The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-30 00:00:00

4cuiour it by making it the emblem of aslyassina-
tion and rapine v. The course pursued by that
army from beginning to end is no doubt nil of a
piece, or is in other words to the very last de-
._
gree despicable:
Among all the royal armies of which there has
ever been any record this Neapolitan army' is surely
the veriest scoff and opprobrium. Why, Mmpare it
with any other royal army that can be thought of,
on the spur of the moment, as having ever been placed
in similar straights! Remember the gallant cava-
liers of our own King CHARLES I. with their
" love-lock" ringlets, and their perfumed lace
and their shining mail, and all their war-
like splendour ! Even the old, grim puritan
Ironsides could tell that they fought and fell,
like dauntless knights and gentlemen (as they were)
upon the field of battle—even though they were
everywhere conquered. Look even at the Swiss mer-
cenaries in the First French Revolution, the de-
fenders of the life and person of King Louis XVI.
Why, aliens though they were, they were true to
their trust, and fell to the last man—those that
were not shot or stabbed in the rooms and galleries
of the Tuileries being only got rid of by being hurled
out of window and impaled upon the spikes of the
courtyard below. Look again at the loyal
army of King CHARLES X. of France. Who does
not remember how CHARLES X., feeble Monarch
though he was while on the throne, descended
from it, as became the last crowned repre-
sentative of that ancient race of heroes : being
accompanied to the frontier of what had once been
his dominions by his faithful body-guard—the old
Monarchy going down there and then, as the
phrase was, with colours flying! Nay, even when
the Orleans Prince who succeeded—the Bourgeois
King who even, during his sixteen years' reign,
was symbolised as leaning less upon a sword of
State than on an old " Gampy" gingham umbrella—
even when Louis PHILIPPE had shaved his
whiskers off and run away in his new character, as
Mr. SMITH, en route for England—look even
then at the Royal army that remained
behind in France ! Having no King left
left to fight for (he had run away
from them) the army fraternised with the people,
became, ipso facto, the national army, the defenders
of the popular form of Government.

Like none of all these royal armies, or any other
royal army that we can call to mind, has been this
miserable army of the Kingdom of Naples, 180,000
strong. What is called for want of a more explicit
name, " Brigandage," is the fitting sequel
to the cowardice displayed by it when
confronted with, nay even, when merely threatened
by the possible approach of, GARIBALDI and his
dauntless handful of followerF. It is from their
lively sense of the horror and meanness of all this,
that CIALDINr, sword in hand, is now dealing ruth-
lessly with the remnants of the scattered bands of
that miserable army, and that RICASOLI, pen in
hand, is writing of them in his recent circular less
in indignation than in absolute scorn.

There are a few remarks that were uttered the
day before yesterday by Lord PALMERSTON that
are not unworthy of being taken to heart by all
Englishmen. They have reference at once to our
foreign relations and to the state of our defences.
They are particularly worthy of note at a time
when we are beginning to marvel more seriously
rthan ever over the fact that we are annually ex-
pending upwards of £70,000,000 ; and when we
remember that of those seventy millions sterling
about £30,000,000, or very nearly half the full
amount, we are expending upon our military and
maritime departments. The peace at any price people
are as blatant as ever, whenever they can find an
opportunity of making themselves ridiculous by the
noisy enunciation of their preposterous views. They
are for ever babbling about the need there is for a wise
economy—shewing their own wisdom immediately,
in regard to the same, by beginning forthwith
exactly at the wrong end. They are constantly
sneering at the Volunteer movement—though at
the very same time that movement has been ano-
ther illustration of the reasonableness of designat-
ing loyalty, or, in other words, patriotism "the
cheap defence of natioLs"—seeing that it is essen-
tially, as its title intimates, a Volunteered and self-
supporting Movement. Seeing, too, that it has
already, in this way, furnished the country with a
National Guard of armed and disciplined Riflemen
170,000 strong.

Speaking of that very band of auxiliary
defenders now added to the Royal Navy
and Royal Army of England, the Prime
Minister remarked on Wednesday to his audi-
ence at Dover—" I trust that the organisation
will be so engrafted in the minds of Englishmen,
and so familiar to them in its exercise, that no cir-
cumstance will ever induce the people to give it up,
and that no consideration of economy, or of any

other description will induce the Government or

Parliament to refuse those means which are neces-
sary for its efficiency." This was said by Lord
PALMERSTON upon the occasion of his installation
in a fantastic and obsolete office, an office
accumul sting upon the head of its possessor,
in addition to his chief distingui,hing
name, the incongruous titles of Constable,
and Admiral, and Chancellor. It was not so
much, however, in his character as any one of these

that the noble Viscount uttered the remarks above
given, and the other kindred remarks that imme-
diately afterwards followed them on Wednesday.
It was rather in his pre-eminent position as First
Lord of the Treasury, as Chief of her Britannic
MAJESTY'S Government, that Lord PALMERSTON
addressed himself to those matters of really national
and vital consideration. As Premier it was that

he said at Dover on the 28th inst.: "We cannot
expect to cve with those great states that have
hundreds and thousands of men." Adding these
sufficiently significant word,—" We accept with
frankness, we accept with confidence the right
hand of friendship which may be tendered to us,
and we do not distrust that tender because we see
the left hand grasping the hilt of the sword ; but

while that left hand does grasp the hilt of the sword

it would be folly of us to throw away the shield
of defence." All this may be regarded by the peace-
at-any-price people as nothing better than a pretty
metaphor—as it is in itself—But it is ripe wisdom
—it is good, sound, sterling common sense into the
bargain. So long as that left hand keeps fumbling
suspiciously at the hilt—so long surely it were the
merest moon-madness to fling away the shield as
no longer of use. But what if—in addition to this
occasional fumbling at the hilt—what if that sword
which is so delicately alluded to, is everlastingly
being dragged out of its scabbard to be furbished

up, and to have a yet keener edge than ever put to

it ? The case surely is stronger and stronger than

ever—against our flinging away the shield, out of
a romantic reliance upon any hand-and-glove

friendship.
The cheery confidence with which Lord PAL-
MERSTON looks upon the position of things between

England and her foreign allies is really and truly
something pleasant to contemplate. " Gentlemen,"

he said to his Dover audience on Wednesday, " there
are two securities for peace—the one is in perfect
insignificance; the other is in a state of perfect

power for defence. The security which arises from