The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-07 00:00:00

THE TURKISH EXPEDITION TO THE

(MON TIM SPECIAL DUIIIDI•N

11l DkILT 11111111)

VARNA, JMt. le.
We have, for the last week or ten days, been suf-
fering at Varna from an absolute dearth of forage for
horses, which, added to the already existing scarcity
of provisioes, rendered it anything but an agreeable
abode for people with short purses and excitable tem-

pelemesta.
was walking one day in the street with an officer,
when we met a soldier who had been left is charge
of the six horses employed for carrying water which
belonged to a regiment already gone to Eupatoria.
He told ua that for six days be had been unable to
preemie either straw or barley for them, and in de-
spair bad at last tied them up in a stable,—the first
he head empty, and had never after gone back to
see them, as he was afraid to find them deed. He
semesied and excused himself, as Turks nearly always
do ender the weight of inevitable misfortune, by
exclaiming "Allah Kerim !" and went on his way.
How many more cues of this kind have occurred
it is impossible to say, bat I fear very many.
All this has been owing to the folly or males
of Mahmond Bey, and the other wise
who were gathered together here, and w
Omer Pasha's unlace in the Crimea, shi if
nearly all the barley to be found for Espeassfa.
though supplies are now daily being sent there from
Constantinople. It is lucky that the cavalry is all
down at Bourgas, under Sir Stephen Lakeman, and
is well supplied. Had it been here during the
pinch the horses would have been greatly debilitated.
Uwe are now 19,000 men at Eupatona ; when all
have arrived, the Turks under Omer Paella will
number 45,000. Those who have already landed
are busily engaged in fortifying their posi-
tion to make it a bus of operations. Large
quantities of gabions are being collected here,
and sent off daily. There have been rumours
afloat for the last few days that Omer Pasha
will direct his course first to Perekop, and fortify the
isthmus; but he would there have his rear so terribly
exposed that I cannot think the story true. In fact,
anything I tell you about his future movements is
but camp gossip, and is as likely to be false as tree,
or, of the two, perhaps rather more so. He will
have many difficulties to contend with in making war
on foreign soil, which he has never experienced lien,
particularly as regards the oommiasarlat. He will
have no local pashas and governors to assist him, nor
the labour and resources of a whole population at
his command. His commissariat-plie,
bfat-
ma engineering corps—are oom of him.
self, his secretary, and Machlis ache (Prince
Sierras). He has in inferior positions on his staff
one or two Poles, who really understand their business
and are thorough soldiers, but he does not as yet
make much use of them. The presiding genius at
present is Mechlin Puha, a wealthy Moldavian, and
one of the numerous princes of that favoured region
who has never seen a shot fired in anger in his life,
and is not, I imagine, gifted with much greater apt-
ness for military affairs than most of his countrymen.
One would be almost induced to hope, if it were not
for the effect it would have upon the general state of
affairs, that Omer Pasha, on his arrival in the
Crimea, would get a sound thrashing from the
Romisas to give him a thorough insight into the
character and qualifications of the men he has
about him, and enable him to separate the
gold from the dross. Big talkers with big
arm and ferocious sabres, generally be-
ans very " small " on the field of battle.
Phe tries character as well as metals. I have known
men out here, who in front of the enemy, when a
fam balls were hissing about, would moralise like
=upon the sad nature of a soldier's trade, and
willingly go two miles in the rear to look
elinithing up, or see why somebody wasn't coming;
Id who beside a roaring fire, on a cold evening,
tail a bottle of wine on the table, would twirl their
moustaches fiercely, and cry, "La guerre—c'est ma
vie!" I don't mean to say that Omer Pasha does
not know his people well ; but the misfortune is,
that individuals are forced upon him at Con-
stantinople, because of their wealth and in-
fluence at the Porte, who are no more fit
for their duties than so many railway names.
To enable him to get rid of them he wants
'striking displays of incapacity before the enemy,
and I have no doubt they will be supplied to
him in abundance before long. Some marries has
been expressed here that he has sot, ere this. re-
called the Hungarians from their retirement
at itteaatir, bat I imagine many of that