The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-14 00:00:00

INVASION OF THE PAPAL STATES.

From the account which we have given from
authentic sources in our first column of this latest
attempt of the followers of Garibaldi to invade the
Papal States, it is evident—First, that it is not an
insurrection of the subjects of the Pope against his
rule, but an invasion of strangers concocted outside
the Papal territories ; and secondly, that wherever
these armed and organized disturbers of the peace
showed themselves in Roman territory, far from
being welcomed as deliverers, they were treated
as enemies ; and thirdly, that whenever they came
in contact with the Papal troops they were put to
flight.
From these facts, for such they are, the English
public ought at last to learn that the populations
of the Papal States are not, as has been so perpe-
tually asserted, both here and on the Continent,
disaffected and ready to revolt, at the first oppor-
tunity, against what is called the government of
priests. Had such been the case on the withdrawal
of the French army two years ago, when the Pope
was left face to face with his subjects, why did
they not rise to a man, as had been predicted of
them in every revolutionary paper of Europe,
against. the yoke they were said to abhor ? But
nothing of the kind has occurred. For two years
the populations of Rome and of the Papal States
have been exposed to the secret machinations of
the agents of revolution ; they have been cajoled
and threatened by turns, but to no purpose ; they
would not revolt. The secret committees entrusted
with the getting up of an insurrection at Rome
were at loggerheads with one another at their
common ill-success ; they were both superseded by
the superior authority of the Revolution sitting in
permanence atFlorence and a committee of national
safety appointed. This committee has also failed
to incite the Romans to rebellion. The revolutionary
party is enraged at what they call the apathy of
the Romans, who are reviled by the journals as a
base and spiritless people, unworthy of liberty.
The tactics of the Revolution are now changed.
It would not do to acknowledge before the world
the content and loyalty of the subjects of the Pope.
Ilad it not been proclaimed on the authority of
the Revolution that Rome was held down by
foreign bayonets, and that on their withdrawal the
Pope would not remain a week in Rome ? For the
credit of the Revolution there must be an insur-
rection ; there must be an excuse of some kind
invented for the intervention of the Italian army.

But since the Garibaldian party, in spite of
inflammatory proclamations, of secret bribes and
threats, and of open revilings failed to provoke 'a
real rising in the populations of the Papal States,
they set to work to manufacture one. Bands of
twenty and thirty, parties of five or six, and single
individuals armed and organized were placed along
the frontier of the Roman States, or were smuggled
iuto the Roman territory wherever it was possible.
At a given signal from the leaders, as we have
seen, these men rose against the Papal Government.
The word was passed throughout Europe that
the long-expected insurrection had at last broken
out in the Papal States. The telegrams which
arrive from Florence still speak no longer, indeed,
of the successes but of the defeat of the insurgents.
This is the point to which we wish to direct atten-
tion : Are these armed men now fighting in the
Papal States insurgents or invaders ? Is the move-
ment, such as it is, an insurrection of the subjects
of the Pope against his rule, or the lawless
inroads into a peaceful country of lawless bands
of private citizens ? How is the pillage and
bloodshed which is taking place to be characterized?
Is the Italian Government guilty of a secret
eonninaCe with such a lawless WM4%I of Pi State

whose inviolability it is bound by treaty to respect, '
as well as by the public law of nations ? These
are serious questions. Englishmen, who are natu-
rally and rightly indignant at the presence on
British soil of American Fenians plotting against
the peace and comfort of the United Kingdom,
can have no sympathy with Garibaldians not only
plotting against the peace of Rome, but actually
invading a peaceful territory and committing
brutal outrages on unarmed inhabitants. Were this
movement in reality an insurrection, would it not
have broken out in Rome itself, or in some of the
Papal cities ; or even if it had broken out on the
extreme confines of the Papal territory border-
ing on a hostile frontier, would it not have spread
or met with sympathy or support in a small king-
dom surrounded by supporters of revolution if the
inhabitants were, as they have been described, dis-
affected to the core and ripe for rebellion ? But
what are the actual facts. No insurrection has
broken out either in Rome itself or in any part of the
Papal territories. On the extreme confines of the
kingdom bordering on the Italian frontier, close to
Orvieto, where Garibaldi landed and organized
the invasion, issued inflammatory addresses, and
assembled his redshirted Jacobins—at a place
called Orte an attack was made on the Papal gen-
darmes by armed bands of men who called them-
selves Garibaldians, and who were strangers in the
country. It is needless to enter here into further
detail. We will only mention another fact in sub-
stantiation of the real character of this disturbance
in the Papal States. At lAcquapendente, in their
precipitate retreat before the Papal troops, the
armed band left twenty-one prisoners in the hands
of their pursuers. None of these prisoners were
natives or subjects of the Pope. The list of their
names and the places whence they came, have been
published. Eleven came from Sienna, three from
Empoli, one from Pozzuelo, three from Perousa,
one from Florence, one from Torre-Alena, and one
from Monte-Corona. This list will show, says the
Giornale di Roma, what sort of people these in-
surgents were of whom the papers make so much
noise.

Nowhere do we hear of the Garibaldians re-
ceiving, in their discomfiture, support or sympathy.
On the contrary, the inhabitants of the invaded
districts eagerly welcome the Papal troops arriving
to their assistance. As to the character of the
movement, its origin, and the opposition that it
meets with from the vast majority of the inhabit-
ants of the Papal States, there can now be no
question. What is more difficult to discover is
the relation in which Rattazzi and the Italian
Government stand to Garibaldi and the Revolu-
tion. But after the events of 1860, as the Unita
Cattolica well observes—after the comedy which
the Italian Government played in Sicily after
the publication of Cavour's letters—after the con•
fessions of Bixio in the Chambers—after the cer-
tainty entertained, both by his friends and
enemies, that Garibaldi was secretly assisted in
1860 by the Piedmontese Government, at the very
time that he was publicly disavowed who can
have any confidence that the Italian Govern-
ment is not now secretly encouraging and assisting
the Garibaldians to cross the Roman frontier?
Who can say that the farce which in 1860 was
enacted in regard to Sicily may not now be
played in regard to Rome ? Truthfulness and
public honour, such as we expect from our public
men in England, are no more regarded by the re-
volutionary Government than is respect for the
rights and property of others. Rattazzi is as capa-
ble of public deceit and treachery as was Cavour
before him. The arrest of Garibaldi at the eleventh
hour was due (according to our most trustworthy
and well - informed Roman correspondent, to
whose letters we beg to call the attention of such as
wish to know what is going on in Rome) to the
threat of Napoleon, who gave Rattazzi forty-eight
hours' time to choose between the alternative
either of stopping Garibaldi or of seeing French
troops landed at Civita Vecchia. _ _

This Garibaldian movement must be revolting
to those even who do not share our horror at its
sacrilegious nature, both on account of its odious,
deceitful, and unmanly character, and because it
is an attack against the oldest monarchy, and
against a Prince and Pope who has gained respect
and reverence from everyone able of appreciating
true greatness and virtue.— Westminster Gazette.