The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-12 00:00:00

754

INDIA AND CHINA.
The overland mail has arrived, with dates from
Bombay of the Ist.
An inclination for making peace was felt at Ava.
In Cahoot it was said that the Czar had promised
Persia to restore to her the provinces taken from her
by the Russians, if the Shah would send his armies
against Turkey. It was also said that the Russians
bad taken possession of the fortress of Kokan.
The Dutch expedition against Borneo has been
successful. Montrado has been taken.
The Sumatra corvette has been destroyed by fire
in the roadstead of Kema. The crew were saved.
There was disturbance in the north of China.
Shiklung was in the hands of the insurrectionists,
who threatened Canton with an attack.

THE WAR.

OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTH.
The preparations for some important stroke to be
attempted upon the shores of the Black Sea are
announced by every report which arrives from the
head-quarters of the combined forces in Turkey.
Where the blow will fall is still uncertain, notwith-
standing the peremptory announcement made so long
since as this day week by the Times, that Sebastopol
was then already assailed, in all probability by an
army of 80,000 or 90,000 English, French, and
Turks. We know only that a number of fiat-bottomed
boats, for the purpose of disembarkation, had been
busily preparing in the Bosphorus ; that some of them
had been despatched on the 30th ult. for Varna where
all the rest, making thirty in all, were to be delivered
by the 10th inst. Some portion of the allied troops
—in numbers variously stated from 10 to 25,000
men—had also embarked at Baltehick and proceeded
eastward, with the intention, according to some
accounts, of landing near Sebastopol, by others of
capturing Anapa, while a third report assigned
Odessa as the point for first attack, that place being
designed to form a point d'appui for subsequent
operations, and a stronghold which the allies were
to occupy during the winter.
A squadron of vessels, principally steamers, left
Baltshick on the 25th or 26th ult., and their appear-
ance off the coast seems to have given rise to many
of the premature reports of an expedition against the
Crimea. The purpose for which the ships were sent,
however, appears to have been only to effect a recon-
naissance, and take soundings, &c., along the shores of
the Black Sea. General Brown, in the Fury, accom-
panied this detachment, and is stated to have ven-
tured into the very jaws of the fortified entrance to
Sebastopol, where he remained during an entire
night, and succeeded in escaping scatheless, though
strenuously cannonaded next morning.
During the reconnaissance of the coast. of the
Crimea a magnificent beach, it is stated, was dis-
covered about eight miles from Sebastopol itself, and
most favourable for landing. At Sebastopol the
garrison are making great exertions in strengthening
the fortifications, and strong bodies of troops have
arrived there from the interior of Russia. Active
preparations are also being made upon all accessible
points on the coast to oppose the landing of troops.
All roads—and there are but few—are mined at given
places, entrenched, intersected, impeded with abattis,
and flanked with redoubts. The inhabitants, it is
added, are ordered to quit their dwellings upon the
first signal, and to retire before the cordon of Cos-
sacks directed to sweep them, their cattle, and their
moveables, into the interior.
An Odessa letter of July 25th, published in the
New Munich Journal, says :
"We are fully prepared to resist attack here. About
17,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, with several field
batteries, are close at hand. Troops are being constantly
sent to the Crimea, where there will soon be a force of
100,000 men, more than sufficient to prevent any attempt
at landing."
The cholera has broken out in the camp at Varna
and its neighbourhood. On the first day that the
epidemic made its appearance in the light division,
20 men died in 24 hours. The second division, at
the date of the last accounts, had escaped with only
a few cases ; but the third, which was encamped
about two miles from Varna, had suffered severely.
Much improvement took place upon the regiments
being ordered to shift their ground. The French
were losing many men by the disease, though fewer
than the British in proportion to their number.
The Spitfire and Vesuvius are stated to have de-
stroyed the village of Sulina, sparing only the church
and lighthouse.
On the 29th ult. the Turkish fleet, composed of
four ships of the line and five frigates, quitted its
anchorage at Bujukdere, to proceed first to Varna,
and thence to Redout Kaieh, to land Mustapha
Pacha, who was named governor of that place. All
the English and French vessels at Constantinople
had been ordered to Varna. Admiral Boxer cos;
mends the transport squadron.

THE

PRESS.

THE WLADIMIR.
Notwithstanding the alleged vigour of the blockade
at Sebastopol, a large Russian steamer, the W/adi-
inir, has succeeded in escaping the vigilance of the
cruisers, and made a venturesome cruise in the Black
Sea. She got away, according to some accounts,
under French colours, or else, as other reports state,
painted to resemble an Austrian steamer, and, so far
as we yet know, got back again in perfect safety.
During her voyage the }Vladimir captured and de
stroyed at least three Turkish vessels laden with
grain, and chased others. The British steamer
Cyclops is said to have had a narrow escape. She
was engaged in conveying ammunition from the
arsenal in Constantinople to a given rendezvous in
the Black Sea, and had left all her armament, ex-
cept two small guns, on shore. Some delay to effect
trifling repairs caused her to sail a few hours later
than had been anticipated, and the Russians, whose
information through their spies seems for once to
have been even too accurate, missed by a short in-
terval meeting with the English steamer, which, if
encountered, they must inevitably have sunk or
taken. The Cyclops is a slow-going steamer, and
could not have escaped, nor in her unarmed condi-
tion have successfully resisted a steam frigate of the
force of the Bladiniir.
OPERATIONS IN THE BALTIC.
On the Ist inst. the following vessels, bringing the
French military force, had arrived in Led Sund :
Men-of-war--St. Vincent, Royal William, Hannibal,
Algiers, Gladiator, Spbynx, Termagent, Stromboli.
Hired transports—PrincA (screw), Belgravia, Here-
fordshire, Columbia, Julia, Edwin Fox.
General D'Hilliers returned there on the evening
of the same day from Bomarsund, where he had been
upon a reconnoitring expedition in the Imperieuse
yacht. He had gone very close to the forts, when a
masked battery opened fire upon him, and two
shots fell over the ship. The commander soon
steamed away beyond their reach.
The last direct intelligence from the Baltic fleet is
of the 3rd inst., when some expedition was evidently
preparing, though nothing yet attempted. A Dantzic
despatch t f yesterday (11th), however, states that
three thousand French soldiers and six hundred
English marines landed at three points on Aland,
with little interruption and no loss, on Tuesday last,
the oth inst. The forts have not been attacked, but
were to be on Wednesday.
Admiral Napier is in the Bulldog at Bomarsund.
THE WAR ON THE DANUBE.
The Russian retreat continues unchecked, and in-
telligence from Vienna, corroborated by the Foreign
Secretary in the Peers on Thursday, informs us that
both Moldavia and Wallachia are to be evacuated. At
the last dates from Bucharest (7th) the Russian head-
quarters were at Basco, about halfway between
Bucharest and Folkshan. The whole army will
gradually retire behind the Pruth.
Before quitting Bucharest, Prince Gortschakoff
assembled the Boyards and expressed his satisfaction
with the treatment of his troops in Wallachia. He
then told them that strategetic considerations obliged
him to evacuate the town, but that he counted upon
returning to it much sooner than was commonly sup-

posed. -
The Turkish vanguard under Scander Bey is stated
to have entered Bucharest on the 7th. Omer Pacha
was then remaining temporarily at Rutschuk. He
had sent a message to Bucharest, requiring lodging
and provisions for 12,000 men inside the city, and
rations for 20,000 outside the walls.
On the 28th ult. a fight took place between the
rearguard of the Russians at Oltenitza and the
Ottomans who crossed the Danube at that place.
The affair ended in tho defeat and hasty retreat of
the Russians.
The Vienna Presse states :
" General Prim has arrived at Orsova. The same ship
brought several English and French officers and com-
missariat officers for the purchase of forage in Hungary.
The officers say that the allies will first attack Anapa.
There are 30,000 Turks and French, but no English, in
the Dobrudscha. The Turks occupy Babadagh. The
Turks will probably attack Tultscha the French,

- -
Galatz."
From 'Vienna a despatch affirms that• the Austrian
troops on their way to Galicia, the Bukovina, and
Transylvania have received orders to halt for the

present.
Prince Gortschakoff, it is added, has officially an-
nounced to Austria the retreat of the Russian army
of occupation beyond the Pruth, but declines to say
from what motives.
A Berlin letter of the sth, on the other hand,
declares that the Bth inst. is definitively fixed for the
entrance of the Austrians into Wallachia.
The Czar, it. is said, having many enemies and few
friends, is turning to the Poles in his present di
lemma, and is about to make such liberal concessions
as are not likely to be rejected, for the purpose of
gaining them over to his cause.
ASIA.

--- -
The Tnrkish army in Asia is at length stated to be
receiving regular and considerable reinforcements.

SATURDAY,

The Russians had crossed the Arpa Chai, and ad-
vanced as far as Gedlikler, near Little Aratat. The
Turks at Kars, after holding a long war council,
decided to act on the defensive, and wait the ap-
proach of the enemy.
The Turkish commanders at Kars are to be tried
by court-martial, on account of their late defeat and
continued misconduct.
THE WHITE SEA.
- •

Two war-steamers of the British squadron, having
destroyed the establishments of the Russian Govern-
meat to the north of Archangel, have entered the
Bay of Onega, that arm of the White Sea which
reaches farthest towards the Russian interior.