The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-28 00:00:00

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THE PRINCIPALITIES.
OMER PACHA'S DEPARTURE FROM BU

CH AREST.

BUCHAREST, Dec: 12.—Yesterday, while rain
was falling in torrents, Omer Pacha set out for
Shumla and Varna with his staff. His household
follows, and it is well understood that we shall not
see him again for a long while. He goes with
30,000 or 35,000 men to the Crimea, but to what
point of the Peninsula is to us unknown.
The semi-official organ of the Government here
published a few days ago the following order :
" Considering that in consequence of the note of Omer
Pacha, Generalissimo •f the Ottoman armies, an am.
nesty has been accorded to every one compromised in
these latter times; that several have appreciated that
oblivion of the past, but that others have followed the
enemy, and have not since returned—we submit this
matter to the deliberation of the extraordinary council
of the administration, and we order that the said indi-
viduals shall be forbidden to ratarn to their country.--
STIRBEI'.."

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, DEC. 11.

The following is the substance of a despatch from
General Canrobert, dated Bth inst. :—The General
demands of his embassy to represent to the Porte
the absolute necessity of providing regularly the
supplies of the Turkish troops, whose numbers are
daily increasing by the arrival of reinforcements
from Varna. The ardour, enthusiasm, and con-
fidence of the allied armies are displayed in glow-
ing colours. Their constancy under so many trials
and hardships, the General remarks, merits the
most honourable mention, and is the surest pledge
of success in a struggle whiok has now assumed
such enormous proportions. Were the British
force as advanced as the French in respect to its
works, and more especially in the renewal of the
batteries destined to operate on the place, General
Canrobort hoped to re-open the fire in a couple of
days.

RUSSIA.
GLOOMY ASPECTS---.PASKIEWITCH SENT
FOR—THE NEW LEVY.
ST. PETERSBURG, DEC. 17.
The news of the treaty of the 24 of December
being signed has caused a great sensation in our
political circles, and together with the still danger-
ous state of the Empress thrown a gloom over the
Russian capital, which it is difficult to describe.
The court is far from being in a humour to enjoy
the festivities of the approaching Christmas, the
aristocracy dare not give their usually brilliant
balls and entertainments, the merchants find their
commerce nearly ruined, the shopketpers 'have no
fa,wy and articles of luatit•y,
and the prevailing fear of coming misfortusies ex-
tends down to the very lowest classes.
Never did the Czar apply himself more vigorously

to business than he does at the present moment,
working daily for sixteen hours, for he knows very
well that he has no one to rely on, and that his
orders, however exigent, are never executed, unless
he sees them done himself. The whole system of
Russian bureaucracy is so rotten that no confidence
can be placed in anybody, and no one is more con-
versant with this fact than the Emperor himself.
Count Nesselrode is still in favour, and is closeted
with his royal master for several hours every day.
The general opinion here is that a war with all
Europe is inevitable, although a part of the nobles
affect to believe that Austria will never be brought
to draw her sword against Russia, and doubts are
beginning to be seriously entertained whether it
will be possible even for Prussia and the States of
Germany to maintain any longer their one-sided
neutrality.

The last accounts from the Crimea are anything
but encouraging. The army is decimated by disease,
provisions are getting short, and in the present
state of the roads there is no mode of sending sup-
plies. Great fears are entertained that Sebastopol
will not be able to hold out much longer, and
Menschikoff's flaming despatches, with his poetical
description of brilliant attacks and successful sor-
ties, with the stereotype loss of " one man killed
and wounded," fail to inspire general belief any
longer.

It is said that the Emperor has sent for the
venerable Field Marshal Prince Paskiewitch from
Warsaw to consult with him on the best means of
defending the frontiers on the Austrian line, and
to concert measures for certain contingencies that
may be shortly expected in that quarter.
That the nobility and mercantile classes devoutly
wish for peace cannot be doubted for a moment,
however unwilling they may be to clothe in words
such an unpatriotic sentiment. It is only the pea-
sants who still entertain any enthusiasm for the
Czar. The new levy to be raised in March of ten
men in every 1,000 inhabitants will drain the
population of nearly a million of men—on paper ;
for nobody seriously believes the possibility of
raising such an army by an imperial ukase, it being
well known that the Czar must first raise—the
wind.

The ukase, which is dated Gatschina, Ist (13th)
December, decrees that the conscription is to have
force in the eastern half of the empire, or, in other
words amongst, the barbarous tribes of Asiatic
Russia. The levy is to commence on the 15th
February, and to be finished by the middle of
March. The conscripts are to have, moreover, the
supreme gratification of paying for their uniforms
and outfits out of their own pockets, and the suns
charged to each recruit are not to exceed the value
paid by the commissariat department to the con-
tractors, viz., 10 silver roubles, 30 copecks (about
1/. 10s.) per head ; the Czar magnanimously re-
nouncing all idea of making any pecuniary profit
on the transaction—the logical inference to be
drawn from which is, that in other cases he does
make a profit.

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, DEC. 24.

Every thought of every member of the political
world here, not thoroughly engrossed by the ap-
proasching family festivities of Christmas, is directed
towards London, in anxious expectation of what
Herr von Usedom will learn of our Cabinet's inten-
tions. The conviction here seems very strong, that
if the views of the Western Powers do not very far
exceed those limits which Prussian views set to
the scope of the present war, the King will decide
upon casting his lot with them.
The accounts that reach here from Russian Po-
land mention that the 12th serial levy is being car-
ried on with equal energy and cruelty, and that, at
the same time, the lower classes of the population
are compelled to the most arduous labours for the
purpose of conveying to the warehousesand arsenals
the immense stores of provender and provisions of
all sorts that the upper classes have been forced to
contribute. The young and operative generation is
confiscated to the Emperor's military wants ; the
necessary edibles are laid under embargo to meet
the wants of the Commissariat, and the families
who are thus deprived of their effective members
are compelled to give their own services and those
of their teams to convey their lest treasures to the
neighbouring citadels. Their payment they re-
ceive in paper, to come due three days after con-
venient ; their taxes must be paid in hard cash.
Under the circumstances the poor people cannot
even afford the luxury of a hearty curse on their
oppressors, for anything like grumbling renders
them liable to personal pains and penalties, con-
fiscation of goods and chattels, and to being handed
over to the labour gangs. Warsaw is being turned
into an impregnable keep, and Kiow and Lamosc
into first-class fortifications. Warsaw and its
environs swarm with troops, whose numbers are
being constantly increased ; an army of 20,000 men
is posted between Bialogon and Samsonow, and
another between ICeilei and Radom. It is repre-
sented as highly improbable, that the Emperor,
with 50,000 (?) men on the Austrian frontier, will
consent to worse conditions than those which
Prince Gortschakoff was authorised to accept in
Vienna ; and some voices go so far as to assert that
it would very much interfere with Russian plans
and wishes if Europe was to take Russia at her
word. In some correspondences we find that Aus-
tria's signature of the treaty by no means surprised
politicians in Russia ' • it had been looked forward
to a long time as probable or possible, but is con-
sidered there to be an empty demonstration. "The
capture of Sebastopol and the burning of the fleet
will not, it is said, alter the position a hair's-
breadth, for still peace cannot be concluded with-
out Russia's consent."