The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-16 00:00:00

711 E INSURREMON IN SICILY.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
PALERMO, :TUNE 5, MORNING.
The last 24 hours have produced little or no
change in the state of affairs, nor can there be pos-
sibly anything important and decisive until
General Letizia returns. What is the meaning of
all this ? Will there be any more fighting ? These
are the two topics which occupy the leisure time of
the population, and this is considerable, for, with
the exception of those who are engaged in pre-
paring warlike stores, or are in the service of the
clothing and provision departments, no one thinks
of doing anything. Out of the 200,000 inhabitants
of Palermo, 199,000 seem to live on cheers, gossip,
and tunny fish. The result is an aggregate amount
of fable, conjecture, and nonsense, which if it lasts
long must end in driving every one mad. The
Palazzo Pretorio, the seat of the Committee and
the residence of Garibaldi and his Staff, is, of
course, the centre. It is the beehive where the
humming-bees which swarm all over the town
collect to lay down the produce of their morning
work of gossip. The Piazza, and the platform of
the large marble fountain in the centre of it, are at
times perfectly black with the crowds which col-
lect there. The sentinels at the entrance door of
the Palazzo have the heaviest duty in the whole
town, and most of them would, I am sure, prefer
charging half a dozen times with the bayonet to
standing there for an hour to keep back that
pressing, chattering, eager crowd. The order was
given from the very first day not to allow any one
to enter unless on business. As every one had some
very pressing business, on which the welfare of the
country depended, the device was adopted of giving
tickets allowing entrance to the Committee. But
even this did not answer until the precaution was
taken of taking away the ticket whenever the indi-
vidual entered, or else he was sure to reappear 50
times in the day, and crowd the ante-rooms leading
to the room of the General. Very few cared about
the Committee, and all thought it indispensable to
impart their nonsense to the Director in person.
Garibaldi is so good-natured in this respect that
he listened with the patience of a saint to all these
stories without head or tail. Two hours of such a
trial would be sufficient to make any other head
swell as if it had one of the 13-inch shells from the
Castello in it. But even those whose imagination
supplied no story to tell would not lose the oppor-
tunity of seeing the Dictator, and came to shake
hands with him.
At last even Garibaldi's goodnature and indul-
gence gave way, and strict orders were given to
clear out the anti-room next to his own, so that
some kind of peace and quiet might be enjoyed.
All those who come in have a triple ordeal to pass
before getting to him—first at the gate of the Palace,
then at the door of the ante-room, and, lastly, at the
door of the sanctuary itself. It was absolutely ne-
cessary, for a more importunate crowd I Never saw.
A Leghorn cab-driver or a Civita Vecchia porter is
a model of modesty in comparison. And then the
noise. It was positively deafening. A wood peo-
pled by monkeys and parrots would seem a delight-
fully calm retreat after half an hour in this Babel.
However, it is getting better now, and as the re-
gulations are strictly enforced, and people see there
is no use trying, they are;:satisfied with standing
about the piazza, and only when some sbirro, man
or woman, is brought in or a deserter or parlemen-
taire arrives, a rush takes place in the direction of the
door. But whatever the throng, whatever the object
which excites interest for the moment, there is always
one sure remedy to change the point of attraction.
Garibaldi has only to show his head at the window
for one second, and every other thing is immediately
abandoned for cheering and rushing towards the
corner of the Macquada, in order to have a look at
their idol. I really believe if King Bombetta were
brought up a prisoner they would leave him to run
and see Garibaldi.
You cannot help being now and then put in ill
humour, especially when you are in a hurry and
cannot get through the crowd, or if your ears
begin to sing with the noise; but this fright-
ful Arab vivacity, movement, and imagina-
tion has its good sides too. It cannot but
impose on the Neapolitan officers and soldiers
who have passed through the town since the
armistice began. Whatever the theory be about
the superiority of a small disciplined force over
large disorderly masses, it is likely to be forgotten
at the sight of this impassioned crowd, which can
be excited almost to madness. Before the thing
began the illusion could be kept up that the great
mass of the population was at least indifferent,
while the sight of these crowds must convince
every Neapolitan that there are at least 100,000
people who, if they could, would be ready to de-
spatch every Neapolitan. The thing is so much
the more brought home as, ii default of muskets,
not a few are seen brandishing their sharp knives,
especially if some known and hated Neapolitan
officer makes his appearance.
Only the other day when Major Bosco, a Sicilian,
came into the town, he was immediately surrounded
and followed by hundreds, and all his escort could
do was to keep back the eager crowd with their
musket-butts. When he left an ominous whistling
and murmuring announced a rising storm, so that
the officer accompanying him drew his sword and
laid right and left among the crowd, to the great
astonishment of Bosco himself. If any Neapolitan
in the height of power had dared to touch one of
those hotheaded Sicilians he would have had half
a dozen daggers in his body, and yet there was ono
of Garibaldi's officers laying it into them, and
driving back single-handed that crowd of hundreds.
The prestige in this respect is perfectly marvellous,
and extends to the captains of the squadre as well
as the men. It is a homage to superior bravery
and fearlessness.

EVENING.

This afternoon, about 2 p.m., Brigadier-General
Colonna came with his son from the Palace to have
an interview with General Garibaldi. The object
of this interview was to evacuate the Royal Palace,
as well as all the other positions held by the Nea-
politans in the town, with the exception of the
Castellamare, and to withdraw to the north-eastern
portion of the bay towards the Mole. Garibaldi,
with his usual complaisance, expressed himself
ready to come to an arrangement, but stipulated on
his side, as a condition, the release of the seven
noblemen arrested on the 7th of April and kept in
the Castellamare ever since.

It will be within the recollection of your readers
that after the taking and sacking of the convent
La Ganza the Neapolitan authorities began a sys-
tem of rigour and suspicion which surpassed even
what they had done before in this respect. The
police had a strong suspicion that most of the young
men of the first families were implicated in the
attempt which had failed, that they had given their
money freely for the purchase of arms and ammu-
nition, and that they were the real heads of the
whole movement. Nor were they mistaken up to
a certain point, for, as in Lombardy, the great ma-
jority of the Sicilian aristocracy, which is rich and
has strong feudal traditions, are warm patriots, and
exercise a great influence over the other classes of