The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-12 00:00:00

tug.
came into harbour this
The Sphinx, 6, paddle-sloop,
morning from Spithead to have seine deices made good.
' She landed her captain (Clifford) yesterday at Hasler, to
undergo treatment for the injuries be unfortunately re-
ceived in the breaking of a hawser in towing the St. Vin-
cent from the Riltie, atfer which she went back to Spit-
head to unship her powder and shell. •
Th 3 Rhadamantlius, steam-transport, Master
shell
h ad
,
arrival yesterday from Plymouth, whit
taken machinery, for the Algiers, 91, screw. In coming
through the Needles yesterday morning she got on shore
off Hurst Castle, and information of the fact having been
seut, the Sphinx, 6, paddle-sloop, and Comet, steam-
' tug, wero ordered to go to her assistance, the latter taking
a dockyard lighter in tow. Before, however, they had
Cowes got
away, the Rhadsmr...nthus was seen coming up past ,
so that their services were not required. She came into
harbour yesterday afternoon ; and it appears that, at 2, o'clOck
in the morning, she got too close to the N.B. buoy at the
Shingles, and, backing her engines to avoid running over
it, she went too far astern, by which she touched the bank.
She remained on two or three hours, till the tide rose,
when she floated off without (as far as can be ascertained)
damage. She will take stores round to the Eastward, an
the
the crew of a Russian merchant ship, captured b y
Avon, and taken into Plymouth. There are 11 persons in
number,

APPOINTMENT.
Assistant-Surgeon—Andrew M‘Munn (1353), from the
Frolic, 16, on the Cape of Good Hope station, to the Al-
giers, 91, screw steam-ship at Sheerness.

TRIAL OF THE ROYALSHEELB AERT'S,RNESS EN
SEPTGINES.
. 11.
At six a.m. yesterday the fires were lighted up on board
the Royal Albert, to prove the boilers and jeints. All
being very satisfactory, the fires were kept back, by
order
of Mr. Rumble, the chief engineer, until the arrival of
Mr. Hartrie, the representative of Messrs. John Penn and
Son. At ten a.m. the engines were started, and when
fully up to their speed, made 51 revolutions per minute,
the load on the safety-valve being 201bs. on the square inch.
The engines were worked four hours and a half, giving the
greatest satisfaction to all parties present, as well as those
more intimately concerned. It is very gratifying to know
that there was not the least symptom goat hot bearings,
and everything worked with the greatest ease and satis-
faction. The boilers gave an abundant supply of steam.
There was an excellent draft in the fire-places. The en-
gine-room and stoke-hole were moderately and unusually
cool—the engine-room not exceeding 80 deg., a
stoke-hole not. more than 100 deg. From the day's trial
at moorings of this snip we may look forward to a high
speed being attained beyond all doubt, as the engines made
51 revolutions on an average, and screw vessels generally
make about three-fourths of their revolutions at moorings ;
consequently there is but little doubt these engines will
make 60 revolutions on her trial, and with the present
pitch of screw, snaking a very liberal allowance for slip,
this stupendous mass of wood and metals will be propelled
through the water (with a nominal power of 500-horse) at
the rate of 10 knots per hour. After sundry diagrams
had been taken, and the expansion gear tried, to ascertain
how the future speed of the ship could be diminished by the
greatest economy of full, the trial of the engines of the mag-
nificent ship ended. She will no doubt echo the names of
John Penn and Son over the hills of far-famed Sebastopol.
Mr. Robert Hughes, assistant to the chief engineer from
the Surveyor of the Navy department at Somerset-house,
was hero yesterday on duty relating to the Algiers, steam
line-of-battle ship. The crow of the Algiers were engaged
during yesterday coaling from the Columbine floating coal
depot, which vessel was towed alongside her. She is :the
receiving her lower-dock armament.
An order has been issued hero regulating the time of
persons visiting the Royal Albert and dockyard, in order
to meet the arrivals of passengers by the steam-packets
from London via the Thames and Medway. They are in
future to assemble at the yard-gate, at 9.30 a.m., and at 2
p.m., when they will be escorted through the yard (with
permission to visit the Royal Albert) by the police. It is
gratifying to state that every facility is given to visitors
by the arrangements made by the Captain-Superintendent.
The number of visitors is immense daily, most of whom
only ask to visit the Royal Albert, as the great lion of the
day at this yard.

"Instead of an hour after sunset, it was midnight be-
fore the troops began their march from the camp, the
first consequences of which late start being constant
stumbles of the artillery and cavalry into the frequent
ruts and holes which honeycomb the first portion of the
line of march ; horses fell, men shouted, and far a con-
siderable time all was confusion and disorder. Torches
were at length procured, and by their dim and flickering
guidance more than 35,000 cavalry, infantry, and artil-
lery, felt their way, confusedly and with difficulty, on
towards the foe. Alternately marching and halting,
they crept on over the plain, till the grey streaks of
dawn, struggling ever the mountains of Georgia, revealed
a status quo as unlike as possible to the marching order
of an army, and with it the still more unpleasant fact
that tho Reta,ians were already awaiting us some few
hundred yards a-head. After half-an-hour's delay in
bringing up' and arranging the scattered columns, the
army was ngam got into motion, and the first division,.
under the command 'of Kheritu Pasha, advanced to
take up position in order of battle. I should have men-
tioned that the avant-garde, consisting of a detached
corps of five battalions of infantry, 7two squadrons of
if regular cavalry, and one mountain battery, had been
despatched earlier in the night to take possession of
the heights which command the Russian camp, and from
which, on a previous occasion, the enemy's skirmishers
had done considerable damage. There they were notv '
posted, in threatening and effective contiguity to the
Russian right wing. The enemy had taken up an ad-
vantstr,eous position on a sloping eminence to the right
of their camp, and numbered in all 16 battalions, with
four of a reserve further back towards the tents.
" A Turkish battery of the left wing opened the ball,
and after a few rounds of shot from it, which' were
speedily answered by the Russians, to try the range of
the guns, the cannonade soon became general. For
nearly half an hour the Russian firing was execrable ;
nearly every shell and shot passed high over the ene-
my and fell far in the roar. Afterwards it improved,
and, as I can persoitlly vouch, generally hit with a pre-
cision which was not to be surpassed. Fine, however,
as it was, the Turkish from the very first shot was
better ; and in little more than an hour drove the Mus-
covites from the advantageous position which they oc-
cupied. Thus pressed, the right wing of the latter gra-
dually fell back towards the base of the mountain, where
a masked battery suddenly opened in their support; but
a brief concentration of the Turkish fire upon this point
soon silencel it, and the enemy, unable to resist the
des dating shower of shot and shell poured on them by
the Turkish artillerists, began to give way. I may as
well remark here that neither as yet, nor up to the end
of the action, did the party who held the summit of the
hill tire a shot ; early in the engagement the Turkish
officer who commanded became non est, and Major Tevia
(an American serving in the Ottoman army), next in
command, urged them in vain to make a movement
upon the enemy's rear, as was intended. Had this
party acted with energy at the outset of the battle, the
result might have been very different; as it was, they
were merely safe spectators of the storm which raged in
front and on either side below them.
" Up to this point success was steadily on the side of
the Turks. The right wing of the enemy was driven
back, and the fierce tide rolled past the front of the moun-
tains to where the minor conflict of musketry and lance
was being waged between their left and the right of the
Turks, close upon the Georgian border. Here the ba-
lance turned, Resul Pasha (mentioned in a previous
letter from Erzeroum in terms of confidence, which his
present conduct has belied) being the first to set the
example of flight. While opposed only by Russian in-
fantry or cavalry, he and his Arabs stood firm enough,
but on the first shot of cannon they turned and fled with
an energy truly . ' worthy of a better cause' than
cowardice. Unpersued by a single Russian, they ran
till far out of reach of shot or shell, and, except by the
contagion of their example, had no further influence
upon the fortune of the day. The `force of example,'
however, soon showed itself, and the regular cavalry, as
on nearly every previous occasion, proved themselves no
braver than the Bashi-bazonits. Noticing the first
symptoms of their wavering, Kourschid Pasha (chief of
the staff) ordered Vely Pasha, who commanded the right
wing of the second division, to advance to the support of
the first ; but, personal jes:onsy being operative even
then, he refused to (lo so without a direct order from the
Commander-in-Chief. Now, this latter person, being
`nowhere," was not to bo found till after a delay of
nearly an hour, when he gallopped into sight, bareheaded
(having lost his fez in the hurry of flight), in most co-
mical alarm at having unwittingly strayed within range
of a Russian gun in another part of the field. I hap-
pened to be passing the spot at the time that a shell
passed over the staff and burst some 12 or 15 yards off,
and I can, in all soberness, testify to the ludicrous effect
upon the Generalissimo's nerves. With sudden terror
blanching every feature, from his forehead to his chin,
he roared `AI-lah l' and dug the spurs into his horse's
side till the animal jumped from the ground as if at-
tacked by a whole battery of electric eels, nor halted till
safely beyond the reach of Russian metal. When he had
sufficiently recovered from the effects of this fright, the
necessary order was given to the second division, which
now advanced, but too late to regain the lost ground ; the
first was already in full retreat, pursued by two regiments
of Russian dragoons, and no efforts of the Mushir could stop
them. Kourschid Pasha succeeded in arresting the flight
of four battalions of infantry, one regiment of cavalry,
and a battery of artillery, and with these returned to
the charge. The cavalry, however, again fled, but with
the infantry and artillery he drove the enemy from the
heights, which they had already taken from Vely Pasha,
and held them to the last. But no efforts of individual
skill or bravery could now prevent the catastrophe of a
defeat. Having disposed of the first division, the Rus-
sians threw their whole force on the second, which,
though its infantry and artillery fought well, was barely
able to maisstain its ground and cover the retreat.
Though numerically equal to the entire strength of the
enemy, in it, as in the other division, the cavalry proved
cowards almost to a man, and left the other arms to bear
the brunt of all.
"Thus, after a struggle of four or five hours' dura-
tion, was the battle of Kurakderd (the name of the vil-
lage nearest the scene of action) fought and lost. 'With
a vivid impression of the whole engagement, from the
first cannonshot to the last straggling discharges of
musketry, I can use no language too strong to express
my reprobation of the conduct of nearly four-fifths of the
Turkish officers present. In accounting for the defeat
of an army numbering nearly 40,000 men of all arms by
a hostile force of less than one half that number, it is
not sufficient to say that the management of the whole
hattic on the side of the Turks was a series of blunders
from first to last ; strategical errors might have pro-
tracted the engagement, and have added to the cost of
a victory—but downright cowardice alone—which no
generalship could have redeemed—gave the day to the
Russians, One arm, and one only, behaved well—the
artillery—which, with its commander, Tahir Pasha,
acted worthily of any army in Europe. Of the whole
40 battalions of infantry two regiments—the sth Anato-
lian and 4th Desardat—alone stood their ground and
resisted cavalry. Three successive times did three
squadrons of Russian dragoons bear down upon these
exceptionally brave regiments with a force before which
many better disciplined troops would have yielded
without effecting an opening in their ranks ; and
it was only after a fourth charge, supported
by the fire of a field-piece, that they gave way,
when only 250 of the first and 400 of the second escaped
death from the Russian sabres. Than the conduct of
the rest of the infantry nothing could well be worse, ex-
cept that of the entire cavalry, which would have dis-
graced the rawest Bashi-bazouks. If such, however,
was the conduct of the men, that, as I have said, of the
great majority of the superior officers was still more in-
famous. An hour after the action began, there was
hardly a Bunbashi (major) or Murallai (colonel) to be
seen ; almost to a man they had deserted their regi-
ments, and fled back to the camp to secure their baggage
and send it off to Kars. Battalion upon battalion, and
squadron upon squadron, were thus left without leaders
—a status quo, among others, which mainly contributed
to the general confusion and ultimate defeat. In Europe
the reward of such conduct is understood and certain
enough ; but here it has merely excited some short-lived
and fruitless remark. These, however, have been the
causes of defeat ; the plan of the battle (by Kourschid
Pasha) was admirable, but the cowardice of those with
whom lay its execution would have rendered vain the
strategy of Wellington himself.
" Ou regaining the camp after the battle I found the
tents already stripped, and nearly everybody's baggage
either starting, or already gone to Kars. With some
the instinct of personal safety had been stronger than a
regard for their chattels, and they accordingly had al-
ready fled thither, leaving chibouques, carpets and other
, personalities to take care of themselves. The cannonade
. had drawn the Kurds in crowds from the neighbouring
mountainB, like vultures to carrion, and they were now
making rapid appropriation on all hands. Having my
own horses, however, I succeeded in bundling together
as many of my movables as my servant had been able to
protect, and fell into the rapid stream of the retreat,
which, with Bashi-bazouks, infantry, cavalry, artillery,
baggage-mules, camels, and bullock-carts, packed
with the wounded, formed as motley and scattered
a host as ever figured on panoramic canvas. From
Hadjivelekey to Kars, some eighteen miles, it was
one unbroken stream, hurrying in quick disorder
from the dreaded pursuit of the victorious Giaours ;
soldiers without arms, stragglers with plunder, and
horses without riders—on they hastened in noisy and
jostling confusion, which could find no parallel but in
some similar scene. But all this was nothing wheNncona.
Even , pared with the state of things at Kars itself. n be-
-1 fore the battle had terminated, swarms of the eying

a braver fro nt to 12,000. The disgrace of the defeat is too
entire to re, ieive any qualification from this. The Mushir
has determined to await the enemy under the walls and
behind the fieldworks of ICars. Nearly 7,000 men have
this mornin g commenced increasing and strengthening
the latter, ; ind, as it is not likely that the Russian gene-
ral, with hi s present small force, will attack so strong a
position, pr esent expectations here are that he will either
await reinf 3mements, or, as was done in 1828, fall back
upon the 21.kzeroum side of the town, and establish a
blockade. .As this would effectually cut off Zarif Pasha
from suppli,es t, he would then be shut up to the alterna-
tive of fight ting another battle, or of retreating on
Batomn and forming a junction with Selim Pasha, leav-
ing Kars for the present to other holders. I venture to
predict that. this latter course will be the one adopted, if
the army co ntinues under its present command. Before
pausing in ❑iy letter yesterday, I might have mentioned
a character'istio step which was even then begun by the
Commande r-in-Chief, and which he has completed to-
day. Imni to diately after finding himself safe in Kars,
he called :a private gathering of all the Turkish
Pashas, an a procured their signatures to a petition
to the St waskier against General Guyon. This
document avers that with him alone rests the blame
of the del eat ; as, but for him, the Mushir would
not have h izarded an engagement. Now, I happen to
know, frog i more authentic sources than one, that not
once but t several times; during the two days preceding
the battle, he took to himself the credit of the energetic
step which was then in prospect, and spoke confidently
of his beating the one division of the enemy first, and
then falling back and exterminating the other. When
his own inc opacity in the field, and the cowardice of his
officers, ho, never, have led to a different result, he con-
veniently si i eks to shift the blame to the shoulders of a
general to v Thom his jealousy would not even intrust a
command d a ring the action. It is well, however, that
another co• crespondent of the Seraskier witnessed the
battle, and . acknowledges the excellence of its plan.
Count de Altelfray, who was present as first aide-de-camp
Ito the Mum ciir, will give the Porte his version of the
matter too :: and if jealousy and partisanship be not so
active in C, 3nstantinople as they are in Kars, it is to be
hoped that this effort of falsehood will not ward off from
Zarif Pach L. his long since deserved removal from the
post he no \ r holds. But, whether it do or not, I would
again vents ;re to suggest that the state of affairs at this
important y iciint of the seat of war calls for some prac-
tical attent i.on on the part of our own Government.
Russia may be repulsed on the Danube, but so long as
the balances . these reverses by triumphs in Asia Minor,
to my htnitl 31e understanding the war is not likely to see
an early or 'satisfactory termination ; and as the fight is
no longer T urkey's, but the Allies, so it strikes me they
shoull not P hut their eyes to a state of things here whioh
can only co Dann° to bear fruit in solid advantages to
the Czar That they have done so thus far can only be
explained o a the supposition of ignorance of the actual
facts ; but i sow that a commissioned informant will show
us things a std men as they are, I, for one, earnestly
trust that Downing-street and the Tuileries will no -
longer leave. Asia Minor to the mercy of intriguants and
imbeciles. One firm demand of the ambassadors
would suf&co to make this army do good service to

the general cause, by rescuing it from the worse than
feebleness rhich now rules it, and placing at its
head a ger mat whose character would command
its respect, awl whose thorough fitness for the
post would ;secure its efficiency and successful action.
Such a corn n sander is on the spot ; and the Emperor
Nicholas has good reason to rejoice that Turkish jealousy,
and Polish intrigue have hitherto kept him in the back-
ground, as merely chief of the staff. Had Guyon been
in command: of this army since the end of spring, not a
Russian offi,sial would now have foot-room on Georgian
soil. But 2 larif Pasha has held that post, and the con-
sequence is- —what it is.
" I am s tow merely to add that the returns, com-
pleted yesttirday evening, represent the loss as 1,200
killed, 1,80(1 wounded, and 8,000 missing, of which last
2,000 are plisoners, and the remainder (chiefly redifs)
deserters. Among the killed is one pasha (Hassan
Pai-ha), who commanded in the left wing of the let
division, and of whom (regardless of the de mortuis nil
nisi Loam) truth compels the remark that no greater
coward fell that day. Mussa Pasha is wounded, as are
several of the European and Circassian officers, all of
whom (with one or two exceptions, from whom much
was not to be expected) distinguished themselves highly.
Tahir Pasha., already mentioned, was the only Turkish
officer who behaved really well. He has been deservedly
decorated ; -as has also Hussein Bey, a Circassian officer
of the sth regiment of Anatolia, and five others of
minor rank. Of the Europeans three—all of whom be-
long to the staff—are proposed for a similar distinction,
Rufan Bey (Gortcrirninski, who was shot through the
neck), Emir Bey (Baron Schwartzenburg, who acted
a distinguished part in the Hungarian war), and Nevris
Bey (Major Bonfante, an American-Italian).
"Such are the incidents of a defeat which has again
—for the present, and some time to come—thrown the
Kars army back into a state of comparative nullity, and
demonstrated, beyond the possibility of dispute, the
necessity of its being at once placed under a European
commander, or having the co-operative assistance of
European troops. That its continued existence as an
army, to say nothing of its efficiency against the enemy,
depends upon one of these conditions is a fact which it
requires no very strong force of military prevision to
foresee and predict. Unless one or other of them be
given to it, before two months the Russians will be in
Erzeroum.