The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-11 00:00:00

THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, OCT. 11, 1862.

If there is to be any demonstration whatever in
favour of GARIBALDI, here, in the metropolis of
England, let us hope that it will be one worthy of
the great name calling together our fellow citizens
to express sympathy for the owner of it—himself
the most heroic and patriotic of all living adven-
turers. If done at all, let it be done in every way
befittingly. And, with that especial proviso, let us
observe, likewise, " If 'twere done, 'twere well 'twere
done quickly." Time has already been allowed to
slip by over much. Insomuch, that for the hope of
getting Guildhall as the rendezvous, and the Lord
MAYOR as the Chairman of the projected
meeting, the GARIBALDI Committee has
missed its opportunity. Had this committee
been prompter in action in the way of organising
the proposed assembly, Mr. CIIBITT would have
been kept more strictly to his word, or rather (we
will admit as much in his power, now that he has
peremptorily refused) to his half promise, His
civic lordship would at any rate in that case have
been denied any colourable excuse for evading
that half•promise, which excuse he very readily and
adroitly found when he contented himself with
pointing to the recent amnesty. However, now
that the committee does know at last for an
absolute certainty that there is to be no Lord
Mayor in the chair, and no authorized gathering of
a Garibaldian character in the ancient Guildhall of
the City of London, it is satisfactory to observe that
the more energetic members of this committee are
vigorously endeavouring to hasten forward their
revised preparations with a view to convsaing by
themselves another monster meeting, at another
place, and under the authority of another chairman.
The date, the locality, the chairman, in point of fact,
have all been selected ; the final resolution upon
these points, having been formally arrived at only
Ilast night by the sub-committee.

The GARIBALDI Meeting then is to take place on
Friday, the 17th of this present month of October.
The London Tavern is the appointed rendezvous.
WESTERN WooD, Esq.,
M.P. for the City of Lon-
don, has consented to preside as Chairman. And
it is worth remembering at this moment that Mr.
"the son of his father," WOOD—besides being
that is, of that famous Liberal Alderman
WooD, historical as one of the foremost
champions of Queen CAROLINE—occupies his seat
, as M.P. for the City
in the House of Commons
of London, under two circumstances especially en-
titled to recollection at this moment, when we are
considering him in his chosen and accepted capacity
as chairman of the forthcoming GARIBALDI meet-
ing. Be it borne in mind then that Mr. WESTERN
Wood is M.P. for the City of London, as the
successor of Earl RUSSELL, now her Britannic
MAJESTY'S Foreign Secretary. And let it not
be forgotten that he was chosen by the electors of
the City of London to succeed Lord RUSSELL, as
their representative, in opposition to the very Lord
Mayor of London who has now declined to be chair-
man of the GARIBALDI meeting, and who has also
as positively refused to allow any meeting of that
kind to be held within the walls of Guildhall. Under
the circumstances, therefore, we cannot but think
\ that the sub-committee has made not merely
an eminently judicious, but also a singularly happy
selection of their chairman, when they have named
for that office the successful in place of the unsuc-
cessful candidate
for the suffrages of the Liberal
electors of the City of
London ! And one, moreover,
who was successful when treading thus in the path
already traversed during so many
memorable
par-
liamentary sessions by the noble lordn ow entrustedwith the care of the Foreign
policy of our Govern-
ment

Whether the three other City members, Mr. R.
W. CRAWFORD, Sir JAMES DUKE, and the Baron
LIONEL DE ROTHSCHILD will attend upon the 17th
inst. to support their Parliamentary colleague upon
his taking the chair there upon the platform in the
great room at the London Tavern, may he still
I doubted. But, at any rate, it is most earnestly to

be hoped that arrangements may speedily be en- ,
tered into securing to the approaching assembly
the attendance of a goodly cluster of M.P.s
and of orators capable of addressing themselves
and in a becoming spirit to the
befittingly
discussion
of those great themes for political elo-
quence namely, Italy and GARIBALDI.
Particularly
the lamentable scenes that have
ust
after nosy,
been witnessed lately in the precincts of our own
metropolis, and we grieve to note also elsewhere
throughout the country—it is desirable, above all
things, that those who shall take part in the meet-
ing arranged for Friday next, shall be capable of ad-
dressing themselves in a calm, resolute, and manly
spirit to the consideration of the still most delicate pro-
blem of the Roman Difficulty; The refusal of the Lord
Mayor to preside over a GARIBALDI Meeting in the
Guildhall (as originally intended by the committee),
should hasten that committee on to the demonstra-

tion before all London, nay, before all England,
of the fact that nothing in the proceedings that
are about to take place at the London Tavern
under the chairmanship of Mr. WESTERN WOOD,
one of the Metropolitan representatives, need have
precluded it from the Guildhall, or have prevented
from taking the chair the Right Hon. WILLIAM
CUBlTT—twice Lord Mayor of London, it is true,
but not once (as Mr. WESTERN WOOD'S name will
significantly enough remind his lordship) not once
M.P. for the City of London !

We must complain no more of the Emperor of
the FRENCH for yielding to the Ultramonatists, the
Temperalists, or whatever we please to call them.
We have been accustomed to look upon it as show-
ing a little Imperial weakness to be afraid of French
priests and French women;and a little disregard of
international rights and the principle of non-inter-
vention, that his MAJESTY, at a serious cost to
France, should keep up a little army in Rome; we
must henceforth be more modest. We, it seems,
are quite as timid as he can be. Cardinal WISE-
MAN, Father this or that, and the scum of London
who are at their beck and call, have fairly beaten
our Government. And Sir RICHARD MAYNE, of
course acting under higher orders, sends his army
to the parks substantially to defend the Tempo-
ralities; of the Pope. The Irishy of the metropolis
have carried their point. They did not so
much want to hold meetings themselves, as to
prevent others from doing it. They cared less to
shout " the POPE and slavery for the Catholics of
Rome," than to prevent others passing resolutions
in favour of " GARIBALDI, and the Liberty of Ca-
tholics in Rome as well as in London." Instead of
enforcing quiet on the disturbers, our authorities
have silenced the peaceful; and because Irish
Papists would howl and brandish shillelaghs, free
Englishmen must not speak and wield peaceful
arguments..

We dislike this surrender to a mob. We gave
our opinion, but a day or two ago on the advan-
tages, on the whole, of these oratorical gymnastics
in the Park. We are quite sure, in their way,
that they are as lawful and beneficial to those
interested in them as the speeches of
Messrs. WHALLEY, SPOONER, NEWDEGATE, the
O'DONOGHUE, and O'REILLY in the House of
Commons. The space is so ample, that no
speaker and his party need to interfere
with another ; so ample that all who do
not wish to listen to the orators have but to
walk in another direction. For ourselves
we have found that the Hyde-park freedom of
speech is very much like the freedom of the press ;
it has told us, what but for it we should not have
known—the notions that are floating in many minds
in circles to which we do not gain easy access.
We know what the people think, or at least what

they talk, when every costermonger or shoemaker
has his platform ; and we have a notion—a per •
verted one it may be—that the open fermenting
of even ignorance and folly is better than its
secret working. " The public discussion of popu-
lar and exciting topics" is really a singular thing
for English authorities to suppress. It leads to
" tumults and disorders," adds Sir RICHARD. Why,
it is the oid plea of the SIDMOUTH and CASTLE-
REAGH school—the plea of despotic rulers all over
the Continent —of the POPE himself, and of
Czars and Emperors. Hitherto the glory of
Englishmen has been that they could dis-
cuss popular and exciting topics without needing
an army of Gendarmes to preserve quiet ; that they
could govern themselves ; that they could, as Lord
PALMERSTON expressed it, "if a man hit him hard,
hit him as hard as he could in return, and go home
and think no more of it." This is what English
Protestants can do, and have always done. But
now, because Irish Papists choose to interfere and
with brutal violence, the English Protestants are
to be denied their opportunities, not abused before,
of free discussion.

We repeat. we do not like this striking our
colours to low brutality. It is not the way in which
a people such as we are ought to be governed. The
disturbers of the peace ought to be made to know
their place. The mischief is, we see, spreading. At
Birkenhead, a meeting for " sympathy with GARI-
BALDI" was to be held, not in a park, but in an in-
stitute, and one belonging to the clergyman who
took the lead in the meeting. But, embold-
ened, we suppose, by the Hyde Park affair,
what must the Irish Papistry of the place do, but
congregate to smash the windows ! Obviously the
next concession must be an order in Council, or
something of the sort, that no such meetings may
be held in any place where a dozen Irishmen can

congregate and make it the occasion of a Popery

riot. After the mischief was done, indeed, two
"Fathers "came forward and persuaded their socks
to indulge no longer their holy zeal. It were far

better if the Fathers were taught that, unless they
instructed their sheep better beforehand, the latter
must be placed quickly under the pastoral care of
the governor of the gaol.
The weather is approaching when park oratory
is likely to cease from natural causes. But it is the
principle of the thing we dislike. We do not relish
making Papal ruffians the rulers of the park. For
the GARIBALDI meetings we care but little. GARI-
BALDI does not need them ; and if some place can
be found without windows liable to Papist smash-
ing, meetings can be held elsewhere. But we do
care to prevent the heroes of Spoleto from thinking
that they have but to make a disturbance in this
country, and that those whom they disturb will be
henceforth silenced by authority. To us this weak-
ness of the authorities seems like encouraging
"tumults and disorders." It is offering a premium
to the disturbers of the peace. The sufferers under
Mr• TYRWHITT'S penalties will now exult that, by
frightening Mr. COWPER, they have silenced their
enemies.

The member for Berks has adopted our sugges-
tion, almost indeed in its very words. He and Mr.
I)ISRAELI cannot agree on the subject of "
giving
prizes for good conduct to agricultural labourers."
Never, we believe, face to face, but at the distance
of Berke and Bucks they have exchanged, we can-
not recollect how many shots, but neither has yet
ever winged his man; it occurred to us, therefore,
that this agricultural affair of honour might be
settled in another way, and that if Mr. DISRAELI
persisted in having prize labourers, Mr. WALTER
should resolve to balance them by prize landlords.