The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-12 00:00:00

Europe, of " preserving Rome against aggression !"
The Italian Government asks nothing more than that
Rome may be left to the Romans. If they do not '
invite the King of ITALY to make their city his
capital, he would not think of attaeking it. Such
almost avowed sophistry as this is discreditable
to the last degree in such a man. Earl RUSSELL,
as the present Minister well knows, has long ago
told the French Government that the question was
simply one of giving Rome to the Romans ; who,
as the " elect of universal suffrage," can hardly deny,
have surely as much as the French, or, if he pre-
fers it, as the inhabitants of Nice and Savoy,
the right to choose their own Sovereign.
One could bear with greater patienee a
plain assertion that the EMPEROR had got
hold of Rome, and meant to keep it by force
against the rights of Romans, Italians, or of any
one else. Why should the Foreign Minister put
such very transparent black crape over the features
of his master's policy, when nothing but the pistol
compels the Romans to surrender their liberty, and
the Italians their rights, to the Imperial highway-
man?

No better is the hypocrisy about the
" sovereignty and independence of the POPE."
The sovereignty protected is that of the EMPEROR
alone. But for that, the POPE might shift as he
could with his sovereignty. His independence
is that of a caged beast of prey. He is suffered
to roar forth his anathemas against all the enemies
of his temporal power; and though his keeper per-
sists in teazing him through his bars about civil re-
forms, conciliation, and so forth, he means no harm
to his surly pet. He knows the answers he shall
get, and that a "non possumus" will do equally well
for both. How long is this intolerable farce to be
kept up ? That is a question which none can
answer; the EMPEROR knows that no one will go
to war to get justice for the Romans and Italy; he
feels no compunction whatever at persistency in
any outrage which he thinks for his own interest ;
hence the only thing Italy can do is to consolidate
her strength, and bide her time. Not justice, but
political exigencies,'must some day compel the Im-
perial robber to drop his prey.

One after another the various candidates for the
throne of Greece are swept aside by a succession of
apparently insuperable objections. England re-
gards with no favour the claim advanced in behalf
of the Duke of LEUCHTENEUBG. And this for the
sufficient reason that the success of the Duke would
imply a triumph won by a Russian and French al-
liance in diplomacy. He is a Muscovite, he is a Beau-
harnais, and therefore he is anything but acceptable
at St. James's. His installation in power at Athens
might threaten the interruption (in French interests)
of our overload route to India. It might prepare
the way possibly, at the tame time, for the advance of
the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE a little later on
towards Constantinople, when the sick man might
be seemingly a trifle nearer the last gasp. The
Prince AMADEUS again, the second son of the King
of ITALY—Austria, naturally enough, looks upon
with a jealous and reluctant eye.. His in-
stallation at Athens would, the Viennese Govern-
ment feels, place the KAISER and his advisers at
once between two seriously threatening antagonists.
This at least, so far as the only surviving Italian
province of the House of Hapsburg—the province
of Venetia, with the adjoining Quadrilateral—is
concerned. Between a Greek King AMADEUS and
an Italian King VICTOR EMMANUEL—Venetia and
the Quadrilateral would have a considerable
likelihood before them of coming to grief. As a
matter of course, therefore, as a matter of sheer
common sense, Austria looks with a forbiddin g
glance at the claim advanced on behalf of the se
, cond son of her spoiler, King VICTOR EMMANUEL.
Prince YPSILANTE'S claim is that of his
being himself a Greek, both by birth and by re-
ligion. Added to which (a sordid reason, it must
be confessed, but still unmistakeably a reason) he
is likely, through his affianced wife, the daughter
of the en-banker, the now Greek Ambassador at
Vienna, Baron SINA, to become very speedily heir
to a really princely fortune of 60,000,000 florins.
It is a small item intrinsically, no doubt,
to be thrown into the scales while weighing the
comparative merits of certain rival candidates to
a throne like that of Greece. Nevertheless, in
these days of financial anxiety among the dynas-
ties of Christendom, it is an item that is in no way
likely to be overlooked or depreciated by the Greek
people themselves. As to H. R. H. the second son
of Queen VICTORIA, the young sailor Prince
ALFRED—though he himself is personally popu-
' lar with the Greeks from the circumstance

of the agreeable remembrance left behind
him there at Athens when he was feted
by the late British Ambassador to that Court, Sir
THOMAS WYSE, and feted even, be it added, of
course, by the now fugitive monarchs, King OTHO
•and Queen AMELIA—his! Royal Highness's claims
are hardly seriously entertained, from the fact of
the reigning families of the three great contracting
powers, England, France, and Russia being de-
barred, ney, prohibited and pledged not to contri-
bute a Sovereign to hold the sceptre and wear
the diadem of Greece. Consequently, with his Royal
Highness's claim to consideration as a candidate for
that throne, would be set aside as promptly and
decidedly
advance that might possibly be
m
hesYame direction in favour of an imperial
ad e
in the
highness of the race of NAPOLEON M. or of ALEX-
ANDER 11. One other candidate there is—perhaps
the likelist of all—not yet mentioned in our re-
marks of to-day : the second son, that is, of King
LEOPOLD, the oldest, as he is also the most consti-
tutional among the reigning sovereigns of the
European continent. In some respects the selection
of his Royal Highness would be as propitious per-
haps for Greece as any her people could reason-
ably make—propitious, that is, in a political sense,
so far as relates to any hope for Greece securing to
herself a really enlightened and constitutional form
of Government.

As genial and encouraging a tribute as any that
has yet been paid to the Rifle Volunteer move-
ment was that offered to it yesterday by the
Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Time was when the rifle corps were looked upon
Time
by our public men, so to speak—askance.
was when another Right Honourable, also now
in office, meaning the Irish Secretary, went so
far as to cast ridicule upon the popular rising ;
speaking of it as Sir ROBERT PEEL did then, as
a temporary craze on the part of those infected
by a contemptible panic about invasion. That
time has happily long since passed away. In spite of
much contumely, the Rifle Movement contrived,
very soon effectually to live down everything like
open opposition. Months elapsed and the corps still.
increased and multiplied—became more widely dis-
hil'eted—numbered up more and more recruits
raesiidnitY--altogetheraaYeetiveiy
—kept up drill with well-sustained
i
rapidly and. visibly ad-
vanced h aifleie„y, and, consequently, in im-
atareeven,llth.advance is perceptible.
now beginning to be
portance. lean.
numbered up—and
It is no longer a matter of lief—it is simply a
matter of fact. The Volunteers have taken their
place surely, and we are confident of this also, ev-
manently—not merely surely but permanently--.*P
among the Defenders of the Country, The Riflemen
are as recognised defenders of the nation, is fact, SS