The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-13 00:00:00

THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPT. 13, 1860.:

Well done, VICTOR EMMANUEL I But a word
and a blow, in response to the " cry of Italy's
anguish." So it ought to be; and let all the
mysterious "Powers," whoever they be, France
included, look to themselves. When a LAMORI-
CIERE can have the audacity, in the face of civilised
Europe, to threaten Italian towns with a repetition
of the POPE'S and ANTONELLI'S butcheries at
Perugia, while execrations of the Papal deed have
scarcely ceased, it was no time for the real "King
of Italy" to stand by and witness the deed. VICTOR
EIDIANUEL would have been responsible for the
blood shed by his HOLINESS; or, what is precisely
the same thing, by the ruffians he employs, if he
had not thrown his shield over the helpless
inhabitants. He must be moving effectually, since
we find him saving at the same time Pesaro, on the
Adriatic, and Orvieto, between the two seas, from
the German mercenaries of the Chief Shepherd of
European Christendom. What a tale does it tell
that the POPE'S flock should be folded thus by
foreign dogs—German dogs—and dogs, indeed, they
are—wolves rather, perhaps. One of the com-
manders, it is stated, is actually sent off to Turin
to answer for having ordered the sack of a town
guilty only of preferring civil government and
liberty to ecclesiastical government and slavery.
He ought to be hanged as a land pirate.

Whether " the Powers " be pleased or not we
care but little. Indeed, if they do not interfere,
which they are not likely to do, the less they are
pleased probably the better. Prussia and Russia,
we are told by the same telegrams, made "strong
representations," which are very harmless artillery.
But what have Prussia and Russia to do with
people south of the Alps ? VICTOR EMMANUEL
may surely remind them, that they cannot even
speak Italian, while the natives of Central Italy
come and plead with him in their mother tongue
for their common nationality. He may
tell Prussia that she, by violence els ie./Iy,
forces disjointed German States into one kingdom,
and baptises the bunch of territories by the name
of Prussia. But that he only takes the protection
and government of adjacent naturally united Italian
States, who come and beg him to reign over them.
If ever a prince had a fair title to accept dominion,
it is VICTOR EMMANUEL in Italy. We must remem-
ber, too, that all the KING'S unconstrained acts have
been worthy of his avowed ambition—the salvation
of Italy. And it is a testimony of the most satis-
factory kind of all, that he has the confidence of
GARIBALDI. That patriot would not trust him if
did not know him.

The gravitation of Russia towards the East
presses heavily not only on the Turk but also upon
the Chinese. It does so with the irresistible weight
of an iron despotism acting through 60,000,000 of
the human race. This superincumbent pressure,
moreover, is all the more formidable, here to
Turkey, there to China, for two reasons so obvious
in themselves as hardly to require that they should
be particularised. Firstly, because the force of it
is perpetually on the increase by reason simply of
its being never interrupted. Secondly, because in
either instance, in the instance of the Moslem, and
in the instance of the Chinese, there is no innate
power or capability 'whatever of resistance. Turkey,
as we took occasion only so very recently to re-
mark in these columns, has long held its anomalous
place amongst
the Po ,vers of Europe simply by rea.
son of the toleration superinduced in its regard by the
conflicting jealousies of the rival States of Christen-
dom. China, again, has for centuries remained
isolated from the rest of the world SOLELY because
of the alcally evinced in reference to that moiety
of the human family by the champions of Western,
or, for that matter, of European civilisation. Who
shall say what might not have been the condition
now of China, what might not have been
the relations at this moment between the
Chinese and the Europeans, but particularly be-
tween the Chinese and the French and English,