A. bill for the suppression of brigandage has passed the
Italian Parliament, and recaived the Royal assent. Under it the Government can by decree " proclaim " any district infested with brigands, atd thenceforward. any brigand may be shot by court-martial, and any person who assists brigands, or conceals brigands, or feeds brigands, or does not resist brigands, may be transported for life. The power of pardon is taken away, except within very limited degrees, and all men who desire to escape the Act summoned to surrender within a short specified time. The Act, though not so much stronger than our own coercion bills, or so severe as the Six Acts of the Indian mutiny, is still excessively stringent, and fails to meet the agrarian difficulties which in South Italy, as in Ireland, are at the root of most crime. Till the peasants are a little better off, and the labourers become peasants, they will favour the brigands and regard the Royal troops as oppressors.
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