The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-19 00:00:00

TURN OF THE TIDE-THE WAR.

When the Russian army under General Luders
ondered the Dobrudschs, about seven weeks ago,
different opinions were formed in Europe of the
nature and object of that operation. By some it
was believed to be the commencement of a direct

attack upon the chief po;iti;;;Of the Turkish army,
intended to take advantage of the earliest moment
adapted for military operations, and to anticipate
by a bold and skilful advance ie heats of summer,
the pestilential effluvia of the Danubian marshes,
and the arrival of a more formidable enemy. By
others this movement was conceived to be one of a
purely defensive character, for the purpose of pre-
venting the Turkish threes from outflanking the
Russians in Wallachia, and from threateninictheir
base of operations, while it strengthened the Rus-
sian command of ie river by the possession of the
forts of Matschin and Isakstcha, so as to render the
Lower Danube more difficult of access to the
steamers and gunboats of the combined fleets. But,
however these conflicting opinions may have been
contradicted or confirmed by subsequent events, no
one thought it possible that the Russian generals
should propose to themselves toremain stationary in
such a position, which has all the defects a military
station canpossess. Itis at once insalubrious and un-
safe, inaccessible except to the enemy who commands
the coast, and communicating by one or two points
only with the main body of the army on the oppo-
site shore of the river. All supplies of food, am-
munition, and reinforcements must be sent by
bullock carts for upwards of 60 miles from the
bridges near Galatz and Brailow to the scene of
operations. The coun.ry produces nothing, and
hardly furnishes any water that is not brackish or
infected. The Turks, on the contrary, remain
within comparatively easy reach of their head-quar-
ters ; the deficiencies of tneir advanced guard may
be easily supplie.l ; and, even in case of defeat, they
would only have to fall back on the best part of
Otter Pasha's army.
Nevertheless, in this extraordinary and destruc-
tive position the Russians have remained since the
24th of M trch, a delay only comparable to the
launders and the fatal consequences of the Wal-
eliereu Expedition ; and we now begin to receive
some of the particulars to which such a state of
things has given rise. A letter of the 30th of April,
addressed to the Vienna Medical Gazette by one of
the medical officers serving on the spot, will be found
in another part of our columns, and well deserves
an attentive perusal. It furnishes the most
authentic information that can be obtained of the
hardships to which the Russian troops are sub-
jected, of the pestilential nature of the district, and
of the extraordinary energy with which the Turk-
ish outposts have defended their lines. " The am-
bulances of the Dobrudscha fill with such rapidity
that consignments of sick and wounded must be
made twice a-day to Hirsova and Matschin, and
from those places to the left bank of the river."
Even there, however, it is impossible they should
find proper accommodation, for seven hospitals in
the miserable adjacent towns are already over-
crowded, and, further, bed accommodation has
been ordered for 2,000 more patients. The number
of wounded in the Dobrudscha since the passage is
stated to be 2,600 men, which implies a total loss
in killed and wounded of double that number. In
the month of April 31 per cent. of the wounded
died in hospital—a very large proportion, even ac-
, cording to the averages as published by the Russian
medical staff. Although, therefore, we know little
of the details of these operations, it may be con-
sidered certain that incessant attacks have been
made by the Russians on the Turkish lines, that
they have been generally repulsed, and that the
Russian losses have been most severe. We have also
information of a later date than this letter, which
states that early in May the symptoms of the
spring fever, well known to Muscovite armies by
its terrific ravages in former wars, had begun to
show themselves among the troops, and had pro-
duced a greater consternation than the resistance
of the enemy. Reports of the ravages of this pecu-
liar epidemic in the campaigns of 1828 and 1829
have been published by Dr. Seidlitz and others
who were attached to the medical staff at that
time. They draw a frightful picture of the viru-
lence of this disease, which might in some cases
be compared to the plague itself, and there is no
doubt that it annihilated a very large proportion
of the Russian army in those years. The fact that
it now seems to have recurred at precisely the same
season is well deserving of attention, and it seems
almost incredible that a general should have deli-
berately kept a division of his army in the very
position where they are most exposed to this deli -
terious influence. The nearer the Russians are to
the course of the Danube the more they will suffer
by these fevers, while the troops stationed on higher
ground may escape them altogether.
Facts such as these present the horrors of war to
the mind iu the most palpable and repulsive, but
also in the truest form. The stir and clamour of
the field of battle, the glory of the effort and the
grandeur of the result, may make us overlook the
heavy cost of sufferi ig and of blood. But the regi-
mental hospital, choked with masses of the dying
and the dead, who expire under the stroke of an
invisible foe, is a scene which might well give a
pa •n, to the ny4st heartless of conquerors. We re-
sent the political duplicity and ambition of the Em-
peror of Russia—we view with disgust his appeals
to the religion which he outrages while he invokes
it—bat the picture of these poor serfs who are
dragged away by tens of thousands to rot iu the
marshes of the Danube—the helpless, ignorant, and
miserable victims of an all-powerful Sovereign—in-
spires us with a stronger sense of the brutal enor-
mity of these crimes, and brings home to the ima-
gination the great evil of war multiplied in a
thousand shapes of individual suffering. There is
a prodigality of human life in these Russian enter-
prises which is not even palliated, as it was in the
wars of Napoleon, by the splendour of military
success. The Russian Government must already
be aware that nothing can be made of its present
military position. It has failed to overcome the
Turks singlehanded, and already, in addition to
the Turks, there are 40,000 of the finest troops in
Europe within a few hours' sail. If so much as an
attempt be made on the passes of the Balkan, that
is, as we understand it, even on Shumla, Austria
and Prussia have both bound themselves by treaty
to make it a case of war against Russia. To ad-
vance under such circumstances is impossible, to
retreat may soon become almost equally difficult.
The Emperor Nicholas cannot delude himself with
the idea that he and his forces are in a condition to
give the law to the East in open defiance of the
recorded will and the fleets and armies of the rest
of Europe. All the evils he is about to inflict upon
his people from this time are purely gratuitous, and
can lead to no result favourable to his honour or
dignity. He alone in all his broad dominions bears
the responsibility of this war, and nobody believes
that the war would be carried on for another week
if he ceased to direct it. He endeavours to impose
on public opinion ; but ere long the extravagant
fictions of his bulletins and the affected fanaticism
of his manifestoes must be found out. His appeals
to his people ate like everything else he has said on
this question—untrue ; and we cannot doubt that
when these disasters become better known, as they
must be even in Russia, they will exercise a bene-
ficial effect on the duration of the war.—Times.

COUNTERFEIT HALF-CROWNS.—The Mint haveascer.
tamed that a number of spurious half-crowns are in cir-
culation. They are produced from the dies in brass, and
are then electroplated silverwith f'the m'lling round the
edge is perfect. Altogether these are pronounced the
best imitations of the genuine coin yet produced. The
"coin detectors" are useless, as the, brass will not bend ;
they are only to be detected by the peculiarity of the
ring, and by their weight being lighter by one penny-
weight than the genuine half-crown.
JACK'S ACCOUNT OF THE BOMBARDIIE'ST OF ODESSA.
—At 1en..411, exactly at half-past six a.in , the sareos,„,
let go right in among the vessels in the Mole and the
batterie-, there, and the first that felt by that shot was
an Englishman ; the shot passed through a Russian
bri,, and killed a mate of a merchant-ship. They returned
the fire, but the steamers lay off and put it into them in
style, and their guns could not reach our ships by half
a mile. They continued heaving shot and shell and
rockets till 12 o'clock, when by that time a part of
the town was oa fire ar.d all the shipping, and one
of their magazines blew up. The admiral made a
stgnal that no man in the squ idren was killed or
wounded. It was awful to see the destruction of
life on shore ; the Mole was continually cleared,
and whole gun's crews swept away, and the
men ran from their guns ; they could not face the
fire that was pouring in on theta ; they could not re-
treat, as squadrons of cavalry were driving them to their
guns at the point of the sword, and horses and men fell
together in one heap of slain. After dinner we com-
menced again at another place, and so continued till
sunset, when the admiral made the signal of recall, and
we then proceeded to join the fleet, leaving half the
town in flames, and hundreds of men lying on the beach
dead. We don't know when we shall attack it again,
as we think they have sent to Sebastopol for their fleet ;
and it is reported here that the admiral intends putting
to sea, so as to decoy the fleet out, and make thenlobe;
be-
lieve that they have driven us off. But let them
out ; they will never return, for Sinope mint bev
We have already shown theca what they have eXP
Plymouth. Mail.