The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-29 00:00:00

1234 Most eminent, most worthy, sagacious, and most noble General Mouravieff I., — His Excellency the Ferik Williams Pacha, a dignitary of the great English power, being in this country, is appointed by us and provided with full powers to negotiate the evacuation of Kars ; this letter is written by me to inform your Excellency of the circumstance. The lath of Itaby-el•Aouel, 1272. Sealed with the seal of MEIIMED VASSIF PACHA. Act of the Surrender of the Town and Fortress of Kars on the Stipulations agreed upon between the Commander in-Chief of the Army of the Caucasus, Aide•de•Camp - - General Mouravieff, and General Williams, Commissary of her Majesty the Queen of England; the 13th (25th) of November, Head• Quarters of Tchiftli.Kaya. Art. 1. Surrender of the fortress with all its materiel in tact. The gins surrendered are not to be spiked; the stores and arms are to be given up in the same state u they are actually in ; the ammunition, powder, arsenals, deposits of military clothes and stores are to be given up as they stand in the official returns up to the day of surrender. Nothing is to be detracted or taken from the archives. On evacuating Kars the troops are to leave posts, each of three men and a corporal, at the following points :—at each fort, redoubt, or battery armed with artillery ; at each powder-magazine, arsenal, or military depot, hospital, archives, treasury and mosque. Commissaries shall be appointed by the Turkish authorities for each part of the materiel, as the treasury, arsenals, artillery, hospitals, pro vision stores, and archives, charged to hand over the same to commissaries appointed for that purpose by the Corn in..n der-in Chief of the Russian Army. Immediately the troops have left the place the above mentioned posts are to be relieved by Russian posts in the presence of the above-named Turkish commander and of the newly-appointed Russian commandant. The Turkish soldiers are to give up their arms and accoutrements to the Russian posts, and under the orders of their com mander are to march towards the Mainly Redoubt, to await instructions for their further movements. The remittal of the above-mentioned articles by the commissaries is to take place the day after the evacuation of the place. Art. 2. The garrison of Kars surrendering prisoners of war, with the Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish Army and all the military authorities, will leave the place with the honours of war, and deposit their arms, flags, (Itc., in a spot agreed upon previously, whence they will proceed to the destination indicated to them by the Russian commander in-chief. As a testimonial of the valorous resistance made by the garrison of Kars, the officers of all ranks are to keep their swords. All the troops forming the garrison of Kars, except those actually in hospital from illness, are to leave the fort- ress in full uniform, with drums beating and colours flying, having first discharged their muskets, and are to assemble at ten a.m. near the ruins of the village of Gumbel They are to deploy in a single line, in columns, by battalions. The artillerymen are to form separate columns by regiments. The Redifs, Lazes, and Bashi- Bazouks are to form separately at half a verat distance from the other troops. The garrison are to pile their arms, flags, and accoutrements, and to form in the preceding order in front of the line of muskets. The Mushir Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Anatolia is then to wait upon the Russian commander-in chief and hand him the muster-roll of his troops, and a report of all the materiel stipulated in the act of surrender. Delegates of the Russian army will then call over the muster-roll, and enregister the officers and men of the Turkish army, for which object the Turkish authorities are called upon to present the registers of their respective commands. The enregistration finished, all the prisoners of war, headed by their officers, will proceed in columns to the bridge of Tchiftli-Kaya, where they will be met by the Russian troops appointed to serve as their escort. The Turkish troops mentioned in the subjoined articles as having permission to return to their homes will take the Tamra road, under an especial escort, and will halt for the night near the village of Kotanly ; they bind them selves to respect the inhabitants of that village, and not to commit any excess. The column will continue its march the following day in the same order, and halt for the night at the village of Tosanly. On the third day, when they will have reached the foot of the Sagauloug, the Russian troops will stop and the Turks continue their march across the chain of mountains in the direction of Erzeroum. The Turks engage themselves not to enter the village of Bar dours, occupied by militiamen of the Russian camp. The Turkish stragglers who within twenty-four hours of the last day's march should not have crossed the Sagami() ug will be considered as prisoners of war. In evacuating the town and fortress of Kars the military authorities of the Turkish army engage themselves to leave there a sufficient number of medical men and nurses . _ . . to take care of the sick left in the hospitals until their recovery. Art. 3. The private property of members of the army of every rank is respected. Each individual belonging to the personnel of the army is authorised to sell his property or take it away at his own cost of carriage. Art. 4. The militia (Redifs, Bashi-Bazouks, and Lazes), their number having first been accurately ascertained, will be allowed to return to their homes. The Redifs, Baahi•Bazouks, and Lazes in hospital will have the same right under the same conditions, as soon as well enough to leave. Art. 5. The non combatants of the army, as scriveners, interpreters, nurses, are allowed to return to their homes as soon as their number has been accurately ascertained. Art. 6. To General Williams is reserved the right of designating at his choice in a list, which must be previously submitted to the approval of General Mouravieff, of a THE PRESS. certain number of persons to whom permission will be given to return to their homes. Military men, subjects of one of the belligerent powers, are excluded from this list. Art. 7. All persons indicated in Articles 4, 15, and 6 engage themselves by their word of honour not to bear arms against his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias during the whole duration of the present war. Art. 8. The inhabitants of the town throw themselves upon the generosity of the Russian Government, which takes them under its protection. Immediately the troops have given up their arms the inhabitants of the town are to send a deputation, consist ing of the principal inhabitants of the place, to give the keys to the Russian commander•in•chief, and to trust themselves unreservedly to the generosity of the august Sovereign of Russia. Art. 9. The public monuments and buildings of the town belonging to the Government are to be respected and left intact. It being the principle of the Russian Government to respect the customs and traditions of the people subjected to its government, and especially the buildings devoted to worship, it will not allow any damage to be done to the religious monuments or historical souvenirs of Kars. Signed and approved by, W. S. WILLIAMS, Major-General. Colonel de KAuPIWAWN, Chief of the Military Chancery of the Commander•in Chief of the Army of the Caucasus. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. A despatch from Marshal Pelissier, dated Dec. 11, has been received by the Minister of War at Paris, detailing the incidents of the attack of the Russians on the Bth against the French outposts in the valley of Baidar. The surprise, for the moment, appears to have been complete, the Russians, during the dark and rainy night, having advanced and stir rounded the villages of Orkousta and Baga before they commenced their attack at the break of day. The French outposts held their ground most gal lantly, against far superior numbers, till the reserve companies arrived to their assistance, under General Niel and Colonel Lacretelle, when the offensive was immediately undertaken by the French ; after a sharp fusillade and a short struggle, the Russians were driven back, and pursued for some distance, with the loss of 150 men killed, wounded, and pri soners. The Invalide Russe of the 20th instant publishes the following extract from Prince Gortschakoft's journal of the military operations from the 7th to the 25th of November (Nth of November to 7th of December : From the 7th to the 25th of November (19th of Novem ber to the 7th of December) nothing of particular import ance took place in the Crimea; the allies, under the fire of our intrenchments on the north side of Sebastopol, con tinned their work of the levelling of the batteries con structed against Bastions Nos. 4 and 5, and the construc tion of a rampart between Bastions 5 and 8. On the left flank of our positions, and at Eupatoria, there have been some outpost skirmishes, in which our cavalry, Cossacks, and our Greeks of Balaklava, have constantly had the advantage over the enemy. THE COMMANDING OFFICERS of the allied forces of Constantinople lately entered into a convention with the Divan to form a military police, for the purpose of repressing crimes and misdemeanours in the town of Constantinople. The Sultan, it is reported, when the fact of the convention was brought under his notice, put his veto on the project at once. BARON SEEBACH, the Saxon envoy at the French Court, arrived at Dresden on Sunday from Paris. After receiving fresh instructions, be proceeded im mediately on his way to St. Petersburg. Baron Seebach is son-in-law to Count Nesselrode, and his mission is said to be connected with the negotiations for peace. THE GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE, who holds to the ultra policy of the war party in Russia, is related to have frequent and violent altercations with the Em peror on the subject of the war. On one occasion the Grand Duke is reported to have said :—" Qu'il ne voulait rien avoir de commun avec un Rornanoff assez peu soucieux de l'honneur de son mon et de la dignite de sa couronne pour songer a conclure la pair avec les puissances occidentales " ; while at several state ceremonials and councils it was re marked that he affected not to place himself beside his sovereign. THE EXPLANATIONS demanded by the Western powers of Austria, on the subject of the disarmament of so large a portion of her army, are denied by the Vienna papers, which assert that no such demands could have been made, " as Austria voluntarily gave the fullest explanations beforehand." THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, OD the withdrawal of the allied fleets from the Baltic, hastened to make known that 1,000 lasts of salt for the provinces of Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland would be admitted duty free. Notwithstanding the rigours of the season several cargoes of salt have been shipped in Swedish harbours, and run successfully to the Russian ports. SATIMDAY, Sortign litarrzsgbatutt. Vitisixeorer, Dec. 2tii. BEFORE discussing the terms of the treaty betwixt the allies and Sweden, it may be well to mention the effect that it has produced at the Diet and in Ger many. The trepidation that was discernible a short time since amongst the members of the " parti de la Croix " has been sensibly augmented. That which had before been treated as vague and problematical has been brought home with a force at once distaste ful and unexpected, and they see before them the danger that hitherto had been pertinaciously dis credited. With the allies Austria is not believed nor trusted—neither honoured nor feared—and her . offices, for which she may presume to claim thanks, are purely selfish. Prussia, as constituted under the. "de la Croix" faction, is held to be a spurious Russia, and under such camarilla guidance cannot bee treated as an independent State, master of itself.. Let it be always and carefully understood that the army, the people, and the partisans of the Primo Royal, resist the policy that opposes them to England. The war of 11354-5 has shown that there are three primary powers France, England, and Russia. Each can make war, unassisted, on its own account. The first is military, " quand meme," and of a prat_ tical experience that has met with general accepta tion and honour, save at the hands of M. de Gerlach, the associate of the King of Prussia. The third is equally military, by force of position, but of a nature defensive rather than aggressive, excepting on the Persian and Turkish frontier, away from the soldier foes of Western Europe, with whom, unaided, it has never coped with setters. The second is maritime, to:an extent, predominant in material and moral excel lence, never before witnessed on any waters of the old or new world, and possessed of an army whose prowess. is in an inverse ratio to its numbers. With the mighty three, with that all-powerful triumvirate,, rests the dominion of the world. A state of conflict,, where amity is an indispensable requirement, is unwise and injurious, and pleasing only to those who. watch the expenditure of blood and treasure in a. deceitful and inglorious pusillanimity. Other king doms are secondary in their military combinations,. and dependent upon that chance of circumstance , which renders them, from sordid motives, dishonest. to friend and foe. Austria was defeated by her oppressed subjects in Italy, and was prostrated in Hungary. Prussia owed its existence, as a nation. to the treaty of Tilsit, and was incapable of boldir the royal Government against a constituent asserr .bly in Brandenburgh Castle. The minor kingdom• 3 and states are bought or beaten into subjection, ,lowing with hesitating steps the master who buy s or t h e satrap who maltreats them. Germany, as • , mediator, is incompetent. Although there may k some that are not faithless, and others who rev have a decent respect for public virtue, yet, aa upon the country that is not, Aar whole, a taint is gerous to others only because it is impotent, Vit a mercy of England, and hoe- .ports are at the .ins of trampled corn have been used and may be used again by France, without permission and Sri thout indemnity, as a common stage for the ;teat fights of Europe. Is it necessary to turn to UAW' y f There are many tomes where the same tido. is told and retold with unde viating Iteration, *DA %tv,:re is a dark page not yet un folded. France and )filar great powers, are at war with Russia, a mighty na' Jon. The cause of conflict must be arranged betwii t them, without petty intervention, or else by a Enror,ean and catholic consent that shall be honourable V.) all, and where foes may be reunited as friends, with out halting to dwell on the memory of the past. Silo/ ild the power of Russia he diminished to an extent de 4 ..rimental to her European position, that decrease of prestige would go to furnish an increase of Germanic power ; and this last, chequered by disunion, venality, and faithlessness, would be destructive of the European balance. Whatever amount of influ ence b e subtracted from Russia, and added to Austria or P 1 ussia "improper," must produce a result that wov.ld immediately send France to the Rhine in self protection, and put on a war footing a naval arma ment in England ready for cooperation in the Baltic. The mission of General Canrobert to Stockholm was commonly said to be one of a character simply complimentary, and the illusion was not dispelled until after the return of MM. do Pfordten and Von Beust from Paris, when palpable misgivings were . exhibited of a proximate dilemma. The tone of the minor kingdoms underwent an ambiguous change. They affected an independence of action for the nonce, by having a direct communication with St. Petersburg, which only served to raise the contemp tuous ridicule of Austria and Prussia, for the Ger manic States were not in concert together, and Austria was not primarily interested in the Baltic