The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-30 00:00:00

THE SIEGE OF GAETA.

A letter from Naples, dated Jan. 24, says :
The Official Journal of this morning publishes the
notification of the blockade of Gaeta, which I send

to you entire :

" Considering the regular siege of the land side
already advanced by the royal troops of his Ma-
jesty before Gaeta—
" That the city and port of Gaeta are a fortress
and not a commercial port—
" That the anchoring of any vessel at Gaeta must
be regarded as an operation understood to provision
and assist the besieged—
" That to prohibit the anchorage of vessels in the
maritime port of Gaeta, cannot disturb the pacific
commerce of neutral powers—
"l, the undersigned vice •admiral commander-in-
chief of the naval forces of his Majesty Victor
Emmanuel, before Gaeta, in concert with his Ex-
cellency Gen. Cialdini, commander-in •chief of the
besieging force, declare by the present in the name
of my Government, and make it known to all who
have any interest in the matter, that I have esta-
blished an effective blockade of the fort of Gaeta
and its coast lying between Torre S. Agostino on
the one part, and Mola on the other, with the ob-
ject of impeding the introduction of provisions to
the besieged. For the effects of the present notifica-
tion, an account is held of the declaration of the
16th April, 1856, stipulated in the Conference of
Paris, out of regard to the interest of neutral
powers.

" Given at Gaeta, San. 20, 1861.
" Vice-Admiral Commander-in-Chief of the naval
forces of his Majesty before Gaeta,
" DI PERSIANO."

A letter from Mola di Gaeta, dated lan. 21, says :
"It is generally asserted here that the fair Queen
—the unhappy wife of Francis ll.—left Gaeta yes-
terday morning, on board the Spanish steamer, for
Rome, together with Marchioness Reata, her lady in
waiting. The command of the place has been con-
ferred on General Viale, the same officer who
was kind to me when I was a prisoner at Gaeta.
He is a man of nearly seventy, who has served five
different governments, and who will, I think, serve
that of Victor Emmanuel with the same fidelity,
when this business of Gaeta is at an end. Neapo-
litan generals are used to change masters, and they
do not feel so scrupulously about doing so as mili-
tary men of other nations would.

This morning, as I was coming from the Sardinian
lines, I had an opportunity of witnessing the good
nature of the Italian soldier. Although access to
the Borgo has been forbidden to all civilians since
last November, and its population has been ordered
by Cialdini to leave the place, yet some poor old
people were still sticking to their desolate homes.
One of these was a poor old woman of 76. As she
had no relations, nobody took care of her when the
order for clearing the village arrived. Left to her-
self in a small room, without provisions of any sort,
she was soon on the verge of starvation, when the
Piedmontese besiegers, who had been quartered in
a house near, discovered her. She was so ill, so
weak, that her discoverer did not think she was fit
to be removed to Mola. The old woman was at
once proclaimed the grandmother of the regiment,
and they undertook the charge of making her room
inure comfortable and feeding her with their rations.
She would have remained there until the siege is
over, or until a shell had burst in her room and
killed her, but the day before yesterday a still stricter
order was issued from headquarters to remove from
the Borgo every human being who did not belong
to the regiment on duty. What was to be done ?
The order was, absolute; there was no mistake
about it. The Bersaglieri applied, therefore, to a
regimental surgeon. The doctor came, and after a
close examination, he said that the old woman
might be safely removed on a donkey ; for, after
all, the distance between the Borgo and Castellone
was not great. A donkey was soon found, and on
its saddle a sort of arm chair was placed. The poor
creature was placed on it, and then brought in
state to this village. I met the party on my way
back from the camp, and it was like a triumphal
march. The soldiers kept the spirits of the old
woman up with all sorts of affectionate jokes, and
she was safely carried to a small room which they
had hired for her.

This morning I went to pay my usual visit to
Cialdini's staff at Villa Composele, and I found the
head-quarters crowded with naval officers. Admiral
Persano was in close colloquy with the Commander-
in-ewer, ueneral Menabrea, the director of the En-
gineers. and Colonel Piola, the chief of Cialdini's
staff. The gallant conqueror of Castelfidardo has
formed his staff of the elite of the Italian youth.
There are the Marquis Mosti d'Este, from Ferrara;
Count Emmanuel Borromeo, of the illustrious
Milanese family; Marquis Seristori, from Florence;
and Count San Marsan, a Piedmontese nobleman of
the highest attainments. The staff of General
Cialdini is therefore generally considered as the
most distinguished of the Italian army. If we
except Garibaldi, the illustrious general to whom
the siege of Gaeta has been entrusted is at the same
time the most popular and the most able general of
the peninsula. With such elements at work there is
no doubt that the place will ba compelled tocapi•
tulate when a serious attack is made against it.

The .New York Commercial Advertiser mentions
that during the week ending the 13th of January the im-
portations of foreign merchandise amounted to about
£1,100,000, or nearly as much as the totals of two weeks
in the middle of January, 1859, and January, 1860. Under
these circumstances the public were beginning to recover
confidence and to recognise the fact that no political altera-
tions that may take place will be likely to disturb the
channels to which the business of the country has through
several generations naturally adapted itself. Of course,
the South may produce a great change by resorting to free
trade, but it is always open to the North to do the same.
With regard to the prospects for the spring, it is remarked.
" We look for a fair degree of activity, and think that our
manufacturers should prepare themselves to meet the de-
mand morally certain to arise." Tho people of the Nor-
thern and Western States, it is added, are all highly pros-
perous, and it is not their nature to deny themselves
luxuries when these can he procured. "If the lower tier
of States suffer from want and temporary political troubles,
the others have seldom been in so rich a condition, and
these, after all, must be our main dependence."