The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-27 00:00:00

THE WAR IN ASIA.

The Moniteur publishes the following, dated Constan-
tinople, November 12 :—According to the last accounts,
Omar Pasha was expecting a battle. General Mourn-
vieff had detached a division from his army, which was ad-
vancing by forced marches on Kutais by the Akhiska-road.
About 8,000 Turks, under Moustapha Pasha, had left Batoum
to try and cut off this detachment. Early in the month they
had reached Osurgethi. The Commander-in-Chief bade them
meet him at Kutai, which will become the theatre of some
important engagement, unless the Russians prefer intrenching
themselves in the defiles which protect the advance to Teflis.

THE LARGEST SHIP IN ENGLAND is the new one in Chat-
ham Dockyard. Its dimensions are-300 feet long, 114 feet
wide, and 90 feet high. It was commenced in 1851, and has
sixty iron pillars and six travellers. The ends are glazed. A
30-gun floating battery is to be built in it immediately, to be
ready for launching in March next.
AN EXPERIMENTAL GUN of very peculiar construction was
proved at Woolwich on Monday morning. The gun was a
68-pounder, made of cast-steel, and manufactured by Messrs.
Krupp, of Essen, in Prussia, for Captain Creuse, Royal En-
gineers. It was supposed to be the largest piece of cast-steel
ever manufactured, and weighed between three and four tons.
A chemise, or outward covering of cast-iron, had been made
for it by Messrs. Walker, which brought its weight up to nine
tons. The proof charge was 251bs. of gunpowder, one wad,
and one of the projectiles made by the inventors, and intended
for service with the gun. At the first discharge the gun burst.
The sensation at the result was very great, as some supposed it
capable of resisting any amount of powder. Its declared value
was £1,500.
AT Woolwich, on Thursday, one of the cast-iron guns
taken at the capture of Bomarsund underwent an experi-
mental trial. The gunAa 56-pounder, had been bored for our
Lancaster shells, which, on this occasion, were heavily filled
with lead to the weight of 2 cwt. 81b. each shell, and
fired with 71b. of powder. The Russian metal, contrary
to all expectation, withstood the experiment unharmed, when
a second round was fired with the same result. A few more
of this class of guns, likewise captured at Bomursund, are lying
on the Arsenal-quay, and are to be subjected to a like change
n
I their calibre. Col. Wilmot, Captain Boxer, and the officers
who accompanied them in their inspection of the continental
foundries, have returned to Woolwich with the conviction
that our foreign neighbours are supplied with gun materials
far superior to our own.
AMENITIES OF WAR.—The Journal de Constantinople
publishes a letter of the 14th, in which we read :—" The
French troops are opposite to the Russians along the whole
line of the Tchernaya. A few days since the French soldiers,
who are always ingenious in finding means of passing away the
time, put themselves, along the line of the advanced posts, in
direct communication with the Russian soldiers placed oppo-
site to them. The plan which they adopted was this :—they
hoisted on the ends of their bayonets some small white hand-
kerchiefs ; the Russian soldiers, not to be wanting in polite-
ness, did the same ; thus showing that they were disposed for
a conference. The French soldiers then showed their bread
and coffee, and the Russians their gourds of brandy ; and
then, with common accord, they advanced towards each other
without arms, and took their coffee and brandy together. It
appears that this kind of recreation went on for some days
without the knowledge of the French and Russian officers.
The Gringalet Battery at times sent some shot among these
jovial gentlemen, but that did not prevent the meetings from
taking place. A few days since the General was informed of
the fact, and the most rigorous orders were issued to put a
stop to such proceedings. The captain, who ought at first to
have prevented them, has been punished?'
THE CAMPAIGN OF THE PRDTII.—A rumour has oozed out
at Constantinople, in the Galata suburb, where most of the
emigrants reside, that the English, French, and Turkish mili-
tary authorities now at the Tchernaya have drawn up and
settled their plan of campaign for the year 1856. All the ca-
valry of the allies, two Anglo-French army corps, the Turkish
Ordu in Silistria, and the reserve at Shumla, mustering 60,000
strong, are to advance on the Pruth in the month of March or
April next, and transfer the seat of war to Bessarabia. In the
Crimea, the allies mean to act strictly on the defensive, and it
will only be at Eupatoria that a force will be kept in readiness
to act in case of need. This plan is decidedly no Utopian
dream of the emigrants, since the Pontic generals cannot pos-
sibly think of again limiting the contest to the Crimea for the
year 1856. On the contrary, they must be devising how to
commence their operations, so as to occupy, with the least loss
of time, the most important line of attack and defence possessed
by the Russians, the right bank of the Pruth. Whether the
Russians will be able, in the course of this winter, to bring up
fresh forces to Kisheneff remains to be seen. In the winter
ending 1852 and ushering in 1853, they most certainly did
bring up troops while the ground was covered with ice and
snow.—Augsburg Gazette.
THE CAMP AT ALDERSHOTT.—The regular field days have
terminated at Aldershott, and the troops there enjoy the com-
parative repose due to the season. The period of the year has
arrived when our uncertain skies preclude much training be-
yond that which is always going on in barracks and on parade.
Why or how it is that things refuse to go right at Aldershott
we leave to others to explain, but that such is the case can be
clearly proved. First there was the blundering about the
contracts ; then the huts were found bad in design and defec-
tive in ventilation ; then it was remembered that they would
require foundations ; and next there was a great difficulty
about water. The surface drainage has not been provided for,
and large portions .of the camp are nearly as inaccessible
as if they stood in the midst of an Irish bog. It is a curious
commentary upon the manner in which the business is con-
ducted, that whereas the huts were originally to have been
constructed in six weeks, they are only now finished. It is
to be hoped that there is better management about the huts
in the Crimea, for at Aldershott it has occupied from February
until the end of October to provide shelter for 20,000 men—
considerably less than half the number of those who have, to
by protected against the inclemency of a Russian winter. In
fact it can no longer be disguised that Aldershott is a military
town, improvised with public money for a population of
20,000 soldiers, built in the first instance, like a Californian
city, of very flimsy materials, but destined, when occasion
serves to assume a more fixed and solid form. Unless more
Comprehensive minds are engaged in the work than hitherto,
it will reflect little credit on the country, for, though laid out
with due regularity, as we have already shown, nearly every
detail has been shamefully blundered.—Tones.
LORD NAAS ON THE WAR.—Lord Naas, who was Secre-
tary for Ireland under the Derby Administration, has been
meeting his constituents of the borough of Coleraine, and
touched upon the great question of the day. He believed
that with more vigour in our warlike preparations and more
plain-speaking in our diplomacy, the war might have been
avoided ; but he was not the less sure that it was just, and it
ought now to be continued till Russia was deprived of that
maritime supremacy in the Black Sea which had been the
cause of all the trouble. So long, however, as she retained
' that enormous seaboard in the Euxine, with those almost un-
assailable strongholds, that object would not be attained.
After the victories achieved and the advantages gained, were
we to limit our demands to these weary four points, or to
make peace by the assistance of German inscrutability or the
terms of the Vienna Conference ? No ; such a peace would
not satisfy the country : we must endeavour to make the re-
currence of the past impossible. Russia is the only aggressive
power on the continent. Her traditional policy is one of
aggrandisement. Our mission (said his lordship) is to force
her to change that policy; to show her that her great arma-
ments cannot ensure her victory—that her enormous frontier
is but a source of weakness—that military power is not the
only origin of a nation's greatness ; show her that all her
hope of ever placing a Russian dynasty on the Byzantine
throne is gone for ever ; force her to devote her young ener-
gies to the development of her countless resources, and you
a ill, as far as human foresight can perceive, secure the peace
of Europe for a hundred years. He did not wish to see the
destruction of Russia as a European Power ; he abhorred
despotism, but he did not want to see anarchy established
over one-seventh of the habitable globe ; and the very instant
that our rulers see an opportunity of concluding such a peace
as would appear to be lasting and honourable, they should
leave no effort untried to complete it. But the next time we
treat he hoped the Conference would be with principals, and
that the representatives of France, England, Turkey, and
Sardinia would be found sitting at one side the table, and the
representatives of Russia at the other, without the interven-
tion of Teutonic metaphysicians or philosophical old ladies,
who will argue and gossip for ever, but who go into hysterics
at the bare thought of gunpowder. The speech of the noble
lord was very well _received.