The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-01 00:00:00

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

The following from Vienna, yesterday evening,
is said to be authentic :
" On the 21st, at night, the Turks forced the
Russians to quit the island opposite Giurgevo. Two
attempts were made by the Russians to retake the
island, but were repulsed. In the second attempt
the Russian soldiers had to be forced into the fire.
" Between 7 and 8 in the morning of the 24th
instant the Russians retook the island.
" During the night of the 25th the Turks made
another night attack, but were repulsed.
" The passage of the river at this point on the
part of the Russians is out of the question.
" The pontoons have all been sent to Hirsova,
to connect the numerous islands with the right
bank of the river."
M. de la (Jour arrived at Trieste, on Nov. 30,
per the Egitta, and continued his journey via
Vienna.

General Baraguay d'Hilliers had a splendid re-
ception at Constantinople on the 21st. In his ad-
dress to the Sultan he expressed a wish for the
preservation of peace, but also for the indepen-
dence and integrity of Turkey. The Sultan briefly
replied in a sense consistent with the conduct
hitherto pursued by the Porte.
The agio is 30 per cent.
The tenders for the supply of the French ships
have been withdrawn.
Report says that the Servians have forcibly pre-
vented the Bosnians from passing through Servia
on their way to Omer Pacha's army.
On the 14th inst. the city of Belgrade was on the
point of being bombarded by the Turkinh garrison
of the fortress. The difference was caused by the
presence in Belgrade of the Russian Consul. The
calamity was averted by the intervention of the
Austrian Consul. General;
Advices from Constantinople state that General
Magnan has been retained there by General Bara-
guay d'Hilliers.
The Austrian corps of observation in Transyl-
vania will be placed under General Schlick, whose
head-quarters are at Klausenberg.
Letters from Bucharest of the 16th inst. state
that the arrest of the Boyard Kostaki Grezeau,
lately arrived from Paris, together with three of
his friends, had produced great sensation in that
place.

Prince Alexander of Servia has declared, in re-
ply to the demand made by the Porte, that his de-
cision, in case of a war between Russia and Turkey,
was for the observance of the strictest neutrality,
but that he was determined to resist the passage of
any troops through his dominions.
Letters from Trieste announce that the Turks
have obtained further advantages in Asia. They
not only defended successfully fort St. Nicholas,
but captured the fortresses of Usurgheti and Sou-
choum.-Kaleh. It is added that the Georgian peo-
ple are favourable to the Turks.
The latest accounts from Wallachia state that
numerous skirmishes had taken place along the
Danube between the Turks and Russians. The
Ottoman troops still pursued the system adopted
by Omer Pasha of attacking detached corps of
Russians with superior forces—a system which had
hitherto proved so successful.
The Turks had formed two new regiments of
marine artillery, to be employed on the coast of
Asia between Sinope and Trebizonde.
The following is from Orsova, Nov. 21 :
" General Fishback, at Krajova, has been receiving
reinforcements from Bucharest, and his force, which,
when the Turks landed at Kalafat, was only 6,000
men, is now between 12,000 and 13,000 men. His
troops have been so badly received by the Walla-
chians, that he has been compelled to issue first
one proclamation and then another, appealing
to the religious feelings of the natives, and also
h -)lding strong language to the oppositionists.
T re are no pecuniary requisitions, but as the
R ans pay according to the scale of last June,
be the immense rise of prices that has taken
pla within the last two months, this circumstance
is a standing ground of dissatisfaction.
It is not true, it is said, that the Russians have
seized the stores of grain in the Danubian ports
and appropriated them ; they have ordered the
stores to be conveyed three leagues into the inte-
rior by the merchants, but as the harvest this year
in Wallachia has been particularly productive, and
there is a great want of porters and carriage, there
are everywhere masses of grain awaiting the events
of war ; in Braila alone, and the neighbourhood,
there are above 800,000 quarters in store.
The discipline of both- Russians and Turks is re-
markably good. Both Sami Pasha., of Widdin,
and General Fischback vie with each other in
menacing with punishment their troops that com-
mit excesses ; nevertheless the Wallachians con-
tinue to say—why does not Prince Gortscnakoff
either cross the Danube or recross the Pruth ?
By accounts from Widdin, the Turks are working
night and day at the fortifications of Kalafat. The
Bulgarians are quite quiet. The Bishop of Widdin
translates the Turkish manifestoes to his flocks,
and assures the Pasha of their entire loyalty.
A fleet of seven steamers and 33 tugs, belonging
to the Danube Company, is at Turnu Severin, be-
tween Orsova and Widdin, in complete inactivity,
for the great trade on this part of the Danube is
the conveyance of grain from Wallachia to Vienna,
and to Siszek, on a branch of the Save behind
Fiume. Corn can be conveyed from Orsova, which
touches the corner of Wallachia, to Vienna, at the
rate of Is. 2d. English per cwt., which price th y
will be able to reduce as soon as the fine coal of
Oravitz, on the western slope of the Banat Carpa-
thians, is conveyed by railway to Basius. This
coal costs 12 kreutzers at the pith mouth, but for
want of transport costs 50 kreutzers to the
company.
The Danube has not been so low since 1840 as at
present, consequently boats from above stop at
Dreucona, whence travellers make a long day's
journey to Orsova in spring carts.
The wives and families of almost all the wealthier
classes in Wallachia are now in Hungary and
Transylvania. The peasantry are in the lowest
state of poverty, ignorance, and barbarism, al-
though the land is not one quarter cultivated.
The large estates of the Boyars are very
often in the hands of an Arrendator, or
middleman, who squeezes what he can get out of
the vtry indolent peasantry. The Boyars are very
fond of dress and equipages, and in language, man-
ners, and modes of luxury, copy the French, and
from what they see in Bessarabia are excessively
afraid of annexation to Russia, in which case the

screw would be placed on the lauded proprietor,
and the aristocracy would be reduced from power
and opulence to utter insignificance. Of any active
resistance on the part of the Wallachians to the
Rusisian invasion there is no question whatever.
Whatever they may have been in the middle ages
they are now the most unwarlike people in Eu-
rope.
Baron Offenberg, Adjutant of General Gortscha-
koff, has arrived here from Bucharest en route for
Vienna. It is scarcely necessary to say that the
contents of his despatches are unknown.

Private letters Which have arrived from Warsaw
state that the Russians are making preparations on
the most extensive scale for the spring campaign.
Marshal Paskiewitsch has announced that he means

then to take the command of the army in the
Moldo-Wallachian provinces, but before doing so
he hopes that it will be composed of at least
200,000 men ready to take the field, and of a re-
serve of 100,000 men. He is getting up his staff
on a corresponding scale. He has already selected
the officers who are to serve as his aides-de-camp,
and has appointed General Abramovitsch, formerly
commander-in-chief of the gendarmery in Poland,
as the commandant of his head quarters. This
appointment is considered an undoubted indica-
tion of the commencement of an important cam-
paign. _ _ .

The following is the reply of Prince Alexander
of Servia to the application of the Ottoman Porte
to declare himself on the conflict between it and

Russia :

" Imperial Majesty—l believe it right to make the
following reply to the letter which the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of your Majesty addressed to me on the 28th
ult. The Servian Government will be always disposed
to second the Sublime Porte, as much at least as existing
treaties permit ; but never can it submit to a thing
which appears to it incompatible with its duty. Such a

circumstance presents itself at this moment in the sad

dissension which has broken ou£ between your Majesty
and the powerful Czar. May Heaven cause this
conflict to turn to the advantage of your Majesty. But
the Servian Government cannot take part in a conflict
between the two Powers that protect Servia. It can
only adopt a policy of neutrality and impartiality. It
results from that that the Servian Government cannot
permit a body of troops to cross its frontiers. That
would be contrary to the policy which circumstances
command. The Government of your Majesty will be
obliged to
o admitnlyfollows
that in
the
counsels
nascetlisn g
of the
moderation,
vernmentandthat they will always serve it as a guide. To make its
policy of neutrality more energetic, it has given orders
to all the inhabitants of the principality to hold them-
selves in readiness to execute all the orders it may trans-
mit. Let your Majesty receive as heretofore the assur-
ance of my profound devotedness.
"ALEXANDER GEORGEWITSCH.
"Kragukewatz, 6th November."

milies.

The following telegraphic despatches were re-
ceived yesterday in Paris :
" Trieste, Nov. 17.—The Tuiks are still in pos-
session of the islands taken by them at the open-

ing of the campaign. There is every clay heard at
Bucharest a heavy cannonade on the Danube. At
the date of the 16th the Turks had not gained any
footing in Wallachia."

"Galatz, Nov. 14.—Four battalions of Russian
uf autt7, with 20 pieces of cannon, are just enter-
ing this place. At the head of the troops are three
generals and several other officers ; this detach-
ment is on its way to Ibrail. General Luders
passed through Galatz on the 12th, en route for
Wallachia."

'• Bucharest, Nov. 19.—The Turks on the 15th
raised their camp at Turtukai, leaving only a small
detachment, and retired, part into the fortresses
and part towards the south. The camp at Tur-
tukai did not contain less than 20,000 men."
Letters from Constantinople state that Omer
Pacha has intercepted and sent to the Porte a let-
ter from Menschikoff to Gortschakoff, advising the
latter to keep as quiet as possible in Wallachia.
The Ulemas have offered to furnish gold and sil-
ver from the treasuries of the church for the use of
the Government. The Sultan has declined this
offer, not wishing to do anything which would give
a religious character to the war.
Serum Pacha is appointed to the post of diplo-
matic councillor to the Turkish commander in
Asia.

On the 24th ult., Ismael Pacha and Schamvl
were to make simultaneous attacks on the Russian
lines.

The Porte has resolved for the present not to
accept the offers made for raising a Hungarian and
an Italian legion. The Polish legion, however,
will be organised at once at Scutari, and then pro-
ceed to Kars.

It is announced from St. Petersburg that the
Czar is about to issue another manifesto.

FRANCE.

Information obtained in various quarters in Paris
yesterday seems to confirm what has been men-
tioned already respecting the projected confer-
ence, to be held either at Vienna, London, or
Paris, for the settlement of the Turkish ques-
tion, and to which Russia and Turkey would
be invited to send Plenipotentiaries to explain
the final conditions on which those two Powers
would consent to an arrangement. The fact
of negotiations for a convention between France
and England, with a view to establish the condi-
tions and extent of a common intervention in the
affairs of the East, is again stated as positive. It
is also reported that a new Russian note has been
addressed by Count Nesselrode to the diplomatic
agents of the Czar in France and England. This
note defines the cases which would produce an in-
terruption of international relations, or a complete
rupture between Russia and those Governments,
and it is also said that it announces a new mani-
festo from the Emperor of Russia.
Not a day has passed since the Emperor's sojourn
at Fontainebleau without rumours of some terrible
accident having befallen him, or of some attempt
at assassination, and as the term of his absence
from Paris approached, these rumours became more
frequent and more alarming. At one time it was
a poignard which had inflicted a deep and dange-
rous wound—at another it was a badly aimed
pocket pistol, or an overcharged blunderbuss, which
only missed him by the breadth of a hair—and
again that a shot had br ken his thigh or fractured
his arm. One " very well-informed " person de-
posed to "a sword-thrust quite through his left
side ;" another equally veracious insisted upon " a
bullet lodged in the thorax ;" and the whole was
repeated with that nice circumstantiality which cha-
racterises the account of the duel between Sir Peter
Teazle and Charles Surface. The version of Tues-
day was, that the Emperor had been fired at by
an individual in the forest of Fontainebleau, and
who, having only wounded him, shot himself
through the head with a second pistol. It is super-
fluous to say that all such rumours were false; they
originated, perhaps, in the Emperor having, it is
asserted, struck his shoulder against the branch of
a tree while riding though the wood. A surgeon,
who is always in attendance at the hunting parties,
rode up to offer his services, which the Emperor
declined, as having no occasion for them. The
Court returned yesterday afternoon to Paris ; the
station of the Lyons Railway was decorated for the
occasion. Prince Napoleon has also returnedfrom
Fontainebleau. The Emperor and Empress at
once proceeded to the Tuileries.
It is said that M. Brenier, Secretary-General of
the department of Foreign Affairs, has left for
Italy, and that he intends visiting Tuscany, Pied-
mont, Naples, and Rome.
The Twenty-third Anniversary of the Polish Re-
volution was celebrated on Tuesday in Paris. Two
religious services took place ; one at the Church of
the Assumption, in the rue St. Honore, which was
attended by the elite of Polish society, headed by
Prince Czartoryski • the second at the Church of
St. Elizabeth, at which the military members of the
emigration formed the majority. At the former
place an address was delivered by Father Telowicki.
The preacher observed, among other things, that
"Catholicism was personified in the east by Poland,
and that a light was rising at the present moment
which gave hope that Catholic Poland was soon
destined to issue from the tomb." He condemned
the idea of the Christian feeling being sacrificed to
country. This latter observation was supposed to
be directed against the Poles who, out of hatred to
the Emperor of Russia, have embraced the religion
of Mahomet.
The same evening a Polish banquet was to have
taken place in the rue de Grenelle, but was sus-
pended by order of the Commissary of Police.
The directors of the Estafette, Echo Agricole, and
the Bulletin des Halles et Marches were tried before
the Police Court of Paris on Tuesday for having
published false news. They were acquitted. The
false news complained of consisted of errors in the
quotations of the price of corn.
The Pays has an article on the recent extra duty
imposed by the municipality of Paris on coal and
iron. The Pays seems to doubt whether, after the
recent decree of the Emperor, reducing the import
duties of coal and iron, it is expedient to enforce
the new octroi duties, or at least that on coal. One
of the motives assigned for the increase of the octroi
duty on coal was the equalisation of the duties on
fuel ; firewood, considering its inferiority as a gene-
rator of heat, having to pay a higher duty than
coal. The Pays, however, observes, that if it was
hoped by this equalisation, as it is called, to serve
the interests of the growers of and dealers in wood,
the object will not be attained, for, even with the
new duty on coal, there is still an advantage to the
consumer of more than 50 per cent. in the use of
coal. It recommends that the persons interested
in the wood trade should accept with resignation
the state of things produced by the increased use
of coal, and not to seek to enhance the price of that
article, to the injury of the mass, without being
able themselves to reap any benefit.
M. de Montalembert has returned to Paris after
an absence of several months. Like many others
who were for a time partisans of the present regime,
he has now given in his adhesion to the ancient
Monarchy, and is one of the warmest partisans of
the fusion. The only parties who disapprove of
the reconciliation of the two families are M. Thiers
and a few of his friends. They declare thp,t the
Orleanists have blotted out their political ex.

istence.
The cholera is making some progress in Paris.
The cases now amount to about fifteen per day.
The Emperor on Tuesday gave an audience at
Fontainebleau to the cure and mayor of Avon, and
handed to them a sum of 5,000 fr. for the poor of
their commune. Their Majesties continue to enjoy
the most excellent health.

The Moniteur announces that there will be no
fete on the occasion of the anniversary of the 2d
December. The only officially recognised fete is
that of the 15th August.
The organization of the battalions of Chasseurs
de Vincennes is going on with great vigour. Mili-
tary men do not deceive themselves as to the true
meaning of the measure. Properly speaking, it
amounts to the formation of ten new regiments.
and not merely ten new battalions. As for the sup-
pression of the depot companies, it is not looked
upon as particularly important. It will make no
real difference in the strength of the army, but it
will give the Government an opportunity of getting
rid of some officers who are suspected of not being
particularly favourable to the present regime.
A report has been current two or three days in
well-informed circles that the French Govern-
ment is determined on adopting measures against
the property which the Count de Chambord pos-
sesses in France—similar to those already decreed
against the estates of the Orleans family. The
Chambord property, viz., the two forests in the
Haute-Marne, the extensive forest near Bourges,
arc.' is on the point, it is reported, of undergoing
the fate of Neuilly, and of the other estates of the
younger branch. Even this course is not con-
sidered sufficiently severe • and M. Bineau, the
Minister of Finance, has been called on to furnish
a paper on the project of calling for the reimburse-
ment of the milliard allowed by the Bourbons at

the time of the Restoration to-the emigrant fa-

M. de Lamartine, whose health was for some

time in a very precarious state, has now so far re-
covered as to be able to resume his literary labours.
blYesterday was settling day at the Bourse, and
there was scarcely any other business transacted.
The Three per Cents. opened at 74f. 15c., rose to
74f. 20c., fell subsequently to 74f., and closed at
74f. 10c. for the end of the month. The Four-and-
a-Half per Cents. closed at 99f. 90c. ; Orleans
Railway Shares, 1,155 f. ; Rouen, 1,040 f. ; Great
Northern, 857 f. 50c. ; Paris and Strasburg, 813 f.
75c. ; Paris and, Lyons, 901. f. 50c. ; Lyons to the