The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-26 00:00:00

us over to the benevolence of the gendarmes, that
we should have adequate accommodation in a bas-
tile ; and, lest there should be too much dullness

and monotony about our imprisonment, that we
should be plentifully supplied with handcuffs and
fetters. So far for "glorious France," under whose
blighting dominion our kind newspaper editors
would fain see us ! However, as the mention of
Napoleon's magic and omnipotent name was not
enough to procure for us what we stood so sadly in
need of, we stretched ourselves on Napoleon's pal-
lets for the night, but before five minutes were half
elapsed I solemnly declare we were covered from
head to foot with a swarm of fierce and ferocious

bugs, which, after the manner of fabled harpies,
did all in their power to make us most supremely
miserable. After some minutes on the pallets we
found it would be better policy to go back to the
street. We lay down dejected and exhausted on
the pavement of the street, bitterly bemoaning our
hard fate, and loudly reproaching ourselves, and
we one and all swore, that if the day should ever
come when the liberties of Great Britain might be
threatened by the armies of France, we would come
forward ourselves, and beseech our countrymen to
come on also, and generously sacrifice our lives in
defence of the most glorious constitution in the
whole world. At break of day we arose from our
couches, and were anxiously looking out for intel-
gence relative to our breakfast, but instead of such
joyous tidings we were apprised of the fact that
some wicked person or persons—whether from
among the military or police or civil functionaries
of Rome, of course we cannot say—had get inserted
in the leading journals of Paris an article to the
effect that a certain number of Irishmen had been
sent home from Romp in disgrace at the request of
the Italians. This, no doubt, was calculated to
make us forget the want of our breakfast for
the moment, but to form an idea of how horri-
fied we were at thinking that any official of the
Roman Government could be so wicked as to ful-
minate a public, barefaced, and infamous lie, with
the view of destroying the reputation of a body of
innocent and unoffending young men, would be im-
possible for any person but an eye-witness. How-
ever, what was to be done ? We were obliged to
hold our tongues. As soon as everything was made
ready for our departure from Marseilles we were
put into the train for Paris, a journey that occupied
two nights and a clay, with the scanty allowance of
a pennyworth of dry bread and a small bit of cheese.
We stopped in Paris for the better part of a day,
and left it for Boulogne in due time. Though we
were supplied with no provisions at our departure
from Paris, when we arrived at Boulogne, after a
journey of several hours, the agent who had the
management of our affairs, and who was also a bene-
volent Frenchman, thought to force us on board the
steamer without any provisions for the voyage,
telling us we should get it on board ; but after the
treachery we met with at the Civita Vecchia eta-
barkation we loudly protested against such conduct,
and accordingly the benevolent Frenchman was
obliged to purchase some necessaries for us. After
a rough and stormy passage from Boulogne to Lon-
don we landed in due time, and were presented with
a 25.-piece each to get ourselves whatever we might
want in the way of food and raiment. We went
then in batches to different places to get some re-
freshment, delighted beyond expression at hearing
the vernacular idiom once more spoken hy all whom
we met. I went with two or three others to a com-
fortable eating house, and while dinner was being
served up I threw my eye over a Loudon paper,
and what was my chagrin and dismay at finding
the Paris and Marseilles lies re-echoed in London,
after being freshly copied from the Nation of Dub-
lin ! I called the attention of my companions to the
publication, and when we read it two or three,
times over, to assure ourselves that we were, not
labouring under a delusion, or suffering froaa temt?o,
rary insanity, we all of us wept together in shame
and silence at seeing btaw foolish we were in. throw-
ing up our sitreaiions, in leaving our he,eaes, and in
throwit;kg ourselves on
,the snares of the world at
the instigation of a newspaper editor, and for the
cause of a Government woo made such dastardly
attempts at blasting our reputation and blighting
our prospects or ever, simply' because we were
guilty of retaining a ray of common sense, and
Nw.Yuld not allow ourselves to be treated like brutes
and slaves by despotic military officials, Messrs.
Hanley, O'Reilly, and others, of whom the corre-
spondent of the Morning News was so loud in praise
in one of his late despatches from Rome. I buried
my head between my hands, and while I reflected
on the enormity of this base act, and on the moral
culpability of this enormous crime, I tried to re•
member from among my little stock of historical
and biographical knowledge some parallel or other
for this deed, which, in my opinion, was the climax
of human wickedness. I thought that in the annals
of ancient Greece and Rome nothing more flagrantly
vicious could be met with. To think that, after all
the sacrifices we had made for the cause of Rome's
present temporal Administration ; after bursting
asunder the adamantine bonds of kindred, friend-
ship, and acquaintance; after putting up with all
the disappointments and inconveniences of Macerata,
and bearing up against all the misery, all the want,
all the starvation, all the deception, all the cruelty,
despotism, and tyranny that we had to put up with
during our most tyring march from Macerata to
Rome, for which space of time (eight days) we
never enjoyed the comfort of a bed of any descrip-
tion, nor half enough of food; and to meet, as a
requital, with such corruption, such villainy, such
wickedness and depravity, made me form a resolu-
tion, and swear on the spot, that I would not leave
London until I should have published to the whole
world how gross were the calumnies, how great the
misrepresentations, and how foul the vituperations
which were fulminated against a body of respect-
able men by slanderous and venal vendors of news.
I declare before Heaven I would as soon have
doubted of my existence as have thought that the
manager of this organ of Irish opinion could be in-
duced from any motives whatsoever to lend him-
self to so mean, so dastardly, and so unmanly an
act as I know this to have been. The author of
the production of which I allude, and which was
copied into a recent number of the Times, wrote
as follows. He said that " Major Fitzgerald at
Ancona and Major O'Reilly at Rome, who were
both men of unquestionable reputation, and of
superior military abilities, lately reviewed their
troops in their respective localities, and after ma-
ture deliberation rejected a certain number of meta
as being partially unfit from depravity of character
to serve in the Irish Brigade." Now, without any
kind of prolegomena, or the least ceremony, I say
that this was as barefaced a lie and as great a
calumny as was ever invented or fulminated. The
men who returned from Rome were, with about
four or five exceptions, as fine, as imposing, and as
respectable a body of men as ever did honour to the
legions of either ancient or modern Rome. Most of
this stigmatised body of men are young men who by
birth and education are far and away superior to
many of the officers who are at present at the head
of the Irish Brigade. A small dividend, a mere item,
are from the middle walks of life. The Nation said
that among those returning from Rome (in disgrace
of course) were many who were only fit for the
English Militia. To this I also give the lie in the
most public manner, for three-fourths of the party
are, as I said above, ex officio constabulary men, and
a more respectably-dressed, a better-intentioned, a
better suited, or a finer phalanx surely is not to be
met with in any army ; no, not even in the unri-
valled legions of Great Britain, and that is, no
doubt, a great assertion. The Nation also stated
that things were going on flourishingly with the
present number in Italy. Now, this is a most undis-
guised falsehood, for when the order to march from
Rome to Spoletto was given at Cimana barracks,
previous to my departure from Rome, not one man
would march ; all had to be dragged downstairs
like slaves, and impelled onward only at the point
of Swiss bayonets ; and, again, when the oath of
allegiance was administered, not a man consented
to sign the papars or take the oath. These
are facts, and only a few facts out of many,
and I should like to know by what pro-
cess of ratiocination the editor of the Nation
would attempt to disprove them. Should he
make the attempt I will reply to him by another
series of facts, the publication of which could not
be very agreeable to him. I have in my hands
about 40 letters, which were given to me privately
when leaving Rome, and if I find further publica-
tion necessary I shall be able to give a series of
extracts from those documents, which are authen-
tic, integral, and true, and which would inevitably
put to the blush the authors of those calumnies and
lies to which I have alluded.—Yours.
J. O'BRIEN.

RUSSIAN ACQUISITIONS ON THE AMOOR.—Russia
has obtained a territory mare valuable than all the supposad
cotton districts of Africa, watered by hnnereds of streams
flooring into the great artery that passes through its entire
length.° The climate is good, and well suited for Europeans ;
its animals belong to both the cold and warm regions, while
its luxuriant herbage and magnificent flora prove that the
temperature is neither severe in winter nor excessively hot
in summer. It is possible that some of these great plains
may be suited for the culture of the cotton plant; if so, a
gPeailels.--t Billi.ous affec•
supply of this valuable product will, ere long, he found at
the Russian ports in the Sea of Japan and in the Gulf of
Tartary.—Frena Atkinson' s Travels in the Anwar
-zeoluzebneereala
mdiaeyt,
.
tiolAs,DivnEditurcerdsEireartm.]o—splitloelrli=ans
should be checked at once or serious corn
ensue. When anrone finds his ideas less clear than usual,
which indispose
his eyesight dimmed, and his head
edniztzp
that he is in immediate need of somae, heco
him for all exertion, 'physical oro l
imayng and be quite
puri-
fying medicine. Let hire send at once for a box of Hollo-
way's Pills, which will free him f
be :gAtable, Holloway's Ointment should be his sufferings, and
belfrutbhbeedbowoveelrs
the stomach and liver every night and morning. It will
wonderfully augment the
corrective power of the pills.