The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-22 00:00:00

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

Dispatches from St. Petersburgh state that the
preparations for war are being proceeded with
rapidly. The fleet in the harbour of Cronstadt,
which had laid up for the winter, is ordered to
prepare for sea with all possible dispatch, and to
proceed at once to Revel. Letters from Constan-
tinople intimate that a collision between the Turks
and Russians in Asia is likely to take place before
any engagements on a larger scale in the Danube.
The Emperor of Russia arrived at St. Peters-
' burgh on the 13th.
A telegraphic dispatch has been received from

Berlin, dated Constantinople, October 13. The'
combined fleets had not at that date entered the

Dardanelles, but they were expected to do so at
once. The wealthier inhabitants of Constantinople
had chartered all sorts of small craft, and gone
down to the Straits to see the spectacle of the en-
trance of the fleets.

A telegraphic message from Constantinople,
October 10, confirms the intelligence already re-
ceived, that the Monk Anthinos has been ap-
pointed to succeed Germanos in the .Patriarchate
of Constantinople. _ _

Three Bishops aspired to the place. One of
them, a protege of Russia, offered 600,000 piastres,
while the two others offered 500,030 piastres.
Armies of observation are to be concentrated on
the frontiers of Greece and Persia.

The Correspondence of Berlin of the 18th says
that the Council of Ministers are to meet to deter-
mine the expediency of recalling Prussian officers
of artillery engaged as instructors in the Turkish
service, lest their presence under the Ottoman flag
should prove too active a demonstration against
Russia. The Council is also to take measures re-
lative to the free circulation of foreign paper cur-
rency.

The subjoined is extracted from an interesting
letter dated Constantinople, Oct. 5, and written
by a merchant long established in Asia Minor :
" Political matters are getting on worse and worse.
Wards henceforward inevitable, and Europe must
have greatly changed her opinion respecting Turkey,
when she heard that this country, so weak, and
to which the best informed seemed to give only a
few years' existence, has already improvised an
army. of 400,000 men, well armed and equipped,
can raise 200,000 more if necessary, and has no
more need of a loan than I have of a hundred
piastres. When the sacrifices of each Turk shall
be exhausted, if it even comes to that point, it will
suffice for the Sultan and the Cheik-al-islam to
give their decision to that effect, and immediately
some thousands of millions of silver-plate will issue
from the mosques, palaces, and private houses.
You will look upon me as a panegyrist of Turkey,
but I am not so. lam merely just, and when I
see noble things done, I call them by their names.
Men of 70, 75, and 80, giving an example to the
young, equip themselves and their retinue at their
own expense, and, though there is great excite-
ment, not a menace or insult to foreigners can be
heard of. The Russians themselves go through
the bazaars without hearing a single threat. At
the beginning, like many others, I felt apprehen-
3ion, but living in a village of Asia where the
Turks have the reputation of being exceedingly
fanatical, I could go out every evening during the
fetes of the Bairam without the slightest insult,
and pass through 2,000 or 3,000 Turks without
the slightest molestation. Now, I intend passing
the winter here, whatever happens, and every day
I will without uneasiness leave my family to attend
to my affairs at Constantinople."
A letter from Berlin, of the 17th, in the Augs-
burg Gazette, says :—" What I wrote to you about
the attempts that are being made here to establish
at London a new mediation in the Eastern question
is confirmed. A person, though without having
an official mission, has left for England, and Che-
valier Bunsen will support him officially as much
as he can ; for it is considered certain that Eng-
land desires that definitive diplomatic negotiations
shall be entered into. The Emperor of Russia,
during his stay at Berlin, from which date the
principal efforts of mediation by Prussia, made
known that the Ottoman Porte, in case of an ar-
rangement, would have to pay the cost of the oc-
cupation of the principalities. This point will pre-
cisely form one of the principal difficulties of the
negotiations, but Russia insists strongly on it."—.
The Cologne Gazette has also a letter from Berlin,
of the 18th, which says :—" It is said here that
new conferences are to be shortly opened at Lon-
don or at Constantinople, conferences of Vienna
having been de facto dissolved by the non-partici-
pation of England and France."
The National Gazette of Berlin contains a letter
from Warsaw, of the 16th, which says :—" The
Times has announced that the Emperor Nicholas,
during his stay at Olmutz, had sent to the confer-
ence of Vienna a new note of mediation. This

statement is unfounded. It is known that the
Czar, during his stay at Olmutz and here, confined
himself to confidential communications with his
allies, which circumstance might have led Austria
and Prussia to hope for a friendly solution. At a
later period there arrived at St. Petersburg a pro-
ject from, England and France, containing new

propositions of arrangement from the conference

f Vienna. It is believed that the recent events
at Constantinople have determined the Czar to
send a negative reply, and the orders transmitted.
from this place to the army would not justify in
any way the idea that the Emperor was disposed
to yield."
The Cassel Gazette has the following :—" The
Austrian Government has received from Russia the
formal assurance that, even in the event of a de-
claration of war on the part of Turkey, the Czar
will not take the initiative in hostilities, that is to
say, that the Russian troops will not cross the Da-
nube, but confine themselves to keeping the Prin-
cipalities, which Russia considers as the guarantee
for her pretensions."
The military Governor of Transylvania has for-
warded the following dispatch to Vienna, under
date Hermannstadt, October 10 :—" According to
certain information from the neighbouring princi-
palities (Moldavia and Wallachia), contagious dis-
eases (rinderpest and milzbrand) are making ex-
tensive progress among the draught oxen employed
in the service of the Imperial Russian army, and
are of a very malignant type. Serious danger
thus threatens Transylvania, and within these last
few days the diseases have made their appearance
amongst the cattle at Botzau, on which account I
have found it necessary to take special precautions
on the frontier."