The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-17 00:00:00

TBB ARMY.

The annual destribution of the rewards for excel-
lence in rifle shooting has been made to the non-
commissioned officers and men belonging to the
several regiments attached to three battalions at
Chatham garrison, at a full parade, of each. Each
of the successful competitors, numbering upwards
of 20 in each battalion, was highly complimented
by the commanding officers for the exertions used
to obtain the rewards, which carry with them a dis-
tinguishing badge as well as an increase of pay,
according to the regulations under that head.
'I he strength of the garrison at the camp at Col-
chester at the commencement of the present month
was 62 officers, 12 staff sergeants, and 2,316 non-
commissioned officers and privates.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF ROME.

Some of the Paris journals having lately insisted
on the expediency of withdrawing the French
troops from Rome, so that no further difficulty
might arise, from their occupation, to that city
becoming at once the capital of Italy, the Mond*
gives the following curious answer to such obser-
tions

" Much should be taken away from the high
opinion which Rome enjoys in the minds of many.
That city is the Roman Catholic capital—deprive
it of that title, and it is nothing. During the
exile of the Popes at Avignon its population fell
to fifteen thousand inhabitants, and grass grew
in its streets. When Italy belonged to France,
fifty years ago, Rome was but the chief town of a
department; the only capitals then were Milan,
Naples, and Florence. The political prestige of
Pagan Rome only remains in the heads of legists
imbued with Cwsarism, and in those of their
successors, who now propose to us to send the Pope
to the Catacombs. If popular reminiscences existed,
they would be of the oppression of Italy by Rome,
of the devastation and extermination of that penin-
sula by the conquerors of the world. Rome was
never the capital of Italy, neither before the Ro-
mans, nor under the Romans, nor since the Romans.
It is badly situated, is in the midst of a desert, and
is of no strategical importance. It was the capital
of the world, because it was inhabited by the Roman
people, and because the Roman people would have
been the masters of the world in whatever place
they might have resided. Deprived of its Pontiff,
Rome would fall to the rank of an ordinary town,
and even beneath an ordinary town, since it has
neither manufacturers nor trade. It would be a
mistake to suppose that the former subjects of Rome
would like again to submit to the yoke. There are
two populations in Italy ; the Christian people,
who laugh at ancient Rome, who do not know it,
and who desire to keep their political capital and
their religious capital ; and next, the classical and
lettered people, who are brought up in imbecile
admiration of antiquity, the people of conspiracies
and secret societies, the people of advocates and
journalists. The latter people bow down before
the prestige of ancient Rome ; they endeavour to
assemble at Rome and to concentrate their power
there, because from that place it can be extended
over all Italy subjected and expropriated. The
socialism of the Roman law would arise with full
vigour from its ashes, which are always kept warm
by the pious hands of Legists. And we should have
a second edition of the Cmsarism of former times,
and of the French Revolution of the present. That
this plan would be useful to Italy has not been
demonstrated, and the late rising i❑ all Southern
Italy is a protest against it."

FATAL ACCIDENT. —An inquest was held yester-
day, at the Castle Inn, Woolwich, before Mr. Carttar, coro-
ner for West Kent, on the body of Frederick Baldwin, a
labourer, employed on the metropolitan main sewer works
It appeared that death resulted from the deceased having
fallen down a deep shaft, which has been sunk at Powis-
street, Woolwich, fob the purpose of tunnelling. Verdict—
Accidental death,