§ MR. MACEVOYsaid, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any information has been received that, previous to the late 1025 alleged outrages and insult being offered to the dwellings and persons of the Italian Consul and of Signor Fabrizzi, Deputy to the Italian Parliament, on the 9th and 10th of February, at Malta, the editor of the Portafoglio Maltese, Mr. Debono, had not been assaulted and severely beaten with a bludgeon in his own house by Captain Dini, of the Sardinian man-of-war Mozambano, assisted by his Lieutenant and some of his sailors; and whether Captain Dini and his Lieutenant had not been sentenced to imprisonment, the Captain to three months and his Lieutenant to two months, and whether the Government have made any representation to the Sardinian Government in consequence of these proceedings?
§ MR. LAYARDregretted to say that the circumstances mentioned by the hon. Gentleman had been proved. Captain Dini and his Lieutenant, feeling them selves aggrieved by some articles that had appeared in the Portafoglio Maltese, called on the editor, entered his room in presence of his family, and beat him with a stick very severely. The Captain and the Lieutenant were tried by the authorities and sentenced—the former to three and the latter to two months' imprisonment, which was afterwards commuted to a pecuniary fine. Her Majesty's Government had called the attention of Baron Ricasoli to the act as one unworthy of Officers in the Italian Navy.