The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-25 00:00:00

THE TURKISH EXPEDITION TO THE

■IOI TII SPICILL D&XUI

Daux an►t.)

OP SE

VLB.NA, Ju. 10.

The winter is dragging its slow length along, and
the work of transporting the Turkish army to the
Crimea has as yet made but very little
Everything except the concentration of tirrolt
and the collection of supplies was stopped, pending
Omer Pasha's return from the Crimea. " Commie-
sioners " are arriving every day from Constanti-
nople, all charged with the same task—the em-
barkation of the army and its clothing and victual-
ling, and each of these is sock a very ores bonnet, and
goes about in such state, that I am afraid he will
never bring his great mind down to the trifling and
commonplace details of the commissariat, with
the diligence and paiustaking which are so desirable.
In the meantime, however, it must be confessed
things are going on In general reasonably well I
much better than I had ever expected. The Egyp-
tian troops, who were in a deplorable state, have all
received new clothing, and are quite ready to depart.
The looses this fore. has suffered by dimes sines its
arrival in Turkey are terrible ; many battalions are
diminished by one-half ; nearly all by one-third ;
but for all the purposes of actual war they are now
in a better state than ever. As no role or system is
pursued in the recruiting, the local authorities con-
tent themselves invariably with making an onslaught
L on the villages under their sway, and carrying off as
many of the male inhabitants as are sufficient to
• make up the full quota required of them, without rei

gard to age Cr physical qualification. no
consequence was that of those who arrived in Turkey
fully a third were men of upwards of fifty years of
age, who had served under Ibrahim Pacha in ail
Mores; many had passed sixty, and were teams,
illy more or less feeble and decrepid; not 'hewn,
blind of one eyetanda vast number, I might almost
say the majority, were suffering from oplithalwo.
During the winter en the Danube' the old bundled
in hundreds; the one-eyed men became blind alto.
gether, and the feeble and ailing euocumbed f
cholera or fever, leaving :about two-thirds
effective, and in some measure acclimatised.
isareh 81'111;1 atphizZraattoloc7p,tlisseuvraotersrt troop of the Tart
drag their 1
after them in marching, chatter like e 3 many ' eep,
and drown the voices of their officers in ottani eries
of every possible depth of intonation, end hear
altogether a slovenly and very unsoldier-like
but are in reality solid under fire, and io atiZZ
full of Ilan. Of all the Massulman pepakt-i07::
the Arabs only, it is evident, have retained leas
sparks of the ancient enthusiasm of the followers of
the prophet, without retaining all their bigotry.
Amongst the Turks it has degenerated into a Dart of
passive dislike to infidels, which frequently Am
itself in the acts of daily life ; but I am periwig
there is little, if any, of that fiery fanaticism which
nerved the arms of the early believers on the field of,
battle. The Arabs ate, we now, also a race capable
of the highest achievements in arts, sciences, s
civilisation, as well qualified to dwell in cities sad
inhabit marble halls as to roam in deserts and sleep
a restless wary sleep under the shadow of a taut
The Turk has still the nomads blood strong la
fresh in his veins, without either the passim at
genius of the Arab. We shall now see what they
can do together.