The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 18, 1861.

1 gone and archtypes of heroism like HORATIO
N:F.LsoN or N APOLEON BONAPARTE. One might
as well'
bear 'll whisper next of cupidity as the in-
centive f 0 a line of action, or rather of in-action, in
itself so b vwiidering, when judged by the ordi-
nary rules ,of tt Lis world's policy. Weakness ! on
the part of him . who, with a little band of less than
two thousand wolunteers, swept aside a royal
army numbering more than twenty thousand regular
troops, who coinpelled them to lay down their arms
and to retire from, the scene, conquering Sicily with
two or three blows as ,from a thunderbolt ! Weakness !
from him who, advancing a brief while afterwards
alone, without his little band of volunteers, accom-
panied merely by a fow personal attendants, his
suite or escort, scared the King of the Two Sicilies
out of his capital, arriving at Naples (armed only
by the terror and glamour of his name) like any ordi-
nary traveller by railway ! Why, the exploit,of the
conquest of Naples, of the whole Neapolitan Kingdom
including Sicily, the exploit of that extraordinary
conquest by GARIBALDI is comparable only in its
romantic character to the marvellous incident of
the Return from Elba. Remembering always that
the latter astonishing and, in truth, wholly match-
less achievement was accomplished without the
shedding of one drop of blood—that it was a con-
quest—by a man, by a name—without a Calata-
fimi ! With that single difference the Sicilian and
Neapolitan exploit of GARIBALDI will take its place
in the same category, with the Return from Elba,
amongst the most astounding heroic recollections of
modern Europe. Yet it is this very Incarnation of
Audacity, who with all Italy—not at his feet, for
it is he chiefly who has bade it crouch no longer—
who with all Italy at his beck, ready, nay, eager
to answer upon the instant to his voice, to follow
him or to wait for him as he might dictate—it is
this daring Leader and Champion of the Italian
Revolution who has now voluntarily withdrawn
to his island farm, and left to his rival and in some
respects, his very opposite CAVOUR, the conduct of
the elections to that new Italian Parliament, which
is to be opened this day by King VICTOR EMMANUEL.
It is in perfect keeping with the past that GARI-
BALDI should thus have acted with a calm
and unimpassioned eye to the future. It is
in perfect keeping with the previous incidents of
his career as Liberator. It tallies, this amazing
reticence and self-abnegation, it tallies completely
with the lofty impulses already actuating GARIBALDI
—when, with his very clothes worn and patched, as
he advanced from the conquest of Sicily to the
bloodless capture of Naples, he scornfully cast
aside, as a proffered degradation, the enormous
bribes reported to have been held out to him by
the emissaries of the flying Sovereign when,
supreme Dictator of that vanquished kingdom
of Naples he voluntarily descended from power,
sheathing his sword upon the very mor-
row of Victory—when, himself master of
the situation, he waited for the arrival of VICTOR
EMMANUEL, holding out his hand to him as he
approached, and hailing him for the first time
" King of Italy"—when, finally, and to complete
all, with scarcely a bajocchi left in the pocket of
his threadbare breeches, he withdrew from the
scene of these great achievements, resuming the toils
of his simple farm-life in his island-home at
Caprera. In perfect harmony with all this has
been the course since then pursued by GARIBALDI
in remaining not simply in person but also
in silence at Caprera waiving, for the
time, thq postponed but not forgotten pledge of his
summons to arms of 1,000,000 followers. The
Sovereign himself, VICTOR EMMANUEL—the states-
man, Count Cavoun—ltaly—the Italian Parlia-
ment—all have a debt to pay to this extraordinary
man. A debt to pay, not in titles, not in authority
any more than in beggarly coin or in trumpery
gew-gaw decorations—they have all a debt to
pay to him in THE REGULATION OF THEIR POLICY
—a debt due, if possible, more by reason
of what he has not done, than by reason of
all the wonderful things he has actually accom-
plished. That, in truth, is his one sole recompense
—the one only guerdon worthy of his acceptance—
the one single boon coveted by his unselfish ambition.
And again, we repeat (what Europe has long since
come to recognise) that it is his due—his due alike
from theKING and from theKlNG's Prime Minister,
from the peop:e, and from their Parliament. He who
has conceded so much to CAVOUR for the sake of Italy
—should have something in return (for the sake of
Italy) conceded to him by CAVOUR, conceded to
him that is in the policy enunciated this day by the
KING and by the KING'S chief Minister before the
newly assembled Parliament of the Italian penin-
sula. It is due to GARIBALDI. Yes : view him
how you may, call him what you please—we will
for once combine the praise and blame imputed to
him—it is due to that Quixote of Magnanimity.

It is common to laugh at those who prophesy
evil from political inconsistencies and anomalies,
and generally the laughers have the best of it for
their own generation. In the case of America,
they have hardly that. The generation of colonists
which declared itself independent of the mother
country has yet a few gray-haired survivors, who
remember WASHINGTON and his fellow worthies ;
and during their lifetime political insonsiatency is
avenging itself on the Great Confederacy. It was
a confederation whose basis was a lie, and lies are
dangerous foundations. It declared all men to have
certain inalienable rights, liberty being foremost.
In the same paper it bound the States of
federation to the conservation of personal slavery,
for this was the meaning of the famous paraphrase,
" persons held to labour by the laws of any State"
—and such persons, meaning slaves, were never to
be allowed a chance of regaining their "inalienable
right." If they escaped from personal bondage, as
their forefathers gloried in escaping from political
bondage to the " Hanoverian Tyrant," all the
States they fled into were to hunt them back to

slavery.
This villainous compromise, which stains the
memory of WASHINGTON himself, is now per
fecting its natural retribution. The slavery
at first acknowledged to be an evil, and
only to b© tolerated for a time, became
year after year less and less modest,
till nothing would satisfy it but electing the Presi-
dent, nominating the judges of the Supreme Court,
and converting all the States of the Union into
Slave-land. From the humble tone of an apologist it
advanced to that of a self-defender, till now slavery
is praised as the benevolent law of Heaven, not Us
infernal code of kidnappers. The charge of the
South against the North is that the latter regards
slavery as a sin. The charge of the North against
tt e South is that the latter desires to make the
whole Union the dwelling-place and the ac
complico in its sin. To this conviction the North
has been brought, not, we fear, by moral consi
derations, but chiefly by two of a much less nobly
character. The North revolted from the political
domination of the South with its detestable institu-
tion; and next, the plod has accumulated with
overpowering force that slavery to the extent to
which it reaches is the beggary of the country.
One-half of the United States are, commercially
and agriculturally, in the most miserable plight,
because they are cursed with forced, instead of free
labour. As a part of the Federation, they do,

not pay for the a)st of their Government.
The blinded SlaT States, on the (other
hand, not perceiving the true cause of their com-
mercial degradation, attribute it to their union
with the North. Thii is especially the case with
South Carolina ; and most of the cotton States
have somehow the strange fancy that, if they set up
a Federation for them elves, they would at once be
in the path to prosperity and greatness. They
would rival the proul North. Charleston would
eclipse Boston, if not New York itself.
With such facts Wore us, we begin to think
that the madness of tie seceding States may prove
incurable; or that, if curable, it must be the work
of some considerable time. At first Englishmen
could hardly believe that the Southern States
could be so insane. The disadvantages and
dangers of separation seemed to us here so
obvious, that we gave them credit for more common
sense. But a month or two has not only brought
to light their actual tamper, but has reminded us
of the long and slow development of permanently
opposed feelings in the two sections of the States.
The South has been so long nursing its wrath, and
the North doing nothing, or next to nothing to
stir it, that its intensity was hardly perceived.
(tensional acts of violence were set down to the
barbarising influencer; of slavery and of a sparse
population ; but the spark of the Presidential
election fired the whole mine, and it really seems
as if the disruption were now to become a great
fact.

By the last advices we hear that another State
Texas, has voted for secession. As this country
was stolen from Mexico by the slaveholders, merely
to extend the ttieu, of slavery, the act can cause no
surprise ; there are, however, a conside:able num-
ber of German settlers in Texas, detesting slavery,
and cultivating cotton industriously by free labour
in some parts of the State, and as the act of seces-
sion is to be submitted to a popular vote, it is just
possible, though not probable, that it may be re-
versed.
On the other hand, California has vigorously
protested on behalf of union; the peace and com-
promise convention proposed by Virginia has met
at Washington, but sits with closed doors, no one
even knowing whit States take a part iii it;
and Mr. SEWAID has presented a long
petition from New York signed by 38,000
citizens in favour of compromise resolutions.
Thus the civil proceedings appear at present to be,
as before, of both knds. Vast numbers of the city
population, a class ever timid on commercial mat-
ters, fear the effect of disunion on their trade,
and do all they cal to patch up some unholy com-
promise ; but the ftr more numerous country popu-
lation seem to be sterner lovers of liberty, and
refuse to hear of any departure from the vital
point of the Republican programme—the refusal to
allow extension of Slavery into the territories. As
the Republican strength lies in that class which
will one day furnish the emigrant population for
the territories, it may be hoped they will stand
firmly by their great principle—no extension of the
plague of Slavery.
Military movements, or rumours rather, are
somewhat threatening. The President has refused
the South Carolina ultimatum in regard to Fort
Sumter, and an attack is said to be imminent.
By the last account we noticed on the subject,
there would appear to be but sixty soldiers in it.
Should an attask be ventured, war will have begun
in earnest. At New Orleans a Government ship,
the Crusader, was treated as a hostile vessel. A
scheme was actually laid, like that of TINAPHERNES
for the capture of the Ten Thousand, for the
nmoora of tho ship were to be invited
to a banquet, and the vessel seized during
their absence from it! The commander was,
however, more prudent than the unfortunate
CLEARCHITS. General SCOTT adopts very
decided measures for the protection of the
capital. The old veteran has never been hood-
winked from the beginning, neither have General
CASS and General WOOL; and had Mr. BUCHANAN
possessed but a little of their decision, courage,
and fidelity to the Union as of more im-
portance than slavery, it is little likely
that we should have heard of practical
secession at all. The mean, helpless temporising
of Mr. BUCHANAN is, doubtless, the main cause of
the present disruption. His courage, if he has any
deeper seated than his tongue, was paralysed by
his hearty sympathy with slavery and slaveholders.

ROYAL INSURANCE COMPAJNY S ALMAN..4C

FOR 1861.

With a view of keeping prominently before the
public the great importance of life and fire assur-
ances, the Royal Insurance Company of London
and Liverpool have issued a very attractive and
useful almanac for the present year, which, in
addition to the usual information found in
volumes of this nature, contains a great variety
of valuable statistical tables upon various
subjects commercial, providential, and entertaining.
The usual almanac tables, with neat ruled pages
for memoranda on the opposite side, occupy the
first dozen pages. Then follow some very appro.
priate remarks on the principles and constitution of
the Royal Insurance Company, from which it ap-
pears to be one amongst the most flourishing of
those highly useful institutions. The capital
of the company available for purposes of meeting
any unusual calamity happening to the assured, it
appears, amounta to two millions sterling, the sum
actually paid up being £283,065. Another notable
feature in the "Royal" is, that for the year 1860 a
bonus of two per cent. was declared on the sum as-
sured ; the whole of the profits are divided every five
years, all policies two complete years in existence
participating therein. Appended to the assurance part
of the little volume are some very curious diagrams,
showing the numbers out of which one person will
die in each year. Lists of her Majesty's Ministers,
the members of the Houses of Lords and Commons
are also given, and a very neatly written chronicle
of the war in Italy concludes the work. A great
amount of care and attention has evidently been
bestowed in the production of this attractive little
book.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—On Saturday night
the Royal box was occupied by Sir Charles Phipps and
family, who was joined during the evening by General
Grey, accompanied by his Royal Highness Princo Alfred,
who seemed highly delighted with the pantomime of Tom
Thumb.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge
had a dinner party on Saturday evening, at her apartments
at St. James's Palace. His Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge, his Excellency the Austrian Ambassador and
the Countess d'Apponyi, the Earl of Malmesbury, Count
Pahlen, the Right Hon. Sir Hamilton Seymour, and the
Marchioness of Ely were among the guests. The duchess
received a solect circle of friends later in the evening.

The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and
family arrived at their mansion in St. James's-square on
Saturday, from Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Tweeddale are
shortly expected in town from Yester House, N.B.
The Marquis of Hartington, M.P., has left
Devonshire House for Melton Mowbray.
The Earl and Countess Stanhope entertained at
dinner on Friday last the Marquis and Marchioness of
Clanricarde, the Earl and Countess Grey, Lady Charlotte
Denison, Viscount Chelsea, Lord Stanley, MP., the Hon.
Mr. and Mrs. Stoner, and Sir David Dundas.

The Countess (Dowager) of Westmoreland and
Lady Rose Fane left town on Friday, on a visit to the
Countess. (Dowager) of Jersey, at Middleton Park, near
Bicester.

Lady Mary Wood and Miss Wood are passing
the season at Nice. Her ladyship will not return to town
until May.

Lord and Lady Churchill have arrived at the St.
George's Hotel.

LA'iEST
NEWS.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

MILAN, FEB. 17.

The Perseverctnza publishes a telegram from
Perugia, dated the 15th inst., announcing that the
Papal Zouaves had invaded Sardinian territory,
but that they had been repulsed by volunteers.

The Pontifical soldiers had fortified themselves

at Nanzano.

The same paper states that the surrender of
Gaeta had given rise to great rejoicing in Rome.

TURIN, FEB. 17.

The Opinione has telegraphic advices from Milan,
according to which King Victor Emmanuel had
received General Bonin, the Envoy Extraordinary
from the King of Prussia.

TURIN, FEB. 17 (Evening).

The official Gazette publishes a decree ordering
the cessation of the administrative autonomy of
Tuscany.
King Victor Emmanuel is expected to arrive
here this evening.

COPENHAGEN, FEB. 16.

The Berlingske Tidende declares that no differ-
ence of opinion on questions of principle has existed
between the Ministers, and that complete unani-
mity now prevails between them.
The same journal says :
" The statement of the Flyvepost respecting the
intention of the King to grant a constitution for
the whole of the kingdom, and to institute two
Chambers, is without any foundation.
" The Estates of Holstein will be shortly con-
voked."

A sitting of the Privy Council will take place
next Tuesday, in which the Ministerial projects
will be submitted to the King's sanction.

NAPLES, FEB. 15.

The Nazionale announces the discovery of a con.
spiracy in favour of Prince Murat, and states that
the trial had commenced.

PESTH, FEB. 16.
The Court Chancellor, Baron Vay, in his reply
to the Obergespanne, said :—" The diploma of
October has created mutual obligations. The King
has faithfully redeemed his pledge, and the country
may now also fulfil its engagements by supporting
the functionaries of the Government."

The Prince Primate has accepted from the Ober-
gespanne the mission of laying before the Emperor
their petition for the re-establishment of the laws
of 1848 and the convocation of the Diet at Pesth.

AGRAM, FIB. 16.

The General Congregation has sent a deputation
:o the Ban requesting him to raise the state of siege

at Fiume.

ST. PETERSBURG, FEB. 16.

A direct transaction has been arranged between
the Imperial Bank and the Bank of France for the
exchange of 30 millions of franca in gold for the
same amount in silver.

MADRID, FEB. 17.

Nothing positive is known respecting the
rumoured Ministerial crisis.

The Spanish Minister in Mexico has received
his passports from the new Government, and is
about to proceed to Havanna.
The Spanish squadron off Havanna has been
vrclorod to sail to Vera Cruz.

The Spanish journals assert that dissension was
about to break out among the constitutional party

in Mexico.

THE CESSION OF MENTONE AND ROQUE-
BRUNE.

We have received the Journal de Monaco or the
10th inst. It publishes the following :
" On the 2d of February a treaty was signed at
Paris, by which bis Most Serene Highness the
Prince of Monaco cedes the communes of Mentone
and Roquebrune to his Majesty the Emperor of the
French.

" The Plenipotentiaries were, for the Emperor,
M. P. Faugere, sous directeur of Foreign Affairs,
and, for the Prince, M. le Comte Henri d'Avigdor.
" The exchange of ratifications will take place
within ten days.
" This cession is made by the Prince for an in-
demnity of 4,000,000 f. (X 160,000), as also the resti-
tution of the private properties belonging to his
Most Serene Highness in the communes of Mentone
and Roquebrune, and of which the Prince was
despoiled in 1848.

"The treaty stipulates, moreover, the establish-
ment of a Customs-union between France and the
Principality, and the engagement on the part of
the Imperial Government to construct a carriage
road between Nice and Monaco, following the sea-
shore, as also to enlarge and improve the road from
Monaco to Mentone.

" This treaty, which is as honourable for our
Sovereign as it is advantageous for the country,
put an end to the abnormal state of things which
has existed for ' thirteen years.'"