rale ; yet the Romagnoli of the present day folly justify the saying, " The Romagnoli are certain beasts that live among pipes and daggers." Within a short time two police inspectors, Fumagalli and Grasselli, have been murdered in Bologna. Another was assassinated in Ravenna, and a fourth in Faenza. In Cesana a Sardinian prefect was butchered. Count Moratelli and Count Farniani have been killed in Faenza, and Count Mansoni in Lugo. In Ravenna, Mr. Cappa, the Royal Prosecutor, has been shot dead, and Dr. Lusconi and Messrs. Ghizzo and Monghini, bankers, have been seriously wounded. Scores of police officers have been killed by organised bands of thieves and assassins. The Romagnoli are trained to handle the dagger and practice withfa pistol and agon at an age when other boys play with toys and marbles. This may to some extent account for this seeming bloodthirstiness. The very newspapers which formerly quoted crimes in the Romagna as due to priestly misgovernment, are now aiding the perpetration of crimes by assailing judges, police officers, prefects, and the friends ofpnblic order. The Premier, Mr. Depretis, has been aroused. He has virtually told Parliament that he will pull the reins and put on the brake. It is high time, for the distant Romagna is not alone the scene of robberies and assassinations. The very castle seems to be a forest of Bondy. Robberies have been committed outside the Porta Pia, on the Pincio, and around the Coliseum. JCarlo Cafiero, the Italian Pyat, is insane. He was arrested a few days ago by the police of Fiesole, near Florence, while running around the country in a nude state. A gendarme covered him with his cloak. Cafiero is from Bari, in the southern provinces. He was born rich. To study the condition of the workingmen he went to Paris and worked in a factory for years. In 1877 he was at the head of a band of Socialists around Benevento. He proclaimed the Commune in a little town, and was soon defeated by the carabinieri. He was sent to prison, his family paying twenty francs a day for his- support. He was a bitter opponent of Costa, who- has got the best of him. He'ia in the insane asylum of Bonifacio, in Florence, while Costa fills a seat in Parliament.