The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-30 00:00:00

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THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 30, 1P 39,

PRICE 4:1-

ment charges, such as rirovid;..ng practising grounds,
which would be one of the niost difficult parts of the
project; such also irs the lirtyment of adjutants and
other general expenses, which it was probable the
Government would consider it necessary to provide
for. Those, however, were matters which required
further consideration. No doubt they would be able
to organise a formir:Lable force from these rifle corps,
but at present thr.lre was no enemy in sight, nor was
there any very great probability of on: seeing one,
and he doubted whether any large response would
be made urLtil a more urgentnecessity arose. Above
all, he hoped • that when these corps were formed
they would be commanded by gentlemen of high
standing, which was a most essential point. (Hear,
hear.) fe had no doubt whatever that if ever an
attempt was made against the shores of this country
the people would rise as one man and repel it.
(Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then proposed " the health of
Lord Elmley and Mr. Foley," the members for the
western and eastern divisions of th 3 county.
Viscount ELMLEY, in responding to the toast,
said that, whatever might be the political opinions
of those present, there could be no doubt that at
this moment public attention generally was direette,
to the state of affairs on the continent. (tear,
hear.) Whether Lord J. Russell or Lord Palmer-
ston might succeed, in turning out the Gcriernment
was a matter of secondary importance to the foreign
policy of the country. (Hear.) li-d was delighted
to hear such a man as Sir John Pakington speak of
neutrality. (Cheers.) alitv was at this mo-
ment the policy of the ee':;ntry, and this seemed to
be general iuipresnon in all the large towns
where meetings het been held on the subject. So
long as affairs rt.. fliained in their present condition
neutrality mud be the order of the day. But it was
Imposnole to say what events might arise, and a
new phase might render it the policy of this coun•
try to taka,np•such a patticieti:rto -e.utimand that
respect in Europe which England ought always to
enjoy, by means of an efficient army and navy.
(Cheers.) No doubt there were some who sympa-
thised.with France, while others had a leaning to-
wards Austria. He had been asked whether he
was French or Austrian. His reply was that he
was neither the one nor the other—he was English.
(Cheers.) He had no sympathy with either France
or Austria. Austria was a country under ttte
spiritual dominion of the Pope, with whoir.i
could have no sympathy. (Cheers.) With he
to France, it might be very well to talk 011 Italian
liberty and of the disinterestedness of respect
t..liie French
Emperor. He did not believe very
disinterestedness, and rather doub%ed it. (Cheers.)
He believed that the Emperors rauch in that
',could be guided by
his own interests.
circumstances the wisest (Hem\,'near.) Under present
course for the country to
pursue was to presery a strict neutrality, which
ought not to be itepartrAl from unless things should
assume a new phwr,e. (Cheers.) With respect
to volunteer corps, nothing would give him
greater pleitsure than to see the spirit of the coun-
try evinced by the formation of such bodies. It
was said that England was not a militarnation,
P_.:nd did not understand military organisation; and
the Times remarked in a leading article the other
day that there is not any occasion for much military
apprenticeship. The writer of that article might be
a great military authority ; but he (Lord Elmsley)
was one of those idiots who could not see how large
bodies of men could be brought to act together
without a considerable knowledge of drill and dis-
cipline. It might be very *ell to have a large
body of sharpshooters, but they ought to possess a
knowledge of drill and discipline. When persons
went into the army young they naturally acquired
habits of discipline ; but if they entered later in life
they found discipline a little galling. (Hear, hear,
and laughter.) He did not say this for the purpose
of decrying volunteer corps, but when their forma•
tion was advoP:a.ted all the difficulties attending
them shoul'a be considered, and he would not
recomro:lnd any man to join them unless he under-
stow!, that discipline meant that he must knock
'ander to superior authority. (Hear, hear.) With
all due respect to English feeling he must be per-
mitted to say that this discipline might not 3oe well
understood among the Radicals. He did 'not make
this remark invidiously, but could not help repeat-
ing that persons who were not brought up in habits
of discipline might find its enforcement rather
galling. He trusted, however, that the project for
the establishment of volunteer corps would meet
with that success with it deserwd. (Cheers.)
Mr. FOLEY, M.P., also rer,ponded to the toast,
and after several other toar,ts had been given and
duly honoured the proceedings terminated.

\

THE WAR IN ITALY.

(front the Special Correspondent of the Daily News.)
GENERAL DURANDO'S HEADQUARTERS, STROP-
PIANA, NEAR VERCELLI, MAY 25.

I started the day before yesterday by the 5.30
p.m. train, and arrived at Vercelli by half-past
eight the same evening. The town was full of
merriment, as our brave Savoia Cavalleria had just
repulsed a reconnaissance the enemy had made on
BOrgo Vercelli. f saw, myself, an officer of the
. Austrian regiment Grueber, who had been taken
prisoner, brought before Gen. Cialdini, and treated
in the kindest and most courteous manner by Count
Mosti, a nobleman from Ferrara, and one of the
aides-de-camp of this gallant general officer. With-
out troubling myself to arrange my rather disor-
dered toilette, I hastened to the official residence of
the advocate Tecchio, to whom I had the honour of
being announced without ceremonies or difficulty
of any kind. In England the very qualification of
Extraordinary Commissioner would imply the idea
of a stiff and solemn person, almost inaccessible
without a formal demand of an audience, and a
great deal of waiting in antechambers. Things are
altogether differently managed in this country.
Signor Tecchio received me very politely, and
listened with kind attention to the object of my
journey. I told him it was my desire to inspect the
line of the Sesia as far as Casale, and collect facts
and documents regarding the Austrian occupation
of the province. The extraordinary commissioner
wrote at once an order in accordance with the ob-
ject of my application. With this order he enjoined
the military, civil, and administrative authorities
of the province to protect and facilitate my rather
difficult errand, and to furnish me with all infor-
mation I might require. With this document in
my hand I went next morning to the town-hall,
where Signor Luigi Verga, mayor of Vercelli!
gave the necessary orders to enable me to start
at once for Prarolo, a small village two miles
from the Sesia. His kindness did not stop there,
but as my carriage was waiting on the Piazza
he sent for the advocate Marchetti, who was in-
structed to accompany me on my journey. With
my intelligent guide, one of the town-hall de-
puties, I started at once, as the noise of a rolling
fire of musketry, and a heavier one of artillery,
was borne to us upon the wind. On our reaching
Prarolo, which was formerly a castle belonging to
the Abbot of Santo Stefano, now the property of
the Hospital of Vercelli, we were told by the offi-
cers of the 14th Piedmontese regiment of the line
that on the preceding evening the Austrians had
retired from Pallestro and Robbio, and that they
were concentrating themselves at Castel d'Agogna,
two miles from Mortara, beyond the river of that
name, I went round the village, and my eyes met
everywhere the traces of devastation and plunder.
Cattle not only carried away on regular requisition;
but actually stolen. Fields of corn trampled by
horses, plants cut to the ground, farm walls pulled
down, churches plundered, wine cellars inundated :
the scene was really heartrending.
At Prarolo a cow or an ox is become as rare an
animal as a chimpanzee is in our Zoological Gar-
dens. In the eourse of twenty-four hours one
party of depredators alone got hold of 24 oxen,
and carried them away without leaving an, regular
receipt. What all this means in English language
people at home will judge. These facts were not
only stated to me by Francesco Ferraris, the vice
sindaco (deputy mayor) of the village, 'but I took-
the trouble of ascertaining them all by going
ng round
the different farms which had been plundered.
From Prarolo we directed our carriage towards
Pezzana, altogether a larger and richer village.
There the same depredations, the same marks_ of
.
this shameful northern invasion
were manifest.
The Austrians had occupied the village on the
night of Tuesday, May 3. They went to the house
of Giovanni Fiore, secretary of the sindaco, and
with all kinds of ill-treatment obliged him to escort
their band to Stroppiana, on the road to Casale.
From the very house from which I am now writing
they took away with them the Sindaco Opezzo, and
compelled him to direct them to Pizzarosto, a small
hamlet situated in the vicinity of the Chiusa Sarti-
rana. Arrived there they ordered both Fiore and
Opezzo to find some boys who would cross the Sesia in
an easy place. Tee current of the river was so power-
ful that the poor boys could not stand up, and were
at every moment in danger of being carried away by
it. They, therefore, remonstrated, but the officer
compelled them to try the passage over and over

et
=elf.

Let us heqr d'

•
..)
.ais despatch ok`
rain .;:47
• ..cr ,
.xcellency threatened the to •
4,42:
marymeasuresifihis procaTiO .
by-the town .pOople, and the cry' zife4
continued. I could write volume's were 110 enu-
merate all the facts which came officially to my
knowledge in Vercelli. Of all the Austrian, generals
Count Reishaeh, Lebzeitera, ancl•Satte;iy, were the
most harsh end brutal. Let me b-

_ an honourable exception must
to say that
b he
Made in regard
to the General of Brigade Gablens. Everybody
iold, me that he was just, kind, and honest. On one
occasion he said to Signor Luigi Verge, "I do not
pretend that any of your countrymen should be
compelled to report the movements of the Pied-
montese—wbat I wish is that they would not turn
spies against us." One of the greatest wretches of
Francis losepla's army is to be found under the
uniform of the chief of the commissariat depart-
ment. The name of this honourable thief is Motte.
He has been, together with the Italian Perego, the
scourge of these-poor populations.
The post hour presses, and I am anxious that my
letter should not be detained. I therefore put an
end to this chronicle of Austrian occupation by
translating a letter which the Bishop of Vercelli,
Monsignor Daugenes. has addressed to the mayor of
that town under date May 4. It speaks volumes :-
4‘ Honourable Signor Cavaliere.„,_i pray you to
huar what niy servant will tell you. I have ear-
nestly entreated the Austrian
general to give the necessary orders for the tranquillity and safety of
the cloister of Santa Chiar a, as the nuns were in a
state of great fright and alarm. Accept, honourable
sir, my thanks.—Your o'oedient servant,
J' ALESSANDRO VESCOVO."
Whilst I am closii.vg my letter an officer of the
staff tells me that fularihaldi has already entered
Upper Lombardy, marching towards the hilly
country of Varese, have no news from our extreme
right.