The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

P"' JUNE 10, 1854. tercept the route between Schumla and Silistria• If this be true, the first encounter between the British and French troops and the Russian enemy will pro- bably occur on that spot. The slight details of the siege of Silistria which are allowed to reach atilt way of Bucharest and Vienna report some galleat actions on the part of the T . ho have inflicted some serious losses on the bee ' - urlai r y in many-partial encounters. Acco ' .Omer Pacha, received vid Belgrade on the 2nd, announce successive repulses of Russian attacks against Silistria since the 16th. On the 20th and 21st threo .succeesive assaults were directed against the• flosabed forts, the assailants retiring eac h titneyillt eouslderable loss. . Another message of 411 o t ipp that on the night of the 27th of tlit v....erk May t Tok— • lin made-ibree assaults upon Silistria, w i t h ' -each , time, and were repulsed, with the low: of 1,500 men killed and 3,000 wounded. A detailed ve of a subsequont affair is given in a tel c despatch from Kalarasch of May 21:— " on the aiglit of the 28th to the 29th the Turks made a desperate sortie from the fortress of Silistria, and simul taneously attacked the Russian outworks on the right, left, and centre. As they were thus extended in some measure too widely, the Itrissians on the left, who were, n superior force, were priabled to repulse them, and'aci advance against a Turkish redoubt, which was manfully contested, and the assailants comelled to retire. Constantly raked by the close and heavy fire of the Turks, the Russians sustained immense loss." Russian amoutits received from Bucharest of this attack state their loss at 186 killed and 379 wounded. General Silvan was killed, and Colonel Costanda and Count Orloff, jun., seyerely wounded. The Russians add that they captured the redoubt on the subse quent night, the,:letla.ult. Other advices i repert further encounters and suc cesses. Toward 'the end of May, it is said, 5,000 Turkish horse took tbei:Thissians by surprise at Turnu. Only 107 of the Jager. escaped to the left bank of the Aluto. General of Division Baumgarten has been missing-ever since the a ff air. . Wednesday's kossiteur states that on the 31st en engagement took place •at Slatina, on the frontier of Little Wallachia. The Russians, who occupied a favourable position with" 2,000 men and four guns, attacked the Turks, hitt ,the 'Turks, assuming the offensive, killed nearly_ 000 of them, and carried off their artillery. It is calculated that the ,Russians have lost 8,000 men on the Danube since the 20th of May. According to a letter from Orsova in the Paris Preue, the Turks aro in ill possession of the whole country of Lesser Wallachia np to the banks of the Aluta. It is stated that they treat the inhabitants with the greatest kindness,juid seek to recompense them for the sufferings which they have experienced during the Russian oeiiiipsition. The Pacha of Widdin has caused to be,aistributisl to the Walla chian peasants a quantity of maize, the Rusaians,not having left them so much as they required for sowing their ground. . • • . • (SANITARY CONDITION OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY. The following letter from the Russian camp is given in the Vienna Medical Journal : " All the hospitals and infirmaries on the right bank of the river are overfilled, and ague, catarrhal affections, rheumatism, dysentery, scurvy, and hospital mortification, rage so terribly that it is a question whether more of our brave fellows fell victims to the sword or to disease. • Still these troops display the most remarkable courage, and it is not the fault of the common soldier if Rissova and Silis tria have until now been bombarded and stormed in vain: The wounds of the men—almost all dangerous—are in. flicted by the musket or sword, and on the front of the body. The ' pitched battles,' of which the papers speak as having been fought in the Dobrudscha, and at Trojan's Wall, were nothing but most sanguinary skirmishes. Thousands fell in the attacks on the fortified places, and in the continual landings." Before one of the assaults on Silistria two Polish sub-officers, being Catholics, having refused to re ceive the communion from the Greek priests, were shot by order of the Russian general. CIRCASSIA. The latest letters from the Black Sea say the Ottoman flag was flying at Redout Kale, Soukoum- Kale, and all the Russian forts on the Abascian coast. Anapa and Kutais had also been evacuated by the Russians, and would speedily be in the hands of the Circassian chiefs. Redout-Kale and Poti have been occupied by detachments from the allied squadrons ; and arms and munitions landed on the Circassian coast. French and English officers have gone into the country, and opened communications with Schamyl. The Circassians were assembling in all directions. Schamyl was said to be preparing to attack Tiflis. In Asia Minor a force of 25,000 Russians, viz., 20,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, with a park of artillery of about sixty pieces, was assembled on the 10th ult. at Gumri (Alexandropol). A division, 5,000 or 6,000 strong, had left in the direction of Ilatoum, probably to reinforce the army opposed to Selim Pacha. THE PRESS. Twenty picked men of the Metropolitan Police Force have been selected to proceed to Constantinople to assist the commissariat in the protection and dis tribution of the stores. The men so selected were inspected by Sir Richard Mayne and Sir Charles Trevelyan at Scotland-yard, who described to them the nature of their duties and of the hardships to which they would be subjected, and further informed them that they would not only have to go instantly, but that there was every probability that they would be detained at the seat of war several years. They lent a very attentive ear to the address, evinced every . willingness to.endure all the risks of the campaign, and, notwithstanding the shortness of the notice, ex pressed every readiness to start for the scene of heir new labours. The men are to receive a bonus by way of outfit of 121. each, their pay while " on foreign service " being 4s. per diem and rations. One of the butchers of Dial46o, who is making arrangements for the procuring df cattle for the com bined fleet, is now proudly relating how he had the honour of furnishing meat to Lord Nelson's fleet and to Napoleon's army, when the one was in the Baltic and the other in Pomerania. The worthy man supplied also the Russian army in 1830, but on that point he maintains a prudent silence. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. The Paris Constitutionnel gives a sketch of the projected campaign of the allied armies in Turkey in Europe. This Government journal says : " We are informed that it has been determined to occupy Varna by two divisions, whose arrival alone will suffice to inspire the Russian left wing in the Dobrudscha with a wholesome respect. The army of occupation at Varna will not be, as was at first said, exclusively composed of English troops. Prince Napoleon, who, as we learn from our correspondent, went to Gallipoli to fetch his division, will find on his arrival at Constantinople an order ter em bark with his troops for Varna. At the same time Maiplihal St. Arnaud, with the main body of his army, will marsh to Adrianople, and from thence to Widdin, where he will form the left wing of the forces of time three powers. The English troops will successively assconble in the Dobrucl scha, to form the right wing. Summated by these powerful auxiliaries, Omer Pacha will find himself free to act, and the result of the campaign cannot be doubted." M. KOSSUTH AT SHEFFIELD. THE promised demonstration of anti- Russian and pro-" Nationalities of Europe " character came off on Monday at Sheffield. There were two assemblages on the occasion : one at noon, in the open air, pre sided over by Mr. Solly, the Mayor of Sheffield, and attended by a vast concourse numbering, it was computed, twelve or fifteen thousand persons; the second meeting took place in the evening in the Music-hall, but the admission being by tickets, for which prices of ls. and 2s. 6d. were charged, accord ing to class, the attendance was much more select, and the numbers present amounted to but a few hundreds. At both gatherings, however, M. Kossuth was the chief attraction, and the proceedings com prised little else but voluminous speeches delivered by him and very warmly appreciated by the au dience. Beginning with Russia and the Eastern war, M. KOSSUTH, in the morning address, conducted his hearers in the course of a few sentences into the very centre of the great European neutrality question. As thus—Englishmen, wherever he went, assured him that they were earnest and anxious to withstand the assaults of Russia, to cripple her powers of aggres sion, and secure the freedom of Europe. So far, all well; but, when he looked at the shifty plans of poli ticians, at the diplomatic despatches, the hasty pro tocols manufactured by scores, at the interpellations, declarations, and orations delivered "in a certain place," he found that the great object "of the little statesmen of our sickly age " was to hide the plain truth in unmeaning generalities, and, above all, to avoid defining what they understood by that phrase so constantly in their mouths, " the peace of Europe." If this shuffling was allowed to go on, he warned the people of England that they would one day wake up and find, with horror, that their gallant brethren and sons had been shedding their blood and they them selves lavishing millions of treasure for an aim just contrary to what they had meant to tight and pay for : " Yon will have meant to fight for the independence and liberties of Europe, and you shall discover that you have fought for securing oppression over many a nation on the Continent. Yes, you may expect, in reward of your blood and sacrifices, a miserable paper treaty, good for the cheese. mongers--(laugAter)—and, at the utmost, Russian des potism a little tired, until it gets restored by an afternoon nap—(laughter)—bat, in its stead, Austrian despotism made a great deal stronger and more secure." Arrived at this point, M. Kossuth dilated upon the well-known theme, drawing a dark picture of the crimes which Austrian despots had committed, and giving a sad augury of the results likely to flow from the ill-starred union which the Bntish Ministry seemed on the verge of cementing with that country. " I ask you," he said to his audience, " do you hate Russian despotism? (Loud cries of 'Year) You do. Again, I ask do you like Austrian despotism? 535 Do you like that despotism which quartered Poland, asses sinated Hungary, and murdered Italy? Do you like that despotism ? (Prolonged (Ties of ' r) No, you don't. Well, if you don't lake it, let the mighty word of the peoplo of England be lawfully told up to the heavens, and down to Westminster-hall, because danger is knocking at your doors. England is about to be married to Austrian des potism—England is about to pledge that your blood shall be bbed and your money shall be spent to make Austrian despotism sure. There are strange anomalies to be met with here in your England. Who is the humble individual who has the honour of speaking now to you? Humble and unpretending as I am, still, by what I have done, and by what I have been, and by what 1 am, I certainly tun a living protest against Russian encroachment and Austrian aespousna. (Cheers.) And who is Francis Joseph of Austria? He is the man who holds in his bloody bands one of the quartered limbs of Poland. He is the man who betrayed every province of his empire by holding up be fore their eyes the solemn promise of a constitution, and thou abolishing every letter of it. He is the man who attacked the laws and existence of Hungary by conspiracy and by arms—who spread tire, and death, and desolation over the land, and called iu the forces of a foreign despot to subjugate it. He is the man who raised scaffolds by hundreds, and immolated upon them patriots by thousands. He is the man who murdered Hungary and Italy. (Load cheers.) Now, the world has seen the millions of the people of England cheering my humble self and cursing Francis Joseph of Austria. The world has seen mayors and alder men, and corporations and delegations, and societies and whole communities, and the people of ngland, expressing, in some 120 addresses, their approbation of my course of resistance to Austrian aggression and their sympathy for my country's wrongs, bidding me to be of good cheer, and to trust that the day of retribution will come. (Cheers.) It is high time for England, it is high time for the world, to know what is the people's will about this war. You should insist upon a serious issue for your sacrifices. Yon should insist that no power shall be left to despotism and despots to drive you to new wars, by encroaching upon the freedom, the rights, and the independence of nations. You should insist to attain by your present sacrifices a true and lasting peace. Now, neither of these aims can be attained without Poland, Hungary, and Italy restored to their national rights, and especially Russia's overwhelming power cannot be reduced without Poland being recon structed an independent nation with its national territory ; nor can the integrity and independence of Turkey be se cured without a free and independent Hungary. All these aims would be subverted by England taking despotic Austria for her ally. (Cheers.) Then you would tight for Austrian despotism, and not for freedom. That cannot, that would not, suit you. (Cheers.) Therefore, if you agree with me that the honour, the interests, and the sym pathies of the people of England are all for the op. pressed, and not for the oppressors, pronounce your will —protest against marrying England to despotic Austria. (Cheers.)" At the evening meeting M. KOSSUTH returned to the subject, enforcing his conclusions with new ar guments, urged at greater length. France and Eng land, he said, had first sanctioned the crimes of the partition of Poland and the enslavement of Hungary. Those events formed the stepping-stones over which Russia advanced into preponderance in Europe. After that they fell into the error of believing that Austria was the only bar against the further progress of Russia:— " And from this error Austria became the pet of Eng land's Ministers and Parliament; not of the people—of this my own humble person is a living testimony. And, happily, Ministers and M.P.'s are passing—the people remains. The question is, who was right,—the people or the Government? In my opinion facts are the best criterion of the soundness of a policy. Whenever a cer tain line of policy had full and free scope to prove its efficiency, then, if we see the end proposed attained, we may say the policy was a sound one ; but, if we see that the contrary has happened, then we must judge that the policy was a wrong one. That is clear, I think. Now, I ask you, has all the fondling and petting of Austria proved efficient for the aim of conserving the independence of Tsrkey and of checking the preponderance of Russia? No ; you are compelled to go to war for this very purpose. There is the answer. Now, for God's sake, don't allow your Government to persist in a course which had such a fair trial, and has proved so eminently wrong—nay, proved to be just subservient to the growing supremacy of Russia. Right about, gentlemen ; let your policy turn upon its heels—that's good sense. To persist obstinately in march ing in the wrong direction would be the contrary of good sense." In England two years since the restoration of Hun garian independence was a subject for sympathy and generous sentiment merely—now it had become a matter of self-preservation. We cf uld fight the Czar with prospect of success only by making that one of the elements in our warfare. Turkey itself, he con tended, had often aided in the constitutional strug gles of the Hungarians, and, as history showed, had always received a due reward for its help. On one occasion, in 1848, that aid was withheld, and for this lapse Turkey had now to atone by a supreme struggle for life and death. This fact. sufficed to show "what it, is to enter into unnatural alliances." In the same year (1848) England also committed a fault in con senting to the Russian occupation of Montenegro, and even in advising the Porte not to offer a practi cal resistance to that invasion of its territory. "On the very day that advice was given," argued M. Kossuth, "the present war was made inevitable. A contrary course would have spared you all the pre- .