The Express.
London, England, 1855-10-26 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, &TORRE 26.

Tua details of the Rogan defeat at Kars which
we publish to-day are mast important. It is clear
that the Turks beat their enemies by fair fighting.
The Russians came on against the isolated garrison
of Hare—worn out by long privations, watches, and
gauss—in most cisproportiants numbers. They
pat forth all their force. The battle—as we learn
from the letter of an English officer engaged in the
affair, which appears in another column—listed
seven hours and a half. Thrice—we learn from the
despatch of our own correspondent—the Russians
made good their footing within the entrenchments,
and thrice the Turks drove them out at the point
of the bayonet. The most moderate estimate
of the loss of the defeated army is 2,000 killed and
6,000 wounded—proof sufficient of the obstinacy
with which the fight was contested. " The Turks,"
writes the English officer to whose communication
we have already alluded, "fought not like lions, but
like fiends. I never saw such desperate recklessness
of life." And yet he has witnessed many a well-oon-
tasted field. Our own correspondent informs us
that " eight hundred Russians were slain before a
redoubt defended by four hundred Turks." All
Dormer is doubtless due to the European officers in
command. " The defence"—we again quote from
our military correspondent—" was commanded by
dear old General Runt ; and when our General
thanked him in the name of Queen
Ificronia for his gallant repulse of the enemy,
I thought the brave old boy would have
burst his heart open, he was to proud."
" Colonel LAMB," says our own corespondent,
"distinguished himself in the contest, not only by his
courage, but his skill. It was he who drove the
enemy from the Inglis Tibia." Captain THOMPSON,
though accident twirled to him a less prominent
part in the fray than has usually fallen to his lot in
the various resseontres that have taken place during
the siege, amply justified the entire confidence re-
posed in him by General Wilma= and Colonel
Late. Captain TIESDALS was ever foremost in the
fight. And Mr. Clinger LL—the diplomatic amateur
of arms—showed that he had true English blood in
hie veins. But whilst we do justice to these skilled
and valiant leaders, let us not forget that but for the
pluck and bottom of their Turkish soldiers their
heroism would have been in vain.

It ought also to be kept in remembrance that,
glorious though the 30th of September was for the
gallant garrison at Hers, it was only the final effort
of the distinguished courage and power of endorsees
manifested by it during the whole siege. Indeed,
Captain TEESDALE'S services date from a period con-
siderably anterior to the siege. He passed the whole
of last winter at Kars. and during that time had
much to bear. Colonel LAKE and Captain THOMPSON
have been there since the beginning of spring. It is
mainly owing to their lighthearted, persevering
efforts that General WILLIAMS hastiest able to bring
the garrison into such a state of efficiency. What
these caws, and the troops under them, have had
to seders since the complete investment of Kan,
tazes the imagination to conceive. Constant expo-
sure to the inclemency of the weather, short supplies
of food,iacessant and protracted watches that might
have worn out the toughest constitutions. Horse
leek and cat's flesh came to be regarded as dainty
fare. As early as the Ist of July, the same officer
whose letter we publish to-day, wrote:—" We have
not siege ammunition for a week." Rewards were
offered to all who would pick up and bring in Rus-
sian shot and unexploded shells; and these deadly
missiles, whenever they fitted the calibre of the de-
fenders' guns, were sent back to their original owners.
• The poor soldiers," writes the officer we
have so often quoted, at an early period
of the siege, " never get their full rations ;
and many of them are twenty-eight mouths
in arrears of pay. While such things are going on,
it is a wonder to me that the soldiers don't lay down
their arms, or desert by thousands; but, strange to
say, desertions are very rare, and the men are
in the best of spirit.. I thisk they ore the finest
soldiers (or stuff to make soldiers of) that the
world ems produce. Nothing comes amigo to
them. They are in utter rags, and yet they never
complain, although they are nearly always wet
through. It would astonish you tome a regiment of
them on parade: you could not pick out so badly-
dressed a lot oat of all the beggars in England."
Under such circumstances did these heroes
make good their stand against a farce far
out-numberiog them, amply supplied with pro-
visions and all the munitions of war, from June to
the end of September. They were the bulwark of
the Ottoman Empire in Asia, which but for them
could have offered no resistance to the advance of the
Russians. Had Ears been taken, there was no
Turkish army behind it to make a stand against the
invaders.

The detest of the Russians hie been se lapel sad

senolusive as the gallantry of the garrison of Bars
bas been unsurpassed. The attack of the 30th of
September was a last effort on the part of the in-

veal's!, army. The cholera had begin to appear
in its ranks; and for a few days before
it bad been observed that many of the
tents of the ambulances, and even stores of
provisions, had been sent off in the direction of Alex-
andropol. Their rout wee complete; they are utterly
out of condition to take the field again during the
present sumo. And there is reason to bops that
they will not be allowed to retreat unmolested. If
letters received in Erzeroom from the Bey of Livens
(in Turkish Georgie) may be believed, OMER PACIIA
had advanced, in the beginning of this month, as far
as Urzughet, and was pushing on to Akaltzik, with
a view to make a diversion is favour of Kars. Many
Georgian nobler are said to have waited upon him in
order to tender their submission to the Porte. Omen'
PACIIA CAR scarcely fail to be aware that his de-
portment in the Crimea has made an im-
pression that can only be removed by some decided
mom in his new field. The temper of the
Georgians and the demoralisation of the Raglan
army, invite him to cross the frontier and rouse the
Traoseatictud** populations subject to Russia spinet
the Muscovites.

In connexion with the " deeds of daring-do" which
ve have been recording, these Sr. sous considers-
tics, which form themselves upon as, and appear to
bs not altogether devoid of importune. General
Altman wrote to oar Government that he mast
bays some English oaken to drill the Turks, seed the
gentlemen we have named above ware emit oat Whim

I inconsequence. The best possible understandinexists
between General WILLIAMS and the Mackie ; between
the English and Turkish Assn. The usurper/nem
is, that troops who were last year driven before the
Russians, like Muff Wore the wind, have this year
rivalled the exploits of their countrymen in Silistria.
This shows of what the Turkish people are capable if
judiciously managed and encouraged. In the Crimea
everything has been done for them; they hays been
snubbed, shouldered aide, and dictated to. In
Anatolia they have been stimulated to act for them-
selves. The contequenoe of the way in which the
Turks have been handled in the Crimea is, that people
have begun to suspect that the resuscitation of the
Ottoman empire is hopeless. The history of the
siege of Kan is calculated to disabuse Western
Europe of this erroneous impression ; but our Go-
vernment, whilst it has been prompt and careful to
publish all the exploits of the Allies in the Crimea,
has left us entirely in the dark as to the merito-
rious services of General Wimisms and his gal-
lant Staff, and of the noble spirit evinced by the
Turkish soldiers under them. The cause of this
reticence appears to be that the appointment of
General WiLuokes being a political one, his reports
are addressed to the English Ambassador at Constar).
tinople, and forwarded by that functionary to the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. They

are of oourse regarded, like all communications ad-
dressed to that mysterious establishment, as matters
to be kept close under the seal of diplo-
matio secrecy. Official routine will not allow
them to be published. And yet the advantage
to be derived from breaking through this senseless
routine is obvious. The publication of the reports of
General WlLLwas would show what discipline and
men of sense and spirit can make of the Turks. It I
would rides the Turks in the estimation of Europe,
and would show how useful oar Indian officers may
be made, who have been accustomed to command
Mabometans. For these reasons we do hope that
Lord CLAILENDON will see the propriety of breaking
through the traditional rules of his of and giving
the reports of General WILLIAMS to the public. In
making this suggestion we are quite disinterested,
for the publication we recommend would be likely to
render the public less eager to see the reports of our
own correspondents.