The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-26 00:00:00

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unfurling of the standard of civil war in Sicily by
that most honest, heroic, patriotic, and blundering

of all living Italians—at once the Paladin and the
Marplot of Italian Independence !
The ulterior result of these lamentable proceed-
ings in Southern Italy, it would of course be utterly
impossible at this moment even to conjecture. We
can only note the events that have already
occurred there, and that are occurring elsewhere
in consequence. It behoves the English Govern-
ment more than ever to watch vigilantly over the

course of these very sinister proceedings. A heavy
responsibility devolves just now upon the noble
Earl, her MAJESTY'S Foreign Secretary—who, it
cannot but be observed with satisfaction, has hastily
returned from his brief holiday excursion in Ire-
land to his residence at Richmond, so as to be near
the seat of Government, and prepared to take mo-

mentary note of the occurrences now coming rapidly
to light. Earl RUSSELL has reason to remember

more vividly, perhaps, than any one how egre-

giously we were allowed to " drift" into war but a
few years ago apropos to Constantinople. Let him
beware that we do not " drift" into war a few
months hence apropos to Rome. A timely inti-
mation to Russia (then our ally) would have
saved Western Europe the after necessity

of squandering. 100,000 lives and £100,000,000
sterling upon the fatal plateau before Sebas-
topol! And this merely to accomplish what
might have been as readily effected—if the right
time only had been seized upon for doing it—
by the expenditure of a little ink by a
Minister, and of a little breath by an Ambassador.
A timely intimation to France (now our ally),
might save Italy, might spare Europe fronl the
agonies of a protracted and frightful conflict, the
wasting of much precious gold, and of still more

precious blood.
The Autocrat of Russia might have learnt in
Peace, and not through War, that England (and
France) would not tolerate his advance upon Con-

stantinople !
The Autocrat of France might—in reason and in
humanity be assured, as frankly and unmistake-
ably by a few spoken and written words, as
ever he could be afterwards by the clash of
bayonets or the thundering of cannon, that Eng-
land cannot tolerate his seizure—let us say, of
Naples, for his cousin MURAT, or of the Island of
Sardinia for himself !
As to the French occupation of Rome, that every-
one, even every Frenchman, knows perfectly well
long since to he a purely temporary arrangement.
Sooner or Iater—GARIBALDI has now rendered it
later at the very juncture when it just gave
promise of being sooner !—Sooner or later the
French Division must be withdrawn from Rome !
That is a positive and absolute Necessity. There
is no blinking it. The presence of the French
soldiers at Rome is simply an expedient; is nothing
more than the Evasion of a Difficulty. Their de-
parture from it is a problem that not only can be
solved, but will be solved. How ? Arms may
answer, or—Diplomacy. But, beyond any doubt
of it, GARIBALDI, in his eagerness to solve the
problem of the Roman question, has gone the
very worst way to work to discover the solution.
Instead of retiring at his " insolent" bidding
from the position she there occupies, France is, on
the contrary, gathering the reigns up more firmly
than ever in her grasp, and taking the scourge
of Bellona for her whip. It is the most fatal
error : fatal, that is, in its immediate if not in
its ulterior consequences. For already—as the re-
sults of GARIBALDI'S new Sicilian expedition—
Italy has anarchy, her Government confusion,
NAPOLEON his opportunity. The latter, we may
be certain—thanks to GARIBALDI—has his grasp
more firmly than ever upon Rome, and an eye
alternately directed to Naples and to Sardinia!
The confusion begun in Sicily is in the meantime
extending fast upon the mainland of the peninsula.
GARIBALDI is himself reported to have crossed over
from Catania to Mileto, about seven miles from
Cape Spartivento ! The Garibaldian Volunteers
rising and advancing in various directions.
General CoRLE leading his red-shirts to Catanzaro.
Colonel NuLLo—fresh from his disappointment
in regard to Sarnico leading his red-shirts
boldly and resolutely upon Reggio. Colonel
BRUZZESI conducting his band the in direction of
Cosenza—from which place the Prefect GUICCIARDI
tenders hls resignation to the Government, in despair
of holding his authority there intact! 'While the
like is done—and for the like reasons—by the Pre-
fect of Catanzaro. Tidings from Aderno, in Sicily,
meanwhile, under date the 17th of August, tell us
of as many of the King's officers (exactly seventeen)
having placed their commissions in the hands of
General MELLA rather than draw their swords
against General GARIBALDI !
CUGIA, unequal to the emergency, had not yet
(when our last telegram was flashed through the
submarine wire) been superseded by the arrival at
Palermo of CIALDINI —the latter, strange to tell,
made a detour on his way from Genoa to Palermo,
by going round to Bologna. So formidable, however,
is the position affairs are beginning to assume there
in Southern Italy, that not only, as head of the land
forces of the KING, is CUGIA to be replaced by CIAL-
DINI—bat, as head of the sea forcer, ALBINI is to
make way for PERSANO ! Nay, rumours were actually
for a time afloat at Turin to the effect that,
while the royal forces will be commanded in Sicily
by CIALDINI, the KING'S army upon the mainland
would be commanded by the KING himself in per-
son. However this may be, the dreadful game of
civil war is now fairly afoot not only in Sicily, but
in more than one part of the Peninsula. The war-
blast sounded by GARIBALDI at Catania—has been
echoed by the French bugles at Rome. 'While these
preliminary battle notes are yet ringing in our ears
—cannot all this threatened effusion of blood be
warded off as a still avoidable calamity to Europe,
cannot the opposing swords be thrust back into
their scabbards, upon the timely interposition of
Ile
Diplomacy of England ?

The -Harvest,—what a cheerful, yet what an
anxious Word. We
all think of it, more or less,
from the end
of July till October, according to our
latitude and longitude. Every family asks what
is to be the quality and
cost of its loaf. All the
markets of England fluctuate
with the aspects of
the sky ; and the money
market itself rises and falls
with tho little column of quicksilver. Transactions
involving millions sterling are governed or modified
by the changes of the wind. At no other time of
the year does. the Stock
sky
as look at the
Wo
as anxiously as Mark Lane itself. write just
now beneath a bright and cheerful sun, and accord.
ingly we find that our report yesterday of the I
Corn Market was—flat, a shilling or two a quarter
lower, for sunshine and plenty go together. About
a week ago it was just the reverse. Then, in our
• north and
part of the country, cold winds from the no,
north-east suddenly squeezed the vast electric
transparent sponge—for such it is in reference to
moisture—in which we all live, and drenched us
and our crops. Harvest was a sad word for those
1 few days. In this country, however, and at this
time of year, rains are frequently partial and even
local. While we were all gloomy on the banks of
the Thames, the dwellers on the numerous streams
which make their way, from the east and north,