The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-05 00:00:00

F likes, may argue in favour of the voluntary isolation and
sulky mischievousness of large nations and empires •
coast
ast furiouson bgoatlhe in
sidesthe ,
.and Formosa
not
but. if they passed, as we did on our voyage up,'
ora
ti
offorce,
rwarna enationtt:
awt
humanityhnedi c
d.hrmariner,asaogeneglects
ee
within
el trehvoete they nights
main
tgneohrhs
atotosc guide:
heiy ni
violentr
vt
h as
tawaCe ollhogbuatilehli eight
singledeg]al zeaeaysde andbi aigytl t hhl
ldmt
thisd
th e paleenormous o f gen general Trees ptchnesrieb
si
beacon maintained by the T Y All along the coast of
not a single lighthouse or
not tell you what'lirkish Government, and I need
a, rich and valuable trade is carried on up
1114 (1"11 these 8": ores. In the Formosa Channel alone
two
five light-14°118e'
on the are required, three on the mainland, and
consider ~ island, one at either end. Scurvy to at
her -:tole extent has broken out in the force norf
.o) 'ooth European and native Indian ; and as D.one
but strictly medical treatment is practicable on ' ward
ship, and the Chinese will have
nothing to d o vcith
us, thus putting fresh vegetable diet for
the) troops
out of the question, I am afraid that
-the dis-
ease will spread extensively, as all the mei? have tome long
voyages, and many from England. The,re is also an anxiety
about the supply of water here, and 'parties go on shore to
dig wells; but I understand that, whereas the consump-
tion of water in the force now 'sere is 400 tons a-day, the
supply hitherto procurablefre
An these wells does not amount
to above 40 tons daily. .
.1a .bout all this part of the north of
Chins
a surface water fit for drinking
purposes is scarce,
river and !,,s are comparatively few, and it is
necessary to (1.43 for water when large bodies of men may
be masse ,1 together. We and the Court of Pekin now
new:r hear anything from one another; though doubt-
less they know a good deal of our movements, and are
acting accordingly, as you will hear after we have tried the
Taku Forts: The annexation of the holy island of Poo-too,
of which I spoke to you in my former letters, has been
dropped, and even the force at Chusar. has been much re-
duced, the main portion and headquarters of her Majesty's
67th and 99th Regiments having come up here to join in
the fighting, leaving each a few. companies on the island. •
The weather—poor Lord Ra'glan's favourite toPic—is 'Vari-
able and uncertain here, for some days past having been.
most trying, wet and gloomy, but being to-day as fine as
his lordship coubl have wished, warm and summery.
Then again; as the worthy Lord Lyons used to write, at
the same time, " the health of the troops is excel-
lent," with the exception that, as regards the pre-
valent scurvy, I am sorry I cannot add that " the men are
well supplied with fresh meat and vegetables, sent from
Malta by Rear-Admiral Stewart," Waiting and preparing
to fight are not very exciting Or newsful ; but there is not
long to wait now, and I fear that my second letter after
this 'will have a red tinge upon it. However, as our
french allies say, " you cannot make omelettes without
I breaking eggs." The naval brigade, for service on shore,
is being organised, and, as far as practicable, on ship-
board, being drilled and practised, and it will be a formid-
able part of the force. There is great gun exercise,
rifle exercise, revolver exercise, and hostile activity
movements of at least a hundred different descrip-
tions and powers. The entire force to be collected here be-
fore a move is made will be about forty men-of-war of dif-
ferentover eighty transports ; but I do not know
what t rhaet
littleand
bill to be paid by the people of England will
amount to ; and, indeed, there is no occasion to make up
any pages of the account just yet, as we shall, in all pro-
bability, be obliged to go nn with the, " carried forward"
for some time to come. About the time you get this the
small items will be dropping in upon you pretty fast, the
just retribution and suffering for the accursed wicked-
ness of war, necessary or unnecessary. I believe that
we are to have a despatch of letters for England every
fortnight, if practicable ; and it would appear that
our letters are to go home free of postage, a boon which I
think we deserve, notwithstanding the latest distance they
will have to go for nothing. The latest news is that we
do not make a move from this till Lord Elgin comes up,
and so he will be welcome when be does arrive.

COUNT PERSIGNY ON THE ROZAN

QUESTION.

Count Persigny delivered the following speech
at the laying of the first stone of a church at
Roanne :

M. le Cure and Gentlemen,—l thank you for
the flattering manner in which you have been
pleased to allude to me, and, above all, for the
honour you have done me in asking me to lay the
first stone of the church so impatiently expected by
the piety of the fathful in this town. In bestowing
that honour upon a man whom his native country
only receives with so much eclat because it looks
upon him as the representative of the Em-
peror, you evidently entertained the idea that the
Government was the natural protector of religion
and its Ministers, and you were perfectly right.
(Applause). Such is the devotedness of the Em-
peror for the Church that he is above that immense
injustice which has lately agitated Catholicity and.
astonished the world. (Loud applause.) Allow
me to say a few words on the subject. I will not
remind you that it was the Emperor who re-esta-
blished the Pope at Rome, and who maintains him
there with the sword of France. (Loud acclama-
tions.) I proceed at once to the Italian war. At
that period the States of the Church were occupied
partly by Austria, partly by France, to secure the
existence of the Papal dominion. The two corps
darniee in the Papal States were instructed, seeing
what was going on in Northern Italy, to maintain
a strict neutrality, and await the progress of
events with grounded arms. Now, how was that
duty carried out by both parties ? Whilst France
faithfully executed her mission, by keeping that
part of the Italian territory which she had to pro-
tect, and still protects to this day, Austria, in
order to turn to account against us the forces which
she had in the Legations, abandoned that part of
the Pontifical territory committed to her care ; and
in consequence of this desertion on the part of
Austria the Pope lost the Romagnas. (Applause.)
But that abandonment of the Pontifical territory
did not prove fortunate for Austria—(sensation)
—for soon afterwards she 'was defeated at Sol-
ferinoi and compelled to make peace. (Ap
plause.) Now, gentlemen, the basis of the
peace a basis enforced. by the nature of
circumstances, by the state of the public
mind, and by the attitude of the whole
of Europe, was this—that henceforth all interven-
tion in Italy was interdicted to France as well as
Austria. So that Romagna having been abandoned.
by Austria, and the Pope being unable to recon-
quer it with the aid of French, Austrian, or any
other foreign forces, that province was inevitably
lost to the Popo. It was at that time and in the midst
of those difficult circumstances that the Emperor,
in his high wisdom, in his devotedness, equally ab-
eolute and enlightened, for the Holy Father—
(applause)—showed himself disposed to make that
famous proposal which has given rise to so much
clamour and injustice. Now, what was that pro-
posal, gentlemen ? It was simply the safety of the
temporal power of the Pope ; it was a combination
at once the most simple, and most skilful, and,
the best adapted to the object which it was in-
tended to realise for the independence and
dignity of the Holy See. You will judge of
it. The Emperor, seeing that in consequence of
the irretrievable fault of Austria, the Romagna was
irrevocably lost to the Pope, wished at least that if
that province was united to Piedmont. it should be
governed in the Pope's name, in order to preserve,
and cause to be respected as much as possible, the
proposal
necessity,
e ee thes
right of the Holy See. But that is not all. hilst
in making Emperor obeyed the
inexorable
slip, he derived from it
an enormous advantage for the Pope, as in exchange
for the sacrifice he offered to guarantee himself, or
this
dictates
to obtain the guarantee of Europe, or at all events
of all the Catholic States, the integrity of the pre-
sent dominions of the Church, and thus secured
for ever the independence and security of the
Pope. (Prolonged applause.) That those wise,
noble, and generous proposals—(bravo, bravo)_
should have been distorted. for some little time
by ignorance, error, or the hatred of parties,
concealed beneath the cloak of religion,
is by no means surprising. ; but what I can
tell you, gentlemen, is, that m.the eyes of all poli-
ticians of any worth in Europe these proposals have
been looked upon as the most striking proof of the
devotedness of the Emperor for the Holy Father;
that all the religious enemies of the Papacy re-
joiced at their rejection ; and, lastly, that had they
been adopted, at the present moment Italy would
be at peace, and the Court of Rome free from all
its dangers. (Applause.) Ah, gentlemen, whilst
I am about to lay the first stone of the Church
of our Lady of Victories, 'whose name is such a
good augur, pray the Almighty to
Holy Father, to preserve him from the dangers
that beset him, the most to be dreaded of which
are not the attacks of his armed enemies, for the
Sword of the Eldest Son of the Church, despis-
ing his calumniators, continues to protect the
august person of the Pontiff, and the venerated
throne of the Holy See."

RAT FROITE PROM A BLADE
Or named Henry P. Harding, a
GERIAIAsits.I.LAABLE young DEATHraa n
miller at Vallis has met with his death under extraordi-
nary, circumstances.
The deceased. was walking In his gar-
den three weeks since, when he put in his mouth a piece of
common grass, beneath lie felt the prickly end
penetrate the skin and while chewin
the tong gua. Ho asked his wife
to
and
dpufr some she was unable to perceive anything,
daysl
't,
however, othing more was thought of the matter.
The tonove scan
aulls it out, but b
began to swell, and recourse
a homampathic practitioner. On Friday last
h
worse; Dr. White was called in and found
the tongue
much inflamed and swollen, an abscess having
ap parclatly formed. No immediate danger was apprehended ;
but on
Saturday night, about eleven o'clock, the deceased
suddenly was
s became hado
sprung from his bed, fell into his wife's arms, and
in a few minutes expired. The singularity of the occur-
rence, and the fact that the deceased was much respected,
has caused his melancholy death to excite great cousterna-
tioU,