The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-22 00:00:00

„....- (
--V
), €__-2(-e'S---..0"--
-:-.--
\-EI‘,TS P.,;kl-7 II , A.
( „-K :- 7----/
/,y ---G- --- ,e
-.t-
-*--C---e,:-:,) .4.s y. Nt
-t.0.",..,,,...., .c......,- c! ~.....
-:- • . ,
t,...._ ~,,,,-;:' :-.34‘\"•J\ .(--'
•
...,,,,
:i111"::'-•-'5;.---.,:-..„ze.iii.,,,,'
~..,.-:, . 1- ........_,...... - r----
ciiir"--, ' .„s,
n -4,k4:413,
it. Itioa 4
* Ns.
*At . ,
i,,,,,J_..,,,,,,,._,..:441--,.;
(, , vv,. , ,N,... W. 1,10 1.--1,1:),) ~....”, , , .
'. 'G, , ' --., - ' • '
t': ..., ` , (.l.' t''' '-'
•VI . :4 S
'
•. ' '.','"lN
($
IVA :.:,." ill' "' ...., ..,
b -t\-kt4-1,-er-_ ---4,Za--4 , .16„, J„ \\,._:‘,,f),,;, IV -.1.',,'1".."0-"--- • \__`,..l cf,..ti .6.',. -4,',..,-,- ',1'..,-' • ''
' 4..
\ it,... .1 I • ~. ',zli_e--,E.,/".",-.4, iiV.,"'ia .-,' 9,t,i, , V 44n1 ,i4,k. le' k. 014' ,' 6 1--- 14. r\ • le .i.N.s-2.7: '
"- .'"`" ,-,5',,.,- -,-,0 lorfP 4. 1 ' '' WI" , . ("0 T
`,..,•;---,.;1i.1gr4,., , - D;11-, 4- ~,,,,..,- 'l,, ... ' " ~,‘ '" " T.
' ------
\ I.P. ~; r tsl.- ) . 'l/4" ' -
1

7-1 t
The Retribution, 28, paddle, Commodiiiel.
Edgell, will be paid off at Portsmouth to-day.
The mainmast of the flag-ship Royal Albert,l2l,
at Plymouth, is said to have sustained damage on
her passage out to Lisbon, owing to the mainstay
having given way.
One hundred and fifty supernumeraries are wait-
ing at Plymouth for passage to the Mediterranean
by the screw troopship Himalaya, Capt. Seccombe,
expected to call there after she leaves Portsmouth.
Capt. Richard S. Risk hoisted his pendent on
Thursday afternoon on board the screw steamship
Narcissus, 51, at Plymouth, destined for the *Cape
of Good Hope.

pRICE 4D. STAMPED, 51).

chained, and they must, let us hope only for a brief
season, have their fling.
Among the worst workers of popular mischief is
a man who, as a stranger, has of course no feeling
for the country he is tearing to pieces, a man who
everywhere else would merely be laughed at, but
whose flashing talents and epigrammatic, asthmatic
French style, is not without its baleful influence
among those light.minded, excitable Southern
people. I allude to M. Alexandre Dumas. Goaded
to madness by his dismissal from the Royal
Museum, and his ejection from the Paradise
of the Chiatamone, he has set up as a journalist,
and his Independents, a paper written almost en-
tirely by himself, in a quaint, semi-barbarous, but
racy, Italian, has become a most efficient firebrand.
The man's assurance, his uncompromising lies,
may be amusing to those who read them at a dis-
tance, but they do incalculable harm on the spot
where they too freely circulate. " Why is it," he
said, " that we read in all the Piedmontese official
or semi-official papers the word Cretin inva-
riably applied to the Neapolitans ?" He then
proceeds to account 'for this misuse of an un- i
merited term of opprobrium by the fact
that the Neapolitans are, if not hostile to
Cavour, at least strongly. attached to Grari-
baldi, who broke their chains, and would have
also rescued Rome and Venice from thraldom
and united all Italy, had he not been roiled and
thwarted by the unprincipled ruse of Cavour and
his Piedmontese, who grudge their Italian brethren
the blessings of freedom and have set their minds
against the unification of the country. He further
descants on the intellectual and social qualities of
the Neapolitans, and launches into withering in-
veetives against the wanton injustice of inflicting
the ignominious epithet of cretin on so gifted a
race. Now, it so happens that lam living in
Piedmont, and read all the Piedmontese papers,
Ministerial or otherwise, and I need hardly assure
you that the word cretin, as coupled with the
Southern Italians, never appeared in any of their
columns, as it is universally admitted here that the
Southern people have the advantage of the North-
eners in all the more brilliant qualities of the
mind; and the word cretin, indicative of a disease
which is too common in the valleys of the Alps, has
rather been too generally, whether deservedly or
not, used by unfriendly neighbours to designate
the Piedmontese themselves.
M. Dumas knew all this better than I do ; but
it answered his purpose by a gratuitous falsehood,
which hardly any man in Naples has the means or
the inclination to disprove, to stir up the bad blood
which already exists between the Neapolitans and
the people who are even now fighting for them ;
doing for them at Gaeta what the Garibaldtans (no
blame to them) could never have achieved—and M.
Dumas stieks at nothing.

The ships in the Sound belonging to the Channel
squadron discharged their powder yesterday morn-
ing. Admiral Stopford's ship, the Royal Albert,
121, Capt. Henry S. Lacon ; the Conqueror, 101,
Capt. Edward S. Sotheby, C.P,., and the Donegal,
101, Capt. Broadhead, went up Hamoue ; the
Aboukir and Emerald are likely to follow.
The sailing frigate Alarm, 26, having been cop-
pered to the bends, was removed yesterday (Fri-
day) from the Devonport dockyard and warped to
the south jetty.

The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—Alexander C. Archdeacon,
assistant-paymaster in charge to the Naiad, and
William B. Edkins, assistant-paymaster to the
Penguin.

It is hard to think in what a variety of ways the
French contrive to harm this poor Italy, upon which
they are so anxious to exercise their a legitimate
influence." On the one hand we have the Pope en-
throned on French bayonets on the Vatican (may he
never have a softer seat under him !) ; on the other,
we have Admiral Barbier hectoring at Gaeta,
General Goyon blustering at Terracina, his lieute-
nants taking and retaking Viterbo, threatening
Orvieto, and everywhere doing the dirty work of
Pontifical Gendarmes ; all this while the Imperial
pamphleteer flatters the Italians with hopes of the
imminent suppression of Papal temporalities and a
purchase of Venetia on easy terms. And if official
interference were not a sufficient evil—there we
have amateur Lamoricieres and Pimodans heading
a crusade for the Pope, and here amateur Dumases
determined to blow the sparks of old Italian jea-
lousies into a conflagration of irreconcilable feuds.
Under such circumstances it is very clear that the
South of Italy and the whole country can only be
saved by the strong hand, the armed force of the
North. Twelve thousand choice Sardinian troops
are expected soon to land in Sicily, where Monteze-
molo contemplates a general disarmament of the
population. The sting must be taken from the
wasps; we will then see how the drones may be
converted into orderly .and industrious bees. lam
told that the elections in Sicily can by no possi-
bility come off before the end of next February, as
the absence of all municipal or other governmer.l
renders it impossible to draw the electoral lists
before that time.

TILE WEATHER AND THE PARKS.

UPWARDS OF FIFTY ACCIDENTS.

The thermometer at the Rorral Humane Society's re-
ceiving-house, at Hyde-park., during Thursday night, fell
as low as 27 deg., being five degrees of frost. At nine
o'clock yesterday morning the glass indexed, at the same
place in the shade, deg., and in the middle of the day it
still stood at freezing point, viz., 32. Last night the mer-
cury was as low as 30 deg., being two degrees below
freezing. During the day the metropolis was visited by
several showers of snow, but although sufficient to clothe
the parks with a mantle of white, the fall has not been so
heavy as in many provincial towns. Consequently, the
London traffic will not be impeded to any considerable
extent. The barometer yesterday stood almost stationary
at 20.90. The wind, however, was so variable that it was
impossible to conclude, with any degree of accuracy,
how long the present weather might continue. Notices
were yesterday placed on the different ornamental waters
in the Royal Parks for the purpose of warning per-
sons from venturing upon the fragile surface, the ice
in not one of the parks being more than an inch and
three. quarters in thickness. Boards marked " Dangerous"
I were also placed upon the edges of the various lakes and
rivers, but in spite of these precautionary measures taken
by the Royal Humane Society, some thousand persons,
including men, women, and children, would insist upon
venturing their lives upon the frozen waters, and many
parties became immersed, as will be seen from the following
official returns, supplied by Mr. Williams, Superintendent
of the Royal Humane Society :
Sr. JAMES'S PARK.—The promenades in this Park, lead-
ing from the Horse Guards, Storey's-gate, and Spring-
gardens, almost as far as to the fountain facing Bucking-
ham Palace, were crowded with persons of all grades in
society for the purpose of witnessing the military and others
diqaorting themselves by sliding or skating upon the ice.
No scientific manoeuvres were gone through during the
day worth recording, but not fewer than eighteen persons
broke through the ice and became immersed. Six of the
endangered persons were saved by iceman Perry with the
society's apparatus, four were rescued by iceman R. Mas-
kell, and the others got out without assistance. The num-
ber of sliders and skaters on this water was about 310.

REGENT'S PARR.—The ice upon the ornamental waters
in this park is described by Mr. Young, the secretary of
the Royal Humane Society, as being exceedingly danger-
ous, and only one inch and three-quarters in thickness.
Nevertheless, in spite of the cautions given by the society's
icemen and the danger-boards exhibited, 2,000 sliders and
skaters amused themselves upon the frozen waters during
the day, but no accident worth publicly recording occurred.
THE SERPENTINE, HYDE PARK.—Under the direction
of Mr. Williams, the superintendent of the Royal Humane
Society, a number of men were employed in placing the
apparatus for saving life upon the water; but although
several parties ventured upon the ice, no accident happened.

THE LONG WATER IN KENSINGTON GARDENS,—The
ice on this sheet of water is described as being very dan-
gerous, but over 200 persons ventured thereon. Mr. Wm.
Walter Fuller, of 21, Phillimore-place, Kensington, broke
through into six feet of water, about half-past twelve in
the afternoon, but was fortunately rescued by iceman
Thomas Pavey, with the aid of the handlines and breaker
ladders. Mr. George Chesland, of No. 22, Lower
Philli-
more-place, also broke through the ice and became sub-
merged, and also another gentleman,
named Wm. Garrett,
of Vincent-square, Westminster. Fortunately
they were
all saved by the Society's icemen, and after being attended
to they were able to return to their respective homes.
TILE ROYAL ROUND POND, KENSINGTON GARDENS.—
A large number of members of the nobility, and also of the
Skating Club, amused themselves upon this pond during
the day. Several persons broke through into six feet of
water. They were rescued by the icemen with the sledge,
&c. Amongst those immersed were Mr. Knight, of 12,
Cambridge-square; Joseph APDougall, of 18, Wilton-place,
Chelsea ; and seven others, who refused to give their names
or addresses.
VICTORIA NARK.— 300 persons amused themselves
on the ice in this park, but no accident of a serious character
occurred.