The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 2, 1862,

troops to prevent GARIBALDI from even atteinpling
its solution by the sweep of his sword. There is the

Gordian knot of the Roman Question still fast tied
upon Italy's Wheel of Fortune. GARIBALDI'S

sword has been forbidden to sever it. Can RAT-
TAZZI'S hands now contrive at last cleverly to unravel
that knot P Hardly hia, we should conjecture !
Even at any time RATTAZZI'S unravelling of the
Roman Question was a thing scarcely to be looked
for as within his province or capacity ! And now
that his hands are stained with the blood of Ita-
lians, but, above all, with the blood of GARIBALDI,
Italy itself would doubtless look on with disdain
to see him (the creature of NAPOLEON) fumbling
just now, with those bloody hands, at that knot of
the Roman Difficulty.

Let the KING summon back to the head of his

counsels a man like RICASOLI—any true Italian
statesman with a reputation uncompromised by
recent events—and now, NOW is the opportunity
for VICTOR EMMANUEL ! Now might the KING,
in the view, and more or less with the approbation,
of all Europe, demand of the French EMPEROR
the settlement, definitively, upon a sure and per-
manent basin, of the consolidation of the new Ita-
lian Kingdom. Putting an end at last to the purely
temporary expedient of a French occupation of
the Eternal City. That occupation we have be-
fore now defined as nothing more nor less than

the Evasion of a Difficulty. A Difficulty not to
be solved by the Sword! A Difficulty that may
surely be solved by Diplomacy ! And—for its
definitive and permanent and perfectly pacific
solution—now that GARIBALDI has been put down
and actually taken Prisoner—NOW is the very
opportunity.

Feeling this to be the case, every eye turns upon

the instant, instinctively, towards Paris, in the hope
of piercing at last behind the veil of those dark and
hitherto inscrutable councils of the Tuileries. An
extraordinary Cabinet Council has been summoned
there by the EMPEROR. A Council the decision of
which in regard to Rome, in regard to Italy,
in regard to Europe, is expected one way
or the other to prove very momentous.
While the decision of the Emperor NAPOLEON 111.
is being awaited in this supreme crisis of events, all
kinds of strange rumours are, as a matter of course,
flitting about. According to one of those rumours
three of the chief Ministers of the French Empire
are said to have tendered their resignations con-
ditionally, that is—unless the Roman Question be
at length decided now offhand ! These three Im-
perial Ministers being MM. de PERRON; FOULD,
and de THOUVENEL. Another rumour states that

the proffered resignations had not only been ac-
cepted, but that Marshal M'MAHON had been ap-,
pointed to conduct the Home, and M. DROUYN
DE L'Hults the Foreign Department, in place—
one of M. de PERSIGNY and the other of M.
de THOUVENEL. La France, indeed, raises
its recently encouraged voice to assert that nothing
is further, just now, from the EMPEROR'S intention
than to withdraw his troops from Rome ! Certain
it is, that no sooner had news arrived of the defeat
and capture of GARIBALDI, than peremptory orders
were telegraphed from Paris requiring three steam
frigates at once to be put in readiness at Toulon for
the conveyance of additional troops to Civita Vec-
chia ! The 67th and the 85th regiments of the line
being, at the same time, hurried off by rail from
Lyons to be in readiness there, together with the
17th regiment, for speedy embarkation from that
seaport. In regard to all which proceedings—
what thinks oar own Government P One way or
the other the Italian Problem is fast approaching
the date of its solution.

Lord PALMERSTON is getting both a timely hint
or two and a little comfort. Apropos of reconstruct-
ing a church at Melbourne, his friends there gave
him a little advice on liberal politics. They some-
how managed, in the midst of an address full of
commendations of his policy, and of good wishes for
his happiness both in this world and the next, to
introduce suggestions on the Suffrage and the Game
Laws. On the former point they thought his lord-
ship, who has recognised so often the excellent con•
duct of the operatives under their privations, must
see that they were just the men to be trusted with
a vote in the making of laws for the common benefit
of all, and that granting them that well merited
right would conduce to binding together in unity all
classes of her MAJESTY'S subjects. Touching the
game laws, without mentioning his lordship's letting
the county members have their way by his inten-
tional absence, they commended the fight made by

the Home Secretary on so important a point, and
expressed their opinion that more time ought to
have been given for the consideration of such an
important subject. What the Premier himself still

thought on these points he prudently left his midi-
ence to guess or to infer from the past. The poli-
tical rights of working men is as ticklish a subject
in his Cabinet as the personal rights of black men
is in President LINCOLN'S. As to the game laws, he
doubtless thought, the less said by him the better.
Rather more grateful, we presume, to his lord-
ship will be the testimony of the retiring Tory re-
presentative of Cambridge. Private reasons have
induced him to retire, but he fankly tells his former
supporters that "Under no circumstances could he
continue to represent the views, or in voting fulfil
the, perhaps, just expectations of many of his
warmest friends in a political sense. He most tho-
roughly and sincerely disapproves of the extreme
line on Church matters taken up by so many of the
Conservative party. He considers in this view the
influence of Mr. DISRAELI most pernicious, and the
prevailing high Church opinions to which the bulk
and action of the Conservative party are so much
committed utterly at variance with sound policy.
In short, when the POPE and his adherents consider
the most desirable object the overthrow of the pre-
sent Government, it is, in his conscientious view,
the duty of a sound Protestant Conservative to sup-
port it. He adds that he need hardly say, there-
fore, that he should be glad to hear of a gentle-
man of political views of the stamp of Colonel
ADAIR or Mr. TWISLETON being his successor."
1 For an avowed Conservative thus to come forward
to condemn the policy of the Conservative leader,
to avow that the Whig leader has more claim on
his support, and even to speak of his preferring to
see the advanced Liberal, Colonel ADAIR, whom be
had defeated, as their representative, must be much
more grateful to the ears of the Premier than lec-
tures on the suffrage for meritorious working men,
or on the neglect which had suffered the night-
poaching bill to pass.

Mr.
lire hope Mr DISRAELI will have a few more
such rebukes from reasonable Conservatives. He
must have disgusted all the better members of his
pary
the aid which he has given to the forma-
t,by
Zion of a High Church opposition. They know that
neither is this the day for such a policy, nor is Mr.
D itzo tu the man who could, with common
decen% lead it. He is not a High Churchman.
FromhiB writings most have drawn the inference
thatisit
a
Chrrihior.ah, or any Church, are equally accept-
able to
The politician who, in a political
be regarded,B . r
a like
r,
ly someaHnde
biography, wrote his Chapter on the Jews, cannot
superstitious man. I dlui u:sHaignhd
county . member, who surround him, as a semi-
openlyo
has
t i
a th
takene
Churehism, ;
as a party cry.!

Methodism or any other " ism," would have been
equally welcome, according to common belief, if
they would have returned him member to Parlia-
ment. Indeed his patronage of the POPE, to win
the smiles of the Irish Brigade, has satisfied all
England that anyreligion would be equally accept-
able to Mr. DISRAELI, if it did but lead to power.
We hope, however, that Mr. STEUART'S case is
but an illustration of a feeling working deeply
throughout the country. The Conservatives under
the leadership of Mr. DISRAELI, who, in his turn, is
led by the Lords who delight in " ecclesiastical
millinery" is disgusting the country. Bad enough
that they should conspire against religious liberty,
and muster their unmanly forces on Wednesdays
to defeat by votes, measures which they cannot
defeat by argument, but they carry their policy one
step too far when they advocate the slavery of
Catholics at Rome to please the factiously free
Catholics of Ireland ; the unworthy men, who
blessed with liberty and power here, use it to turn
out, if they could, a Government which maintains
that Italian Catholics have as much right to poli-
tical freedom as Irish Catholics. All England now
sees the real character of the DISRAELI opposition.
It is one of bigots, led by a thorough latitudinarian.
A crusade of mediaevalists for the ecclesiastical
drapery and filagree of bygone ages, and for every
unjust privilege, however offensive, of the dominant
sect. DISRAELI Conservatism now openly can-
vasses through the surplice—it dresses itself in a
gown and band. At this we might laugh, but
when it is found that English counties are managed
like French departments, through a narrow-
minded clergy working on the ignorance of the
peasantry and farmers, it is time that men of sense
repudiated the whole thing. It was always thought
to be most properly characterised by a word, not
deemed polite to utter—it is now known to be so.

Hot work still in Virginia as well as hot weather.
It was thought the latter, which has been described
as unusually sultry, would have imposed silence
and quiet on both parties, but their spirit was too
fierce to be checked by the dog-days. Hardly had
they recovered from the effects of the long mid-
summer battle, than we find POPE and BANKS
moving down the fertile valley of the Shenandoah,
and " STONEWALL" JACKSON giving POPE at Cedar
Mountain a taste of the same Cromwellian dash by
which he had non-plussed the other Federal Gene-
rals. And now the news brought by the Jura, up
to the 25th, from New York, represents both armies
as again in front of each other in their new posi-
tion.

The Rappahannock, which is the main stream
into which the Rapidan flows, is now the line of
separation between two large armies. After his
severe check on the Rapidan, Gen, POPE fell back
northwards towards Acquia Creek ; there M'CLEL-
LAN'S army, or a large part of it, had landed and
reinforced him, so that by this time the forces of
POPE, BANKS, BURNSIDE, and MTLELLAN, if we
have followed their movements rightly, must
now all be massed on the north side of the
Rappahannock, a stream now likely to become
famous in this war. The reader will easily find it
on the maps, running parallel with the Potomac into
the Bay of Chesapeake. On the south side for
fifteen miles, we are told, the forces of the Confe-
derates confront those of the Federals, the whole
army of Richmond being marched out to meet
them. The North, having found that it was not
strong enough to carry out the " anaconda coil"
policy of girdling the vast territory of the Confe-
derates with its armies, is now about to try what it
can do by massing them together under the trained
skill of General HALLECK. It must be acknow-
ledged that if the North can conquer at all it will
be in this way. Hitherto the South has been too
strong at various points for the too much attenuated
forces of the North, and it has burst the " coil" at
those parts to which it has directed its strength.
We shall now see whether, when both concentrate
all the strength they can upon one line of attack
and defence the Federals will be able effectually to
rout the Confederate army of Virginia. HALLECK
is reputed to be a competent general—we shall see
whether he can outgeneral LEE. Already we are
informed that Southern generalship is mysteriously
at work. " Old STONEWALL" is no one, north of
the Rappahannock, knows where, and the Confede-
rates are endeavouring to turn the right flank of
the Federals by way of Warrenton. But what if
this latter move should be merely intended to
divide their army preparatory to another of STONE-
WALL JACKSON'S crushing onslaughts.
One little sentence in the telegrams by the Jura
is singularly suggestive—" The Confederates have
captured Clarksville, in Tennessee, and are advanc-
ing on lore Donnelson, which has been evacnated
by the Federals." This is a Northern statement,
and must surely therefore be true—yet our readers
will remember that Fort Donnelson was the first
of that series of gunboat victories with which the
North opened the spring campaign of this year, and
which resulted in giving them military posses-
sion of Memphis, the river port and capital of Ten.
nessee. All Kentucky, indeed, as well as Tennes-
see, seems to be open to the raids of Confederate
guerillas; but that Fort Donnelson, the augury and
omen of Northern victories, should again fall into
the hands of the South seems as if the tide were
turning. The Northern HUDIBRAS, the ingenious
BIOLOW, once wrote of the Confederates that—

" Since Fort Donnelson, wianing the day
Consists in triumphantly getting away."
He must now apply the lines to bis Northern
friends.

These after all are but minor conflicts, but unless
all appearances are misleading, the two great armies
of the North and South must soon come into direct
conflict. Only a river divides them. The Confe-
derates are attempting to pass it and commence the
attack on various points, besides the attempt to
turn the Federal flank. It must be their object to
force a battle before all the Northern reinforcements
arrive, and still more before the new levies begin to
tell. Their army can hardly equal that of the
North, and if it has to attack, one of its chief ad-
vantages will be lost. Still it would seem that the
Confederates must either fight now, or fight here-
after at greater disadvantage, unless, indeed, they
too can bring up and maintain large reinforcements.
There is at least a high probability therefore of an
early engagement, and a more serious one than
any which has been fought yet.

EMIGRATION TO VICTORIA.—The following reso-
lutions respecting immigration were passed by the Legisla-
tive Assembly on the 23d of May, 1862 !—£120,000 voted
in aid of immigration to the colony of Victoria, in the fol-
lowing propor £65,000 for the passage of persons
nominated by friends or relatives resident in the colony, and
proceeding under passage warrants granted in the colony
until Oct. 31, on payment of small sums of money to the
Colonial Government, according to each class; £40,000 for
sending out single females selected or nominated in this
country ; £B,OOO for the passage of persons and their fami-
lies skilled in the production of wine and oil and in the
drying or preservation of fruit, &c.; and £7,000 towards
the payment of gratuities of surgeons and officers of the
Government emigration ships, and the expenses of carrying
out these regulations.

The festivities in connection with the "Preston
Guild "—a festival of great antiquity which is celebrated
every twenty years—were commenced yesterday. Not-
at the present moment, the
withstanding the deep distress which prevails in the district
arrangement point to a carnival
of unusual gaiety and splendour. The whole of this week
will be devoted to the " Guild," and judging from the great
influx of visitors into the town, it is highly probable that a
considerable stun will be realised for charitable purposes,

ROYAL ENGLISH ENGLISH OPERA.

‘, MARI rANA."

It is the distinction of a certain genius to do its
greatest work at once. It wins the summit of itis
eminence, not by a careful step or two, but by an
instantaneous leap. It seems to suspend the ordi-
nary law of development, which is that of growth
by successive stages, and accomplish its perfection
without showing us the process. We have often
thought that this phenomenon was exemplified in
Mr. Wallace. When viewed in all its relations we
must regard his first work as his best. It not only
displays in the highest degree all that is most dis-
tinctive of his mind—his delicate fancy, grace, and
tenderness----which are beyond all native rivalry,
but it surrounds and sets them with an amount of
art, and a happy balance of resources, which he him-
self has not rivalled subsequently in his most success-
ful efforts. " Maritana,"like the " Nozze di Figaro,''
may lay claim to the unusual praise of combining
with its universal a certain local and special truth.
It is essentially Spanish as well as human. Its
immediate colour or truth of manners is as
great as its general form—or truth of life.
Whilst its gaiety has all the Bolero feeling in its
spirit—the wild fantastic grace and pure abandon
of enjoyment with which the warmer blood of the
Moor infused and stirred in ages past the calmer
current of the Iberian—its earnestness on the other
hand has that equally faithful gravity which ex-
presses the mastery of the conquering Goth, who
was destined to abate and harmonise these
fervid elements of the national character.
Whilst its buoyant Gitana and Don Caesar
reflect one aspect of the historic origin--
its Don Jose and its King sufficiently present to
us the other. This is assuredly no little merit.
When Gretry was once being praised, at the Cafe
de Procope for possessing every possible musical
power a writer could have, " Yes, " re-
plied Piron, "and moreover he is the most
patriotic of musicians—if he lays his scene
in Africa he makes all his people sing like
Frenchmen." We were never more impressed with
the characteristic or local truth of Maritana than
on its performance given last evening, which, with
one exception only was one of the best we have
ever seen. The dreamy and voluptuous ten-
derness of the Moorish romance, " The Harp
in the Air,"—the true Bolero vigour of the
fortune telling solo and chorus--the arrogant and.
resolute selfishness of Don Jose's air, " In Happy
Momenta"—so Gothic and Castillian—and the
martial spirit. of Don Caesar's—" He like a soldier
fell"—that spirit the moral salt which has always con-
served the most:corrupt case of the Hidalgo—all im-
pressed us witha deeper sense of the artistic skill of the
composer. The execution of this opera, as we have
said, with one exception only, was as perfect as we
have seen. Could Mdlle. Parepa have acted as well as
she sung the buoyant gipsy heroine, no. reservation
would have been possible; but herein the absence
of Miss Louisa Pyne was more than ordinarily felt.
She did but half the work allotted her, whilst others
did the whole. Nevertheless, we have no reluctance
in fully acknowledging that half. She sang viith
all the ease, firmness, and expression which usually
distinguish her, and was applauded, as she deserved
to be, in every thing she did. Her " Harp in the
air," her " Scenes that are brightest," and, not
least, her two duets—with Don Jose in the first
act, and Don Caesar in the last—were all stamped
with the best features of the ability that has ren-
dered her so popular. The Don Cesar was, of
course, Mr. Harrison; a character which, from
its first performance, he has made exclu-
sively his own. If there were good grounds
for this in past years, the great maturity
of his powers of late, and in this character espe-
cially—as shown in a deeper sense of enjoyment,
as well as a bolder expression of its proud
spirit so admirably depicted in the scene with
the King, would make its attempt by any other
English singer mere absurdity. Mr. Harrison is
the true dramatic tenor of our time, and
when we hear some of our contemporaries
accord this praise to Mr. Sims Reeves,
who has no sense of character whatever,
and no better idea of acting than a certain rough
jovial swagger, which he mistakes for manly ardour,
we cannot but emphasise our sense of the claims
of a true lyric comedian, who is the only one
upon our stage that represents to us the
Ponsards and Couderes of the French. Mr.
Harrison was also in unusually good voice last
evening, and his delivery of all his music—and more
especially, his charming cavatina, " There is a
flower that bloometh "—was worthy of the
redemand which it so vehemently elicited. The
Don Jose was Mr. NV eiss, whose noble voice and
stately manner gave wonderful truth and impres-
sion to the character of the treacherous courtier,
more especially in the vivid action and finale of the
second act ; his delivery, also, of the ballad,
"In Happy Moments," testifying just as
fully to his depth of taste and feeling.
The King was Mr. Corti, one of the ablest mem-
bers of the company, who gave to his passion a
rigid haughtiness that was eminently charac-
teristic, and the Marquis was Mr. John Rouse—a
genuine comedian—who will prove, we believe,
one of the best of the recent additions to the
corps. The Lazarillo was Miss Susan Pyne, who
rendered it with great naturalness; and the Mar-
chioness, Mrs. Aynslsy Cooke, who gave to its
brief sketch no little humour. In conctusion, we
have only to say that the band under Mr. Mellon
did every justice to the charming fancy which
stamps the instrumentation of this opera—that the
principal singers were called for at the close of
every act, and that the house was very full.