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

TII E F VAR. r ARMIES. The chiefs of allied armies, Marshal St. Arnaud and Lord Raglan, with the Capitan Pacha, returned from Vara. to Constantinople on the 29rd ult. It is now stated that Omer Pacha could not meet them as had been announced at Varna, but that the three generals proceeded to Schumla, where the council of war was held. Immediately on their return active preparations were commenced for an onward movement of the troops, both British and French. The first detachments of the former left on the 20th, consisting of a division of the Rifts; with 7,000 men of the 7th, 23rd, 33rd, 77th, and 88th Regiments, under General Sir •G. Brown. These proceeded in transports to 'yards. Other divisions were to•follow quickly. In the whole 23,000 English boldiers were expected to be embarked and en route by this day, the 10th June. The French are not less alert. On the day after reaching Constantinople (the 24th ult.) 51srshal St. Arnaud left for Gallipoli to hasten the preparations for departure. Prince Napoleon had already gone to the camp, and his division left Gallipoli on the 26th of May, under orders to proceed to Constantinople by easy marches overland. The troops were ex pected to reach that capital by the sth instant, and would then embark in transports for Varna. The brigade of French cavalry, under General d'Allouville, the military equipments, the train of artillery, and the medical stores, were to take the route by Adrianople towards the Balkans. They will not be able to join the rest of the army before the 15th or 20th of June. The small contingent of British artillery that had reached Scutari was shipped on board transports at four different wharves, and on the 17th ult. sent on to Varna. The barracks at Scutari hitherto occupied by tke British troops were to be entirely evacuated upset their departure. Meanwhile it was stated that 000 French soldiers would be left by way of garri or in Constantinople. immediate destination of the combined forces is a place about twenty miles from Varna, on the road to Silistria, and near a small lake. Their first ob ject, of course, will be the relief of Silistria. The plan of campaign arranged at the council of war be. tween the leaders is of course carefully kept secret ; but it is believed that Marshal St. Arnaud will detach 24,000 French, 15,000 English, and 30,000 Ottomans of Omer Pacha's army, for that service. 35,000 Russians, it is said, are on the right bank of the Danube, employed in investing Silistria. These 35,000 will be placed between two fires, and will, it is hoped, be driven into the Danube, or made prisoners. At all events, an important battle will be soon fought near Silistria, which cannot but produce a considerable effect on the campaign. The fleet in the meantime will cruise off the coast, to have an eye on Sebastopol, and prevent the possibility of any succour by sea, and also to be ready, in case of need, to promote the success of the operations. Although the combined armies are very weak in artillery it is expected that the Russian batteries will be effectually silenced by aid of the Minie rifles in the hands of the Chasseurs de Vincennes. Marshal de St. Arnaud is said to have expressed a very high opinion of the military talents of Omer Pacha, both as a tactician and as a strategist. It is believed that Marshal de St. Arnaud, in his last despatches, makes an urgent appeal to the French Government for an additional reinforcement of troops. The number he demands is 50,000 men. Preparations are going on in France with extraordi nary activity, evincing that the Government is not only aware of the seriousness of the struggle in which it is engaged, but it is determined to bring it as speedily as possible to a termination, by not stinting the supplies of men or arms. Lord Cardigan arrived at Constantinople on the 29th ult. 10,000 cavalry sabres have been taken out of the stores in the Tower of London, and sent to the Go. vernment works at Enfield to be ground, previous to being forwarded to Constantinople to arm the same number of Turkish cavalry soldiers. The Queen's birthday was celebrated in a right loyal manner by the regiments at Scutari. There was a review in the morning, and the afternoon was devoted to English sports—such as those of the Camp at Chobham—to the no small diversion of crowds of Turks, Armenians, Greeks, &c., who for the first time in their lives saw the game of jumping in sacks, although the sack has been long used by Turks for a far more serious purpose. A consider. able number of Turkish and Armenian ladies were present in their carriages, who enjoyed beyond mea sure the tumbling of the men in the sacks. The Guards erected a column in the centre of their en campment, which was decorated very gaily, and in 534 11im.... MIIMMIsmi p.. THE.. PRES,S.. the evening they illuminated it with some hundreds of glass lamps. On that day the Guards were ordered to parade for the first time" without stocks," a boon which was welcomed by the men with indescribable pleasure. THE CAMP AT SCUTARI. The daily scenes in the British camp at Scutari are graphically described by a German officer, in a letter published by the Morning Chronicle. We give some extracts : " The infantry of the British military expedition to the East has spread its tents on the heights bordering the town of Scutari to the west, at the entrance of the Sea of Marmora. The spot is well chosen." The troops have no fatiguing ma 4 before them : when they land they are in a few minute used in their new home. The air is pure and refreshin Large plains, suited for military evolu tioits, surroudd the encampment, and a most magnifi cent view enlivens the dolee far aienle of military life. As the soldier reclines before his tent, Mount Olympus and the Princes Islands are before him, whilst to the right Constantinople rises in all its grandeur. " The camp is beautifully disposed; indeed, it is laid out in a kind of ordre de &luta., with the Guards to the rear. They especially distinguish themselves. The road left between the tents of each company is from twenty to twenty-five feet broad and very roomy. The muskets are in some regiments piled together in a pyramidical form ; in others they are on rests. The officers tents are placed at the wings of their respective companies. A little to the left are stables for the officers' horses, and the three mules belonging to each company. They are built in a manner totally new to me. Whilst we on the Continent generally build these stables of dried leaves and the roots of trees, which it is often difficult to procure, they have excavated the ground, and built up walls of this earth, intermixed with stones, the whole of which is thatched with dry leaves and the branches of trees. Thus the animals are kept warm, and there are no currents of air ; whereas in the other extemporised stables they are exposed to continual draughts, as much nearly as in the open air. • • The kitchen of each company is situated some yards from these stables. The order of the camp is kept by sentries in as strict a manner towards the soldiers themselves as to strangers, but with that politeness which distinguishes all police measures' in England from those of other countries. The supplies,,of tile British soldier are, both as regards rations and pay', the most munificent of any army. Whilst, for instance, the Prussian soldier has only lialfa-pound of meat a day, the English soldier receives one pound. The pay of the officers cannot be compared to that of other' armies. An English ensign, in time of war, is as well paid as a Prussian or Austrian captain ; and their duties, when compared to those of foreign officers, are much less harassing. The short serving-time of the Prussian soldier (two years) entails the continual drilling of recruits; and. I have seen a lieutenant continually performing a daily duty of eight hours, whilst my experience in England and the British colonies has shown me that the British officer is never on duty more than three hours per diem. This strict disciplinary life stamps the German officer, and he is to be known under any covering ; whilst the English officer never has a peculiar or exclusive appearance, but when in plain clothes is in manners and bearing like any other English gentleman, and on service appears simply a gentleman in uniform. .. _. " The dress and weighting of the British infantry have many defects in my opinion. Complaints have been made about this matter for many years, both by officers and men themselves. The more comfortable frock-coat has, in almost all armies, been substituted for the ugly tail-coat. The shako and leather stock have never been praised by any soldier. As regards the national dress of the High landers, I must declare myself incompetent to form an opinion of its practical advantages. They are the most picturesque troops in the world. . . "In my opinion the British infantry soldier is too heavily weighted. With his musket and ammunition he has to carry a weight of 801 b., whilst under the same cir cumstances the Austrian and Prussian infantry only carry 651 b. This will be felt on a march. In action the men would be overburdened ; and all to whom I spoke at the Scutari encampment expressed the hope that they should not have to go into action with their knapsacks on. " The arms of the infantry are excellent. The muskets are finished most accurately, and superior to those of any army. Those which I have inspected were superb, and beautifully kept, showing that great attention is paid to this point by the superiors, and that the soldier loves his arm. As regards the rifles, the superiority of the Minis is too well known to need any comment. The British Rifles are a very imposing body, and recal a memento mori by the manner in which they handle their superb arm, and by their general appearance. But they are also too much weighted : 781 b. encumbers the ' gazelle ' of the army. " Here, as elsewhere, camp life is lively, and full of changes. A part of the day is spent at drill and manoeuvres; afterwards the soldiers amuse themselves at their original games, which, to foreigners, are a complete novelty. They strengthen the body and spare the soldier's purse, who otherwise would get rid of many a shilling from sheer ennui. The bands play British airs, and are much better than they are generally reported to be. Armenians and Greeks are there in plenty, selling sweetmeats, endeavour ing to speak in every lingo. "All the troops encamped at Scutari prefer the tent to the barracks, in which three regiments are quartered. Fresh air is certainly preferable to a small space filled by from seventy to seventy-five men, and inhabited by mem bers of the smaller enemies of man." The commissariat will have a hard task to per form at Varna in provisioning so large an army in a country which is cut off from the feeding-ground of the Dobrudscha by the Russians on the one hand, SATURDAY, and drained by the masses of Turks concentrated near Sehumla on the other. There has been no beef to be had even at Scutari, but the supply o f mutton and lamb fortunately continued sufficient, and about eight hundred head of sheep and lamb were slaugh tered every day at the shambles at Scutari for the army. It is said they eat as much meat as ten times their number of Turks; but the latter have very liberal rations in the way of butter and rice for pilaff. The consumption of lamb is so great that fears are expressed lest tho very breed of sheep be eaten up out of the district around Scutari. THE FLEETS. No tidings have arrived from Sir - a. Napier since the 2nd inst., when the experimental bombardment of Hango Fort and the brilliant affair at-Eekness were announced. The :; attAwk vn Rangy was, it is stated, simply inidertatheU ler the Itwtoee• at obtain ing a plan of the forkficalaeos, 'doh.war aiga s h a d by the officers who went in. , The French fleet, twenty-two' ED on Monday, the 4th inst., steering for the north-east, on their way to join the British squadron. The de lay of this fleet is accounted for by a statement of the necessity of exercising the crews at great guns for some time before bringing them up to the field of action, as the greater part of them had never served on board line-of:battle ships, and were conse quently unused to manoeuvre on a large scale. Three ships, intended to form the nucleus of the White Sea .squadron—the Eurydice, 241, Captain Ommannex; .the Miranda, 14, screw steam-sloop, Captain E: M. Lyons ; and the Brisk,l4, screw-sloop, Commander Seymour--arrived at Lerwick, in the Shetland Isles, on the 24th and 25th of May, and left, after a short stay, for their destination. The Mariner, 12, sailing-sloop, Commander F. E; Johnstone, left Portsmouth on Thursday for the White Sea. The fogs in the Black Sea are stated to have been tremendous. One las(ed sixteen days, three days of which the fog was so dense that the next ship ahead and astern were only made aware of their presence by the firing of guns, muskets, and ringing of bells. From the Black Sea the latest news •ot: the fleets is conveyed by the following despatch from Admiral Hamelin, published in the Moniteur " Baltchick, May Al, 1854, La Ville de Paris. " Monsieur Is Minie;tre,living. left Kavarna on the 17th of April to commence their operations of war in the Blokk Sea, the two combined squadrons cast anchor on the 20th of May before Baltchick, where they immediately set about taking in the necessary water and provisions. " It has not depended upon us that the acts of war with which the cruise of more than a month has been sown were not more numerous or more important; but the Russian naval forces have kept themselves so completely shut up in Sebastopol, under the shelter of the thousand cannon of that port, that during twenty days passed in cruising at a little distance from that point we have not been able to bring a single one of the enemy's ships to fight—not even with our scouts. On the other hand, our steam cruisers brought in from all parts of the Black Sea vessels carrying the Russian flag, which constitute a sufficiently large number of captures since the commencement of hostilities; and finally, the division of steam-ships and frigates sent on a mission along the coasts of Circassia have ascertained that the Russians themselves have abandoned the forts arranged during more than half a *century, and after so much labour and so many combats, over the 2(k) leagues of coast which separate Anapa, near the Sea of Azoff, from the port of Batoum, in the neighbourhood of the Turkish frontiers—a new check, it appears to me, to the Muscovite power. " In short, Monsieur le Ministre, if your excellency will well consider that the imperial port of Odessa has been completely destroyed by our steamers; that the Russian fleet, defied in its ports, has not dared to leave them for the purpose of avenging that check ; that it is interdicted, under pain of capture, to the Russian flag henceforth to plough the waters of the Black Sea, which hitherto the Czar has put forth the pretension of making a Muscovite lake ; if one considers, in fine, that all the Russian pos. sessions on the coast of Circassia have been destroyed or abandoned, and that, consequently, the flank of the Russian army in Asia finds itself uncovered, one cannot help ac• knowledging that the first phase of the operations of the squadrons has already produced results which are pretty notable, all to the advantage of the Western powers, and all to the detriment of the Russian influence in the Black Sea—l: am, etc., " HAMELIN. THE WAR ON THE DANUBE. The Turkish defenders of Silistria are holding out gallantly and successfully.. Although besieged by a Russian force variously estimated at from 35,000 to 70,000 men, with every effort made to hasten the fall of so iMportant a fortress, no sensible impression seems to have been made upon it ; and by the last accounts it was reported that the besiegers had re nounced the hope of carrying the place by assault, and were endeavouring to surround it. The prepa rations made and making by the allied forces for the relief of Silistria are detailed above, and according to calculation the armies would arrive within a useMl distance by the 14th or 15th of this month. With the view, probably, of anticipating this advance, a strong Russian detachment had, it is announced, been ordered to proceed toißasardscbikt so as to in.