The Press. — London, England, 1854-04-08 00:00:00

APRIL 8, 1854. were taken by assault with considerable loss. Tultscha was not in a condition to offer a long re sistance, the fort which existed there till 1820 having been destroyed by the Russians at the close of the last war. Matschin and Isaktcha might have re quired more regular operations, but they, too, seem to have fallen, and were too small and unimportant to offer any serious obstacle to the advance of a large army. It seems clear that the whole of the Dobrudscha, including the post of Babadagh, is in possession of the Russians, who may be expected to assail the Dyke or Wall of Trekjau, and would pro bably proceed, if successful there, to lay siege to Silistria itself. The distance from the passage of the Danube to Karasu, at the centre of Trajan's lints, is only seventy Iwo miles, and from Karasu to Silistria about fifty more. If the left wing of the Russian army succeeds in turning Silistria they will materially facilitate the crossing of the river at Tur tukai, because the Turkish position may be assailed from two sides at once. For several reasons, how ever, the occupation of this district is of doubtful advantage. It is intersected by pools and morasses, and its few wretched tracks are rendered impassable at this season by the thaw. To retain 50,000 men in such a country is impossible, for they are hemmed in by the sea on one side, the Danube on the other, and the enemy in front. Any serious check to the Russian army in such a position might have incal culable consequences. General Kotzebue commenced the siege of Mat whin, and General Anrep the siege of lsaktcha, on the 25th of March. Both the fortresses were taken on the 28th, likewise Babadagh and Hirsova. A despatch from Semlin states that the Russians attacked Kalafat on the 29th ult., and took three intrenchments. The Paris Prase learns from Sebastopol (March 20) that the fortress is being fortified on the land side. The place is considered perfectly impregnable if only attacked by sea, as hostile ships would be exposed to a raking cross-fire long before they could get near the inner fortifications of the port. About 30,000 men were assembled in an entrenched camp behind Sebastopol. According to late advices from Constantinople the Russians have destroyed only their smaller forts on the Circassian coast. The larger, such as Anapa and Sukhem-Kale, have received reinforcements. The Independance Beige says:— . "It is now positively certain that, while the Russians were crossing the Danube, five Russian steamers from Sebastopol, after having touched at Odessa, succeeded in disembarking four thousand soldiers on the island of J)unavetz, on the Dobrudscha, at the entrance of the St. George's mouth of the Danube. Having accomplished this service the five Russian steamers regained the port of Odessa." Duvanetz is within two days' march of Babadagh, so that the Russians, by the aid of their ships, which it was understood Admiral Dundas had been com missioned to blockade, have been able to advance upon that important position without the trouble of crossing the Danube. TURKEY. The Sheik-ul-Islam and Rifaat Pacha (President of the Council) are dismissed for resistance offered to the reform in favour of the Christians. The Sultan has appointed Farik Effendi and Aarif Pacha as their successors. Since the dismissal of the Sheik-ul-Islam the old Turkish party have been intriguing for the advancement of Russian interests. The domains of the mosques have been declared public property. The excited state of public feeling at Constanti nople is extremely disquieting to the Government. The disgrace of Ahmet Pacha, late Commander in-Chief of the Turkish army in Asia, has given great delight among its soldiery. He will quit the scene of his misconduct with the curses of the soldiers on his conscience. Every day fresh instances of his avarice and treatment of the starving troops have come to light, and increased the general exaspera tion against him. GREECE. Diplomatic communications have ceased between the Ottoman and Greek Governments. Nesset Bey, the Turkish Charge d'Affaires at Athens, has re turned to Constantinople. General liletaxas has demanded his passports, and has left Constantinople. The representatives of France and England notified to the Greek Cabinet that their Governments would hold Greece responsible for the consequences of the rapture. The Vienna papers publish advices from Con stantinople, according to which the Porte has resolved to expel all the subjects of King Otho from the Sultan's dominions. A declaration of war was expected to accompany the execution of the measure. The King and Queen of Greece have left Athens for the frontier. The Ministers of Finance and Justice had resigned, but their resignation was not acce General Canrobert arrived at Athena on the 31st ult., with two French steamers. THE PRESS. NORTH AMERICA. The Nebraska Bill has met with a check in the House of Representatives, by being referred to a committee of the whole. Of the 110 votes in favour of the motion, all but nine were given by represen tatives from the non slave-holding States. A slight earthquake had been experienced in Georgia. At Newhaven a serious riot had occurred between the students of Yale Callege and a party of drunken Irishmen, during which pistols were dis charged and dirks used freely. A man named O'Neil was killed, and several others received severe wounds. New Orleans had been ravaged by a tire which broke out on the 16th ult., and consumed property valued at upwards of 300,000 doll. In endeavouring to suppress the conflagration two fire men were killed. It is stated that the loss of life caused by the sinking of the steamer J. Avery amounted to not less than sixty or seventy persons. She struck a snag, and went down two minutes afterwards. It was understood at Washington that the nego tiations respecting the seizure of the Black Warrior would be left in the hands of Mr. Soule, United States Minister at Madrid. In the meantime the subject contiued to create excitement. Encounters had taken place in Texas between the whites and Indians, in which some lives were lost on both sides. It is just twenty years since the province of Canada first borrowed money of this country. The loan was for twenty years, and the time being up on Saturday last, the Ist of April, 1854, the whole sum due was paid in full out of the surplus revenues of the pro vince. HAITI. The Emperor Fanstin I. has addressed a proclama tion to the people and the army, dated the 10th ult., announcing that the differences between his Govern ment and that of France had been satisfactorily ar ranged. France, it seems, had demanded a pecuniary indemnity, which the Haitian Government refused to pay; whereupon she sent a frigate and two small vessels to enforce payment ; but no sooner did his Haitian Majesty hear of their arrival than he pre sented the money. RANGOON. (From a Correspondent.) January 19, 1854. THE visit lately paid by Lord Dalhousie to this port has had the effect of stirring all classes of the com munity. Land along the river face is now selling at Is. Bd. per square foot, or upwards of 4,0001. per acre. The purchasers are for the most part members of the mercantile community, who appear to see in Rangoon a vast field for their speculations. The excitement caused by the murder of Captain Latter has subsided, the authorities being unani mously of opinion that political motives exercised no influence on his fate. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless a fact that the great body of the I'eguers and Burmese stand aloof from our rule, and endeavour to evade our sovereignty. We hold military possession of three towns on the Irrawadi, and we keep their population in subjection; they perhaps even sympathise with their conquerors; but the mass of the people, the cultivators of the soil, treat the offers of the politicals with indifference, and their persons with no respect. To such an extent has this been evinced in the northern division of our new possessions that no political has hitherto ven tured more than ten miles from the head-quarters of the military. Thus, whilst we actually possess only three towns on the river, the remainder of the coun try is either indifferent or hostile. The fact is, that the system so much in vogue at the present day of ruling the country by means of boy-politicals is essentially and fundamentally wrong. Compare the administration of l'egu, and its effects after a pos session of nearly two years, with the vigorous rule of Sir Charles Napier in Scinde. There, in a very few months, not only was order established, a code of laws efficiently administered, and a police appointed, but the Dacoits were at once driven away. Here we are almost without a police, and we constantly hear of bands of robbers devastating the districts and pillaging the rural population. A Napier would long ago have remedied these things. But it re quires a clear brain and a strong hand,and,above all, the faculty of moving troops to the proper point at the proper time—a faculty rarer than is commonly supposed. Rangoon itself is secure, and will shortly become a flourishing town ; already vessels of all sizes are pouring into the port. In my next I hope to give you information on other matters connected with the country and its future destiny. LETTERS FOR OFFICERS, SEAMEN, AND MARINES, ger% ing in the undermentioned ships, will be forwarded by her Majesty's ship Phernix, if sent to the Admiralty on or before the 12th inst :—Her Majesty's ships Enterprise, Investigator, Assistance, Resolute, Pio neer, Intrepid, and North Star. 319 ST. PETERSBURG. THE strategetical position of the island of St. Pe tersburg is thus described in a recent number of the Austrian Lloyd : " The island of St. Petersburg, subdivided as it were into the additional islands of the Apothecary, the Petrayskoi, and a cluster of smaller ones by the branches of the Neva, is the one which offers most interest, on account of a fort that faces it, built on a small island, distinctly visible in its entire surface from the tower of the Admiralty. The fort forms an oblong square, with large outworks on St. Peter's Island and two others. They are so arranged that ships by sailing up the canals that flow between the islands can take shelter under the guns of the fort. lt is rather fortunate for the citizens that they busy themselves about other things, otherwise perhaps they might well shudder if they did but reflect on the state reasons that led to the erec tion of this fort in the very heat of their beautiful capital. Seeing that the houses of the chief nobility are built all around it, the canon on its walls would make sad suicidal havoc, if they should at any time be required to play. The fort rests on a low island, commanding nothing but the city, incapable of defending it, and which therefore could only have been built With hostile intent against the capital itself. Of course it still exists to serve as a last place of refuge for the Emperor amid his principal chiefs, with their costliest valuables, in case the city should fall into the hands of an enemy on the one side, or should rise in in surrection on the other. This fort is exactly opposite the Winter Palace, keeps up a constant communication with it, and thus clearly enough reveals its true purport. The arms of the Neva, where they are in immediate contact with its mouth, are totally defenceless. If Cronstadt, which really serves as the lock and bolt to these islands, should turn out to be useless, the helpless city may find in this fort a dagger planted against its own breast, the blow of which it cannot parry. The events about to occur here are not so very difficult to predict. Should the Russian fleet I be vanquished, the conquering fleet will run up the Neva, and the defenders of the city will throw themselves into the fort. The bombardment would reduce a part at least of the city to ashes. On the restoration of peace, the Rus sian sovereign executive, grieving over the destroyed city of the Neva, would carry out an idea long since enter tained, by withdrawing into the interior of the empire once more, and reoccupying the Kreml of Moscow, the primitive seat, still deemed sacred, of the Czars. A man gazing from the Admiralty tower on all these gay palaces, and pondering on their not improbable sad destiny, might be excused if he wept as Xerxes did when gazing on his host near the Hellespont." THE DOBRUDSCHA. THIS desolate district, which has suddenly risen into in terest and importance, is thus described in the forthcoming new edition of Murray's Turkish Guide :—" At Tchertaavoda the Danube approaches to within 3 , 1 miles of the Black Sea, but is separated from it by a peninsula or tongue of high land, extending north, nearly opposite to Galatz, called Pobrudschn. From Tchernavoda a road runs to Kostendje, on the Black Sea, partly parallel with a stream, or rather a chain of lakes, called harasou. At Bottrlack (four hours) the stream ceases, and the valley is shut in by hills crowned with downs, from which the sea is visible. Kostendje (Constantine), a small village on a height above the shore, has a little port, with remains of a Roman mole, now destroyed. From a point a little south of this to Rassova, on the Danube, runs a rampart of earth called Trajoas Wall. It is certain that nu branch of the Danube ever flowed into the sea across this tongue of land, which presents on the side of the sea an uninter- rupted range of low hills and cliffs. The district of the Dobrudseha is at most seasons a wilderness, partly owing to its having been deprived of its Tartar inhabi tants, after 1829, by the Russians, but chiefly owing to its subsoil, which, excepting to the north extremity, where rise the hills of Matschin (granite?), consists of porous limestone, which retains no water, and furnishes no springs on the surface. Population is scanty, and the villages wide•scattered, and drinking water is obtained only through a few deep wells. Corn is scarcely cultivated at all, hay and fodder are very scarce, the scanty herbage dries up early in the summer, and the flocks of sheep and herds of buffaloes repair to the borders of the Danube for pasture. This desert extends south of the Wall of Trajsn nearly as far as Buarjik and Varna. It is not tenable by troops, unless they carry food, forage, and water with them. A canal was at one time projected between the Danube at Tchemavoda and the Black Sea at Kostendje, but a survey made by a Prussian engineer proved that the head of the valley of Karasou was 164 feet above the sea, and that not a drop of water was to be obtained on the summit•level (limestone hills) to feed a canal if it were made. " Tnz RussiANs are said to be choking up the nar row channels leading into Cronstadt harbour by sinking masses of stone, for the purpose of keeping the British ships out. A suggestion has been thrown out that our seamen should resort to the same plan, with the object of keeping the Russian fleet in. Half a dozen merchant craft, well loaded with bal last, sunk in judiciously and carefully watched, might prevent Cronstadt from wile out its mischievous cruisers for a long wile to come. The process being repeated in other Russian port* where the channels are narrow might result, it is said, in de stroying their whole navy by rot quite as completely as by the most successful series of battles, and with far less cost or loss to our gallant countrymen. THE PRAYER PRESCRIBED FOR TIME OF WAR was offered on Sunday last in the various churches of the me tropolis ; and in most of the nonconformist places of worship supplications were made for the triumph of truth and justice, and a speedy return of peace. _.~ ~.