The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-12 00:00:00

The Weather—Sun Office, April 12, 1864.

THEILDSOMETER.
This day at Two o'clock 5O

Barometer-30, 60.
Wind—N. ; fresh breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
DAY.—Morning, sh. 46m.—Afternoon, 6h. 10m.
fo-mottaow.-Morning, 6h. 30m.—Afternoon, 6h. 56m.

Lit SUO

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1864.

About GARIBALDI'S reception yesterday by the
people of London there cannot possibly be (as there
certainly ought not to be) any misapprehension
whatever. It is the simplest truth—it is the
merest statement of a fact—to say that it was, just
in one word, magnificent. The weather was
superb I the multitudes assembled together were
stuPendous; the enthusiasm displayed by those
multitudes admits in no way of exaggeration. In
proof of all which, one single fact will speak for
itself—namely, the fact that it took five hours and
twenty minutes for GARIBALDI to reach his princely
destination, as the pest of the Duke of SUTHER-
LAND, from the moment of his leaving the rail-
way carriage at the Nine Elms Station ! Five
mortal hours and twenty minutes between the time
of his emerging from the railway carriage on to the
platform at the Nine Elms terminus, and the time
of his crossing the threshold of Stafford House, in St.
James's. The distance intervening between those
two points is tolerably well known to
every Lon-
doner. It could be walked readily enough in very
little more than half-an-hour. And yet so dense
was the throng of people of all ages, of both sexes,
of all conditions, that poured out
to see GARIBALDI
and to welcome him on his arrival in our metropolis,
that it took those five hours and twenty minutes
for one of the Duke of SUTHERLAND'S carriages,
drawn by four horses, mounted by postillions in
the Duke's livery, to convey GARIBALDI to his
destination. That one fact, we say, speaks clearly
enough for itself. It indicates at once the vastness
of the assembled concourse, and the enthusiasm of
the people gathered together along the route of

the procession. As to the actual number present,
there, i'n the streets, to see GARIBALDI, it is, of course,
impossible to compute it with any thing like accu-
racy. Bat, remembering the extent of the popu-
lation of London, and remembering also
the vast throngs that poured into the capital by
railway yesterday from all parts of the country to
catch a glimpse of the celebrated adventurer whose
arrival was being so very eagerly looked for, we
don't think it would be extravagant to say that he
was greeted -during those five hours and twenty
minutes, between the Niro Elms Station and Staf-
ford House, by fully 1,000,000! After this—again
we say it—there cannot surely by any doubt what-
ever as to the character of GARIBALDI'S reception
yesterday by the people of London. Bat, now, as
to its meaning —as to the meaning of this
vast and astounding popular movement. It is to be
hoped that that, too, admits of no misapprehension
whatever. It is a movement so far without any
of the sinister significance attached to it by such
noodles as M. ASSOLANT, that the real meaning of
it all, as it appears to us, may thus, perhaps, all
things considered, be the most accurately ex-
pressed :

Englishmen have got it into their heads that
GARIBALDI is one of the very bravest, that
he is one of the most dauntless men
living. And his exploits, his known exploits,
those achievements accomplished by him as a
Soldier, as a Sailor, as what the Spaniards called
a Buccaneer, what the Americans call a Filibus-
ter, what the Italians themselves called a Condot-
tiere, if they indicate anything at all certainly in-
dicate in GARIBALDI'S nature not so much per-
sonal valour as absolute audacity. As indicative
of this consummate audacity, his memorable expo
dition, with one thousand followers, free lances, so
to speak, or freebooters, or by whatever name we
may choose to call them—his renowned expedition,
at the head of those one thousand men, from
Genoa to Sicily, is comparable only to one other
incident recorded in modern history—meaning the
Return from Elba of the great NAPOLEON !
NAPOLEON also traversing the waters of the Medi-
terranean—from Frejus to Cannes—at the head
of one thousand followers. Only, it should be
borne in mind, certainly, that while the two
incidents were kindred in their audacity, there was
this difference between them, that whereas NAPO-
LEON'S advance upon Paris was achieved without
the shedding of one drop of blood, there was fierce
fighting enough at ono or two points before GARI-
BALDI'S conquest of the two Sicilies could be
accomplished. Indeed, if regard be had to the
relative disproportion of numbers between the
combatants and the signal victory achieved in
some instances by the minority, Melazzo end
Calatafimi may take rank in this way
with Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S dashing exploits
at Meannee and Hyderabad. Englishmen,
again, we would say then, have somehow got it
into their heads that GARIBALDI is one of the

most dauntless men living. His defence of Rome
against OUDINOT in 1849 ; his retreat thence
towards Venice in the same year when pursued by
the Austrians; his daring advance against the
Austrians ten years afterwards, when, between the
lakes and the mountains to the north of Lombardy,
he opened what afterwards came to be known as
the War of Independence, the war later on signalised
by the French victories of Magenta and Solferino;
above all, his conquest of the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies four years ago, when (as is now universally
known, as, indeed, was notorious at the very time)
at the head of a mere handfull of fellow-adven-
tnrers—these facts, especially, in the history of
GARIBALDI have impressed the English people
with the notion that this man is, in truth,
dauntless, that in his nature this world-famous
Soldier-Sailor has a heroism of character akin to
oar own NELSON, or our own DUNDONALD.
Again, the history of GARIBALDI has impressed
the English observers of it with a profound sense
of the man's individual disinterestedness. It is a
fact, as undeniable for' example, as that NAPO-
LEON 111. conquered Lombardy, at the head of his
insignificant army, and then handed over that
conquered province as a gift to King VICTOR
EMMANUEL, that GARIBALDI at the head of no
magnificent army at all, but simply taking with
the mere handful of followers already mentioned,
after conquering, at the point of his sword, and
then completely taking possession afterwards of the
kingdom of the Two Sicilies, handed over that king-
dom as a gift to that same King VICTOR EMMA.
NUEL. Nevertheless, while those two facts just par-
ticularised, those two achievements and those two
gifts were precisely as we have described them to
have been, Englishmen have got somehow to remem-
ber as the historical sequels or consequences of them,
that whereas NAPOLEON 111., later on, absorbed
Nice and Savoy into hie own empire, GARIBALDI
has profited nothing, pecuniarily or territorially,
by his " transaction." They attach to the memory
of his deeds, therefore, a sense in his regard of
complete disinterestedness. The reception they
have given to him, therefore, to sum all in one
sentence, is demonstrative of their ardent recogni-
tion of his personal valour and his personal disinte-
restedness.

Foreign nations will do well, we would observe,
when they come to hear of GARIBALDI'S reception
in London, to recognise this, in truth, as the real
inner meaning and signification of yesterday's
astounding demonstration.

M. ASSOLANT et hoc genus omne may write
themselves down what DOGBERR Y wished to be
written down by the clerkly Sexton, they may do
this ad libitum to their own perfect edification,
doubtless, but certainly (there can be no ques-
tion about this) to our excessive amusement,
whilst they are so writing. Bat Rational Observers
on the continent will look, on the other hand, some-
what more dispassionately at the incidents now
transpiring in this country by reasons of GARI-
BALDI'S presence amongst us, and so, regarding
them, will attach to these incidents, we repeat, no
sinister significence whatever.

As if in testimony of the fact. being precisely
as we have here put it, the very manner of GARI-
BALDI'S receptioe, betokens that it has no party
significance, that it is more of a personal de-
monstration. While, for example, GARIBALDI is
greeted in the streets by the humblest classes of the
population, he is, during his stay ill London, the
guest of one of the wealthiest patricians in the land,
the young Duke of SUTHERLAND. Upon this very
morning, again, down at Chiswick he has been
welcomed by his ducal host's mother (one of
the most intimate personal friends of her Majesty
the QUEEN) her Grace the Dowager Duchess of
SUTHERLAND. To-morrow evening, moreover, at
Stafford House, GARIBALDI is to be entertained
ac a grand banquet given there in his honour—a
banquet at which the chiefs of both the great politi-
cal parties, that is, of the Government and of the
Opposition, will attend. Chief among those chiefs
being the Earl of DERBY, the ex-Premier, and the
now Prime Minister of England, Viscount PAL-
MERSTON. Whether or not, in recognition of the
Dake of SUTHERLAND'S hospitality we know not—
but, at any rate, precisely at the time of his displaying
it, there appears the announcement that his Grace,
for no other earthly reason conceivable, saving,
indeed, hie wealth and his lineage, i. to receive the

Vacant Garter. As indicative, again, that the pre-
sent is a personal and not a political demonstration,
it is worth noticing that conspicuous among those
who fraternised with the Italian chief during
his recent sojourn in the Isle of Wight,
there was one so little of a politician in any
way, certainly so little of a politician in any parti.
san spirit, as the Poet Laureate ! While, conspicuous_
upon the list of names, names good, bad, and indif-
ferent, making up the hodge-podge of what is called
the Reception Committee, appears the name of
CHARLES DICKENS, the Great Novelist. The de-
monstration yesterday, upon the arrival of GARI-
BALDI in the metropolis, it is agreeable to think,
passed off without any untoward incident whatever
—such as the tumult sardonically anticipated by the
Spectator. And it is thus, toa, in spite of several pro•
ceedings eminently calculated either to render the
popular movement of yesterday ridicu ous, or to pro-
voke among the right thinking feelings of profound
indignation. A preposterous panegyric on MAzzINI,
articulated through one of the addresses presented
to GARIBALDI, might have justified, as it appears
to us, any amount of indignation, and that, namely,
as an interpolated panegyric conceived, in every
syllable of it, in the most evil taste, and one, it
should be said, moreover, having nothing what-
ever to do with the proceedings of yesterday. As
to the nonsensical inscription upon one of the ban.
ners of "Rome or Death," while it was signally
suggestive of the Big Word, and No Acts signal-
ising the Foreign Policy of Earl RUSSELL, it looked
immensely like a mal apropos reminder to the hero
of yesterday's ovation of about the most flagrant
error of his whole life, that blunder (worse than a
crime, a mistake) ending in his fiasco at Aspro-
monte. "Rome or Death" were GARIBALDI'S watch-
words then : and certainly it was for him much
more like Death than Rome at Aspromonte.

*.* With one solitary oversight, which we are
anxious here to particularise, the Police arrange-
ments yesterday were admirably good. But the
oversight alluded to—a distinct and shameful over-
sight on the part of the Police authorities, was
nothing less, as it appears to us, than an outrage
against Public Opinion of the most flagrant charac-
ter well conceivable. And the outrage we refer to
was nothing less than this—that in the ne:ghbour-
hood and along the line of the procession there were
allowed to bs displayed upon the walls, by hundreds
bed in

upon hundreds, disgraceful posters, inscr
bold le

,ters thus—