The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-08 00:00:00

CIRCASSIA.

CONSTANTINOPLE, OCT. feel happy in having it at
last within my power to send you the address from the Com-
mander in-Chief of the Russian forces in Circassia to the in-
habitants of that province, as well as of the spirited answer of
the latter to this address. It appears from the last letters re-
ceived from that country, that the disasters the Russian fleet
experienced during the summer have been so great, as to
oblige the land forces to suspend for the present the war ope-
rations.

The following is the address I have above referred to :
" Inhabitants of Circassia and of the adjoining provinces!—
Anxious to put an end to the anarchy and misrule under which,
in common with the other populations of Asia, they were
groaning, and aware of the advantages of being placed under
a Sovereign, under whose aegis they might enjoy security and
tranquillity, several of the tribes of the Caucasus implored the
protection of the Emperor of all the Russias. Their request
was graciously granted, their provinces were incorporated with
the empire, and from that day the Emperor has not ceased
from looking upon their inhabitants in the same light as the
rest of his subjects, and watching with unremitting solicitude
over their welfare.

" More recently, in virtue of the treaty concluded at Adri-
anople between the Imperial Court of Russia and the Sublime
Porte, the Sultan agreed and consented to the total cession to
Russia of Circassia and the adjoining provinces. You have
in consequence become placed under the absolute and exclu-
sive dominion of Russia. and neither the Porte nor any other
Power possesses the slightest right of interfering in the affairs
of your country,
" Nevertheless, certain individuals, calculating on your ig-
norance and credulity, have' had the audacity to write to you,
in order to encourage you in your refusal to acknowledge your
legitimate Sovereign, and have even carried their effrontery so
far as to promise to you the assistance of foreign Powers,
should you persist in your resistance to his authority. Events
subsequently proved how little the assurances held out to you by
the various impostors who gave themselves out for agents of the
English Government, or emissaries from the Viceroy of
Egypt and from the Sultan, were entitled to reliance. Not
only foreigners, but even several of your own countrymen have
not scrupled to impose upon you, and to exert themselves
in inspiring you with groundless hopes. The latter, if not
dupes themselves, must evidently have been rogues, having no
othec object in view when encouraging you in your revolt.
beyond the furtherance of their own paltry views and sordid
interest. Experience ought to have convinced you by this
time of this truth, for out of their dazzling promises have you
seen a single one realized 1 Where are the fleets, where the
land forces, which they swore to you were coming to your de-
liverance ! .

" As to those individuals who, on their arrival in your
country, represented themselves to be envoys from Foreign
Powers, they have proved themselves to be needy. adventurers,
greedy speculators, men without character, devoid of common
probity, seeking to sell to the unwary, at an enormous profit,
the bad goods they had brought out. By listening to their
perfidious suggestions, you have occasioned the untimely death
of thousands of the bravest amongst you, the destruction of
your property, the misery of your families, and brought your
country on the brink of ruin.
" Do you imagine it possible that a Monarch whose might
and glory fills the whole world can patiently allow the revolt
of a handful of subjects remaining unrepressed ? The Em-
peror, my august master, treats his people as a father his
children, rewarding with marks of affection and tender re-
gard those who remain dutiful, but never suffering those who.
disobey to remain unpunished. Should you therefore persist
in the mad attempt of offering resistance to the omnipotence
of his power, and refuse paying allegiance to your legitimate
Sovereign, instead of treating you, as he is disposed to do,
with the kindness he ever shows to his loyal subjects, and
throwing the veil of oblivion over your past offences,
he, to a certainty, will see himself reduced to the pain-
ful necessity of inflicting on you the severest chastisement.
yr country
h you famealls also and s e
o clemency
n a
d r
magnanimity
Hasten to avail yourselves of the opportunity yet before you,
lay down your arms, submit to the Emperor of
Emperors,o mercy
re-echoes throughout the universe, and he will extend
his
Re-
posing in full security under the shadow of his protection,
u lesoof anwa eh
load a
prosperity,d you t 1
i favours.
happiness opening before its eyes; your liberties and
at
nquiy and
property
will be held sacred ; a termination will at last be put to your
intestine feuds and dissensions ; commercial relations between
you and Russia will be established ; and every one amongst
you, may freely to dispose of his produce in our markets, may
there receive on the most advantageous conditions in exchange
for his goods those articles of Russian industry which he is in
want of.

" Whosoever amongst you may be desirous of entering the
Emperor's service will meet in reward with wealth and ho-
nours, and those who may prefer remaining in Circassia will
be allowed to live there unmolested under their own laws,
and their religion will be as scrupulously respected as it has
been in every one of the provinces inhabited by Mahomedans
placed under the jurisdiction of Russia, a fact of which the
wholes world is aware.

" Appointed by the Emperor, our august master, to the com-
mand of the forces along the eastern coast of the Black Sea, I
have been authorized by him to come to this spot, and before
employing coercive measures against you to invite you to a
friendly arrangement, and to cease to allow yourselves to be
led astray by the perfidious representations of adventurers.
You will meet in me a kind friend and sincere well-wisher,
should you accept of my invitation. But, know beforehand,
that no accommodation is practicable, unless you make up
your minds to subscribe to the following conditions, which the
Emperor himself has dictated :
" Ist. Hostilities between us must entirely cease.
" 2d. You are to give us in hostage those persons whom we
shall name, and exchange those every four years for others
whom the Russian Government shall point out.
" 3d. You are to send back to our camp all the Russian
prisoners and deserters to be found in your country.
" 4th. You must solemnly promise not to receive any stran-
ger in your houses without the authorization of the Governor
whom Russia shall appoint, and to hold no intercourse with
individuals belonging to tribes which refuse paying allegiance
to our Sovereign.
" sth. The horses, sheep, and cattle belonging to rebels are
on no account to be allowed to graze, with your own. In case
of contravention of this regulation, the flocks and cattle found
with those, the property of rebels, shall be seized and distri-
buted to our troops, and the owners severely punished.
" Gth. The tribes which shall allow passage across their
territory to bands of robbers making incursions on our fron-
tiers shall be responsible for the depredations which they may
commit, and restore to Russia the number of men, as well as
of sheep, Sze., which they shall have carried away.
" 7th. The Governor of your country shall be appointed by
Russia, and his orders you shall implicitly obey.
" Bth. It will be requisite on the part of every man in your
country to exchange once a year the certificate of submis-
sion delivered to him by the Governor for a new one. The
names of those who shall fail complying with this formality
shall be inscribed in the registers of Government, and to them
protection from our troops shall be refused.
" Inhabitants of Circassia Once more I repeat to you
my friendly advice : accept without hesitation the proposals my
august master, the Emperor, is graciously pleased\to make to
you. They are the offsprings of his innate kindness and
mercy, and be not foolish enough to imagine that his object in
inviting you to accept them is thereby to facilitate the con-
quest of your country. I expect an answer from you.
" From the Russian camp, in the neighbourhood of Sotshah,
on the 12th day of the month Seffer, 1254."
To this communication the Circassians returned the follow-
ing answer :
" From the Camp, near Soodjah, the 14th of Seffer, 1254.
" Russian General,—We have received the letter you have
addressed to us, and perused its contents. We have well
understood the meaning ; and though we do not consider your
words as deserving of an answer, yet we shall make a few
observations on some of the most striking passages.
" You allude in the most abusive terms to the Englishmen
who arc residing with us. Whether they are honest men or
not we have better means or judging than you. They are
merchants, subjects of the King of England, a country in-
debted for its greatness and prosperity entirely to commerce ;
and, notwithstanding your remarks on their character and the
quality oftheir goods, we prefer them vastly to you, and while
they choose to remain with us they shall be treated by us with
the kindness and respect we have from time immemorial been
in the habit of showing to strangers.
" You would have us believe that the Sultan in the
treaty of Adrianopld made our country and its inhabitants
over to Russia. How can this be true or possible, since from
the remotest period down to the present hour our country
never had a Sovereign, and without interruption enjoyed an
independence which, with God's assistance, we trust to be
able to maintain.
" It is now ten years that you have been endeavouring
through all kinds of misrepresentations to impose upon us.
Simple-minded as we are, we have sufficient intelligence left
us to see plainly through your artifices and falsehoods. One
of the most glaring proofs of your effrontery is the attempt
on your part to make the world believe that our country was
ome of the Provinces of the Ottoman Empire. When was
its conquest achieved by the Ottomans? Did not previous
to the war your merchant vessels, and those of ether European
nations, freely frequent our ports, not only without paying
any port dues or custom duties, as in every other port through-
out Turkey, but even without requiring a firman from the
Sultan ? You know very well, that neither the Sultan nor
his Viziers ever claimed the slightest authority over us. But
falsehood has ever proved your most constant and powerful
auxiliary. The perfidiousness of your Government's policy
is proverbial, not only throughout the world, but even in our
mountains.

" We know how you have of late years been endeavouring
to overthrow the throne of the Sultan, and are aware of the
baseness of the means you have called into operation to ac-
complish this, the foremost cbject of your ambition. After
creating and fermenting
revolution among his Greek subjects,
and instigating the most powerful among his Pashas to revolt,
you have offered your assistance to enable the Stt*llt(?. restore

" Before giving time to the Mussulman nation to recover
from this treacherous blow, your Emperor seized on the first
pretext he could lay hold of to declare war against the Sultan.
It was on that occasion that Russia displayed before the
eyes of Europe the perfidiousness which has characterized all
its policy towards the nations professing Islamism, and im-
posed upon the good faith of Christian Powers with the same
barefaced effrontery. Before undertaking the war against the
Sultan, and promising in the most solemn manner to Europe
not to aggrandize her territory, what did Russia do at Adri-
anople? Standing with the bloody sword drawn out of the
scabbard of injustice over the beads of the Turkish Plenipo-
tentiaries sent to his camp, the Russian General cried out
Write what I am going to dictate ; put down that the Sultan
has ceded to Russia the whole extent of territory between Kizil
Tashbogazee ( Ridout Kaleh) and Sokoom.' Even had our
country belonged to the Sultan, which never was the case, it
is certain that a cession obtained from him in so lawless a
manner would have been in our eyes one of no value. Why
did the King of England protest against the treaty of Adrian-
ople ? We have but slight means of judging of foreign na-
tions besides your own ; yet we know this for certain, that as
you have proved the relentless enemy of the Ottoman nation
from time immemorial, so has the British nation proved on
every occasion the defender of her interests. How dare you,
whose soul is tempered in the waters of injustice, speak against
the English when writing to Mahomedans ? Were not the
French expelled from Egypt by the English ? And lately,
when Mehemet Ali, encouraged by your suggestions, expressed
to the King of England the intention of declaring himself in-
dependent of the Sultan, what answer did he obtain? Pay
your tribute, and continue as before to serve the Sultan as your
master, if you-attach any value to the continuance of England's
friendship to you.' But, after all, you are to be excused if you
di,like the English ; for were it not for the apprehension which
her fleets give you, you would by this time be masters of Con-
stantinople and the Dardanelles. _ _

" The. British Government is aware of the strength of our
position, of the bravery of our warriors, and knows that we
do not stand in need of foreign assistance to enable us to
prevent you from conquering our country. It is but natural
it should take a lively interest in our successes against you,
aware as it is, that our country is the keystone of the arch
of power in Asia, and that as long as we continue unsub-
dued, Persia, Turkey, and India have little to apprehend
from Russia.

" The whole world has become acquainted with your
duplicity and insolence, and has, therefore, turned its face
from you in disgust. The day of retribution, Inshallah !is
not distant.

" What we have been writing to you is not the result of our
fears, but solely to give you plainly to understand that there
is no use any longer to try to impose upon us by words. We
again repeat it, never shall we allow ourselves to be deceived
by you, and not even a hair V.friendship can exist between
us. Such is our definite answer. You talk to us about the
admirable administration, the order and tranquillity reigning
over your Mahomedan subjects. We see with our own eyes
the state of misery and degradation to which you have reduced
those unfortunate men. You force them to wage war against
us. If Russia be so strong as you say slie is, why does she
not accomplish alone the subjugation of our country ? Alas,
the poor Mussulmans ! if even now that Circassia, remaining
unconquered, it is your interest to treat them kindly—their
condition be so deplorable, what fate will their's be should ever
this country fall into your hands ? We trust in God.
" If your own co-religionaries throughout the empire lead an
existence worse even than beasts of burden, can we feel sur-
prised on seeing the vexations to which the Tatars, the inha.
bitants of the Crimea, and other Mahomedan populations,
groaning under your yoke of iron, are unremittingly subjected?
We have, though in our mountains, had ample means to judge
of the spirit of justice and humanity which characterises Rus-
sian forms of government. Enough have we learned on the
subject on seeing tears of blood trickling down the cheeks of
Russian deserters when relating to us the tales of their misery.
They escape from your camp and fortresses daily, and im-
plore us to employ them as slaves rather than send them back
to their homes. God be thanked, we do not fear you.
" We have to inform you that it will be better not to send
us any more letters or agents, for the letters we shall tear to
pieces without reading them, and your agents we will put to
death."