The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-23 00:00:00

THE TURKISH ARMY IN THE CRIMEA.

THE HEIGHTS ABOVE KAMARA, .Tvi.x 10.
When I last wrote to you the Turkish army had
just come back in a great hurry from the neigh-
bourhood of Baidar, and had encamped on the
hills along the Balaklava-road. It remained there
. two days, and yesterday it went off again in just as
great a hurry to take up another position on the
Heights above Kamara.
By this movement the allied camp is extended in
one succession down to Baidar, for, when the Turks
left that neighbourhood the other day, several re-
giments of French cavalry and infantry took their
place, so that now they form the advanced post in
that direction. Where the French cease the
Turkish encampment begins, and extends back to
the Sardinian line.

During the few hours which elapsed between the
departure of the Turks from Baidar and the arrival
of the French, some hundreds of Cossacks came
down into the valley, but contented themselves
with making requisition of a few bullocks and
sheep, and returned again to the heights on the
other side of the valley, taking with them the
plunder.
In the direction of Tchorgoun the Russians have
again pushed forward their outposts to the Tcher-
naya, and their videttes occupy the plateau imme-
diately above the village. They have destroyed
the bridge constructed: by the Turks across the
river, and parties of them daily come down to fell
timber, and carry it off, as well as the beams and
rafters which still remain in some of the ruined
houses. Thus, there, seems to be one universal
hutting mania, for the Turks have likewise, during
their stay in the valley, cut a good deal of timber
for the same purpose. It is a wise precaution, but
a rather saddening symptom.

Colonel Ogilvie, commanding a Turkish brigade
at Yenikale, returned a few days ago on account
of his health from the Sea of Azoff. According to
his account things are going on pretty smoothly
there. The fortifications are assuming daily a
more re-assuring character. The Sphinx, Captain
Willmot, and the little gunboats, are diligently
searching after Russian vessels and stores in the
Sea of Azoff. Abuses aro checked, and order is
re-established, but I am afraid it is something
analogous to the " l'ordre rogue a Varsovic" with
which the French Minister annonnced to the
Chambers that Warsaw was taken by the Russians.
Most of the Greek and Russian inhabitants have
quitted, and the Tartars have seized the opportu-
nity to possess themselves of their lands. The
Russians are fortifying the Isthmus of Arabat.
The Circassians are said to have returned to Anapa.
From Eupatoria we have absolutely nothing.
There was a rumour some time ago in the camp
that some Turkish cavalry were going to be sent
down here ; but, as nothing has arrived hitherto,
it was very likely nothing more than one of the
usual " shaves." It is not cavalry which will scale
the Mackenzie ridge, or the heights of A itodor,
and besides there is already enough English and
French cavalry here, more in fact than there will
ever be an opportunity of employing in the south
of the Crimea. The steppes in the north down to
Simpheropol was the place for cavalry, and, in-
stead of sending for Turkish cavalry, we ought
rather to send up French and English.
As the telegraphic communication with Eupato-
ria is established, there is very scarce postal com-
munication, and, although only four hours from
Kamiesch, it is easier to get a letter from America
than from Eupatoria.
The health of the Turkish troops continues to be
good. I think this may in some measure be attri-
buted to the continual movement in which they are
kept, and to the change of air attending it. The po-
sition which they have now chosen is for the most
part excellent in this respect. Except the few bat-
talions which are down near the bridge where the
Woronzoff road leads over the small tributary
stream of the Tchernaya, coming from the moun-
tains above Varnowka, all the troops are on the
heights. From that part, where the head-quarters
are, you get a beautiful view of the sea, and of the
shipping in the roadstead of Balaklava. Notwith-
standing the abruptness of the cliffs towards the
sea, there is a small strip of beach just there, so
that even the opportunity for sea-bathing is not
wanting ; but for all those who cannot swim it is
rather a dangerous temptation, for after a few yards
the beach ceases quite suddenly, as if the cliffs, in-
terrupted for a short distance by the beach, were
continued again under the sea. When the Turks
retired the other day from Baidar some troops were
left at this point. Some of them asked for per-
mission to bathe, which was granted. One of those
who could not swim went beyond his depth, and
was sinking ; his comrade, who could swim, sprang
in after him, and, foolishly enough, gave him one
of his hands to seize hold of ; the consequence was,
that he was unable to do anything, and both were
on the point of being drowned when two others
came to their rescue, and dragged them out by
means of ropes which they had fortunately brought
down with them. But the most remarkable part
of the business was the manner in which the
Turkish doctor tried to revive the man who had
fallen in`first, and who
.w.. as unconscious. He gave
orders to turn him upside down and keep his legs
in the air, which would very likely have finished
the poor man. Fortunately, the eommandidg
officer interfered, so the man, instead of being
turned upside down, was rolled along the ground,
which, somehow or other, did revive him.
It is a pity that all the surgeons sent out from Eng-
land areemployed in the hospitals atVarna, Eupato-
ria, and Balaklava, and none have been attached to
the army which is in the field, for there they are
most wanted. But if we have no English surgeons
at present in the camp except Dr. Fuller, attached
to head-quarters,. we have ambulance mules, with
chairs and beds in the French fashion. It is the
first time Turkish soldiers have seen anything like
them, and of course they have not the slightest idea
of using them. The other day, when the Turks
came bank from Baidar, I saw some sick conveyed
on this newly-adopted ambulance. Those who
were placed on the chairs were all right, but the
greater part of those who were transported on these '
portable beds were shockingly ill-treated through
the ignorance of the soldiers. Only very few of
these latter seem to have known how to stretch
these beds, so that they were only half opened, and
the poor fellows were crouched down, with their
knees touching their chins, in a space of about two
feet square. At every false step which the mule
made they
in
knocked against the iron frame-
work and ndanger of being thrown out.
The Turkish army certainly did want ambu-
lances, but why not adopt something which was
familiar to those who were to handle these ambu-
lances ? All over the East women as well as chil-
dren and sick travel in the talbtravan, a kind of
litter carried by mules or camels. Why could we
not have adopted something of this kind ? Two
mules would have in this way just as well carried
four men as now. This would have formed a far
more comfortable bed for sick or wounded men,
and the Turks, who are familiar with it, would
have known how. to use it ; while in the manage-
ment of these French ambulances they are about
as expert as a European may be who eats rice for
the first time with chopsticks, or a Turk who,
having eaten during his whole life with his fingers,
handles for the first time a knife and fork.

The Turks have taken provisions for a week for
their new encampment, but this is by no means a
reason for supposing that they will stay here for a
week. Astronomers are able to calculate the move-
ments of comets and foretell their appearance and
disappearance, but no coadjutor should try to spe-
culate on the movements of the Turkish army—
nay, I even sincerely pity the historian who will
try to explain its erratic movements. The only
steady feature I could hitherto detect, and which I
am glad to impart for the benefit of the future his-
torian, is that the Turkish army moves always the
day before the post starts. Droll as this may ap-
pear, it is nevertheless certain ; we started from
Tchorgoun to Baidar the day before the post ; we
came back thence the day before the post, and
the new position was taken up likewise yesterday,
that is the day before the post. This movement
by post may be very advantageous for the army
for aught I know—it may have likewise a deep
strategical meaning for aught I know—but I do
know that it is very inconvenient for your corres-
pondent. If suggestions from newspapers were
not rather out of fashion in the army, I should like
to suggest that the Turkish army should move the
day after the post, which would be still moving by
the post.—Times Correspondent.

think it is likely a Siamese ambassador will
next year visit the Court of St. James's. The gorgeous
splendour of the Court of Bangkok (as we have seen
exceeds belief. When I can find time I propose to write
an account of my visit and of Siam. It is a country of
wonderful beauty, great resources, various productions :
and Bangkok will, I trust, become again what it once
was—one of the largest emporiums m the eastern world,
following only Calcutta and Canton.—Letter from Sir
Jolin Bowring.

THE TURKISH LOAN.

( From the Times of this day.)

We understand that it is the intention of the party
which so nearly succeeded on Friday night in repudia-
ting the terms of the recent convention between France,
Turkey, and England, to attempt again this evening to
prevent the introduction of the bill for giving effect to
that convention. Had they succeeded on Friday night
it would have been by mere effect of surprise, and there
might have been room to hope that the House would,
on calmer consideration, have rescinded a resolution so
improvidently and hastily come to. To-night there will
be no such excuse, and we therefore beg the serious at-
tention of our fellow-countrymen of every rank and de-
gree to the true nature and bearing of the momentous
question this night awaiting its solution at the hands of
the Legislature, and perhaps on a future occasion at
those of the constituencies. The prospects of the Peace
Party at this moment seem to be far from brilliant. It is
small in numbers within the House of Commons, and
proportionately still smaller without. Its members are
considerably discredited either by their advocacy of ab-
surd and impracticable theories, or by their desertion of
the war in which they mainly contributed to involve us.
The House of Commons has pledged itself by a solemn
vote to support the Ministry in the vigorous prosecution
of the war, and the Ministry have entitled themselves to
the confidence of the people by the firm and unflinching
language held by them in the recent correspondence with
Vienna. The defeat also of Mr. Roebuck's motion, sup-
ported by all the strength of the Peace Party, showed
how little the House was inclined to disturb the existence
of a Government which comp isd so fairly with the one it •
dispensable condition to which all Governments in the
present state of the public mind are bound to conform.
Nothing was left to the Peace Party that could be at-
tempted by open force, byargument, orinvective, but they
had other resources, and organised with much skill and
secresy a scheme of operations which came so very near
success that even now we can hardly believe we have
escaped, though narrowly and fortuitously, so great a
danger. The friends of Peace could not persuade this
country to conclude an ignominious treaty, but they
seem to have devised a scheme which, if successful,
would have placed u in a position in which the continu-
ance of the war oa its present footing would have become
quite impossible, These sagacious friends of England
saw that the whole strength of our position rested on the
alliance between England and France, and that it they
could succeed in loosening or dissolving that formidable
bond it would be for us to accept any terms which Rus-
sia may dictate, and thus a peace of some sort most
calamitous to our interests, most humiliating to our
feelings, most degrading to our honour, but still a peace,
was sure to be concluded. They changed their tactics,
therefore, and instead of attacking the war openly, they
directed their attack against the French alliance. Peace
was to be sought through disunion, and the means of
producing disunion were not long in presenting them-
selves. The House of Commons could not be induced
directly to reject the French alliance ; but by working
upon honest prejudices it might, it was thought, be sur-
prised into doing an act which would virtually have the
same effect. Turkey is totally exhausted by the war,
and it has become a matter of the most imperious neces-
sity to grant her pecuniary aid in some shape or another.
Whether this was to be done by loan, subsidy, or gua-
rantee, and whether these operations were to be joint or
several, formed the subject of deliberation between the
Western Powers. It was a matter which Government
was obliged to decide in the first instance, trusting to
the patriotism of Parliament and its assurances of sup-
port in the vigorous prosecution of the war to ratify
the convention. Here, then, was the opportunity.
The plain adopted by Ministers was, as any other plan
would have been, liable to many and serious objections.
By insisting on these objections, by pressing the finan-
cial difficulties, and keeping out of sight the momentous
political consequences of the vote, the Peace Party,
aided by the most unscrupulous part of the Opposition,
almost succeeded in their attempt to reject the Minis•
terial plan, and thus to rescind the convention between
England and France.
Let those who took part in this rash and ill-advised
step, and those who are to. decide on the repetition of it
to-night, well consider what would have been the result
had the surprise of Friday been, as it so nearly was, suc-
cessful. We should have placed the Emperor of the
French in a position of the most undeserved and galling
humiliation, and compelled him, in the face of his own
people, to undo an act performed on the faith of the
support of the British Ministry and the recent vote of
the House of Commons. We should have publicly ad-
vertised to the world that the Government of the United
Kingdom would not consent to be bound by the same
laws of international communion as all other nations of
Europe. Wherever the supreme power resides, whether
in a Czar, an Emperor, or a Parliament, it is always in
dealings between nation and nation, content to be bound
by the acts of the Executive whom it appoints to repre-
sent it. If that Executive does wrong the supreme au-
thority may censure the acts of the Executive, it strikes
a blow not merely at its own Executive, but against the
possibility of national intercourse and communion. It
is on the supposition that a State is willing to be bound
that which its regularly authorised agents agree to
on its behalf that treaties become possible, or the inter-
course of nations for any common purpose takes
place. Had, then, the Peace Party succeeded in their
attempted surprise on Friday they would not only have
most justly disgusted and irritated our faithful and ho-
nourably ally the Emperor of the French, but would
have established a principle which would have rendered
the idea of co-operation henceforth between the two
Governments absolutely absurd, and vested in the
House of Commons alone the power of making binding
agreements with foreiga States. The effect of this must
have been an immediate dissolution of the alliance be-
tween England and France just at the critical moment
of the war, and an entire and permanent isolation of
this country at the very moment when she requires,
above all things, firm friends and associates. No
doubt, it is in the power of the House of Commons to
work out this consummation, but no form of govern-
ment can be permanent and no alliance can be practic-
able where each part of the body politic insists upon
exercising the powers it possesses to the utmost. We
are to purchase peace, but at what a price ! We are to
give in exchange for it the alliance which is our strength,
the victory that seems almost within our grasp, the re•
putation for good faith and moderation which fights
more powerfully in our cause than fleets and armies, the
future independence of Turkey, the possibility of ever
again forming a league or acting in concert with an
allied nation, and when, at the instance of these com-
bined parties, we have purchased peace at this awful
price, how long will it endure, how long will a country
baffled, isolated, and discredited, be able to maintain its
position against an alliance of nations formed against a
power unable to coerce its enemies or to preserve its
friends, and become, by the madness of its factions and
the cowardice of its statesmen, an object of just con-
tempt and hatred to the friends whom it has deceived
and the enemies to whom it has submitted ?

LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON MINISTERIAL
INSTABILITY.

It will be in the recollection of all who heard Lord
John Russell's speech of the 6th of July, that the
reason he urged for his retention of office after the pro-
posals he brought from Vienna were rejected was, that
his resignation would have confirmed that opinion of in-
stability in our councils which the Ministerial changes
of the last few months, and the unsettled temper of the
public, had tended to create. He dwelt on the evil of
such instability in a marked manner, and argued that
it should, at a time like the present, be avoided above
all things. "I believe," he said, in by far the most im-
pressive passage of his address, "it would be a very great
misfortune if any change were to take place in the Ad-
ministration, unless it were a total change to the men
who are now opposed to her Majesty's Government."
A week after these words were spoken the change
which he deprecated was brought about by
an intrigue among the inferior members of the
Government. The Cabinet was overawed—the Premier
was unable or unwilling to control his subordinates...
and a striking example was given of that " instability "
which Lord John viewed as a great misfortune, aggra-
vated by every circumstance which could add to its in-
jurious effect. The noble lord is a constitutional autho-
rity of some weight—he must be supposed to know some-
thing, from personal experience, of the damage done to
a Government by frequent changes in its leading mem-
bers—and, according to his recorded judgment, it would
be better at this moment if the places of the Opposition
and the Ministry were reversed.
In this instance we can detect a principle in his
speech which will bear examination. Any Government,
to be strong and respected, must include the most emi-
nent members of its party. This is a rule absolutely
without exception. The party may be numerically
may be
small, yet the party which represents it
secure
nd of filling
I vigorous while the circumstances last which secure
of
its ascendancy. But changes which havethe
extruding from office the most distinguishaedmen of a
party, while the party itself retains power,
the stations to which they have legi.tirn,:tr eclaims with
safe. They
mediocre talents, never can be lash is 14sItn is not in the na-
directly necessitate other change!.
w-li hagly to the rule of go.
ture of a people to submit
to remain
vernments they despise, no
hange which h
Every c as taken
content in obscurity.
'
Lord Palmerston since its for-
mationr of superior minds •
place in the Ministry of
eana n characternot
iarindsuch a case
reduce its
aggregate of ability.
has tended to 1
for herent weakness in
compensate
into the debilitated frame ore than crutches
can impart vigour l‘ofwajeroriittsi
from being
which is com-
pelled to use them.lnstability, rom being an accident
all Governments are
to which liable, lies at their very
root, and becomes a vice
in t •
heir nature when an at-
tempt is made to prolong their existence by a sac-
rifice of their strength. The Sangredo system is
not more rational in policy than in medicine.
But, unhappily, while the Cabinet is wasting under the
phlebotomic treatment of its chief, it is who are the suf-
ferers from its exhaustion, and at the same time have to
pay all the demandsof the quackwho occasionsthe
mis-
chief.

In the House of Commons there has lately been ex-
pressed, with wonderful unanimity, a conviction that
the Government is destitute of principle, ability, or
vigour, Lord Johu, we have seen, holds that it ought