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

THE SUN.

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 2, 1862.

As might have been expected, all Italy is seeth-
ing with popular indignation at the news of the
defeat, the wounding, and the capture of GARD,.
BALDI. It would have been an instance of exe-
crable ingratitude had the result been otherwise.
The Italians could not, indeed, for very shame, have
looked on with indifference, with even a' loyal
affectation of apathy, at the downfall of that simple-

minded, unselfish, dauntless Hero, whose name is
still the chief boast and glory of the yet incomplete
War of Italian Independence. The importance uni-
versally attached to the event of his seizure is a
tribute to the greatness of the man himself, and to
the grandeur of the position he yet occupies among
the powers of the earth—even now, while remaining
a prisoner in the hands of his captors, and actually
awaiting his trial upon a charge of High Treason !
Remember that, at the time of his discomfiture on
Friday afternoon last, in that narrow defile upon the
heights of Aspromonte, whither he had been pur-
sued by Colonel EMILIO 12ALLATICINO, at the head
of a small body of the Royal forces, chiefly Bersag-
lieri—that there and then GARIBALDI was himself
at the head of (at the very outside) no more than
2,400 poorly clad, indifferently armed, undisci-
plined, and, for the most part, stripling Volunteers.
So comparatively powerless was that band of rebels
even when occupying a strong position overlooking
that of the Royal troops who had come upon them
in pursuit, that the 2,100 rebels were completely
worsted there in their rocky fastness by the in •
ferior number of assailants, led against them by
Colonel (now General) PALLAVICINO. It is signifi-
cant of the manner in which this defeat of the
Garibaldians occurred, that when the struggle was
actually at an end, so few of them were killed,
that so many of them were merely wounded, and
that nearly all of them were taken prisoners.
In the first place, it was well known
before GARIBALDI crossed into Calabria,
that his followers were but partially armed at the
best. They lacked, consequently, the wherewithal
—when actually driven to bay—to make any very
vigorous resistance. Again, determined though the
troops under PALLAVACINO appear to have been in
pursuing the rebels, with a view to their defeat and
the capture of their formidable Chief—those Italian
soldiers naturally shrank from dyeing their hands
too redly in the blood of their insurgent country-
men. So that we marvel less to read in the record
of this lamentable struggle upon the heights of
Aspromonte, that—in it—nine only of the rebels
were killed, that 300 of them were wounded, and
that fully 2,000 were taken prisoners ! Among the
wounded prisoners—GAßlßALDl himself and his son
MENOTTI—both of them wounded in the thigh, the
Hero being also seriously wounded in one foot !
Wounds those having, obviously, their sig.
nificance indicating as they do that the
rebel force stood upon higher ground than
their assailants, and eventually their con-
querors. And corroborating, also, in GARIBALDI'S
instance, the rumour now prevailing that, with a
hope to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, and relying
confidently upon the magical influence his name
and fame and form and features might exercise upon
the Royal troops, he appeared before them, not
sword in hand and with hostile bearing, not as Foe
but as Friend, calling upon them to join him for the
glory and the liberty of their common Fatherland.
In vain ! The answer to the summons of the
Patriot Chief is a discharge of rifles from the band
of Bersaglieri under the command of Emu°
PALLAvAmo! The Liberator of the two Sicilies
is wounded in the thigh and in the foot—
s blow
proving as fatal to his prestige as the
shaft in the heel was to the life of ACHILLES !
GARIBALDI'S son MENOTTI is wounded by his side,
arrow
and, together with father and son, are wounded
three hundred of their followers. Nearly the whole
band, as we have seen, to the number of at least
2,000, being
captured by the well armed and well
disciplined Bersaglieri.
And now GARIBALDI, a close prisoner in the
hands of the RING, awaits his trial as an enemy in
arms against the authority of the Italian Govern-
mEnt. A Royal Decree is expected to be published
at Turin on this very day, Tuesday, the 2d of Sep-
tember, constituting the Senate a High Court of
tint
lee for the trial of GARIBALDI and his " accom-
plices t"

Meant 44, far and wide throughout
the tidings of
imprisonment LDI S
,)IA.RIBA downfall, Italy, as
his wounds
and his
traverse the land, In place
apersed by
after place the people Is
in fury, and have to be
put down by force and di
the KING ! At Leghorn
eo formidable was the
popular rising, that the soldiers were actually
withdrawn within the barracks, to allow the ferment
of the multitude to exhaust itself, through
"fear
that the bloodshed, otherwise inevital
e' ml
have have proved something disastrous. At Milan -
th"
were fresh outbreaks—at Como—at Pavia—at %.
logna—at Genoa—at Brescia—at Palermo! Whilst
at Florence, the troops, in dispersing the mob, had
to use far more than the flat side of their sabre in
beating the rioters back, wounding, in fact,
thirteen ! It is a questionable triumph, at the
best, for the King's Government. Yet it may be
rendered a crowning success, and a success too,
over the ultimate eonsequenccs of which, even the
wounded and defeated and imprisoned GARI-
BALDI himself might exult—namely, by the
KING'S Government now solving the remaining
difficulties of the situation by the aid of diplomacy !
Now that that Government has interposed with its