The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-07 00:00:00

Sion, rather than bear arms against him, whom,
through good report and through ill report,
they still regarded to the last, they still re-
gard, we may be sure, to this moment as
the Greatest Soldier of Italy ? If merely "to
think " the KING'S death, according to the. axiom
of the old loyal juris-consults of the middle ages,
was, in the eye of the law, not a jot less an act of
" leze Majeste" than actually to attempt the assas-
sination of the SOVEREIGN—sureIy, by a parity
of reasoning, it can scarcely be fair to deal thus
harshly with the private soldiers of the Royal army
of Italy, who would go With GARIBALDI, and yet,
at the same time, with singular inconsistency, to
deal so leniently with the officers of that Royal
Army who would not go Against him ! Perhaps,
upon mature reflection, the KING would do well to
revise this part of his tardy, and still though tardy,
incomplete, and because tardy, most ungracious
Amnesty.

After all that has been said about the "Riotous
Meeting" in Hyde-park, we must frankly express
our opinion that the picture has been overdrawn.
Amongst such vast numbers, every one's indivi-
dual observation is, of course, limited. We can
assure our readers that, being in the Park, and
curious to see what was going on, we easily got
to within a few yards of the foot of the mound,
and remained near it till the people began to
disperse, and the last word we could think of

applying to the affair would be the word " Riot."

There was no organisation on the part of the
vast majority—the Garibaldians—because the
Working Men's Committee had declined to hold
the projected public meeting; still, all without
concert, as the action was on their part, though
more than thirty to one, they did nothing brutal.
The Irishmen were, certainly, the aggressors.
They took possession of what had been the Gari-
baldiani platform; and, though there had been no
intention to use it to-day, yet it was rather too
much for Englishmen's patience to see the Gari-
baldi platform occupied by his enemies.
The Irish, too, were the aggressors, in
coming armed with formidable cudgels, while
no one else had more than a light walking cane.
At length, after a very large mass of Englishmen,
all, of course, favourable to the cause of the Italian
Hero, had gathered round the mound, it was resolved
that the POPE'S own, and a ragged regiment they
were, should not carry off the honours of the day.
Summoned to capitulate they refused, and no alter-
native was left but to dislodge them. This was at
last accomplished by not more than seven or eight
fine fellows of the Guards, who after one or two
attempts—meeting cudgels with fists, or wresting
them from their possession—drove the Papal band
down among the crowd. Cardinal WisEmAN, like
a prudent general, kept out of harm's way, and
only visited the outskirts of the field in his carriage,
around which a large crowd collected; what orders
he gave, no one conveyed to our ears. Doubtless
they were touching peace on earth—with perhaps
a pro wise of absolution to any who should break
the peace, or Garibaldian heads, in honour of the
Holy Father.

Of course, when a knot of the angry Paddies
got among the crowd, and were beginning to ex-
press their wrath by the use of their shillelaghs,
the crowd would give them chase, wrest their clubs
from them, and hand them over to the care of the
police. Many such episodes we saw, but bone
within our observation which amounted 'co more
than rather rough sport. Irishmen, indeed, must
have thought it very gentle sport. We cannot
doubt that in the Seven Dials, at 'Aight, the verdict
was, that the Englishmen were: flats fcr not break-
ing every one of their heads, with their own sticks.
The truth is, we never sa•w a better looking public
meeting, all with laardly an exception, save
the Irish, who rejNiced in moleskin jackets, and
those not always of the cleanest, were really
well dressed. Had GARIBALDI himself seen the

(meeting from the top of the mound, he must have
thought that one or two hundred thousand of the
"respectability" of the metropolis had turned out to
honour their favourite Patriot. When the " Redan,"
as the mound was called, was gained, of course the
cheering was tremendous—" GARIBALDI for ever,"
"Down with the POPE," and a forest of hands (not
dirty, as has been stated, we can affirm from seeing
them) held up for the hero, naturally followed. The
military heroes of the Redan were then hoisted on
the shoulders of the people who had followed them
up the mound, including a young Scotch drummer,
and of course amidst enthusiastic cheering. The
soldiers certainly did their part like true Britons;
instead of indulging such a coward thought as to
use their 'eayonets, notwithstanding the provocation
of b:::,.ing resisted with clubs, they did not even use
their sword belts, and clapped their hands on their i
own bayonets to prevent their being drawn out,
actually fighting with but one hand. In fact, the
whole affair, so far as we could see—and we saw a
great deal—would be much more properly described
as a "Lark" than a "Riot." Certainly the public
peace was not endangered. No one who did not
like the game had any occasion to mingle in it. We
can hear of but one felony in the immense crowd.
Good temper and laughter, not fury, were, to our
knowledge, the order of the day. Indeed, but for
the anger of Cardinal WISEMAN'S corps, and their
unjustifiable violence against the vast numbers who
really met them with remarkable good humour,
there would not have been more roughness than is
incident to many popular games.

I we have thought it but fair to the public
who were not present, to tell them all we saw, lest
they should form their opinion exclusively from
the police reports, and from those of others to
meeting presented a whomvery different
suffered no inconvenience, were
aspect.say, that in the very
we might now
though
hlence of an irate
all canwe s 0;1
and t
tthheo
midst oftillitVee
and exposed
then toha
have
eo
Paddy, and to lament the temporary suffering of
t o danger,
exclaim
his victim, it almost always ended in a hearty laugh
at the way in which the club-law man was 4, served
out."

Whatever blame there was certainly rests 'with
the Irish. They were the BOWYERS and O'DoNo.
HUES, of a mob ; nor, do we know that the
Paddies caught much worse relative treatment than
the commoners meet with, when they
see fit to de-
nounce Italy and her Hero to an assembly which
heartily believes in them. What can
possess the
Port's Parliamentary Irish brigade, or his
Seven Dials brigade, to merge all their feelings
as Britons, in fighting for what is now the nuisance
to Liberal Europe—the POPE'S temporal power—
we cannot understand. Enjoying as they do the
liberties purchased by revolution at home—enjoy-
ing as Catholics the religious liberties and civil
rights, purchased by almost revolutionary but quite
justifiable proceedings in Ireland, under the reign
of O'CONNOR—to us and to all Englishmen it seems
like the most heartless ingratitude not to wish for
Catholics at Rome the privileges Catholics in Eng-
land, and in other countries too, so largely enjoy.
If they were superstitious enough to believe that
their soul's eternal salvation depended on the
POPE'S temporal power, we might, while the super,
stition lasted, excuse their selfishness. But see-
ing that the POPE has himself explicitly declared
thAt the `! temP‘44l Power i 4 a dog/1/4