The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-29 00:00:00

all battles, in all parts of the world, we this
time are inclined to believe that the accounts are sub-
stantially correct. They all concur in represent-
ing LEE, first, as retreating from M'CLELLAN to
Hagerstown, farther north-west, from whence he
also threatened Pennsylvania, then as beaten
there, and retreating again in the night south-
west to Sharpsburg, to gain the river, and unite
with JACKSON, and we can hardly think that the
battle of the 17th will not turn out to have been, as
represented, a decided Federal victory over the two
great Confederate generals. At present it hardly
seems likely that the latter will retrieve their posi-
tion on the 18th. The wonder is that so soon after
the recent dreadful battles before Washington, both
armies were again in a condition to fight so savagely.
The numbers taken prisoner on both sides-6,000
at Harper's Ferry by the Confederates, and 15,000,
sit batteries, in the four battles, by the
beaten
d ino nf
no: r r
de
as ty e o, nb
aofficiali re
f wpeo ratrse,
are, of course, all open to correction. But as the
withFh ea dde ra al
sl so
• to believe Northern accounts at all, the Confederates
Confederates had to evacuate Harper's Ferry, and
it is now in possession of B
—b
eaesn theVRNSIDE, while they
have ended their Maryland campaign, and that in a
short time as disastrously as M'CLELLAN did his to
Richmond. We have, alas; the usual, the too pro-
bablf true, and the suggestive addition—" the car-
nage is reported to be very great." The Powers of
Europe can speak we fear with little avail, by way
of remonstrance, neither aide is yet convinced that

it must yield and accept terms, and there will, we
fear, be no settlement of the war till this is the
case. The Border States are becoming the more
obvious bone of contention. In proportion
as the necessity of separation becomes
apparent to the North, will its determination
rise not to lose the Border States. They would, if
added to the South, make it the equal of the North,
and in some respects its superior. If added to the
North they would make it far the more powerful
confederacy of the two. Hence even if the neces-
sity of division be admitted, the great Border States
will become the subject of remorseless fighting.
The South would, indeed, be content to refer the
subject to a convention of each State, being pretty
sure that old pro-slavery influences, and detestation
of Yankeeism, would give it all these States. The
North would not hearken to this for a moment. The
Yankees will fight to the last rather than "play
second fiddle" on the continent from which they
warned off all Europe, and where they meant to
enact the republican NEBUCHADNEZZAR. Perhaps,
like him, they are now enduring the madness
which is to be followed by a return to humbler but
sounder reason.

It is significant to observe, among to-day's tele-
grams from Turin, that there are rumours of Minis-
terial changes as imminent. And it is especially
significant that, among the changes spoken of, the
Italia announces as probable the resignation of—
General DURANDO ! Is not this the result obvi-
ously of the publication of that striking diplomatic
circular of his, issued to the world only the other day,
in which, in the name of his Ministerial colleagues,
and even of his royal master King VICTOR EM-
MANUEL, the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs
took up and echoed as a diplomatist what was only
last month the war cry of GARIBALDI and his com-
rades in Sicily and in Calabria ? "Rome or
Death"—Rome, or the Death of all our hopes ! was,
as plainly as written words could express any.
thing, the purport of that last note addressed
by General DURANDO, as Minister of Foreign
Affairs, to the Italian KING'S representatives
at all the European Courts to which
Italy has an ambassador accredited! Yet scarcely
is General DURANDO'S circular issued—hardly has
it been commented upon—the comments uttered by
the London and Paris press being all but unani-
mously favourable to it—when the significant tele-
gram, referred to, is flashed through the submarine
cable, intimating to us that General DURANDO, of all
men, is about to withdraw from the Turin Cabinet.
The incident we maintained has about it a very
peculiar significance. In familiar phrase it may be
said to speak volumes—that notable line of the
telegram ! And it is all the more worthy of obser-
vation, this statement of the Italia as to the pro-
bable withdrawal of DURANDO from the Italian
Ministry—seeing that it is added immediately after-
wards that Signor RATTAZZI would, in that case,
take the portfolio of Foreign Affairs ; retaining, of
course, at the same time, the Presidency of the
Council, a post, as we all know, identical with of
our English Premiership. Supposing which
arrangement to be entered into, supposing
General DURANDO removed from the cabinet alto-
gether, and his abandoned portfolio as Foreign Mini-
ster to be thereupon handed over to the Italian Pre-
mier RATTAZZI—aII the rest would be tolerably plain
sailing and easy navigation through the hitherto
troubled waters of Italian politics—for whose policy
is it asked ? Why, quite obviously in that event
for the policy of Signor RATTAZZI'S master—not
the Italian KING, but the French EMPEROR.
There is just the possibility, however, that in all
these extremely ingenious " transactions" between
Signor RATTAZZI and his imperial patron, there
may arise a result indicating that both of them
have, in regard to these recent events, been,
what is called amongst ourselves by a favourite
idiom—too clever by half ! For example and in
instant justification of these extremely mutual
suspicions, is it not a fact that glares just now
upon the
recognition of all Europe, that about the
most
unpopular man in Italy is the successful
Italian Premier, URBAN RATTAZZI ! And that—still
to the last, in spite of all his recent blundering and
wrongheadedness—the most popular man in Italy is
whom this wily and unscrupulous
that very man
statesman has caused (in spite of his popularity) to
be defeated, wounded) and imprisoned ! Whatever
the patronage accorded to RATTAZZI abroad, it is
absolutely impossible that an unpopularity so wide-
spread and intense, 9S his undoubtedly is amongst
ill the
the end. Equaly
his own countrymen, can lead to any other result
than his ignominious downfall
popularity yl et
assured is it to our thinking that
result before
enjoyed by GARIBALDI in his prison in the Gulf of
Spezzia—must perforce bear a happy
long—in raising from the dust that reputation
but the
was dashed to the earth so ignominiously
other day, and this by the ungrateful hap
soldiers of that very King whom the disc
ment of the unhappy Hero had ds of the
which
• onifited
so 107, ally served up to the commence-
deplorably both for
upon the heights of Aspromonte.
exploit which terminated so
GARIBALDI and his Sovereign
Ii
______

Professor SMITH still perseveres in demanding
that eccentric thrift, on the put of England, which
would, if acted upon, gradually ,trip her of all her
vast and worldwide possessions.
Supposing the
Legislature were really and serioemY to adopt the
astounding suggestions of the learned Professor's
imagination—supposing that, in
accordance with
his extremely ingenious, but we must yet take leave
to:add (with all imaginable respect for this good
.scholar but bad patriot), his exceedingly prepqs.
terous propositions were carried out—supposing
that one after another the whole of our fifty or
sixty colonies, big and little, remote or near at hand,
were allowed to drop off, and thenceforth to hold its
own in absolute independence of the mother conn-

try—one consequence, at least, would be perfectly
manifest. England would still bb England, it is
true, the British Islands would still remain "en-
compassed by the inviolate sea"—but as to
the British Empire that would be just absolutely
nowhere.

4, Assyria, Greece, Rowe, Carthage, where are they ?"
Asks Lord BYRON at the close of his Childe
Harold. Professor SMITH would exultingly, lot
sorrowfully, add to these accumulated queries the
name of the British Empire. Concerning his very
able, and some of them in many respects even
masterly, arguments, it is difficult not to
come to a homely conviction that throughout,
somehow, the learned Professor has got the
Bull by the horns certainly, but that after
after all he has got the:wrong Bull. Everything
with him points in only one direction. It seems, as
the Humorist says of Mr. PECKSNIFF, when clam-
ouring for something to drink at M. TODGERS'S—it
seems like an idiosyncrasy. Professor SMITH can
never think of our colonies without clamouring for
us to get rid of them. It is all one to him whether
the colony in question be a mere speck upon the
ocean like the rocky island of St. Helena, or that
vast continent directly at our antipodes—that sup-
plementary continent of Australasia, of which Sir
ARCHIBALD ALISON wrote at page 9, vol. 1., of his
continuation of the " History of Europe"—that
magnificent geographical and geometrical Scottish
Bull—calling Australia " that fifth hemisphere !"
It is enough for Professor SMITH that, whatever its
intrinsic value, whatever its geographical position,
whatever its comparative size, the particular portion
of the habitable globe to which he is directing atten-
tion, island, continent, peninsula, province, isthmus,
promontory or what not, is a British colony: for that
all-sufficient reason it is to be lopped away from
our power, as a superfluity and an encumbrance.
And, certainly, if we were to imagine the advice he
is now giving to •ur rulers so persistently—if we
were to imagine it taken by them and systemati-
cally carried into operation, we do not in any way
see how Professor SMITH, after ridding England
of all her world -wide possessions, should stop
in this astonishing labour of diminishing
her power by giving up possession after possession
—how he could stop consistently in this wonderful
labour of his, saving and excepting only at the
actual shores of this island of ours, comprising
within the compass of the shores, England, Wales,
and Scotland. Admit the validity of his argument
in regard to Canada and Hindustan, in respect to
Malta, and the 365 Bermudas, and by a parity
of reasoning the Channel Islands, the Scilly
Islands (not inappropriately), the Isle-of-Man,
the Isle-of-Wight, must all, if we are to
be guided consistently in this matter, follow
snit. Professor SMITH has got an eye now
to Gibraltar. Again he has mounted his hobby.
Again his war cry against all corners, having
particular reference, of course (in this new joust
which he has just undertaken), to Gibraltar—
" Away with it !" It is useless, he says. It is
worse than useless. It is a constant vexation to
Spain that England retains it. Beyond all this—
and especially in proof of its being worse than use-
less—it is expensive. The sum that Gibraltar costs
us within any given year, Professor SMITH cannot
but feel, would look rather small for his argu-
ment if put upon paper ! Small, that is,
—seeing that Gibraltar certainly does somehow
stand there conveniently for our ships of war at the
very entrance to the Mediterranean ! So
what does Professor SMITH immediately do
to make matters look' a little more galling
in the estimation of all our sticklers for
economy ? He (slabs five years together and re-
minds us thatwithin these given five yearslBs3-1857
we have spent in money because of our holding
possession of Gibraltar, £1,854,852.. " And cheap
at the price!" will be thought of every loyal
English patriot—when he reads the announcement
awfully placed before him by Professor SMITH,
even supposing any one of our countrymen upon
reading that statement, to have just buttoned up

his pocket (a little emptier than it was a few minutes
previously) after having paid his last instalment of
the income-tax. " And cheap at the price "he

will say—remembering that the price is paid by
England not in one year, but in five years,

for the retention of Gibraltar ! No Professor SMITH
may insist upon it as loudly and persistently as he
pleases, that in his view it is monstrous that Eng -
land should annually expend four millions upon her
sixty colonies. Let him entertain his opinion still
if he pleases. But others, not a jot less earnest
patriots than himself, think quite differently. They
think as earnestly and as conscientiously as Pro-
fessor SMITH himself, that four millions a-year is
not so very extravagant a sum to pay for the preser-
vation to the British Empire of these Sixty Colonies.
Not at this point is it certainly that we would see
the systematic application of economic prin-
ciples (so called) to the yearly Budget of England,
with a view to the lopping off of £4,000,000 from
our annual expenditure of £70,00'),000.

Mr, WALTER and Mr.DISRAELI, the latter having
far the greatest number of landlord clients, seem
likely to have a never-ending quarrel on the ques-
tion of prize labourers—that ploughing, thatching,
rickmaking, shall have premiums for the display of
the greatest skill. That pigs, sheep, oxen, horses,
shall have prizes for their good breeding, is agreed
to, on all hands; but, when the poor labourer comes
in, Mr. DISRAELI will have it, that being good, in-
dustrious, staying long in one place, above all,not hav-
ing become chargeable to the parish, shall entitle
him to be considered a prize labourer; and to go to
church on Sundays in a green coat and bright but-
tons, the proof that " his betters," or those " in
authority over him," have deemed him a good man,
It is said Mr. DISRAELI has his blue riband. It is,
replies Mr. WALTER, his badge of disgrace. Every
autumn this duel is fought ; and so far as votes go
at agricultural associations, Mr. DISRAELI has it.
He crows at his own Buckinghamshire meetings,
no one venturing to utter a counter crow. But
when Mr. WALTER attacks the DISRAELI prizes
for
goodness in his own B'ickshire meetings,
he 18 • •
111 a minority. His fellow
land-
lords will
retain the premiums for prize
labourers.
Mr. WALTER, however, achieved
one argumentative success this year; he drove Mr.
DISRAELI to the acknowledgment that prize
labourers must be def
ended in their origin, rather
than on their merits.
The plrize had been started
when every labourer was, in turn,
best almost
state
t things as
was r
upon the parish. There was
the re s reason, nf,
ot
rh
ce
end,
a prize
rriezwe radnindgtthhoeuglahbonnorwer
twhohe t
preferredate of
o ft for
much altered, it would create dissatisfaction to give
up the prizes.
Now, as Mr. -WALTER cannot convince his asso-
ciates of views agree With
in which we entirely
him, we would respectfully proffer him a
suggestion, Let him offer a premium for good
masters. Why should not the top step of the cli-
max—prize pigs, prize sheep, prize oxen, prize
horses, prize labourers--be prize masters ? A most
valuable member of the community is a good master.
As Mr. WALTER so vainly points out to his intelli-
gent compeers, the prize-labourer's merit is oftener,
in truth, his master's merit. It is at least quite as
common that the master should be one no sensible
labourer
should quit, as the labourer no sensible