The Press. — London, England, 1856-04-05 00:00:00

unencumbered by too copious a use of tech nical phrases. We are surprised to find Persia possessed of so much vitality. In 1820 she made head against Russia, and defeated her armies in two separate pitched battles. But the real strength of Russia in these countries lies in the disunion of the Mahomedans; for the Turks and Persians belong to two different sects, and each pique themselves on their orthodoxy with a tenaciousness_thaf would not disgrace Christians. The consequence is that either would rather unite with Russia against the other than form a mutual league for de fence against the common enemy. In the war which broke out in 1828 Turkey was taken at a great disadvantage, while Rus sia was in a state of complete preparation. The Turks nevertheless fought with great gallantry on various occasions, and I their remissness at Kars was succeeded by a piost obstinate and devoted defence of the fortress of Akhalkalak. We subjoin General Mon teith's account of the operations before Kars : The fortress of Kars is of great antiquity, and was celebrated in the time of the Armenia , ' kings, but it has been greatly enlarged by the Turks. Before the use of artillery it was considered a place of great strength, and ventured to stand a siege by Timour, by who►n it was taken ; though it was more fortunate when besieged by Nadir Shah. The upper fortress is divided into two parts, the highest serving as a citadel, where the Turkish janissaries usually resided, the lower part principally occu pied by the inhabitants; the whole is inclosed within walls of stone, built on the slope of a hill, but the nature of the ground does not allow of a ditch or glacis. It is corn mended from without by some hills within short cannon range ; and from the circumstance of the walls being built on a steep descent, the exterior of many parts of the fort real' is seen from the outside. Two suburbs on the low ground afforded cover to within a short distance of the walls, and were principally inhabited by Armenians, Kurds, and some Jews; they were only defended by a low wall of 1 ose stones, and were indeed incapable of further defence. The population was about 12,000, the majority of whom were Christians. Prince Paskiewitch determined to occupy Kutchik Koee, for which purpose he was obliged to march nearly round the fortress—a dangerous movement, both from the presence of the Turkish army, and from the number of ravines, now filled with water from recent rains, which the troops would have to pass. They had, however, less difficulty to encounter than had been anticipated ; for they hardly met with any resistance from the Turkish army, which merely defended the village of Azakchai for a few minutes, andithen retreated beyond the Kars river. The Russians were now encamped so ns to intercept the road from Erzeroum, and it was determined to give battle to the Seraskier should he arrive before the place was taken, though there was every reason to hope, from the slowness of his movements, that this would not be the case. The Pacha of Kars, in a vain attempt to retrieve the emir he hail committed in permitting the Russians to perform their march without opposition, now made a serious attack with about 5,1100 cavalry, and the infantry of lspers, but without success, and only a few of the men, profiting by the broken pound, were enabled to re gain the town; the remainder retired beyond the Kars river. The cavalry did not again venture to molest the be sie 4ing army. fhe Turks having neglected to occupy a range of hills which extend to the suburb of °data Bassi, General Pas kiewitch ordered it to be fortified, and placed there six battalions of infantry, two regiments of Cossacks, and six pieces of artillery. This may be considered as the first Pparallel, extending on both sides of the ravine of the ashkoe Chie, from which the batteries commanded and took in reverse the works attacked. Four batteries were arnstrueted, whose fire was principally directed against ar intrenched camp, which the Turks still occupied out s de the town as well as the great burying-ground beyond th • river. The first notice the Turks had of the existence or these batteries was their opening fire on the morning of the 23rd of June. They soon recovered from their sur prise, however, and returned the fire with vigour; but they were dislodged at the game time from the burying ground and the rocks behind it ; and though they made strenuous efforts to recover the burying-ground, and for the moment succeeded, they were at last forced to retreat, and the Russians were able tostestablish themselves perma nently there. The Turkish intrenched camp occupied the ground which was intended for the second parallel, bit after an obstinate conflict they were driven entirely b:yond the Kars Chie ; they were equally unsuccessful in t leir attempt to defend the suburb opposite the castle, and the Russians lodged themselves in the buildings which the puha hail neglected to destroy. The second parallel was now completed ; a battery of four pieces of heavy artillery was established in the Palace of Timour Paella, which Colonel Bourtsoff bad made himself master of; another, of six pieces, was placed on the height occupied by the Turkish intrenched camp, and a third on the height occu pied by Colonel Borcdine. These batteries swept three aides of the fortress, and soon silenced the Turkish artillery, spreading terror among the inhabitants, who began to seek shelter in the ravines of the Kara Deng. The bastions and ramparts of the subtle)) of Ouata Tipha beginning to fall. Prince Paskiewitch instantly ordered a breaching battery to be established on the walls of the suburb, from which the Turks were entirely driven, and General Mouravieff succeeded in occupying the Kara Daug ' THE PRESS. and the battery which defended it. Colonel Borodine, with his brigade, and the Tith and 40th Chasseurs, then crossed the river, and occupied the other suburb ; so that the Russians were soon masters of all the ground to the very foot of the citadel, where the inhabitants, in the wild• est disorder, were endeavouring to seek shelter. The walls were rapidly falling before the fire of the Russian artillery, and that of the enemy was silenced; the bravest and most active of the Russians had established them selves on the terraces of the houses, and kept up an in cessant fire on the walls of the citadel ; the gates were soon forced, and the nearest towers, with twenty-five pieces of artillery, were in the hands of the besiegers. The Turks made a greater resistance on the western side, but with little success, for the whole of the lower fortress was soon occupied, and the pacha gave up all hopes of a longer re sistance. A white Hag was now hoisted; Prince Paskie witch demanded the surrender of the paella and of the Turkish garrison as prisoners of war, said the disarming of the militia and local troops, who were to be permitted to return to their homes. So great was the panic that 1,000 belhis, stationed in the heart of the town, passed before the Russian troops without venturing to commit any act of hostility. Emaum Paella hesitated to accept these terms, trusting to be relieved, and demanded two days to consider, declar• ing his determination to bury himself under the ruins of the part of the citadel he still occupied. The principal Mollahs brought this answer to the general, who replied, " I will dive you two hours to make up your minds. Mercy if you surrender, death if you resist." As this threat was supported by forty pieces of artillery, ready to open on the confined space of the upper citadel, the garrison began to show signs of insubordination, and EIMIUM Paella, tearing an insurrection, .n despair brought the keys of the place, and gave himself up a prisoner. The garrison surrendered at ten a.m., and the Russian flag was hoisted on the ramparts. The following is the character he draws of Prince Paskiewitch : Gene' al Paskiewitch fortunately possessed an instinctive knowledge of character, and he completely trusted those whom he employed. In his attention to the civil adminis- tration, he was indefatigable, and he put a stop to the abuses which had so long disgraced and ruined the Russian affairs. Men of every rank and class had free access to him ; they might bring their own interpreter, and be sure of having justice quickly administered. His loss was deeply felt in Georgia, which he was rapidly getting into order ; and he had neatly succeeded iu bringing the tribes of the Caucasus into pacific relations with the Russian Government, by employing a portion of their troops and not interfering with their internal goverment—the only system of policy, as I otten heard from his own lips, that he thought likely to succeed. A commencement was made by forming a Circassian body-guard at St. Petersburg, with high pay and great advantages, privates ranking as officers. The four Mahomedan regiments raised by him still form part of the Russian anny ; and had the Polish war not summoned away the Prince, the native troops would have been augmented to 25,000 men. Jn his outward deportment Prince Paskiewitch was hasty and sometimes even violent, which appears to be a fashion able piece of affectation among the Russian officers—per haps from a desire of imitating the eccentricities of Suwaroff; but in his actions Paskiewitch was as remarkable for his cool deliberation as for the rapid execution of whatever he had decided upon. It has been said of him ( reversing the e;igram on Charles II.) that he seldom said a wise thing and never did a foolish one. I had my self a great deal of communication with him regarding the payment of the contribution levied on Persia, winch I had been appointed to superintend, and always experienced great kindness and consideration from him, having access to him at all hours when any difficulty arose about the pay ment, an annoyance that was constantly taking place from the caprice or insolence of the inferior agents. All persons who wish to get a clear view of the military resources of these regions, and their re;at►ons to Russia, England, and one another, should read General Monteith's book. It has the additional recommendation of being prefaced by an excellent map ; and, though it may seem a trifling matter to notice, we must remark that it has also an index, the want of which is frequently a great inconve nience to readers who use a book for any purpose beyond mere amusement. Causeries du Lundi. Par C. A. Sainte .Beuve. Tome Onzieme. Paris : Gamier Freres. Tms volume is the eleventh and lust of a long series, in which essays on people of note in all countries, and in all ages, have been com prised. I'iiny, Firdousi the Persian poet, Froissart, Rabelais, St. Francis of Sales, Fenelon, Gibbon, Voltaire, Lord Chesterfield, Balzac, Goethe, Frederick the Great, and Alfred de Musset, have each received their due share of gossipping criticism. The present volume, besides essays on Cowper, Dante, Charron, Madame de Maintenou, and others, contains a copious index, the study of which alone would give a reader some smattering of general literature. M. Sainte-Beuve's touch is light and graceful, and in dealing with the lives of men who are not well known to his readers he conveys facts rather by implication than by straightforward statement, thus avoid- SATURDAY, ing prosiness, while he imparts actual in formation. There is much that is spirituel in his pages ; but, with the majority of French writers of the present day, he deals in esprit rather than in wit. Naturally, the essay that we read with most pleasure is that on " William Cowper, ou de la. " Poesie Domestique." The French critic is thoroughly versed in Cowper's letters, and in Southey's life of the poet of the "Task." Il e follows Cowper through the events of his life ith delicacy and elegance, culls the most favorable specimens of his letters and poems, and presents them in a French dress without robbing them of their English graces. It is too much the fashion to undervalue Cowper in this age of spasmodic poetry. His easy melody and fluent rhythm are not appreciated after the complicated jangle of Browning and the mysticism of Bailey. But this deprecia tion of such a man as Cowper will merely suc ceed in showing the unhealthy state of mind of the worshippers of the new poets, and good judges will continue to assign him a prominent niche in the Temple of Fame. In his essay on Cowper, M. Sainte-Beuve deals less in criticism than in details Jf the poet's life. We must regret the absence of th e critic's opinion, while we acknowledge the value of this mode of treatment. Cowper's poems are so well illustrated by his life, that it is sufficient for us to read one by the light of the other, without needing further commen tary. Southey has very happily said that but for Mrs.Unwin, Cowper would never have been a poet; and but fur Lady Austen he would never have been a popular poet. According to Corn te's theory : given a melancholy religionist, infirm in body, and dineased in mind, who found his ouiy solace and comfort in the society of an aged woman, who acted to him like a mother, and you have the "Task " as a necessary consequence. To connect Cowper's poems with the various incidents of his life has not much novelty for the English reader. But the Frenchman, who is not familiar with either life or poems, will find M. Sainte• Beuve's essay a valuable study, and will ac cept it with pleasure as a contribution towards the solution of that problem, " le Home." On Cowper's letters M. Sainte-Beuve ex presses himself with much felicity In the retired life which he leads, there is little to recount ; he talks of himself, of his readings, which are, at first, few, and of the little accidents which scarcely diversify his tranquil inner life. There were in him certain points of profound melancholy, which were never entirely healed ; these he avoids touching on, and prefers to appear quick, ingenious, kindly, and pleasant. He commences one such letter by stating that he has " nothing to say," and under that pretext he sets himself to chat pleasantly and sensibly ; he gives the whole theory of familiar come• spondence among friends; writing on, one word chasing another, letting the pen run away without a thought—like the tongue in conversation, or the foot in walking. The following passage on domesticity is remarkable from one of our lively neighbours, one of a nation whose disregard of home is proverbial : It is necessary to distinguish the different families, aiol, so to speak. the different races of men of wit and genius. Cowper is the poet of family, though he never was a husband or a father: he is the poet of home, of well•regulated, pure, and sweetly animated home, of the grove at the end of the garden, or of the fireside corner. Stormy and passionate poets like Byron, worldly and sprightly natures like Moore and Hazlitt, would naturally find little to like in him. Byron in a moment of ill temper called Cowper a coddled poet. Moore laid it down as a rule that genius and domestic happiness were incompatible with, and excluded, each other. One day, when he asked in Wordsworth's presence if such was not necessarily the case, the grave Poet of the Lakes replied, " Men do not make their homes unhappy because they have genius, but because they have not enough genius ; a mind and sentiments of a higher order would render them capable of seeing and feeling all the beauty of domestic ties." PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE present is one of the best numbers of the New Quarterly lately published. The reviews aro written with more than the usual critical care, and the selection of books, though not, quite comprising all the prominent works of the last quarter, is ytt excellent as far as it goes. The most valuable article in the present number is upon " The Military Forces and Finances of the Great European Powers," by J. Macgregor, Esq., M.P. It is written with all that power of statistical detail for which the author is celebrated, and presents to us at a glance, as the tenor of the article indicates, the military strength and financial condition of Europe. At such a mo- •