The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-22 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LOXLIOF lIILIDGI.

Thm DAT —41011;i 1141 G 011 Aftorneen, On lOro.
To-nonnow—Xcentha, Ob. 1 afternoon, Th. Om

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 22.

IT is easy for those fair-weather friends of a
great cause who are the first to acclaim the strong
or to insult the weak, and are always on the aide
of the big battalions, to condemn the "criminal
" folly " of GARIBALDI'S acts and movements in
Sicily. France has twenty thousand men in the
Papal territory, and an army of five hundred thou-
sand in reserve. Vicros Estmarrura. cannot budge
without permission from his great and generous
ally ; therefore it is rash and criminal on the part
of GARIBALDI to raise the standard of resistance
to foreign domination, and to call a timid and
temporising Government at Turin to account for its
forgotten pledges and futile negotiations. Doubtless
the position which GARIBALDI has asanmed towards
the constituted authorities is on strict legal grounds
open to the gravest doubt, perhaps to the severest
censure. Whether as a Deputy to the Parlia-
ment, or as a General of the army, his conduct
is equally in defiance of constitutional law and
of military discipline. It may even be said that
nothing but the certainty of accomplishing results
which are their own justification and indemnity
can make the noblest of ambitions virtue.
And we know that GARIBALDI'S ambition is to
consummate the deliverance of his country. But
is it not mere miserable pedantry to affect to treat
the Liberator of the Two Siciliea as any ordinary
deputy, and officer of the Royal army f It was not
by the soldier bearing the Ki'o's commission that
Sicily and Naples were wrested from the Bourbons,
nor was it the member of the Opposition that
laid down the Dictatorship of a conquered State,
and gave away a kingdom. GARIBALDI is alto-
gether an exceptional individuality ; exceptional
not so much by the valour of his exploits in the
field, and by the disinterestedness of his patriotism,
as by the scope of his political achievements. In
him Italy beholds the highest and purest expression
of her national will and purpose. He is accused
of being one of those " abstract" heroes who never
bound their purposes by possibilities, and who are
more remarkable for the faith that removes moun-
tains than for the wary caution which is content to
climb them. Yet, as he is, dreamer, fanatic, or
revolutionist, he represents, somehow or other, a
moral power which statesmen of the RATTAZZI
calibre can neither bend nor break. To pretend
to turn such a man back from his resolve by calling
him a flagrant rebel, or warning him of the dangers
on his path, is to waste time and words.

We cannot alter the fact that one of
Itsrrszzi's first endeavours when ho came
into office was to conciliate the impatience
of GARIBALDI by promises and proposals which
the Minister was prepared to disavow. We
cannot alter the fact that M. RArrezzes
Government had the capacity to deceive but
not to contend with such a man. How was
it possible for M. Rsrrszz► to satisfy at once such
a patron as the Emperor of the Fnancil and such
a supporter as GARIBALDI ? The Turin Govern-
ment could neither permit nor prevent the enlist-
ment of volunteers. It could furnish arms and
money for some distant adventure which was to
relieve Italy of the presence of a dangerous
patriot, but it was surprised by a muster of red-
shirts at Sarnico. It is because M. RATTAZZI'II
Government represents nothing but the

_
caprice of an imperious foreign patron,
while GARIBALDI personifies the aspirations of the
people of Italy, that the one is at this moment a
falling statesman, and the other an insurgent
chief. The present crisis in Italy is due, at least
in a secondary degree, to the essential weakness
of M. Rerrezzi's Government. But the prime
author of it, and of all the dangers to Italy

which it portends, is the Power that peraisia
in holding Rome as a material guarantee for
the weakness, disunion, and dependence of
Italy. It was reported the other day that M.
THOGVESILL had complimented General DURAND°
on his " firmness." But it seems the Marquis
Perum was received at the Tuileries as a " con-
" flexion " of the family only, not as ono of the
Ministers of the King of ITALY, and that he was
compelled to listen to very disagreeable observa-
tions. Did the Marquis PZPOLI venture to
inform his cousin that the Garibaldi= movement
was a deathblow to the Mnratist conspiracy ? M.
Rarrszzi, he might have added, is taking
lessons in a good school. Re has already
proclaimed martial law in Sicily, and in
the Neapolitan Provinces he has concen-
trated all powers in the hands of a military
governor. " Not the state of siege ; anyone can
"govern with the state of siege !" laid CAVOUB, on
his deathbed. M. Rarrazzi, perhaps, is anxious to
prove that even the state of siege is not sufficient
in the hands of a Minister without moral force,
and who takes his instructions from a foreign
Power.

There is uo denying that many of the truest
friends of Italy and of GLErnaLin regard with the
moat anxious apprehensions the present state of
affairs in Sicily. "We cannot," they say, "go to
Rome without the consent of France. ' Rome

or death' is a startling cry, but we
Lave ileither the moral nor the material means ,
of enforcing it without the will of the EMPRILOIL
England, no doubt, could do more for us than all
the demonstrations of the party of action, I
but no one supposes that England will take action
on the Roman question. No doubt Oaaiu&LDl
Will be able to cross the Straita ; to make a trium-
phal march through Calabria, and from thence to