The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-18 00:00:00

FALSE " NOTES FROM ROME:"

Give a falsehood sufficient start in time, or suffi-
cient " law" in distance, and it may prove no slight
work to overtake it in the one case, to confute it
in the other. A falsehood coined and uttered afar
off may pass current for a time, almost in pro-
portion to its base metal. The foreign corre-
spondents of our daily press startle us occasionally
with the amazing particularity of their misstate-
ments. But we do not know when we have met
with so precious a collection of untruths so closely
packed as in the Pall Mall Gazette of_ Tuesday
evenin&,. That journal produces a Roman letter,
dated November 5, professing to detail the battle
of Difentana. It is worth while to examine its
statements, side by side with the official despatches
from General Failly, under date of November 7,
given by the Times, of November 11, from Renter's
telegrams; and with other supplementary docu-
ments. Parallel columns might exhibit in a striking
way this contrast between black and white. Let
us try and cast the matter in the form of a dia-
logue, or statement and counter-statement.
" Pall Mall's" Roman Correspondent.—lt is only
after diligent inquiry that I have come at the facts.
General de Courten crossed the Lanventano bridge
with 4,000 men and two batteries. This force was
followed an hour later by General de Polhes, at
the head of 5,000 men and three batteries (eighteen
guns).

General Failly, ut supra.—The body of troops
sent against the Garibaldians consisted of 3,000
Pontifical troops, and 2,000 French.
Captain C'acciani (Garibaldian) quoted in the
" Unita Cattolica."—The Papal troops, according to
the most probable induction, did not amount to
5,000 combatants, while the volunteers did not
exceed 4,000.

"Pall Mall's" Roman Correspondent.—Garibaldi's
force numbered about 10,000, and was supported
by eight pieces of artillery, which had been captured
from the Pontificals.

Cocken—Therefore, by your account and Cac-
ciani's, he out-numbered his opponents by 1,000,
and according to the despatches, by 5,000.

"Pall Mall:" Article in same number.—Gari.
baldi's forces were not merely beaten, but utterly
defeated, broken up, and destroyed as an organized
body, by a force, not much, if at all, superior to
them in number.

Roman Letter, ut supra.—Garibaldi descended
the hills with a large part of his force, and rushed
at the Pontificals, attacking them with the bayonet
before they could bring up their artillery.
Leading Article, ut supra.—They were well posted
in a strong position, and gained on several occa-
sions advantages over the troops which attacked
them. They abandoned their position in the course
of the night after the action, by which, no doubt,
they must have been broken up and demoralized.
A Garibaldian present, writing in the " Movimento"
of Genoa.—Some important eminences are taken,
lost, and re-taken. Meantime, in the open ground
of Mentana, barricades are formed, in spite of the
galling shower of bullets that disturbs the work.
Roman Letter.—The Zouaves fought bravely,
resisting till the ground was heaped with their dead.
General Failly, ut supra.—The loss of the Pon-
tificals was 20 killed, and 123 wounded.
Roman Letter, ut supra.—Garibaldi availed him-
self of nightfall to retreat to Monte Rotondo, and
fell back in good order, carrying off some prisoners,
but leaving 200 of his men in the hands of the
allies, and the ground covered with his dead and
wounded.

The Garibaldian in the " 211ovimento," ut supra.—
In vain did the officers endeavour to stop them with
their sabres and revolvers; in vain did Garibaldi
upbraid them with his manly words ; they run,
they run, leaving hundreds of their comrades cut
off on the open ground of Mentana ; leaving Can-
tone to perish . . . and other brave men whose
fate is unknown.

Roman Letter.—The Italians, though defeated,
may be said to have effaced the disgrace of Cus-
tozza and Lissa by the battle of Mentana, which,
having regard to the numbers engaged, was
amongst the most sanguinary of the age, the killed
amounting to nearly 2,000, and the wounded ex-
ceeding that number.
General Failly's Despatch. —The Garibaldians left
GOO dead on the field of battle, and wounded in
proportion. 1,600 prisoners were taken to Rome,
and 700 sent back over the frontier. The French
loss was two killed and 38 wounded, two of whom
arc officers. Loss of the Pontificals 20 killed, and

123 wounded.
Roman Letter.—Yesterday. the entire city went
out of Porta Pia to greet these captives, and were
met by a long train of the wounded. This melan-
choly procession was watched by 40,000 specta-
tors, whose presence alarmed the authorities, and
troops were drawn up at the Quirinal, in anticipa-
tion of a disturbance. But the vast crowd pre-,
served an unbroken silence, only uncovering to the
Garibaldians.
Failly's Despatch.—The Roman population gave
a triumphant welcome to the troops,
It really becomes a philosophical study to ascer-
tain the precise point beyond which
" The force of fiction can no further go."
We should have thought the ordinary self-respect
by which men usually guide themselves in the
relations of life, and in their serious utterances
to their fellow-men, would have prevented such an
exposure as all this amounts to. Would it not
have been decorous in the Pall Mall Gazette to
allow at least a day's interval between its leading i
article and its Roman letter—between blowing hot
and blowing cold—propounding black to be black,
and black to be white ? The Times, with more
astuteness, generally gives itself sufficient room to
turn about in, and breath enough to pronounce,
in the interim, that black is grey. Not always ;
for we heard it not long ago describe circumstan-
tially Cardinal Altieri's retreat from his diocese to ,
Rome for fear of the cholera among his flock, in
the same impression which contained an eulogy
on Cardinal Altieri's going from Rome to his dio-
cese, to die of cholera among his flock ! The truth
is, editors are very much at the mercy of their
" own correspondents," and have need to be de-
fended from their friends. Rome is a good way
off ; we cannot send down " specials " to ascertain •
what anonymous scribes may assure us of : we
take what we can get. Such may be the plea,
of our brother journalists ; yet we cannot let them
off upon it. The inexorable old Stagyrite will not
admit ignorance of moral principles in plea for
those who fail in the duties of morality. Of
that very ignorance, says he, they are themselves
the cause, since they have destroyed their own pre-
cious moral perceptions. And so we hold it to be
the first duty of an editor, whose paper will cir-
culate through an ascertainable sphere, to see
that he employs trustworthy channels of informa-
tion. Ile cannot remain inculpably ignorant, and
still print at random. Is it not a truism to say
this—What is meant by slander ? What moral
guilt attaches to us if we adopt and send out
through the printing press such brazen falsehoods
as those which we have now commented upon ?
We have long lived under a Venetian tyranny
of anonymous and irresponsible denunciation. The
bocca di Hone is set up in our Printing-house-
squares. Rather let us say, the British lion him-
self stands with his mouth agape, ready to swallow
any amount of unsigned falsehood, wagging his tail
f Roman correspondents to feed him. The Pall
Mall has sometimes proved itself capable of better
things than to turn caterer for such a repast. We
venture to recommend to it some fresh arrange-
meat for the supply of its information from a place
now doubly interesting to the civilized would. We
trast it will append to all such negotiations the
caution, " No hauger-on of the Piazza di Spagna—
no lagnais de place—need apply." For strip this
precious correspondent of his domino : he will come
oat simply as a member of that not over-respectable
fraternity which infests the Englishman abroad
with a parasitic life ; feeds him with scandalous
falsehoods, ready-made and seasoned to his taste,
and is sure of pocketing a full equivalent as long
as the falsehood takes, and the wish remains
father to the thought.
We hear, therefore, with entire calmness, from
this man in the Brazen Mask, that the Zouaves
are fanatics, who bayonet Garibaldians in cold
blood, and—" worse still," as he most accurately

observes—kill a child. Ile omits to add that they
are ghoules and ogres as well: it would hardly
diminish the truthfulness of his account. Nor are
we surprised to learn from him that " the Pope is
very gloomy and dejected." It is, after all, the
truest thing he has said ; if by "gloomy" he means
that the heart of Pius IX. follows into the unseen
world, with a father's dread foreboding, the souls
of six hundred miserable men, summoned at a
moment's notice before a higher tribunal than
the public opinion of England, from the scene of
their outrage against the most righteous cause on
earth.— Westnzinster Gazette.

RADICAL JOURNALISM.

(From the Round Table.)

One of the most decided and immediate effects of
any marked political movement in this country is that
which is produced on current journalism. A news-
paper or other periodical which has identified itself
with opinions that in the flow of events become
unpopular is pretty certain to feel this effect in a
direct and unmistakable manner. The public would
be surprised to know the exact extent of the fluc-
tuations in the circulations of the principal journals
in the city of New York during the past few years.
This has sometimes resembled nothing so much as
a game of seesaw, in which when one party goes up
the other is sure to go down, and the measures of
ascent and descent are exactly the same. Of course
the scope of the gyration is mainly determined by
the degree of partisanship to which a particular
journal may have been devotei ; the moderates, as
they are called by their friends, the trimmers, as
they are called by their foes, suffer least from the
mutations of public feeling, because they have dared
least in the office of directing them ; but a paper
like the Tribune, extreme to the backbone, and too
much given to be coarse and offensive in the expres-
sion of its opinions—a paper usually vigorous if
generally inelegant, and of little weight or value
apart from politics and news—is sure to suffer
most from political reaction, for the very reason
that its own characteristics do so much to produce
it. The feeling of dislike for journals which have
been closely identified with what are termed Radi-
cal opinions is becoming just now so general and so
decided as to suggest examination to see how
such a sentiment is justified, or to what extent it
should be pronounced ungenerous or irrational.
There can be no doubt but that perfect freedom
for the press is called for by the genius of American
institutions, and it seems contrary to their spirit, if
not to their letter, that a despotism in the shape of
public opinion should be put forth to punish those
who have merely exercised what is universally con-
ceded to be a right. But that such a disposition
exists seems certain. In the metropolis especially
the feeling against the Radical press is bitter
and almost universal. Its efforts, judicious and
natural as they are, to assume a more moderate
tone than that of a year or more ago, appear
rather to provoke the public mind than to con-
ciliate it ; for it is everywhere urged that they
expressed their real views when strong in popular
support, and change front now out of selfish regard
to their pecuniary interests. Hence the papers
which have always been known as Radical, in New
York, in New England, and throughout the country,
but which have lately striven to induce public for-
getfulness of the fact, are more disliked and con-
temned than those which have boldly nailed their
Radical flags to the mast and preserved consistency
even at the cost of prosperity.
The cause of the feeling against the Radical jour-
nals is easily pointed out. It is easy also to show
why such a feeling, once partly dormant in some
quarters and little felt, if at all, in others, should be
so almost universally cherished and expressed and
so obviously on the increase at this time. It is felt,
in the first place, that Radical policy has had a long
and fair trial, and that it has failed. It has failed
to bind up the wounds of war, failed to restore the
blessings of peace, failed iu its management of the
national finances, failed to bring about that cordial
reconciliation between the two great sections of the
country which is, however, the indispensable pre-
requisite to national prosperity. Now a certain
stubbornness and patience are strong characteristics
of the Anglo-Saxon race. The people sustained the
Republican party through the war because they
were firmly resolved to preserve the national unity,
• and thought that end would be imperilled by stop-
ping, to use their leader's homely phrase, to swap
horses while crossing a stream. It is our convic-
tion, frequently heretofore expressed, that the
people would have sustained the Republican party
still longer had the war continued, sustained it,
that is until its close. This conviction, we may
observe in passing, has been challenged by some,
who point to the evidences of discontent supplied by
past elections as showing the likelihood of Repub-
lican overthrow if things grew worse or did not
grow better in the field. The answer to this is
that such overthrow was constantly predicted—by
Mr. Weed and others—but that it never came to
pass. We have, therefore, the best of the argu-
ment so far as facts go, since of the two prognosti-
cations one was constantly verified, the other not.
Moreover, historical precedents across the ocean, as
witness the history of Pitt's Administration passim,
have repeatedly shown that lack of success in the
field, mismanagement in general, any or all causes
which bear heavily on the people and tend to make
a war unpopular, will not turn the scale against na-
tional vanity, or obstinacy, or patriotism—call it
what you will—so as to make them abandon the
sfruggle or withhold support from those who have
its direction. Experience has shown that the sins
an administration or a party makes are punished in
such cases afterwards, not while the war is going
on ; and the immediate political history of our own
country is not, from present appearances, likely to
furnish an exception. Mistaking a characteristic
phase of national determination for attachment
pure and simple to their own party dogmas,
the Radical journals have unhappily continued
to stir up and aggravate strife between sections
and colours long after they had ceased to be
in real sympathy with the masses of the nation,
long after indeed, in the opinion of many, the oc-
casion for their existence at all in their partisan and
sectional capacity had been removed. It is they
who have made the North insolent in triumph,
the South sullen in defeat. It is they who
have stuffed down the throat of the country,
until it has become fairly surfeited and sickened.
with the load, the crotchets of the ideologists of
New England ; those spectral pragmatists, all
meum and no tuum, all Cerebrum and no cerebellum,
who have done so much good and so much harm,
and who, no more than the Secessionists, are
destined to be the rulers of the country. The
people have been slowly but steadily awakening to
the truth that the Radical journals, the opponents
of that narrow and sectional temper of New Eng-
land which is as essentially antagonistic as was that
of the secessionists to a truly national and cosmopo-
litan spirit, have exerted a highly mischievous in-
fluence, tending to postpone reconstruction, incul-
cating vindictive and most un-Christian passions,
and tending to perpetuate the onerous burdens of
the whole community. In view of such persuasions
it is not surprising that these organs should now be
in a languishing condition, or that the partisan
warmth which once gave them support should have
so generally changed to coolness or aversion. Re-
garding their mission as a sectional and temporary
rather than a national and permanent one, it is not
strange that the people should discourage what they
perceive has outlived its usefulness.
This is, perhaps, to some extent an illiberal view.
Judgment is inevitably swayed by the passions of
surrounding masses, and it is easy for genuine patriot-
. ism in the heat and fury of war to believe that its
side is entirely in the right and must needs always
continue so. The difference, however, between the
honest masses of Republicans and the Radical journals
consists in this—that the latter have degenerated in
too many cases into mere paid advocates of their
party, and have thus fallen inevitably into the
habit of preferring party to country. This the
people see, and this the people will not countenance
or tolerate. A Nemesis is at work in this reaction
which promises to give symmetry to various un-
completed fragments of history. It was said not
long ago that two sets of revolutionists, two perverse
factious, were battling shoulder to shoulder to effect