The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-18 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

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LONDON, TUENDA OCTHPER IS.

•

IN another week we may expect that war will
have openly displayed his grizzled front upon the
Lower Danube. On either side of that stream is
now posited an army, each ready to do .ts t est for the
other's destruction. The one is animated by the
patriotic desire to free its own soil from an invader;
the other is there in obedience to the command
of • greedy despot, unsatietied by the possession
of absolute power over a I ogee section of
Europe than is ruled by any other potentate. We
have patriots and mercenaries face totem, 3nd oh which
side lies the sj enpathy of all honest men it is needles
to say. Coder the flag of the SILT ts. there is now
said to be ranged in arms above 300,000 met', but of
this force only one-third is with Omen Piens on the
Danube. Under Russian generals there is at least'
110,000 men. Of these, however, a large number
arc stated to be suffering from sickness, whilst the
whole may be regarded rather as military serfs.'
obeying mechanically a command they cannot avoid,
than a body animated by any patriotic cr other spirit
likely to make them zealous in the dreadf..l work they
are dragged from their homes to du. 6611 there they
are, encamped opposite each other with less than a
week to elapse before the first shot is to be fired,
and nothing but a stream—in some places only three.
quarters of a league wide—to divide them. What
must happen when this remaining week of truce has
run out becomes, therefore, a meet iuteresting ques-
tion. At first view it naturally occurs to all who
see the statement " War has been declared," that
there must immediately follow long accounts of
hotly-contested battles. be throwir.g down of a
defiante is commonly but the signal fur the sound
of the trumpet and the roll of artillery—the crash
of opposing forces, the struggle, the bloodshed,
and other wholesale horrors of were But in
this instance, there are reasons why the declara-
tion of hostilities may not at once be followed by any
military operations more important than the cannon-
ading of any Russian boats that may venture down
the stream past the 'I urkish forts. At this season
of the year, after the rains, the country border-
ing the Danube being a soft alluvium, is usually
quite unfit for the movements of large bodies of
troops. Cannon or baggage cannot be got over
the country. The roads, never good, are so many
lines of soft mud•holes, along which anything
weightier than light cavalry finds it rent to impos-
sible to pass. Cossacks may think no mere of the
mire than so many Melton steeplechasers would do,
and Turkish irregular horse may be equally in-
dependent of roads. But moving the heavier
masses of a large army is a vastly different affair,
and unless the Czen is so headstrong as to issue a
flat for moving forward, at all risks, we may very
likely find the declaration of war to be the most for-
midable step taken on the batiks of the Danube
until the frosts of winter make the earth more
solid for the passage of men and guns. Thus the pro-
babilities tend towards a continuance for the present
of a quarrel yielding no new results. It is not the
policy of Otte& PACHA to =SS the Danube : it is
his cue to wait on his vantage ground till the ia•
vader moves forward in his coarse of aggression.
Whether NICHOLAS will even advance when the
country is fit for the operat ions of war is also a question.
To stand still when the Turk has hurled his challenge
across the stream would probably be thought
too spiritless • proceeding for an Autocrat who has
hitherto taken a high tone. The irresponsible despot
who begins such a war can care little for the loss of a
few score thousand men, and may therefore, without
hesitation, order over the Danube the troops
who should
Bat Autocrats are not always invincible, and the
position of NICHOLAS has its weak points, and he
should know them. He may order his men at once
over the Danube, but the reckless pride which should
stimulate such commands may have a fall. Cif.
cassia is not asleep. Accounts have just reached
Ragland of another foray by the gallant moan-
Min patriot SCHANTL, in which two Russian
staff officers and a number of the CZAR'S troops
were slain. The SULTAN has a force in the
Feast with which results are attainable. Georgia
might become troub!csoase to its oppressor; •
new Russian army be wanted in the Caimans, whilst
an enemy was being encountered en the Danube
Finland is discontented ; Bessarabia groans in her
decay, induced by Russian breach of faith. The
CZAR must not forget all this. If the other
Powers, including England and Prance, should,
when hostilities really begin, declare themselves
neutral, and should any show of active sympathy for,
the CZAR be shown by Austria, the SULTAN will at
once be free to accept the aid of any revolutionary
allies who might volunteer their he►p. The
pithy speech of But is not forgotten—" My religion
is to hate Russia." There are others who share the
sentiment of the gallant old veteran, whose country
had been trodden down by the Cossacks, for
their country has endured the same afflic-
tion. If the CiAli pursues his reckless and
unprincipled 'ironies, ands even tacitly sup-
ported by the other Powers, it is difficult to estimate
where the European disturbance might stop. Hun-
gary and Italy would sun ly feel its throes. But if
the Autocrat's common sense satweighs his lost for
his neighbour's goods, and the formal declaration of
war by Turkey be followed for some time. to come by
nothing more sericite, than we have already first re-
ferred to, (1011TSCRACOPY niay still hold his head-
quarters at B uchareat, end 011E11.P/ICH/1 his at Bbonila
—cannon may here and there open their mouths
across the Danube, and each tete de pout be guarded,
yet the bulk of the two armies rest in grim inaction
on opposite banks of the stream.

Meanwhile we see Russian ships visiting Ports-1
mouth, Russian princes and princesses f(ted in London
(by Cabinet Ministers amongst others), Russian prin-
cesses active in Paris, whilst an English Ambassador
hastens to Olmutz, and an English Finance Minister
lets uff a significant speech in Manchester. The

Turks—unversed in our Western usages—may see
many sources of discomfort in all these signs that
seem to show which way the wind blows. Perhaps
after all their greatest safety rests in the belief that
on themselves alone can they rely. They seem likely
to get very little active support from *he Govern-
ments of either France or England—and should such
prove to be the case, we can only the more heartily
pray that they may be able to hold their own, by
their own patriotic strength, despite the sneaking
treachery of pretended friends and the shameless
aggression of open foes.

Tilt: N 111:CAL OALLUT.—Lord Onslow ham
revolted the munificent bequest which he had made to the
nation of his tine reflection of pictures by the old masters.
We are informed that he has taken this step in consequence
of the very unsatisfactory nature of the report from the
Se:ett Committee on the NAtional (harry.