The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-14 00:00:00

the return of the twelve released prisoners, the
Allies may be said to have enjoyed the satisfaction
of retaliating in some small degree at last upon
the fagitive chief of that vast nation of barbarians.
It was upon the 11th of October that the Emperor '
of CHINA'S Summer Palace at Pekin—those pala-
tial halls of delights and luxuries the Yuen-min-
yuen—fell into the possession of the French and
English, being looted or sacked and ravaged from
roof to basement, yielding to its captors spoil of
immense value in coin, jewels, and apparel of
Oriental magnificence. The British share alone
has been estimated at the value of some 90,000
dollars, -which in our money would give a return of
some £20,000 ; this, remember, being merely a
portion of the spoil taken at the ramsacking of a
single structure, as it would appear the extramural
Summer Palace of the Chinese EMPEROR.

The capital of the Empire being now actually in
the hands of the Allies--the EMPEROR himself
having fled into Tartary or otherwise into
Manchouria—it appears startling, upon the very
morrow of the capture of Pekin, to learn that the
Commanders•in-Chief meditate wintering not at
Pekin but at Tien-tsin ! Whichever place they
may definitively select for their winter-quarters
we may rest quite certain of this, that they will
know far better than any of us hare at home which
place of the two should be preferred—and they
will act accordingly.
And now for the responsible diplomatic
labours opening up before the French and English
Ambassadors. With whom can their Excellencies
treat under these new and astounding circumstances
—namely, with Pekin as their own standing
ground, and with the feeble, effete, faineant
EMPEROR vanished far away into the dim wil-
dernesses of Tartary ! With that fugitive chief
of the old expiring dynasty, it would almost be
ludicrous to open up our next negotiations.
Why not turn our attention now rather to that far
more youthful and vigorous power wielded by the
new KING, having his Court and Government
during these several years past in the old Chinese
Capital of Nankin—the Moscow of the Chinese !
He is a rebel, and a leader of rebels, not a doubt of
it. But in whose estimation ? In that of the feeble
fugitive, now fled away towards that vanishing
point in the picture of the Chinese dynasties, Tar-
tary ! What to us, his conquerors, are these petty
considerations. He has gone, and there is an end
of him. Let us turn our regard now towards
the so called rebels, the Taipings. They are
powerful enough to deal with us. And if
they hesitate to do so, we may possibly come
to terms with their new rivals at Shen-si ;
for it turns out actually now, by these last advices
from China, that there is a choice before us in that
land of revolt—positively a most tempting choice
before us—between two great divisions of triumphant
Revolutionists.

What means this gradual but perpetual extension
of French occupation in Italy ? It seems as if
France must be making herself consequential, or
of serious military consequence, everywhere. Now
we hear of a French Colony established in Monte-
negro. Frenchmen have, we know, little aptitude
for colonisation, and it would be no unfair supposi-
tion that occupation, a protectorate, or something
of that kind, is to follow colonisation. Then, again,
as to Syria, we have continual hints that a
longer stay than six months may be neces-
sary; if not to the safety of the Christians,
yet to French influence. But in the Roman

territories, even in parts by no means neces-
sary to the defence of Rome, and which do not
form even a part of the " Patrimony of ST.
PETER," the Sardinians are required to withdraw
from the charge of their Italian brethren who
invited and welcomed them, and the unwelcome
French are ordered to enter whether the inhabi-
tants like it or not.

What means, also, the French pertinacity in
doing all it can to mar the Italian revolution ?
Pertinacity so availing for mischief, that the
rejected Bourbon actually thanks the parvenu and
illegitimate monarch, by way of bitter taunt and
reproach, in a circular to all the great legitimate
monarchs of Europe. Those thanks are, however,
earned by causing useless bloodshed in Italy.
LOUIS NAPOLEON is really responsible for the
greater part of whatever loss of life there may be
before Gaeta or in it; since, but for his perverse
intervention on the sea side, the fortress would not
have held out so long as Ancona did. It is indeed
most probable that the KING, if he had seen his
retreat invested both by sea and by land, would
have come to terms without fighting at all, or that
his army would have compelled him to do so.
Still worse, in some respects, is his sending home
the troops which had entered from the Papal
territory. Had he Prevented them from entering
they would haVe been harmless prisoners, for the
present, in the hands of CIALDINI. Had he kept them
till the war was over they would have done no mis-
chief; but to send into the Neapolitan territories a
host of disbanded Royalist soldiers—men, most of
them, beyond doubt, the scum of the population,
and who had long lived upon the wages of
the KING because that begging or brigandage
was their only means of getting bread—was just
to create all the disturba.nce he could, and to throw
the northern part of the Neapolitan kingdom into
bloody turmoil. We see, unhappily, from almost
all the accounts that there are continually civil
commotions originated by the dispersed Royalists.
They exist in sufficient numbers merely to harass,
and to produce the impression that things will be
long in settling down ; and it is to be feareti that
this is just what is well pleasing at the Tuileries.
A NAPOLEON was not wanted by Italy at
Florence, at, Genoa, or at Naples—if so, then let
them see what they get by rejecting the blessing

of BONAPARTE rule ! We do not, indeed, like to
admit such ungenerous suspicions; yet when we

see conduct which admits of no other interpretation,

what can we say ? The French EMPEROR can
have no reasonable political reason for de-

fending Gaeta, or for sending hungry brigands

:nto the Abruzzi when he had them

safely in his keeping. We wait for some more

honourable explanation of his otherwise inexpli-

cable conduct than that of the merest jealousy and

spite. Italy certainly has not bowed the knee to
the NAPOLEON to whom she is willing to show all

honourable gratitude for the opportunity his cam-
paign in Lombardy afforded her. She thought

gratitude enough, and she might have been willing
to aid him as a grateful nation in any reasonable

policy; but she did not see fit to " ko-tou" to his

MAJESTY, and his MAJESTY therefore, like the

Chinese we read of to-day, appears bent on show-
ing the Italians how much they are in his power,

by making them bite the dust.

A contemporary this morning, in an angry
leader on the Chinese war, tells us that two things
we can never do, though we have got to Pekin, and
perhaps may remain there as long as we like. One
of the two things is, that we shall not get either
as an indemnity, or in any other shape, the money
We have spent in the war. We have remarked
before, and we yet see nothing to contravene the
'dew, that it is in the power of the Allies to get