The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-15 00:00:00

THE SIEGE OF SILISTRIA.

In Vienna yesterday the reported death of Mussa
Pacha was contradicted.
The Russians attacked Silistria on the 24th and
25th of May without success. On the 29th of May
a renewed attack was made with 60,000 men. They
were repulsed with a loss of 1,800 men.
We read in the Patric :—" The most recent
accounts from the Danubian provinces state that
after the last attacks, in which the Russians were
rejeetesl, the earriso4 of SR/Stria was able to receive
provisions, ammunition, and a reinforcement of
fresh troops which had been demanded by Musha
Pasha. A part of these troops relieved the garri-
son of the Fort Abd-ul-Medjid who were exhausted
with the long siege. These circumstances have
much improved the situation of the place, and had
increased its elements of resistance."

A BATTLE ON THE BANKS OF THE
DANUBE. IMMINENT.

- -
A European staff officer writes from Schumla :
" The enemy we have to meet is both numerous
and courageous, and strong on land and sea. It
appears by the statements contained in German
and Transylvanian papers that the Gth corps d'armee
has arrived at the Pruth, and has crossed it. This
is in all probability true. Thus the Russian army
has again received a reinforcement of from 45,000
to 50,000 men. Unfortunately, instead of forestal-
ling the arrival of these troops, we allowed the
Russians to anticipate us. Thus the enemy will,
in all probability, be stronger on the field, on which
in a very few weeks, two formidable armies will be
arrayed against each other. A numerical supe-
riory of even a third will not, however, decide
the question, when the superiority of the men,
and the strategic tactics of of the commanding
general are put into the scale. Independent
of greater numbers, the Russians will, however,
also have unity and homogeneousness. On our
side there will be greater mobility and supe-
rior intelligence. At all events, the shock will
be terrible, and we may expect a battle like Fried-
land, or Eylau. Where will the scene lie ? Ap-
parently in the triangle of Silistria, Schumla, and
Varna. If the Russians obtain possession of Silis-
tria before then, will they not advance on Pravadi,
in order to lay difficulties in the way of a junction
between the allied Anglo-French and the Turkish
armies ? Do not expect anything very decisive
before the arrival of the British and French. The
weather is splendid now. Why not take advantage
of spring, and give battle ? A month hence the
men will die on the road from heat, fatigue, and
exhaustion.

DISPOSITION OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY ON

THE BANKS OF THE PRUTH.

A letter from Jassy of the 2d, in the Press of
Vienna, says :—" Troops have arrived here within
the last few days, but iu small numbers. Travellers
state that there are 4,000 Rus3ians at Roman, 4,000
at Bakan, 800 at Folticzeny, 500 at Tirgu-Frumos,
and 4,500 at Botuschan. Small detachments of
Cossacks have been placed in localities on the fron-
tiers of Bukowine and Transylvania. We learn from
an authentic source that the 2d division of the 2d
corps of infantry of Paniutin has arrived at the
frontier of Moldavia. It is to enter that province
by Lipkani, where a permanent bridge has been
established over the Pruth. The 3d and 4th divi-
sions of this corps are to remain in Russia. There
are at present 2,033 wounded in the hospitals of
Jassy. These poor wretches are brought in the
night, and are sent off, also in the night, to Rus-
sia. Those, however, who are seriously wounded
remain in the hospitals of the Fockshan, Berlad,
and other places in Moldavia. Russian engineers
began four days ago making plans in the environs
of Liccani. It is said that they mean to throw up
entrenchments. The Austfian kreutzershave been
ordered to be withdrawn from circulation, and
have now only the value of the copper they contain.
This measure has been adopted in consequence of
the pieces having been extensively changed for
gold and silver."

RUSSIAN PERSECUTION IN MOLDAVIA.
A letter from Jassy, of the Ist June, states that
the general commanding in Moldavia had just de-
clared that all the horses of the province were to
be laid under requisition for the service of the
Russian army. Every landowner was under an
obligation of stating, in three days, the number of
horses which he possessed, and to place. them at
the orders of the military authority. He was also
to make known the quantity of horned cattle be-
longing to his farmers or to himself, and to hold
them at the disposal of the Russian commissariat.
These supplies are to be paid for by means of the
paper money recently created for the service of. the
Danubian provinces. Every Moldavian inhabitant
not submituing to these prescriptions is to be con-
demned by a military court to a year's imprison-
ment, and to confiscation of his property for the
profit of the Russian army. Such are the rigorous
measures which precede the arrival of Prince
Paskiewitsch in Moldavia.

FUTURE PLANS OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY
OF OCCUPATION.

A letter from Berlin, of June. says :—" A report
has reached this place relative to the subsequent
plan for future operations of the Russian army
on the Danube, which, whether true or false,
is not the least probable or rationally grounded,
both in a strategical and political point of view.
This plan is, in the liist place, to obtain. posion.
of Silistria, and all other fortresses on tire .Danube
fronting Wallachia Superior, from Nicopolis to

Rassowa ; to place these strongholds in a good
and improved state of defence ; to supply them
with competent garrisons, magazines, hospitals,
and stores ; and then halt for the tine being, and,
having their rear communications secured with the
left bank, thus to await siege or investment from
the land side. This being done, it is proposed to
concentrate the remaining forces upon the Lower
Aluta, to reeross that river and the Schyl, to re-
occupy Little Wallachia, reinvest Kalafat, and
attack that place by a coup de ,main, or regular ap-
proach as circumstances may dictate ; whilst a
powerful detachment thrown across the Danube,
either above or below Widdin, would cut off the com-
manications with the allied army, and lead, as an-
ticipated, to the rapid fall of the fortress. Having
concluded these operations, and thus rendered
themselves complete masters of the whole right
Danube bank, from the confines of Servia to the
Black Sea, the defensive is to be strictly maintained
for the present, and reliance placed upon such a
turn of favourable events as may arise from the un-
disguised sympathies of Prussia and the majority
of German States ; and from the difficulties—
above all, those of a financial nature—which clog
the operations as well as the will of Austria, whose
interests are publicly admitted by her 'to be grie-
viously prejudiced by Russia's occupation of the
Danube—an admission or assertion, by the way,
which has profoundly wounded Russian sympathisers
here and at other German capitals ; but, although
incontestable, is slurred over or ignored in the
polemics of their isolated organs ; or, if it be
noticed, it is for the purpose of sophistically
asserting that, whilst it may be true that Austrian
interests may somewhat suffer from a total cessa-
tion of commercial traffic with and through the
Danube, the interests of Germany are scarcely
affected—at all events, not to such a degree as to
be sensibly felt, or to warrant German hostility to
Russia on account thereof."--

CELEBRATING THE COMMENCEMENT OF
THE RAMAZAN AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
The day which began on Friday last, the 26th May,
at sunset, was the first of the Ramazan. On a lofty hill
of the Asiatic shore a mounted Tartar stood looking to
the west. As the thin pale crescent of the new moon
came out amid the twilight he set spurs to his horse and
rode into Scutari at full speed. The shore was reached,
where stood a soldier with lighted match by a loaded
gun. The report thundered out, sent back a hundred
times by 'the wonderful echo which is formed by the
winding shores of the Bosphorus. Scarcely had it died
away when every fort along either cliff answered with a
single gun. Here the flash was a blaze of light, and the
report sharp and loud ; further on two or three together
lighted up the rocks and mingled their roar, multi-
plied by echo until it died away in the distance like
thunder, and, last of all, from the Cyanean rocks,
which guard the entrance of the Black Sea, a
slight glimmer arose, and long after a faint sound
came down upon the wind. Thus commenced the
Ramazan of the year of the Hegira 1270, and for a
month European visitors will be witnesses of the most
ancient and best observed of Eastern ceremonies. This
period is not wholly devoted to mortification, but is a
strange mixture of fast and festival. As is well known,
its chief feature is, that the true believer abstains from
food while the sun is above the horizon—not a drop of
water or a puff of smoke must pass his lip, unless he would
feel the vengeance of the Prophet, or incur the anger,
and perhaps the ill-usage, of his more faithful brethren.
For the rich, or even for those whose oceupaiions
are wholly connected with Turkish life, the ordeal is not
a severe ono They can sleep all day, and rise at night-
fall, to find cook shops and cafes open, and amusements
such ai they delight in, at the corner of every street.
But for the large class who live by labour which
can only be performed in daylight, or who ad-
minister to the wants of Christian residents, the
season is one of great suffering, often resulting
in illness, and sometimes in death. Porters and
boatmen are sometimes seen to fall fainting on the
pavement, overcome by the stifling heat of a southern
afternoon, and the abstinence from food and water for
so many hours. At the present season the Ramazan is
more than usually trying. It retrogrades 11 days an-
nually, so that in the third of a century it makes the
round of the year. At present it falls in the summer
months, and for nearly 15 hours the laborious poor of the
Eastern cities are forbidden to satisfy the commonest
wants. However, they make up for the privations of
the day by the sober merriment of evening and midnight.
As the sun declines to the horizon, and the lengthening
shadows and decreasing heat tell him that the hour of
relief approaches, the Turk orders his pipe, the first in-
dulgence which occurs to him, since the want of
it has fevered his blood and distracted his brain
during the entire day. It is prepared, and his wife
or servant stands by with lighted charcoal ready to
drop on its well-filled bowl as soon as the first whiff
may be taken without mortal ■in. The gun which
announces sunset booms through the air, the eman-
cipated believer seizes the instrument, puffs raven-
ously for a few seconds, and then sinks back with a
reeling of intense enjoyment onia divan_ After
some minutes an ample repast succeeds, which is swal-
lowed with all the eagerness engendered by an abstinence
of 14 hours ; the meats are savoury and the mouthfuls
enormous. After these first wants of nature are satis-
fied, he sallies out in search of amusement and conversa-
tion, or repairs to the mosque to offer with more rever-
ence than usual his nightly prayers. As darkness
descends on the ancient city a spectacle succeeds which
strikes the visitor with astonishment, and cannot be be-
held, even by those accustomed to it, without feelings of
admiration. It is the new moon, the twilight which
prevails with us does not exist in this more southern lati-
tude, and the capital of the Sultans is as yet unacquainted
with gas. Therefore the darkness is complete, except
that the milky way is like a flood of light overhead, and
Jupiter throws a narrow train of radiance on the waters
of the Golden Horn. All at once little specks of light ap-
pear high up above the loftiest houses, and grow into
wreaths one above another. The Turks understand well
the art of illumination, although they have never applied
it to the purposes of practical life. Every minaret
of the magnificent mosques has been encircled by rings
of lamps, and the muezzin at the appointed hour has
lighted the crystal globes, which he will replenish until
daylight. Besides this, the dome of every temple is
surmounted by a vast device. The praise of Allah
stands out in characters of flame against the sky, the
structure by which they are supported remaining in-
visible in the midnight gloom. The strange characters
of the East have something mysterious in their appear.
ance, and recall the fancy of old superstitions as to
warnitigs written in heaven, and the announcement in a
language to be read only by the seer of the fall of empires
and the punishment ofGod-contemning beings.
The Turks are turning night into day. Ordina-
rily these primitive people follow the dictates of
nature, and rise at daybreak to retire to rest soon
after the short twilight ends. The officials of Con-
etantinople are not an active race, and yet an Euro-
pean who does not consider himself by any means
a late riser may find on awaking a note from a Pasha
who has been up for hours. Soon after nightfall, during
11 months of the year, the streets of Stamboul are
deserted, except by the ever-howling dogs and the fire-
.eatchmen, who are going their rounds, beating their
heavy clubs on the pavement. But now, by the light
of paper lanterns, and under the shadow of the project-
ing wooden shops, a whole population is feasting and
joining in a merriment which from its quietness is ap-
parently wise. Little rusL;_ottomed seats cover the
ground in every open space, the quick-eyed waiters
are running to and fro with an activity not to be ex-
ceeded in the Palais Royal. Pipes, coffee, and cool
sherberts are ready for the recreation of any visitor
who is tired of stumbling in the darkness over the
fanged stones of the Stamboul lanes, and who is de-
sirous of observizlg men and manners as they appear
in the most primitive parts of the city at a time when
national and religious instincts are strongest. Fine
stately old Moslems in real unreformed turbans of
white or green muslin are sitting in a semicircle,
slowly breathing out wreaths of smoke, and conversing
gravely on the state of affairs and the prospect of the
Prophet's disciples. They are sure to be abusing a
Pasha, for the Turk has liberty of speech and uses it ;
the shortcomings of the Executive afford an object for
the pleasurable exercise of invective, and the means by
which power is gained and the manner in which it is
used has long been the subject of proverbs and satirical
sayings. Numbers are walking about in a costume
rather different from that which prevails during day.
light and in ordinary seasons. It is, in fact, their night-
dress. Not, indeed, that it is confined to the simple
garment in which our countrymen retire to rest. It is
an elaborate toilette, and allows the wearer to peram-
bulate the streets without danger to the public modesty
or to his own. The reader will probably remember the
costume in which Bedreddin Hassan was set down at
the gates of Damascus. The modern Turk adds to this
a loose robe and a pair of easy slippers, and wanders out
during Ramazan to smoke and eat cream in the cool
squares at midnight, until the returning light makes the
lanterns dim, and the pigeons begin to rouse themselves,
when he hastens to make a substantial repast and smoke
many pipes in quick succession as a preparation for the
endurance of another day.
But it is not solely in indulgence that the night is
passed. Religious feeling is strong in the Turkish breast;
nor does it require to be roused by circumstances, for it
never sleeps. The horsemen of Constantinople, a class
answering to our own cab-drivers, are most of them
devout, and may be observed at noon sitting in a line on
the ground with heads bent forward engaged in prayer.
While thus employed they will answer no question, end
whoever wants a horse must wait. In Ramazan, at
night, the stranger steps from among a crowd of idlers
into the courtyaed of a mosque, and looks in at the
lofty gate to where the countless lamps are blazing
within, and the worship of the Prophet is being cele-
brated with a splendour which Rome herself can hardly
surpass. The interior shows a dense multitude of kneel-
ing forms, and every head is bowed or raised at once,
in obedience to the Imaum's call, and the re-
quirements of the Moslem liturgy. Each has
put his shoes from off his feet, for the place whereon
he stands is holy ground ; and they kneel in rows
with faces to Mecca, even though, as in St. Sophia,
built east and west, as a Christian church, the effect be
to spoil the regularity and beauty of the interior. Some-
times among the crowd who throng the street an indi-
vidual may be seen pacing slowly along ; if addressed
he merely waves eff the speaker with his hand, for he is
repeating his prayers, and may not be interrupted.
At this time their religious instincts are stronger than
usual, and political affairs give a deeper interest to the
sacred season by which Heaven may be propitiated. An
opi:tion see,t:s to nrev:il tynonc7 ;di uninstructed natives
that their calamities are the tetlioutiou for butuo uciul-
filled duties of a religious nature, and generally each man
throws the burden-of the fault on his neighbour, or on

those in authority. Here the lower classes, not without
the countenance and instigation of the priesthood, have
settled that the anger of the Prophit is due to the short-
comings of the later Sultans and their Executives, and
that no miraculous interference is to be expected with-
out a general return to the rigid observances and edify-
ing exclusiveness of ancient days. The prophecy which
limits the Ottoman sway in Constantinople to 400 years
is equally accepted by Turk and Rayah.; indeed, it hag
probably a Mussulinan origin. It is a most widely-
extended legend, and prevails universally, from the Per-
sian Gulf to the 'White Sea. After all it has not been a
successful prediction, for here we are under the Sultan's
sway one whole year after the Russian advent has become
due. But a superstition does not die easily, and the
despondent among the faithful have discovered the rea-
son why the decree of fate has been thus deferred. Tho
present year is a year of grace given at the intercession
of the Prophet to his people, in order that they may
prepare themselves for the great change ; and even after
this year a few more may be added to the term of em-
pire ; but they will all be years of grace. Another
piece of divination which has made its way among the
pious somewhat concerns ourselves. Theologians in
Turkey, as elsewhere, are anxious to spy into the
future, and the method they adopt is that species of con-
juring with texts which was in use in our own dark ages.
A passage of the Koran is taken which seems to bear
on some event of the present time ; to each of the Arabi°
characters A numerical value is attributed, and the whole
are added together. The sum will give the date of the
year in which the event will be accomplished. There is
a passage in the Koran to this effect,—" The Prophet
wishes his people to succeed, but there are obstacles
against it." The letters added together give 1,270, the
present year. What, then, are the obstacles which
prevent tl.e success of the Prophet's chosen
1 Un-
doubtedly the presence of allies who do not reverence
his name. If left alone the Moslem could easily deal
with the Moscow giaours, assisted, as believers would
be, by supernatural assistance ; but, as they call- to
their aid infidel assistance, they must be left to fight
with mere mortal weapons. The boatman who relates
these pious legends will theri break out into invectives
against the fallen state of Ministers and generals.
" Does Reschid Pasha fast ? Does the Seraskier repeat
his nantaz five times a-clay ? If these great men violate
the sacred precepts, how can it be wondered at that ca-
lamity should be coming on those they govern.—Times
Correspondent.