HORRIBLE PICTURE OF A POPISH PRISON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 521, 31 October 1857, Page 4

HORRIBLE PICTURE OF A POPISH PRISON.

The Turin correspondent of the" Daily News " supplies a horrible picture of the Pope's prison —a house, of torture as horrible as any in the domains of the Kingof Naples himself.—— " Fort Urban," says the writer, " is built upon a small hill in the centre of a marshy moor. It is entirely surrounded by ditches and deep wells of stagnant'water, from which issue during the summer the most pestilential vapours and smells, besides breeding myriads of all sorts of insects, with which the air -round the castle is loaded. It has been used by the government as a sort of penitentary, but has always been looked upon as the most unwholesome in the Pope's dominions. At present there are 800 prisoners, of whom 200 are detained without having been tried , and on mere suspicion that if they were at liberty they might commit some political crime. Many of these poor creatures have been in confinement for many years." They are chained night and day, and if any one offends the govenor, he is chained to the ground, so that he can only creep about for three or four paces. Every prisoner's letter to his family is read by the gaolers, and very often they cut all the letter away except the address and the signiture. Visits of the prisoners' relations are sometimes allowed in the presence of the governor and his gaolers, but only for a few minutes. When a prisoner is ill, no medical man can order his chains to be taken off. This must be by order of and in presence of, the governor. It appears the medical men are anxious to mitigate the sufferings of the prisoners, but they not only have no power, but themselves are looked upon as suspicious characters. The poor prisoners are so altered that their own relations do not know them. The mortality is great. The healthy prisoners and those with the most offensive and disgusting diseases are all huddled together; but the air of this noisome prison is so bad that not the strongest constitution can bear up against it; and to this must be added that there is no provision for the common necessities of nature. Formerly the prisoners were allowed to attend the church, but this is new prevented—it is supposed for fear of conspiracy. So here is the head of the church preventing his unfoi-tunate prisoners from attending divine sei*vice." The Pope and Cardinal Antonelli are said to be aware of this state of things; yet they do nothing to prevent. Some day, however, there will be a reckoning.