Alexandre DUMAS père (1802-1870). Autograph manuscript signe - Lot 188

Alexandre DUMAS père (1802-1870). Autograph manuscript signed, Un Pays mûr pour l'abolition de la Peine de mort, [1863]; 3pages and a quarter in-4 on blue paper (small tears to last leaf without affecting text). On bloody banditry in and around Naples. Article for Dumas's Neapolitan newspaper, L'Indipendente, where it was published, "on the front page", dated "Napoli, 8 settembre 1863" (anno III, n°201, September 9, 1863), in Italian: Un paese maturo all'abolizione della pene di morte; the French version is unpublished. The original title, "Ce qu'on nous écrit de Benevent" ("What we hear from Benevent"), has been crossed out and replaced by the new, highly ironic title, which ties in with the ongoing polemic with Ranieri (see following issue), Dumas believing that the abolition of capital punishment would be premature in Naples. Dumas recounts the arrest by brigands, near Benevento, of two provincial councillors and their escort; all of them, "fourteen people at last, were shot"; the leader of the gang is probably "some escaped convict to whom some philanthropic court has given grace of life". The village of Pignataro "45 kilometers from Naples was invaded by brigands and burned". And he exclaims: "Happy Neapolitans who are protected by the friends of the Fatherland"... A conspiracy, which "was about to fill the streets of Naples with bloodshed and carnage", was fortunately foiled by the police: "This is the fourth time that the Naples Police has saved the Fatherland". He gives details, denouncing this plot led by the Consul of Rome in Naples and by "the Bourbonniens who grind the two most beautiful shades of red there are in the world - fire and blood"... Attached is a L.A.S. from his daughter Marie Alexandre Dumas, January 14, 1869, to an "illustrious friend" [Émile de Girardin?], sending him his book [Le Marie de Madame Benoît?]: "Voici un coupable [...] lisez le, jugez le, parlez en et en faire parler dans votre journal"... (1p. in-8).