Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-05
Comments Of the London Times on the
..5.. H. ~CapltulntIou of Gaeta.

.Is I'D. Capitalization Of Gaeta.
The London Times Of the l4th ultimo has
the following:
. = . Gan is now over. Francis III
has done his best and his worst, aud it has
delayed and not changed the event. The
siege of Gaeta has been a useless and sense
less conflict. Every man who has fallen
during these FIVE weary months has been
murdered for the vainest of reasons-to sat
isfy the point of honor. We 10 England saw
this from the first, and the Prince who has
more than any one else helped to prolong
the struggle must have seen il also. Those
who watched the affairs of Italy from a dis
lance knew how impossible it was that the
royal power, once overthrow in the Two
Sicilies, could ever be rehabilitated by the
successes of Gaeta.
When, at Palermo, $4,000 Neapolitan
troops surrendered to l,400 Garibaldians,
the government of the Bourbons crumbled
to the ground in the eyes of Europe. Such
an army, it was justly thought, must argue
q political system and O ruler whom nothing
could save. Even since, the same spectacle
has been continually repeated. The army,
the feet, the civil departments, the church,
even q part of the royal family, deserted to
or endeaYored to make terms with the
enemy. The Bourbons could never be re-
stored, for there was nothing left through
which they could rule. Some priests in the
country districts, with the peassntry they
taught, were the only Bourbon partisans left
in the kingdom.
Had no foreign power interfered all would
have been at peace in a few weeks. But the
French Emperor thought fit to show his
sympathy with the royal cause. We have
been told by the MoRiteur-and the state
ment has been repeated from the Imperial
lips-that Napoleon was actuated only by
pity for one who OF an early age had met
with a great calamity, and that he desired
only to insure the personal safety of Francis
and of his devoted Queen. But, with all the
respect for the Emperor's talents, we must
take leave to say that if these were his only
motives bis conduct was singulHrly ILL
judged. There can be no doubt that every
man in Italy, Constitutionalist, Republican,
Ultramontane or Royalist, has interpreted
the presence of Admiral Barber de Tinan at
Gaeta as a support to the cause of the Bour-
bon monarchy. .r..'
As soon as it was known that the French
were interfering, back came some Of the
European diplomatic corps who had pre-
viously abandoned the fallen King. The
Pope only thanked Napoleon for his pious
resistance to revolution. In Naples itself,
signs of a formidable Bourbon conspiracy
soon appeared. There was everywhere a
belief that the French were, perhaps, about
to reinstate the King, and the Churchills
and Danbys Of Southern Italy began to re-
fleet that it would be as well to be on the
winning side. Hence reasonable move
ments began in the Capital, headed by Of
fcers in the Neapolitan service, and UNI
mary arrests and punishment were resorted
to by the authorities. @ 80.
The instructions in the Abruzzf were
planned and carried out by the assistance o.
politicians high in office in the Papal States
and the whole power of the Church in
France was employed to confirm the E Ell
ptror in his supposed design of protecting
the Bourbon Sovereign. Francis himsel
was mainly encouraged to persist by tht
hope that the Emperor meant ultimately to
cave him. He is, indeed, to be excused
for, shut up in a fortress, he knew but little
of THAT was going forward. and perhap.
thought hat there was a sincere and gen.
eral wish for his restoration. The loss o
life and the misery which have been caused
by this long struggle, will. stain bis rsputa
ton less than that of the Monarch who per
mitted them, knowing them to be useless.