The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

THE WAIL A telegraphic despatch from Marshal Pelissier, dated December Bth, announcing a smart encounter at the advanced posts, has been the sole point in the week's news from the camp. This brief despatch does not state the cause or object of such au attack on the part of the Russians, but merely announces its im mediate repulse by the French advanced guard, and the capture of a few prisoners. Beyond this attack, military operations appear to be suspended on both sides; the Russians are stated to be gradually drawing in their troops round Baktchi-Serai and Simferopol, and reducing the strength of their ad. vanced posts; while the English cavalry are daily being sent down to Scutari, where a strong reserve force is being collected. The weather though cold was still fine. Vast trains of provisions are said, by the St. Petersburg papers, to have passed through Perekop, en route to the Russian headquarters, while large supplies were also expected via Taganrog and the Spit of Arabat. _ . In the south of the Crimea no ftesh movement has yet been made by the Russians, but it was generally believed at Kettch that an attack against the town, now held by the Anglo• Turkish Contingent, would certainly be made dating the winter. The town was being barricaded at all points, and a French steamer, the Sesostris, with mortars of enormous range, was to bombard the Russian camp at Genitchi. • Asia the )1! is brief bad. Tin ready From . intelligence is u. any. attempt of Selim Pacha to relieve Kars had failed, and the city had at length surrendered. The Morning Post of Wednesday made the fol lowing announcement : We regret to state that authentic intelligence has been received which leaves no doubt as to the fete of Kars. Ismail Pacha (General Kmety), with another officer who succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the Russian outposts have effected their escape. When they quitted Kars, General Williams had been compelled by famine to send a flag of truce to the Russian camp, offering capitulation. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. Lord Clarendon received on Tuesday a despatch from Maior-General Williams, K.C.8., dated Kars, October 31st, announcing that the Muchir had be stowed various dEcorations upon the English officers engaged in the battle of the 3rd, and requesting Lord Clarendon to obtain the gracious permission of the Queen for those officers to accept and wear those honours they had so nobly won. The telegraphic despatch from Marshal Pelissier received in Paris gives the following account of the affair at the outposts : Sebastopol, Dec. 8, 1 p.m. have received the following despatch from the general in command of the first division of the first corps : A body of front 2,000 to B,OOP infantry, and about 400 or WO horse, at daybreak this morning, attacked Baga Ourkonsta-Skvaka. The enemy beat a retreat after a sharp fusillade, which lasted for an hour and a half. Some thirty prisoners were left in our hands, two of whom were officers. 1 am not aware of the number of killed add wounded. Our loss is insignificant. An Extraordinary Supplement of the Invalide Raw, distributed at St. t'etersbui'g on the 2nd December, contained the following bulletin : Aide•de•Camp General Prince Gortschakoff reports as follows by telegraphic despatch of the date of the Ist De cember, ten p.m. : All goes on well in the Crimean peninsula. Nothing new. A small detachment of the enemy has been surprised on the south coast, and ten French were made prisoners. A Turkish captain has also been taken by our men in the neighbourhood of Eupatoria. Despatches have been received from Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons, G.C.8., inclosing reports from Capt. Osborne of his late operations off Gheisk and Glofira, in the Sea of Azoff, w;th details of the de • struction of the vast stoles of corn and forage collected on the coast by the Russians for transport to their Crimean army. _ _ _ Captain Osborne states that on the 3rd of November he arrived in the Gheisk limarl, and made the neces sary arrangements for a combined movement of the boats and gun-boats of the small squadron under his command, at daylight on the 4th. At the appointed time he ran in to Vodina, a station three miles north of Glofira, where tiers of corn-stacks, six deep, stood along the coast for at least two miles. Under cover of the gun-boats he landed a strong force, who set fire to the stacks and re-embarked before the Cossacks in charge were aroused. The town of Glofira, where corn-stacks for some miles in length were stored off the coast, was next attacked. The enemy here were in great force and strongly intrenched, but by a simple manoeuvre, by which several points were threatened at once, the boats' crews landed on one or two points THE PRESS. 7 - , -;- . and successfully set fire to the different stacks and stores of corn, rockets and carcases from the gun boats effecting the rest. On the morning of the 6th the whole squadron weighed and ran into Gheisk, anchoring just off the east end of the steppe, when for "four miles," continues Captain Osborne, " corn and hay were stacked in quantities far beyond what I had conceived to be possible." A strong landing force, in three divisions, was immediately embarked in the boats of the squadron and thrown upon three different points of the coast. The wind being fortu nately right on shore, a few minutes' firing from the gun-boats set some dozen stacks of corn and hay in flames, which rolled such dense volumes of smoke upon the Russians that it was impossible for them to see the exact position of our men or act against them effectually. The fires of the centre and lett having joined, the two divisions of boats' crews were re embarked and landed to the right, where, under a heavy fire from the heights, our men drove back the Russians, capturing one gun, and ultimately set fire to the whole mass of corn, as well as to large stores of fishing materials, Sec. By two p.m. the work finished, and the boats' crews re-embarked without the loss of a man, and with only six wounded. Half the squadron was immediately sent back to Glofira to com• plete some work left unfinished the day previous, and to freshen up the smouldering corn-stacks with some additional fire. This Movement was executed with success,land the *hole squadron met off Uheisk on the 7th. During these proceedings the number of our men engaged never exceeded tWo hun dred, while the enemy, Captain Osborne states, had from three to four thousand men upon the coast. The conduct of the officers and men engaged is highly praised by Captain Osborne, and in the case of Commander Kennedy was brought specially under the notice of the Admiralty, who have rewarded that gallant officer with his promotion. THE ENGLISH ARMY. The returns lately published in the Globe of the actual force under arms in the Crimea are disputed, in a most material point, by the Times correspon dent : The writer may be mistaken. On one point he cer• tainly has miscalculated, and that is the strength of the regiments out here. lie has assumed an average which is considerably too high. For example, the 30th has re• ceived very few draughts, and we all know how it suffered at the Alma, at Inkermann, in the trenches, and at the two assaults on the Itedan. Its present effective strength would tell on an average very materially. There are several regiments in the same category, while others are very strong in men, though not perhaps containing so many old soldiers as could be desired.—Times cor., Nov. 24. THE TURKISH CONTINGENT. The Bashi Bazouks, of whom a good deal has been heard, one way and another, have added a fresh laurel to their fame, by a desperate attempt at revolt on board a steam packet conveying them from Syria to Smyrna. The following is the account given in letters from Smyrna. It will be admitted that their design to get a double fee is scarcely original, but still a very natural consequence of paying men, who never had two pice in their lives, four hundred francs in advance ! A tragical scene took place yesterday morning on board the Tancrede steam-packet, at the moment when she ar rived from Syria. On her leaving Jaffa, the English agent had embarked on board of her 105 Bashi•Bazouks belong ing to the English Contingent. As these men were pro ceeding to their destination without any officers, and had received five months' pay, or 400 francs, in advance, they thought the best plan to adopt was to desert, and then re enlist with some other agent and be paid over again. At Tripoli and at Alexandria they endeavoured in vain to de ceive the vigilance of the captain, and they therefore plotted together to three their way from the vessel in a body when they reached Smyrna. When they attempted to carry their intention into effect the captain of the Tan crede armed his crew, and, notwithstanding their numeri cal inferiority, they bravely opposed the efforts of the Bashi•Bazouks. But thirteen men could not long resist 105 of these bandits, who had armed themselves with handspikes and other formidable weapons. Signal was then made to the Olivier frigate, and Captain Lamothe sent a body of men under the command of two officers. The Tancrede was boarded, and some of the Bashi-Bazouks jumped overboard, and others took refuge in the hold. They were disarmed, but not without resistance, and some blood was shed. Tho ringleader of the revolt, a tall negro, who had assassinated three persons before he left Jaffa, was severely wounded, as were fourteen others. Ten of those who had jumped overboard were picked up by the boats of the Olivier, and with the others, making eighty nini in number, were delivered over to the Turkish authorities. The wounded were removed to the civil hos pital. THE RUSSIAN FORCES. The reports of deserters represent the Russian army to be very seriously reduced, but they still admit that strong reserves are concentrated round Duvenkoi and Simferopol, where also large stores of provisions for winter are collected:— The regiments, they say, are so reduced that most of them have been melted down to two battalions, and, if the orders which have been given to send twenty men from each company into the interior to instruct recruits are ►S ATURDA ?, carried out, some regiments will altogether disappear. The :Ifird Infantry Regiment, Borodynsky, belonging to the 17th division—a regiment which to o k p art in the battles of Alma and Inkermann—has already h a d an order to that effect. It will be incorporated, or rath er di v i ded, among the other regiments of the division, w i t h the promise that it should be re-formed in times of peace. Th e artillery seems not to be much better off than the infantry, especially that part of it which is in front on the plateau. One deserter says that the horses were in such wretched condition when the Emperor reviewed them that he repri. manded the colonel publicly. The consequence was that the batteries, which were reviewed the next day on some other point, had the best artillery horses brought up fur the occasion from the batteries in the rear, where the horses were in better condition, having been less exposed sad fatigued.— Times cur., Nov. 24. At present they are displaying great activity in fortifying the Tchongar road, which is said to be their main line of communication with the interior. As regards the dispositions of the forces they are much the same:— There are still eleven divisions of infantry remaining in the south, two having gone north. Immediately atter th e fall of Sebastopol, when the French went down towards the Upper Belbeck, a great number of troops were sent that way, so that from the pus of Aitodor down to Albared and Kutshuck Sioren there were seven divisions, the 6th, 7th, tith, 9th, 10th, 13th reserve; and the 15th, the 16th, and 17th were on the Mackenzie heights, the 4th and sth at Inkermann, the 12th in the Severnaia, and the 11th on the Belbeck. When the demonstrations from Eupatoria forced the Russians to show front in that direction the 4th and sth were bent there; the 11th came down from the Beibee.k to take their place; and the Bth were sent to Apiece the latter. Since the fall of Sebastopol not a man of regular troops is said to have arrived in the Crimea—only about 20,000 militia. These latter were of those enrolled in April last. Probably, in order to work on the religious feelings of the new conscripts, they were all enrolled (luring the holy week —23 in 1,010. They were of all ages, front seventeen to sixty—boys and old men—no distinction was made ; whether they were married or not, they were taken according to the will of their owners, who naturally sent those who were of least use to them The new conscripts were drilled fur a month, and then sent otr.—lb. THE WAR IN ASIA. Letters from the Turkish camp at Sugdidi, of the 11th of November, state that Omer Pacha was about to advance at once on Kutais. 'the whole army had moved up from the Ingour to the town of Sugdidi, two days after the battle. The inhabitants at first displayed the most remarkable dread of the Turks, not a living soul remaining in the town, but the strict discipline enforced by Omer Pacha in his army was gradually bringing back the refugees. A cha- racteristic anecdote of Turkish character is given by the Times correspondent. When the batteries of the Ingour were taken, the first soldier who entered, Perceiving a Russian colonel lying dead upon the ground, he plucked off his glove and appropriated a valuable diamond ring which was upon his linger. Knowing, how ever, that it would be impossible very long to keep secret the possession of so valuable a prize, he showed his Usbashi, or captain, his treasure, and requested permission to keep it. The Usbashi told the man that he was quite r•ght to bring the prize to him, and that henceforward it should be transferred to the finger of the said Usbashi. The soldier, not satisfied with this arrangement, referred the matter to the Bimbashi, or major, who said that both he and the Usbashi were highly culpable in daring to retain the ring from their superior officer, and that he would therefore relieve them of the subject of dispute. From the Bimbashi the soldier went to the Kaima Kama, or lieutenant•colonel, 'rho at once followed the example of his inferiors, and took possession of the ring. The soldier still persevered, however, and went to the Meer Ali (colonel), who determined that he was the rightful pos sessor of the ring by virtue of his rank, and dismissed the rival claimants from his presence in the most summary manner. Next day a French officer attached to the stilt' of Omer Pacha observed a private soldier prowling near the tent of the commander•in-chief. The story of the ring was at once retailed by its original possessor to this gentle man, who laid the matter before his llighness, and the man had not only the satisfaction of regaining possession of his property, but of knowing that those who had at tempted successively to deprive him of it bad been severely reprimanded for their conduct.—Times cur., Nov. 11. A further letter from Trebizond, dated the 19th, states that Omer Pacha had reached the river Marnai, a few miles from Kutais : From that station to Rvdout•Kale the roads are good, and in possession of the Turks, consequently head-quarters are transferred to that place. The transport of provisions and ammunition was very easy, and was principally dune by Mingrelians, who being regularly paid served with zeal. The security of the roads was obtained after Omer Pacha had taken possession of the village of Kappa, where eight Russian battalions were. In this village were found 12,000 winter coats, which were quite a god-send to the Ottoman army, and other articles of equipment. Mustapha advances, it is said, on Kutais by the great road of Um.- gheti, and we shall, before long, be informed of the junc tion of these corps.—Leller from Trelthrond, Nov. 18. From Kars the information is scanty; Mouravieff, by the latest dates, still kept up a strict blockade. A letter, dated the 3rd of November, had reached Paris, direct from the city, b u t mere l y contained a brief account of a skirmish with the Russians miliiii