The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-27 00:00:00

THE BULLET IN THE WOUND.

(from the Examiner.)
The generous and gallant soldier in whom the
affections of Italy are bound up still lan, uishes on
his bed of pain. Unused to inactivity d confine-
ment his spirit droops; the quick cu-rent of his
blood stagnates ; he sleeps heavily, it is said more
than enough ; and his appetite flags; his frame be-
comes attenuated ; and, as yet, there is no symptom
of the injured limb being healed. He says himself
that the treacherous bullet is still in the wound.
English advice told him to believe otherwise ; and,
grateful for the disinterested friendship which
offered it, Garibaldi tried to believe what he was
told. He sought manfully not to mind his present
pain, or to think of hid future lameness, but to re-
main quiet, thankful it was no worse, and consoled
by the assurance that after a time he would be as
strong and well as ever. He has sincerely endea-
voured to be patient and striven to persuade the
excitable friends around him that the advice sent
from England was as judicious as it was (Es-
' interested, and as prudent as it was pure. But
nature will not be gainsayed. The bullet is still in
the wound : " I feel it ; no potion can make me for-
get ; sleeping or waking I feel it always ;"—and in
such accents those about him begin to fear they
catch the sound of warning that the tide of life is
slowly ebbing away. It may not be so ; and the
feverish solicitude of friendship and patriotism may
bewilder its power of accurate observation. But
there is no disguising
the fact that the illustrious
victim of Aspromonte lies in a most critical state,
and that nobody of skill or judgment ventures to say
that he sees any safe or speedy way of his recovery.
The type of Italy is here. After great sacri-
fices and heroic efforts, at the ,very zenith of fame
for pure and noble deeds, Italy finds herself pro-
strated and lamed in a part which, though said not
to be vital, proves to be essentially connected
with the use and preservation of life. She cannot
stand upright, she cannot get on, she cannot
even lie quiet while the open sore of misrule
and misery remains at Rome. The treacherous
bullet is still in the wound. Were it removed, the
wound would heal of itself ; partial exfoliation,
though painful at the time, being of little moment,
the loss being certain to be supplied by the quick-
ened powers of nature. But so long as the cowardly
and cruel missile continues where it hath no busi-
ness to be, no progress towards returning health
can be expected, for none indeed is possible.
The dismissal of M. de Thouvenel, accompanied
as it has been by that of MM. Lavalette and Bene-
detti, and the substitution in their stead of undis-
guised opponents of Italian unity, verifies, sooner
than we looked for, our anticipations regarding the
policy of Bonapartism beyond the Alps. The
miserable show of an independent Administration
carried on by MM. Rattazzi and Pepoli is about to
come to an end. It is only wonderful how it should
have lasted so long. And what is to follow ? The
King seems more possessed than ever with the in-
fatuation that his safety and that of his dynasty
lies in keeping his Imperial patron in good humour.
At the very moment when the French Minister of
Foreign Affairs and the French Envoy at Turin are
changed, avowedly in the interests of the Temporal
Papacy as opposed to those of the Italian Kingdom,
and when the one set of vice-regal puppets are
about to be discarded in conformity with the change
of Imperial tools at Paris and elsewhere, Victor
Emmanuel is said to be able to think of nothing
better than the finding of another set of Bonapartist
marionettes, whom he is ready to rig out in new
suits of feathers and gold lace, and set up to play
the mimic part of Italian Ministers. Count Areze
has been used before in this capacity. The body
of him was born, they say, near Milan ; but his
spirit, such as it is, belongs to St. Cloud. He
was the champion and trusted friend of Louis
Napoleon during his wanderings in the proba-
tionary wilderness through which he wended
his slow way to the promised land of
empire. Count Pepoli is the Emperor's cousin,
as he loves to remind his convivial associates
upon all occasions ; and under the circumstances
it was a sufficiently strong measure to give him
an Italian portfolio. But people forgave the rela-
tionship they could not deny, for the sake of the
nullity of the man. And Pepoli is as outspoken,
laughing good fellow, whom nobody ever suspected
of betraying a secret, because nobody ever believed
that he had been entrusted with one. Count Arese
is altogether a different man. Personally without
reproach, and through long training in the ways
of the world, not inapt in the transaction of busi-
ness; a man of competent fortune and of re-
respectable life. But to be the Minister of Italy at
a crisis like the present he is obviously and egre-
giously unfit. He would be, and would be men •
nised as being, a mere automaton in the hands of M.
Dronyn de Lhuys ; and as such, his nomination could
only serve to inflame the popular resentment and
rage against French influence throughout the Pe-
ninsula.