The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-17 00:00:00

occupies a corner of the country, but these intru-
sive Frenchmen occupy its very heart. Louis
BLANC, wiser on this subject than on some others,
observed the other day, very pertinently, at Glas-
-1 gow— .

" As to the question itself, it appears to me that the
great difficulty lies in the presenoe of French soldiers
in Rome. I cannot help thinking that to attack the
French soldiers in Rome would be, on the part of Gari-
baldi, a step of a nature perhaps to imperil the causs of
Italian independence. On the other hand, it is impsssible
for Italy to become a united nation with Rome as its head—
its heart, the Eternal City, continuing to be the stronghold
of despotism, the den of Popery. No and the great ques-
tion is, how are the French soldiers to leave Rome ? Un-
fortunately, this is a great difficulty, because the French
ruler, as such, is interested in preventing the formation in
the south of Europe of a mighty nation ruled by principles
incompatible with those on which bis own power is known
to rest. He is interested in preventing the formation of a
mighty nation capable of counteracting, on the continent of
Europe, the influence of despotism as exercised by such
governments as Russia, Germany, and I am sorry to say,
France."

He then asks, What is to be done ? In reply to
this inquiry, Count CAVOUR, who also says,—
Our star, gentlemen, will direct us to look upon
the Eternal City, upon which five and twenty
centuries have accumulated all glorious memo-
ries, as destined to become the splendid
capital of our Italian Kingdom," replies,—
"It is a question which cannot be solved
by the sword alone ; moral force must aid
in the solution," and the chief moral means he relies
on he thus describes :—" I think the solution of the
Roman question must arise from the conviction
which will daily gain ground in modern society,
even in the great Catholic society, that freedom is
highly favourable to the spread of true religious
feeling. This truth, I feel confident, will soon
triumph." We confess we have some fear of the
early triumph of what seems to Britons so elemen-
tary a truth. Even Irishmen, who ought to know it
well by long experience, could be found enlisting
men to suppress liberty in Rome itself ; and
if men who have been nourished and brought up
in absolute freedom cannot yet perceive its advan-
tages to the cause of un-hypocritical Religion,—
how can we expect that Continentals, bred and
brought up in civil and religious serfdom, will
soon perceive them ? We believe the millennium
itself will come before Popes and Cardinals will
believe that freedom is the best nurse of religion.
The Count affirms, and we believe it, that there is
more lively and sincere religion in Piedmont than
there was twelve years ago—that is, that true reli-
gion has increased just in proportion as the clergy
there became subordinated to the State, subjected to
its laws, and driven from the care of temporalities
to the cure of souls. " You may have," he says,
the confirmation from all the venerable pastors of
this capital, although this diocese had not an en-
lightened prelate at its head, as befell to the lot of
other cities, where the bishops well knew how
to reconcile the precepts of freedom with
the canons of religion. When this opi-
nion shall generally prevail, as it soon will
(since the conduct of our army, the behaviour of
our high-souled Sovereign will have a tendency to
confirm it), when it shall take root in the minds of
other nations, in the heart of modern societies, we
feel assured that the great majority of enlightened
and sincere Catholics will acknowledge that the
august Pontiff who is at the head of our religion
may exercise his office in a far more free and inde-
pendent manner if he be guarded by the love and
affection of 22,000,000 of Italians than defended by
25,000 foreign bayonets."
But Rome will need other aid for her deliverance
—the public opinion of Liberal Europe, and not
least of England must come to her aid. Louis
BLANC said at Glasgow—

"It is my impression that it must depend on you to
impel the British Government to obtain from
Louis Napoleon the withdrawal of the French sol-
diers from Rome. Public opinion, firmly declared on this
particular point, would have a great effect, not only on the
British Government, but on the French ruler himself, be-
cause he is evidently anxious at this moment to keep fair
with Great Britain ; and if he were convinced that the
withdrawal of the French troops from Rome is a conditio
sins qua non of friendly alliance with England, it is my
opinion that he would be wise enough to withdraw his
troops from Rome."

We are inclined to think he is right. In the
critical state of the continent, Louis NAPOLEON
cannot well dispense with our friendship, if not
alliance. He quite understands how enthusiastic
the people of this country are in the cause of
Italian liberty; he could feel it as no attack
upon him that we should demand his ceasing to in-
tervene in Italy. He has repeatedly declared that
Europe would not endure his permanent occupa-
tion of Rome, and he could at any time declare that
the occupation must cease. When once, therefore,
FRANCIS 11. is clear out of the way, and when
nothing breaks the continuity of Italy, from north
to south, but battalions of French foreigners--then
will be the time for England to agitate for the
withdrawal of the French army from Rome.

The intelligence from China is, everything cons
dered, in the highest degree satisfactory, The
Allies had landed at the mouth of the Peiho on the
Ist of August, at a place called Peh-tang, and in a
skirmish with the Imperial cavalry had scattered
the Chinese as utterly as might have been confi-
dently predicted. Their attack upon the Taku
Forts, when the last accounts left, was then in
active preparation. So that by the next mail we
may anticipate the receipt of news of a decisive
character. Those Taku Forts, situated but a few
miles 1113 the river Peiho, will be the first stage on
the road to Pekin—a road of some 150 miles in length
that the soldiers, sailors, and marines of the British
expedition will not be very long, we may rest
assured, in traversing. The delays that have
already occurred in the opening of the campaign of
this Third Chinese War are of themselves guaran-
tees that we shall not very probably see much
further procrastination. The plans of the Com-
manders-in-Chief, both military and maritime, are
by reason of those delays ali the more likely to
have been by this time thoroughly matured.
Before September could have arrived the
Anglo-French expedition must in all likeli-
hood have appeared under the walls of the
Imperial City—resolved this time at least not to do
things by halves, not to consent to any supplemen-
tary compromise, but to bring to a final issue the
long continued misunderstanding between the
Europeans and the Chinese Government. It is in no
malignant spirit but simply in, the interest of
humanity itself thot we insist upon the necessity of
our requiring expiation in the first instance from
those faithless and treacherous Asiatics upon whom
we have now once again been constrained by their
own heinous perfidy to make war. For the
calamities that this new war has brought down
upon them, they have only to thank themselves.
In the matter of this renewed conflict England and
France are wholly guiltless. The circumstances
the
n or
northern
h e
ii.nn
which the struggle now raging along
coasts of China originated are only too vividly in
ovr painful recollection. The relatives of those of
our gallant sons who were barbarously murdered
so many long months ago by the dastardly
accomplices in that ever infamous ambuscade pre-
pared to bar the passage of the European ,