The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-01 00:00:00

be achieved although the party making it were
compelled to retire. It would be the abandonment
of their strongest and most cherished position,
leaving the fortress on which such enormous
sums had been expended, to be assailed by the in-
vaders. Milan could not long remain in their hands,
and indeed the standard of insurrection would be
elevated throughout the entire of Lombardy, and
Venice would only remain quiescent until a French
squadron, together with transports full of soldiers,
appeared ready for landing—ready to take part i n
any proceedings.

We know not yet what has been the fate of
GARIBALDI. We know by telegram from Berne
that on Sunday he had suffered a defeat by a supe-
rior force of Austrians, and had been compelled to
retire into the canton of Tessin, on neutral territory.
How he was to extricate himself was a problem of
no ordinary difficulty. He can, however, probably
keep his troops together for some time. They are
too strong to be disarmed by the authorities and
sent back across the frontier, but still they are, for
the time being, cut off from their own party, and
cannot easily resume their communications. How-
ever, great reliance must be placed on the dash and
activity of GARIBALDI and his followers. They
have already exhibited extraordinary proofs
thereof, and we confess that we not only hope, but
believe, that they will overcome every obstacle in
the way of escape, and be enabled to take part in
the matters which they have so happily com-
menced.

At all events, they have indicated the warby
which a stronger and better equipped force may
carry the war into the enemy's country and even
obtain possession of Milan itself ; and it can
scarcely be doubtful that the whole of Lombardy
would follow. Louis NAPOLEON is anxious to make
a coup. He is chafing with impatience, and the
French vanity has been considerably mortified by
finding that as yet the chief laurels have been
gained by the volunteers, and next to them by the
Piedmontese. It will not suit his book to remain
much longer idle—murmurs of dissatisfaction have
been already heard. There has been twenty mil-
lions worth of glory evinced, and the French
people are beginning to think that they have
placed their investments to a bad account.

Never has Mr. ROEBUCK more resplendently
vindicated his high position as a Great Tribune of
the English People than by his bold, manly, heroic
speech on Saturday at Milford Haven. For more
than a quarter of a century this loyal Englishman
has been conspicuous in the British House of Com-
mons as one of the most thoroughly and staunchly
independent among all the 654 national represen-
tatives. His courage has often beerl proved to be in-
domitable. Misrepresentation, calumny, hard
lying, specious insinuations—everything in turn has
failed, again and again, to divert him from the pur-
suit of that straightforward, right-onward course
which he has now, for six and twenty years
with a firm, inflexible tread, without ever once
swerving by a hairs-breadth to this side or to that,
followed consistently and pertinaciously. At times
—yea! " many a time and oft"—he has done good
service to his country. When our glorious soldiers
before Sebastopol were left by the authorities at
the War-office to die like dogs in a very Slough of
Despond—he it was that raised a cry of wrath so
piercing and commanding that the demon of Rou-
tine was for once strangled in its own meshes of
red-tape, and at the mere apparition of a Commit-
tee the residue of a gallant army was saved, at the
eleventh hour, from the very jaws of destruction.
He it was, at the holding up of whose finger, ac-
cording to the happy phrase of Mr. MADDYN,
in his " Chiefs of Parties" (volume ii. p. 208),
Lord JOHN RUSSELL "ran from office and left the
SOVEREIGN to find a Cabinet !" Mr. ROEBUCK
then did what he has so often, we repeat, done
both before and since—good service to his country.
For the which, as we all know, his rewards have
been so very large, and so very numerous ! Never
yet has this trusty Englishman been summoned to
the councils of his SOVEREIGN. He of all men
right honourable in his policy, from first to last,
has been spitefully and implacably denied what he
has earned years and years ago by his noble
civism, the title of Right Honourable. He has
never taken his seat in any Cabinet—he has never
even been enrolled in the outer list of any single
Liberal Administration. He has never once held
'office under the Crown. He has toiled in his stuff
gown at the bar upon the Northern Circuit. He
has become a bencher of the Inner Temple. He has
gained his silk gown as one of her MAJESTY'S
Counsel learned in the law. We has written a text
book on the "Colonies of England." He has written
a " History of the Whig Ministry of 1830." He
has penned many a pungent article in the two
great liberal quarterlies—the Edinburgh and the
Westminster. And from 1832 up to this year of
grace, 1859 (with the exception of one brief inter-
val, from 1847 to 1849, during which he was without
any seat in the house), he has sat among the
Commons of England dis-severed from all
parties, inimical to every faction—completely, con-
sistently, uncompromisingly independent. For the
whole reason, above all, for that one grand and
prominent reason of his independence, JOHN ROE-
BUCK, M.P., first for Bath, and afterwards for
Sheffield, has ever been a man after our own hearts.
Often as we have, before now, been compelled to
differ from him—we have always respected him,
we have always admired and honoured his perfect
sincerity, his unflinching resolution, his indomit-
able perseverance, his plain-speaking, and his
thorough earnestness of purpose. lie has, during
this career of twenty-six years in the House of
Commons, often and often been treated with the
most despicable ingratitude by the Whigs. Perhaps
—and though it is a bold thing to say, we do,
nevertheless, say it most distinctly, and most de-

liboratoly—perhaps no man has ever been treated
with such despicable ingratitude by that most un-

grateful of all political parties. And in return
for this contemptible treatment, he has again and
again, and yet again, responded to those evidences

of ingratitude by acts, on Ins own part, of superb
magnanimity. But Mr. ROEBUCK has lived at last

to witness the arrival, for him, of the Great Day of

his Political Vengeance. Often before he might

have anticipated, had he so pleased, the actual

period of its coming—but he has ever scorned to

gratify his own personal, and, under the

circumstances, most natural thirst for that

revenge by the infliction of the penalty of retribu-

tion upon those who have treated him most basely
—when he has recognised that lie could only so be

reverged by the sacrifice of the interests of
his country. Those interests have with him. been

ever predominant over all others—especially and
beYond all, over,those of his individual ambition.

" I look to England," said he, at the close of his
memorable speech on Saturday, " I look to England
as the great sun of my existence, and to her welfare
and the consideration of her well-being I would
sacrifice my existence." We believe it. This is
no mere idle boasting. The man who uttered
those thrilling words has already sacrificed to
England the best years of his life without receiving
in return any recompense beyond his own high
and honourable reputation.
Mr. ROEBUCK has at length been rewarded for