The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

THE WAR IN ASIA.

Letters have been received from Kars to the 3rd
and Erzeroum to the 11th of September. The town
still held out, though the condition of the garrison
and inhabitants was becoming daily more distressed.
Mouravieff swept the country with his cavalry, car-
ried off all the corn and fodder, closely blockaded
Kars, and narrowly watched Erzeroum. The cavalry
and artillery horses in Kars were in such a wretched
condition that three thousand had been sent out of
the town, with a thousand men in charge, in the
hope that they might safely reach Erzeroum : but
the Russians fell upon them, killed two hundred of
the Turks, dispersed the rest, and only a few bad
arrived at their destination. The garrison was
healthy, but the fall of the town was considered im-
minent, as it was almost impossible that Omer
Pacha could effect any serious diversion of the Rus-
sian forces in time. The fall of Kars will be a very
serious blow to the allies and a corresponding success
to the Russians. It will vastly augment their in-
fluence in Asia Minor, and, unless they are checked
in some degree, Erzeroum will follow the fate of
Kars, and Mouravieff obtain a hold on the country
from which it will not be easy for Omer Pacha to
drive him.

The Invalide Ruue, according to a despatch from
Berlin, state-4 that Mouravieff, on the 11th, had de-
feated 3,000 Turks, who left 400 dead upon the field,
and Ali Pacha a prisoner in the hands of the
Russians. In an extraordinary supplement of the
2nd of October, it adds the following details from
General Muuravieff:—

Aide•de•Camp General Mouravieff, commander•in•chief
of the corps of the Caucasus, announces under date of the
4th (16th) Sept., from the camp at Tchaotlik•Tchai, that
the festival of his Majesty the Emperor had been sig-
nalised by a happy affair of cavalry, in which our Cossacks,
oar militia, and our dragoons, commanded by Lieutenant•
General Kovalevsky, had completely beaten a detachment
of 1,000 regular eamlrh about 1,000 Bashl•Bazoukai

972

some hundreds of dismounted troopers, with four guns.
Ali Packs, who commanded this detachment, a brave old
general, who has taken part in most of the recent wars of
Turkey, was made prisoner. Moreover, we captured one
officer and forty five men, a flag, two standards, the four
guns previously mentioned, sixty-eight caissons with
powder, and fifty-five caissons with cartridges. The whole
camp, with an extensive booty, remained in our hands.
The Turks had nearly 400 men killed.

A despatch from Constantinople of October the
2nd, states that Omer l'acha was at length about to
make a vigorous effort to save Kars. • .

THE BALTIC FLEET.
(From our Own Correspondent.)
NARGEN, Oct. 2.
No particular news since I last wrote. The admiral,
in the Duke, has commenced to visit the different
parts of his station. At present ho is at Seskar,
where Admiral Seymour, with several ships, is sta-
tioned. A line of vessels extends from that place to
Cronstadt, within signal distance of each other
from Cronstadt, round to Biorko Sound. On the
north coast of the Gulf lays another chain of men of-
war ; so that Cronstadt is most effectually blockaded
this year. At this time last season the fleet were
withdrawn to Nargen, thus leaving the whole space
between that place and Cronstadt open, not only to
the coasting trade, but to any vessel that in heavy
weather might escape the vigilance of our cruisers at
the entrance of the Gulf. Nothing is as yet said of
the fleet leaving, and we all anticipate remaining
here at least a month later—a prospect which is by
no means a pleasant one, considering that the
weather is getting unpleasantly cold and stormy.
All hands here are heartily tired of this blockading
work. The Russians no longer give us the fun of
harassing their detachments of troops along the
coast, for they always withdraw on the approach of
our cruisers. I presume that they find our grape
and canister reduce their muster-roll. We are to
withdraw gradually down the Gulf. I hear our last
anchorage will be near the Island of Wormroe, in
the neighbourhood of Pager Ort. The Merlin has
gone there to lay down buoys. The James Watt and
Imperieuse have been very close in to Cronstadt
on two or three occasions during their turn of block.
ading that formidable place. At the mouth of the
port are lying a Russian liner of 100 guns, five steam
frigates, no end of gun-boats, and a large screw
steam-frigate, all ataunt, and quite ready to come out.
When you consider that we had only two ships, and
no others in sight, it cannot but strike one as extra-
ordinary that they make no attempt to humble our
pride on our own element. However, they appear
determined to act entirely on the defensive, awl we
must bide our time until next season, when we hope
that the Government will at last have opened their
eyes to the necessity of sending a sufficient force to
a part of the world where the most severe blow
might be struck at the power of the enemy, of the
utmost importance regarding the attainment of the
object of this war, and which appears hitherto to
have been overlooked most unaccountably.
The Vulture takes the mails. Cossack, with two
gun-boats, has gone to pick up anchors, cables, and
other gear left at the bottom by Hasting during her
late mishap. Nothing new from the Gulf of Bothnia,
where all remains quiet. All trade, or attempts to
break blockade, is at an end. We have lots of ex-
ercise to keep the devil out of our minds ; hut what
is the use of being in good order unless the Russians
will give us a chance 1

Two RUSSIAN CADETS, confined in the War Prison
at Lewes, escaped from custody on Saturday last.
They left their prison clothes behind, and each had
a large sum of money. One, it is said, decamped
with upwards of 100/., a portion of which belonged to
other prisoners. A strict search has been followed
up by the officials, but as yet without success. It is
believed that they are somewhere secreted in the
neighbourhood.
ARRESTS IN FINLAND have lately taken place to
some extent. The mayors of the various districts
are the principal sufferers. The causes are said to
be political.
DESERTION IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY has become SO
marked, that the authorities have been compelled to
adopt moot stringent measures to keep the recruits
to their colours.
THE POPULATION OF THE CRIMEA consists of about
179,000 persons, of whom 156,000 are Tartars, and
43,000 Christians. Of the Tartars, 80,000 are pea-
sants, 10,000 nobles, about 16,000 priests, and the
rest petty traders resident in towns. The number of
Russians settled in the country is calculated at not
more than 3,000, while the remainder of the Christian
populationi is route op of (}reeks, Voles, and
Clemons.

THE PRESS.

lortion gorrtsponbenct.

FRANKFORT, October 9.
NOTWITHSTANDING that the journey of the Emperor
Alexander is cited as an earnest of the unanimity
prevailing in the Russian councils on the subject of
the war, and the determination to persevere in it at
any cost, there is a party at St. Petersburg, German
patrician and commercial, strongly opposed to the
continuance of hostilities without an endeavour
being made to attempt a pacific solution of the dial-
culty militant that now pervades Europe. To this
party the present Empress of Russia is said to give
a cordial encouragement, and at her instigation, as
likewise of that of the Empress Mother, an applica-
tion was made to Prussia for its mediation, with
what result is already known. The manly and
honourable feeling of the Emperor Alexander, which
prompted him to declare that Russia would not con-
sent to peace on the basis of disaster, commands
respect, and is worthy the sovereign of a great and
powerful nation. To that resolve he will cling with
tenacity, and all the more from being influenced, or
rather being under the direct influence of the stern
Muscovites, the Russian " parti de la Croix," that
holds the Sovereign in subjection—of that faction,
which will not, on any terms, abandon the plans of
policy and conquest conveyed in the testamentary in-
junctions of the first Peter. The chief of this faction
is the Grand Duke Constantine, and the journey to
Moscow, with the visit to Nicolaieff, Odessa, and pos-
sibly the Crimea, is the result of his absoluteness in
council. In the North no fear is entertained by
Russia of attack either by sea or land, from the
absence of material by the force of season, which has
before befriended Russia and defied Napoleon.
Prussia is ruled by the " parti de la Croix"—let it be
said despotically ruled—and the first amongst its
subjects is the King himself. It is an " Imperium
in imperio," an unprincipled minority, yet powerful
enough to rule and to compel the adoption of a poli•
tical course opposed to public opinion. For Northern
Russia, then, there exists no present Danger. On
the Danube the principalities are held by Austria,
avowedly neutral and intrinsically Russian. " Lorsqu'
une chose plait a la Russie, it faut bien qu'elle plait
it l'Autriche," was the observation made by the Em-
peror Nicholas to Sir Hamilton Seymour; and in
pursuance of that state of dependency, Austria occu-
pies the principalities with the consent of Russia,
and dares not to stir in contravention of her order.
Thus says, openly and without hesitation, the Count
Benkendorf, the military representative of Russia at
Berlin. Bankrupt and faithless, Austria disbanded
her northern army—first, from a want of means to
maintain it, which she hoped to conceal; and,
secondly, in order to strengthen Russia by enabling
her to apply the southern army stationed on the Aus-
trian frontiers to succour Sebastopol, which she denied
until challenged and contradicted by the statement of
M. de Benkendorf. Russia is thus enabled to concen-
trate her gigantic forces upon the single point of the
Ctimea. The Emperor Alexander does not visit his
army to superintend a retreat ; he is not accompanied
by the Muscovite Grand Duke Constantine, in order
that they should bear witness to the defeat of the
favorite project of their ancestor, without striking a
further blow in defence of their hereditary plan of
ambition. Russia is stricken, but not subdued.

There are two speeches that have attracted much
public attention in this place and throughout Ger-
many—that of Lord Palmerston at Romney, and the
other of Sir Alexander Valet at Hamburg.
The declaration of Lord Palmerston is straight-
forward War to the knife. It is capable of
being understood by the meanest capacity. Ger-
many—independent, liberal, and united Germany—
the ancient noblesse, the commercial and agricul-
tural classes, and the enlightened spirit of the old
empire, respond cordially to the expressed determi-
nation of arresting the absorbing ambition of the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg. But with this avowal of
an unflinching resolve to attain this definite object,
the definite means whereby it may be gained must be
made equally patent. To be plain, to seek to cir-
cumscribe the power of Russia with the present
governmental and territorial dispositions of Europe
would be utterly vain. It would be simply and in
the very truth a return to the " statu in quo ante
bellum," and could not encompass the desired end.
It would be to defy for a short interval the outburst
of a war general, excruciating, and devastating, such
as the civilised world never yet has seen.
Russia is supported iu her overbearing power—the
grievance that occasioned the war—by Prussia and
Austria, nominally neutral, yet spiritually and essen-
tially assistant. But it must be observed that the
nobles, the people, and the soldiers of Germany
proper are not to be identified with the acts of the
several Governments, to which they are opposed, as

SATURDAY,

shall be hereafter shown. The liberals of Germany
would have that governmental reform through
means of which they be empowered and
intrusted to counteract the insidlouely Regressive
policy of Russia, and they state firmly that the evil
of the moment arises from the injustice of the Vienna
Congress of 1815, whereat kingdoms were disunited,
divided, and apportioned as at an auction-mart, with.
out reference to race, nationality, or fitness. Italy
was given to its hereditary oppressor, the empire of
Germany was denied its ancient dominion, and
France was shorn of her just proportions. Each and
every one are discontented; each and every one
view the present as opportune to repeal these acts
of signal injustice; and each and every one are de-
termined that the sword shall not be sheathed with.
out the juster application of a political moral less
Russian and more consonant to right and reason.
Therefore it is that, accepting the declaration of Lord
Palmerston against Russia, in contradiction to the
private views of his Whig Cabinet, they simply
desire and honestly pray that the European policy,
present and future, of the English Minister may be
direct and explicit. They will forget olden causes of
complaint, they will not refer to that which will not
bear a satisfactory explanation, and in all honour and
faith they will resolutely follow if he will valorously
lead. Aud be it categorically spoken—for periphrasis
would be miserably indecent on such a subject and
at such a time--that the onward leading of Lord Pal-
merston must not conduct to the reinstating Europe
in her former position with the causes of national
discontent unrepressed, and with the evils unremedied ;
but it must bring about and arrive at that settlement
of a European balance of power which shall estab-
lish constitutional right, crush an insensate
democracy, protect monarchical privilege, and pre-
vent the Governments of Austria and Prussia—op-
pressors at home, mendacious abroad, dependant
and craven, prodigal and bankrupt—from the possi-
bility of aiding Russia to convulse Europe by a course
of abject servility and disloyal misdemeanour.

When a Whig speaks with warmth, unless the ex-
citement be elicited for ends selfish and pettish, he
is never sincere, and he is certain to go astray into
the path of much grief. This is the rule. Sir Alex-
ander Malet, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the
Queen of England at the Diet, in giving the toast of
" The Allied Armies" at the public dinner at Hamburg
in celebration of the fall of Sebastopol, and of which
he was the chairman, vituperated with excessive
severity the conduct of the King of Prussia in refe-
rence to the war. Herein he was right, excepting
always as such vituperation might affect the peculiar
situation in which he stood at the Diet. Neverthe-
less, the facts justified the Ministerial attack on the
Sovereign of Prussia. The animadversion, however,
did not rest here—it was extended to the German
princes of the Confederation to which he was accre-
dited. This again was justly merited, judicious or
injudicious as it might have been always in reference
to the ambassadorial position ; but the censure in-
creasing in verbal and acrimonious plenitude, and
being unlimited in a national sense, comprised Ger-
many and the Germans without distinction and with-
out exception. Herein he was wrong. He might,
should, and ought to have known that the Prirce
Royal and the Princess of Prussia were brave and
loyal dissentients to the misconduct of their royal
relative, which he properly and unsparingly de-
nounced, and that the prince, their son, VMS at that
very moment the guest of her Majesty of England,
his royal mistress, precisely because the prince was
not a participator in the opinions and misdeeds of
his royal uncle. He might have learnt that the
" parti royal de la Croix" is in a pitiful minority in
Prussia, and that the popular and Liberal party, in
a large and increasing majority—loyal in their devo-
tion to the Prince Royal and the Princess—are
strongly attached to the alliance with England, and
inflexibly opposed to Russian influence in Prussia
and Germany. The Prussian soldiers sympathise
with their Anglican brethren in arms, and the Count
De Farstenberg Stanheim, the first nobleman of the
Rhenish provinces, publicly told the King that in
he event of his drawing the sword against the
Western powers, the Rhenish provinces would be
lost to him for ever. These facts were stated at the
meeting, and acknowledged to be true. However,
it is certain that the speech of the English envoy has
been held throughout Germany to be a general con-
demnation of the Fatherland, inclusive of the large
party who sympathise deeply and sincerely with
England and the English. But the original source
of the evil is to be traced to M. Bismarck Shon-
hausen. This Russo Prussian, impelled by an inve-
terate hatred of England, in a conversation by no
means confidential, when speaking of the Minister
of her Britannic Majesty at the Diet, said, snapping
his fingers in derision, "that he had him in his
pocket," so to say, " potted." Now, it must be 4-
lowed that the vulgar platitude was offensive and
derogatory in the highe4 degree to the character
and dignity of the British Minister. " Hine illie,la-
chrymre." And the Whig was disquieted, and the A big
waxed wroth, and he cried aloud in his sore &spies;

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