The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-01 00:00:00

HIGH RATAK AT lA/NDON BKIDGI.

ids DAY Morning. 6h. Ifes.....Aftornoon. 6R 446
To.nonow—lionang, 70. UN— —Afternoon. 76. ace.

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1.

THE news from Southern Italy, which reached
Paris on Saturday morning in time to cause a
violent commotion in that Forum of public life—
the Bourse, and which, on this side of the water,
responsive speculators for the rise were enabled to
improve in the course of the afternoon, cannot
have taken by surprise the least attentive of our
readers. Some of our more ingenious and astute
contemporaries have been amusing the public with
a view of the Garibaldian movement, which at least
had the merit of profundity. According to their
theory the state of siege in sixteen provinces, the
blockade of Sicily, the despatch of the ablest
general in the Royal army to Calabria,
the reinforcement of the army in the Nea-
politan provinces by some sixty battalions
of infantry, besides artillery and cavalry ;
the severe proclamation of General LA MARMORA,
—all these signs and acts of the most determined
resistance on the part of the Government at Turin
to the designs of GARIBALDI were, according to
these prodigious seers, mere dust in the eyes of
Europe. No serious encounter between the volun-
teers and the regular troops was intended ; it was
all a "cross" between M. RATTAZZT, GARIBALDI,
and the Emperor NAroLEoi. No reader of ours
has been led astray by such optical illusions. Our
letters from Sicily, so full and so precise, have
shown that it was only by a miracle of wary bold-
ness that the great Chieftain struck across the
ridges of the Sicilian mountains to the coast,
at one time threading his way along
the goat-paths and fording deep rivers,
through a circle of pursuers, at another doubling
back, and suddenly swooping down upon Catania.
Our correspondent described with strict fidelity
the temper of the army, the quality of the volun-
teers, and the " attitude" of the population.
There were deserters from the royal forces to the
camp of the great leader and liberator, but there
were regiments in which the military spirit was so
" good" that they were " ready to fire upon their
" own fathers." GARIBALDI'S own forces were
splendidly led and offiured, but for the most part
the rank and file were very mixed, and of doubtful
steadiness in action. The Sicilian population was
frantic with enthusiasm under the magnetic charm
of GARIBALDI'S presence, but out of his sight—
excepting, perhaps, in the three great cities of the
island—this enthusiasm cooled and languished into
a sentiment without a purpose. Such appear to
have been the condition and prospects of GARI-
BALDI'S appeal to arms in Sicily. But Sicily
was a feint rather than an object ; the main-
land was the destination of the volunteers, and
Calabria the last resort of the devoted men who
had not lost faith in the fortunes of Italy. It
was somewhat superfluous zeal on the part of
Admiral PER.SANO to bring the Commander of the
Italian Squadron in the Straits to a court-martial
for permitting GARIBALDI " and his fortunes" to
pass the Straits in a postal steamer. That the
brave Genoese crews of the Italian frigates could
have stirred a rope to seize one so sacred as
their darling hero, famous alike by land and sea,
was not to be imagined ; but while there was a
skiff to carry him across, the hero of Marsala was
not the man to wait for a fairer wind or a darker
night.

SO we heard that GARIBALDI was at Melito ;
and thou that he was marching towards Reggio, but
that, ever shrinking from the risk of shedding a
drop of Italian blood, he had struck into the
mountains to avoid a conflict with the Royal troops
advancing from Reggio to meet him. The next
we heard was that he was attacked on Friday last in
a strong position at Aspromonte by • column of
eighteen hundred Bersaglieri, commanded by Co-
lonel PALLAVICINO, and after a sharp contest
wounded and taken prisoner, with his son and all
his followers. Whether, contrary to expectation,
the volunteers remained without effective support
from the Calabrian population does not yet appear,
but the forces at the disposal of Generals La MAR-
molt...! and CIALDINI were too overpowering to
permit the issue to be doubtful in the event of an
encounter.
And thus for the first time in a storm-beaten
and wayworn life, which has been all a battle and
a march, GARIBALDI, with a handful of lads, shoe-
less, and armed with rusty muskets, has suffered
defeat and capture in a fratricidal conflict,
at the hands of an old comrade in Anna,
commanding the troops of that Sovereign
for whom with his own right hand he con-
quered the land on which he has now fallen.
We do not envy the feelings of King Vicroa EM-
MANUEL, or even of his Minister, M. Rirrszzi,
upon the tidings of this victory. Is there a monu-
ment to the memory of GARIBALDI'S landing at
Reggio in 1860 f It should be replaced now by a
memorial stone, on which may be inscribed :
"To GARIBALDI, the Conqu.ror and Liberator ;
" Vicroa Emmanort, the Receiver." On the
obverse side : " To GARIBALDI, wounded and
" defeated ; VICTOR EMMANUEL, the Requiter."
There came a day when THRMISTOCLES was obliged
to ask the Athenians whether they were weary of
acknowledging the beLefits he bad done them.