The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-06 00:00:00

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF B ME.

Last night a pubic meeting was held in the
Educational Institute, Stookwell•green, for memo-
rialising the Government on the withdrawal of the
French troops from Rome. The chair wt thken
by T. Webber, Esq., C.C.

Letters were read by the Secretary hum Mr.
Doulton and Mr. Williams, members for the borough,
explaining the reasons why they were prevented
from attending the meeting, with. the objects of
which they expressed their entire sympathy ; from
P. A. Taylor, M.P., Dr. Hall, and other gentlemen
who had been invited, but were from various causes
unable to attend.

The CHAIRMAN, in introducing the business, said
he had not been associated with the committee in
drawing up the resolutions which would be submit-
ted to them, and he would venture to say that he
wished they had gone further and included Austria
as well as France in these resolutions. Austria in
Venice was as great an obstacle to the unity of
Italy as France in Rome. With that observation
he would leave the question, simply remarking that
he hoped in the speeches that would be addressed
to them nothing of a religious character would be
introduced, but that the speakers would confine
themselves to the purely secular and political aspect
of the question, and that a fair hearing would be
given to all who wished to address the meeting.
(Cheers.)
Dr. J. W. SMITH, LL.D., moved the first resolu-
tion :—" That this meeting is of opinion the occu-
pation of Rome by French troops is contrary to the
wishes of the Roman people, is a flagrant violation
of international rights, an encouragement to anarchy,
and injurious to the interests of civilised Europe."
In supporting the resolution Dr. Smith gave a brief
but clear narrative of the circumstances under which
the French troops under Gen. Oudinot forcibly took
possession of Rome, and showed the gross violation
of international law involved in their occupation
ever since.

Mr. S. RICHARDSON, who seconded the resolu-
tion, read a portion of a letter which had just been
received from Garibaldi—(thA mention of whose
name called forth loud and repeated cheers)—in
which the illustrious General expressed his strong
appreciation of the power of public opinion in this
country, not only here but upon foreign Govern-
ments, and his belief that if that opinion continues
to be persistently expressed in favour of Italy for
the Italians, they will be greatly aided in the effort
to create a united kingdom, with Rome for'its ca-
pital. Mr. Richardson said that he hoped that
early in the spring the hero of Italy, the martyr of
Aspromonte, would be in this country to express
personally his views to the masses who sympathised
with him., (Cheers.)

Mr. PHELPS having supported the resolution, it
was carried unanimously.

The meeting was subsequently addressed by Mr.
W. M. Smith, the Rev. D. Thomas, of Stockwell,
and other gentlemen, and the following resolutions
were also unanimously carried :--" That this meet-
ing warmly sympathises with Garibaldi in what
he has suffered in attempting to vindicate the right
of Italy to Rome, and with the Italians in being
excluded from their capital." " That the resolu-
tions adopted by this meeting be forwarded to the
members for the borough of Lambetholigned by the
chairnupi and secretaries, with a request that they
will endeavour, in their places in Parliament, to
urge effectually upon the Government the necessity
for the early evacuation of Rome by the French
troops."
A vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated
the proceedings.

MR. CHARLES BUX7ON. !M.P., ON THE
AMERICAN WAR.

The annual dinner of the Maidstone Agricultural
Association took place yesterday afternoon, at the
Star Hotel in that town, Colonel Scott, /ate M.P.
for Maidstone, in the chair. " The health of the
borough members " having been drunk, Mr. Bux-
ton, in responding, referred at some length to the
civil war in North America, and said that, for
his own part, he could take no partial side with
either the Federals or the Southerners. At present
there seemed to be nothing for England but the
most absolute neutrality, and he thought they
might well be neutral, not only in policy, but
in feeling. We have no reason to love the Southern
slave-owners. On the other hand, he could dis-,
cover no real grounds for wishing Victory to the
North,: Lie reOeited to find himself at variance on
that point from Most of those of his -Countrymen
with whom he would most gladly be at one—
namly, those who are most identified with anti-
slavery feeling. They, generally speaking, have
sided with the North, on the ground that the war is
a war with slavery. He had anxiously striven to see
how that stands, and he is unable to discover that
it is a war with slavery. How could it be so, when
a third part of the Northern Federals are themselves
slaveowners ? What, then, was the ground of the
quarrel ? Simply this, that the North and the South
were virtually two nations—alien in every feeling,
alien in every principle, alien in every tradition, alien
in every habit of life. This abhorrence felt for the
.North by the Southerners was in reality what deter-
mined them not to submit to a Northern Govern-
ment, and the moment Lincoln's election showed
them that this was to be their fate they broke from
what they deemed an unbearable bondage. The
North had no more right than England herself to go
to war H ith any Southern State for the abolition of
slavery ; and he held that to have plunged a mighty
continent into all the agonies of a civil war, to cause
the deaths of little leas than a million of gallant
men, to have filled the land with ruin under the
plea of philanthropy and love to God, would have
been a transcendent crime—a crime the more hor-
rible for its false plea of humanity. Upon the whole,
he was unable to perceive that the Northerners
would claim us as their partisans on anti-slavery
grounds. Doubtless, if no other consideration in-
tervened, we should wish well to them rather than
to the South, which makes slavery the very basis
of her institutions. But is it possible to exclude
those other considerations ? It ought not, perhaps,
to weigh with us that the North has been wild
with groundless rage against us, and even now
threatens us with war. It should not, perhaps, weigh
with us that she has set up a tariff that is at once a
monument of her ill-will to England, and of her
contempt for the plainest truths of political science.
But how are we to srnpathise with those who, to
gratify their vanity and their rage,, are filling
that once happy and prosperous land with ruin ?
When we are oalled upon to wish success to the
North, we ought to see what they have dorie wb.re
they have been successful. We cannot but look at
the doings of General Butler, at New Orleans. In
•not allowing alone, but applauding these doings,
the North has given earnest of the mean and malig-
nant cruelty with which the conquest of the South
would be crowned. The Federals have given proof
that their despotism would be the despotism of the
s word—a despotism under which perforce all liberty
of thought, of deed, of institution must be quenched,
God forbid that we should wish victory to follow
the standards of those whose rule, in the anguish
of the conquered, in the ferocity of the conquerors,
would bid fair to recall the vilest tyrannies that
afflict the world, The hon. gentleman resumed his
seat amid applause.

The Lord Chancellor has presented the Rev.
Robert Le Merchant, curate of Harberton, near Totnes, to
the rectory of Little Risington, near Stow •on-the-Wold,
rendered vacant by the death of the Roy. Richard Wil-
braham Ford, M.A.
HIGH TIDE IN THE RIVER.— The full• moon
spring-tide of yesterday morning rose to a very unusual
height at high water, topping the Custom-house quay and
Billingsgate wharf, and inundating the low-lying wharfs
and landing planes, the receding tide carrying off quantities
of timber and other buoyant articles. The water in the
neighbourhood of the Strand reached some dwisintagntcoe
Milford-lane, and the carriage road at the Adelphi arches
, and the tide
was overflowed to some depth. In Southwark and Lam_
‘Wvearyeutipioded to depths varying
Its of houses
bath the inundations were very desthtreubetaisve:
deluging rain the sewers became overcharge theilp
the contents considerably,
workmen Afnf from
ar
umar notthenhaeeer riverto
oy thh fordingeorrues hour in fi
ene' feet
ei; beams
ms ogr
inn damaging
g en were employed
in constructing dams and taking other precautions to pre.
vent another overflow, as it is feared this morning's tide
will rise even higher thap, that of yesterday,