The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-18 00:00:00

P it 1 NC tN°Fa.

Thle 'Mme, THE LOST HENRY THE
EIGHTH. Mews Charles Kean, Jordan, Potter, Raymond,
J. F. Cathcart. Everett. Garden, and Meadows : Mrs. Charles
lean and Mlesas Chapman.—And THE TWO POLTS.

If RIT4NNIA.

THIS imam ROBIN ROOD; In which the Foresters will
'neut.—Singing by Mmes. C. IlToalman and 11. Sydney. —Aroun
and Madame Irene paean.—Mr. C. Burton.—To conclude with
TIM PRO rLIGAT CAILIILL —Commence Mee.

ASTLErt

THIS EVINING, NAZ EP Alto; which SCENES TN THE
CIRCLE. Hdlle. Masotti, Hihop, and Young Devereux.
—To onooludo with • comic BALL= in which Mina Annie
Cuahale will appear.—Commence it 7.

HIGH WATAI AT WIDOW 112IDOIL
Tam DAT Morels& Pl 00m.....Aftersoes. YR s 5 es.
Torwasow-..Moralae. 101. 106 Ma

LONDON, THU RSDA Y, SEPTEMBER 18.

Arrsit a long delay, during which the most I
contradictory rumours have been circulated, it is
at length announced that the Italian Government
has decided to bring GARIBALDI to trial before the
ordinary Courts of Assize. This determination of
the Itarrazzi Cabinet to prosecute their illustrious ,
prisoner is intimated to the public through the
Official Gazette of Turin, and may therefore, we
presume, be accepted as at all events a provisional ,
decision of the Government on this most weighty
and important question. For the sake of Italy
we venture, however, to hope and believe that this
will not be the final decision of the Government;
and we do this the more confidently, not only
because it is notorious that an influential section
of the Cabinet has from the first strenuously
opposed this harsh and uncalled for measure, but
also because the grounds on which it is said to I
have been adopted will not bear a moment's serious '
examination. According to the current rumour,
the notion of an amnesty, which had been
at first favourably entertained by the Government, I
was strongly resisted by two distinguished generals
on the ground that a public trial was necessary to I
satisfy the army. The decision in favour of this I
course is accordingly attributed to the strong re-
presentations of these officers, the Government
having accepted the alternative of a prosecution as
a kind of military necessity. We are glad that a
supposition so injurious to the soldiers of Italy 1
exists only as a rumour. That the army or the I
officers, as a body, should for a moment demand
the trial of GARIBALDI for treason is, we are con-
fident,
a gratuitous slander against the high cha-
racter of both. The Italian army is thoroughly
loyal and patriotic, and the only crime his bitterest
enemies can allege against GARIBALDI is that of
representing those noble qualities in excess. He
has not only fought for the independence of his
country, but actually delivered its fairest pro-
vinces from an odious tyranny. But with chi-
valric loyalty he transferred his conquests to the
sovereign under whose banner he had fought, and
voluntarily retired from the scene of his labours
and his glory without conventional distinction or
material reward. Every soldier in the royal army
not only shares in the motives and inspirations of
the national hero, but is proud of belonging to the
country that produced him. In his recent unfor-
tunate expedition GARIBALDI was animated by the
same simplicity of motive, the same noble purity
of purpose. He took the field not only for Vic-roa
EMMANUEL, but, as he believed, with his sympathy
and support. In this he was mistaken. But the
task of undeceiving him, of forcibly arresting his
progress on the slope of Aspromonte, was the
moat painful that Italian troops led by an Italian
officer could possibly have been called on to
execute. To have served their country by such a
terrible sacrifice of personal feeling would be suffi-
cient for brave and generous men. They would
desire or accept no other satisfaction or reward for
such a service. The thought of being praised or
decorated by a foreign Government for an act of
domestic duty so inexpressibly painful would of
course be simply revolting. Aud the idea of
pursuing any further the illustrious victim, whose
only fault was that of loving his country not
wisely but too well, would be instantly resented as
a cruel outrage. That the noble soldier at whose
side they had fought should be wounded, suffering,
and a prisoner, is satisfaction ample and bitter
enough for the generous soldiers of the royal army.
And if the demand for GARIBALDI'S prosecution is
urged in their name, the world will naturally con-
clude that this affected zeal for professional
honour is little better than a pretext for the grati-
Scstion of a far less worthy feeling—that of pro-
fessional jealousy.
Passing over, however, these alleged grounds for a
formal prosecution, it is more important to observe
that the trial, if it really takes place, must be a
most disastrous event for Italy both at home and
abroad. Its influence on the domestic state and
foreign relations of the new kingdom can hardly fail
to be of the most serious and mischievous kind.
The great object of the Italian Government at
home should obviously be to harmonise rival
factions, and to conciliate as far as possible the
hearty support of all classes of the people. This
can only be done by a firm and consistent,
but at the same time a thoroughly patriotic and
generous, policy. But if such a course is adopted,
if extreme and violent measures are carefully
avoided, there is sufficient patriotism amongst all
political parties in the peninsula to rally them in
support of the Government. And it is notorious
that during the last two years much in the way of
united and harmonious action had been effected by
this means. Discordant elements were gradually
harmonised, the extreme sections of political
opinion were softened by working together
kyr objecis, Any something like effec-
tive organization was being introduced into
the hitherto divided national life. The policy
of the present Cabinet has not tended to further
actively this salutary process of political fusion
and social organization. And the exceptional
rigour which the Government was unfortunately
compelled to exercise in suppressing GamitaLor's
recent movement Lea for the moment arrested ft.
Surely, under these circumstances, the true policy