guilt, or by the flagrant penalties imposed upon him, for so many
crimes." On all these grounds, whether abstract or matter-of-fact, the
court declares the prisoner guilty of the wilful murder of Avanzi, and
sentences him to death.

On the morrow this sentence is conveyed to Simonetti, who appeals. With
considerable expedition the Supreme Tribunal meet to hear the case on the
23rd of September. The prisoner alleged before this court that his
indignation had been excited by improper proposals made to him by the
murdered man, and it was on this account their partnership had been
dissolved. Besides certain inherent improbabilities in this story, the
court decides that it was incredible that, if true, Simonetti should not
have made the statement at his previous trial. The appeal was therefore
dismissed, and the sentence of death confirmed. This decision was
notified to the prisoner on the 18th of November, who again appeals to
the higher Court, which meets to try the appeal on the 29th of the same
month. This court at once decided that there was no ground for supposing
the crime was not committed with "malice prepense," or for modifying the
verdict. 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 vi