The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-24 00:00:00

palities. We shall soon see, however, whether the
Hungarians will demand their old and efficient
guarantees, or accept what is offered and make
the best of it.

At the very time when the foremost man, the
most adventurous spirit of his age (it is surely
almost needless to identify him by saying GuisErrE
GARIBALDI) is seriously indulging in daydreams of
an European Confederation, to put an end to war,

:o render the revival of hostilities henceforth im-

practicable, almost an impossibility, by leading to
the immediate and permanent disbandment of fleets

and armies among all the nations of Christendom—

at the very tine when the Conqueror of the King-

dem of the Two Sicilies is propounding these
Utdpian propositions to the rulers of the
most civilized nations of the globe—at
this very time it is notorious that the two leading
Powers of the earth—France and England—are
perfecting at enormous cost at once of time, of
labour, and of money, the general organisation of
the two great warlike branches of the public service.
In all the chief arsenals and dockyards upon both
sides of the Channel there is heard perpetually the
note of preparation. ARMSTRONG and WHITWORTH
are vieing with each other in the rapid fabrication
of the deadliest pieces of ordnance—weapons as far
beyond the old-fashioned cannon, and mortar
and howitzer as these were in advance
of the cross-bow, the battering-ram, and the cata-
pult. The rifled brass field pieces of the EMPEROR'S
own invention have marked by their swift trail
across the battlefield of Northern Italy the speed
of the contemporaneous advance made in the im-
provement among our neighbours in the.employ-
ment of projectiles. The long-range of Captain
WARNER, but a very few years ago the theme of
almost universal derision, has but very recently
been not only actually realised, but altogether sur-
passed.. Inventions deemed extraordinary but yes-
terday, inventions in other and smaller arms like
the needle-gun and the minie rifle, are being, one
after another, superseded by others yet more
astonishing. The mysterious and nearly fabulous
Greek fire of the ancients has been in a manner re-
kindled, with more magical effect than had ever yet
been dreamt of by the hand of Captain NORTON,
as the modern Fire King. The miraculous strip
of carpet transporting the Arabian dreamer at
will from place to place, and the fiery dragon of
the fairy legends, have both of them been sur-
passed—the former by the railway ticket, the
latter by the railway locomotive. Even the
little fantastic notion of that charmingly fanciful
writer in ADDISON and STEELE'S Spectator, the
notion of the sympathetic dials by the responsive
movements upon which two lovers, separated from
each other by the width of a Continent, talked with
each other at pleasure, in defiance of time and dis-
tance—even this poetic notion itself is in the most
unromantic, unsentimental, and thoroughly busi-
nesslike manner in the world, of daily, hourly,
even momentary recurrence, by means of the click-
, ing magnetic needles worked by the practised
hands of the youngest clerk at the electric
telegraph office, It is afloat, however, upon
the waters of the great deep, and in the
multiplication and improvement there of the
deadliest implements and messengers of war that
the application of science to the purposes of blood-
shed is, in many respects, of late years being the
most rapidly and remarkably evidenced. There—
while some are dreaming in halcyon reveries over
the imagined proximity of the dawn of a political
millennium—there, while GARIBALDI himself of all
men the wielder of the most darißg sword drawn
since the death of NAPOLEON the Great by the
hand of any military adventurer, while GARIBALDI
himself, we say, is indulging in the beneficent
ideal of the approach of the epoch of a
grand pacific European confederation—there upon
the waters of the ocean are either being
floated off, or preparing to be floated off, simultane-
ously from the shores of France and England, the
most formidable vessels of war that the cycloposdian
hand of man has ever built and launched and navi-
gated for the destruction of his fellow-crea-
tures. Iron•plated ships of war France has
already built or is now building formid-
able metal-cased vessels like La Gloire, which
we are now, in our turn, resolutely bent
upon matching, naysof surpassing. Our volunteers
arc fast numbering up 150,000 skilled riflemen.
Our military and maritime services are costing us
in a year of peace (so-called) full thirty millions
sterling. We have armed men now to the number
of 600,000, distributed over our world-wide domi-
nions. We have, for the first time for more than a
quarter of a century, an efficient Channel fleet.
Our dockyards and arsenals have never been more
busily thronged since the close of the last great
European war with the final crash of Waterloo,
or, as the French call
,it, ce jour funeste de
Mont—Faint-fean. Nor have we any intention
whatever of relaxing these gigantic efforts to in-
crease and strengthen our warlike armaments.

While we are in the midst of this astonishing
activity General GARIBALDI'S trumpet-voice, fresh
from the announcement of the Sicilian and Nea-
politan victories resounds, over Europe, preaching
Utopia, Atalanta, Arcadia, in the shape of a grand
European Confederation ! " The idea," says this
great soldier, this wonderful military adventurer—

" The idea of a European confederation put forward by
the Chief of the French Empire, and which would give se-
curity and happiness to the world, would it not be better
than all these political combinations which torment this
poor people and keep it in a continual fever ?"
And he adds :

" The thought of the terrible destruction which one com-
bat among the great fleets of the Western Powers would
produce must shake with terror him who would think of
giving the order for it, and probably there never would be
a man so cowardly bold to take the responsibility of it upon
himself."
CiARIBALDI continues :

" The rivalry which has existed between France and
England from the 17th century to our times exists still, but
with infinitely less intensity now, and we mention this for
the glory of human progress, so that a transaction between
the greatest nations of Europe—a transaction which would
have for its aim the welfare of humanity, can no more be
placed among the utopias of noble-hearted men•"
That it is Utopia he is talking of, GARIBALDI cannot
apparently for an instant understand. Descend-
ing to puticulars, he observes frankly :

" I know well there is one objection to the foregoing
project—What to do with that numberless mass of men
employed now in the armies and navies ?
" The answer is easy.
" By sending away these masses we should abolish aggra-
vating and dangerous institutions, and the mind of the Sove-
reign, no more occupied with the lust of conquest, with war
and destruction, would turn towards useful institu-
tions, and descend from the study of generalities to that of
families and individuals.
"For the rest, by the growth of industry, by security of
commerce, the merchant navy would claim at the same in-
stant all the active part of the navy ; and the great quan-
tity of works stimulated by peace, association, and security
would absorb all this armed population if it were double
what it is."

The whole of this beautiful hallucination ending
thus :

War being henceforth almost impossible, armies would
become useless. But what would not be 'useless would be to
maintain the people in its warlike habits by a national
militia which would be always ready to suppress all dis-
orders and every ambition which would dare to disturb

Europe."

GARINALDI, at aj rate, now stands before us in
his full dimensions. We all knew previously the
giant warrior the man is—we now know him to be