The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-14 00:00:00

THE BLACK SEA.

The subjoined is dated Varna, Feb.ls:—" I con-
tinue to see in this place additional proofs of the
extraordinary exertions the Turks are capable of
when pressed by hard necessity to shake off their
habitually quiescent habits. The greater part of
the ammunition and stores of the nine vessels
which were conveyed here by the Magellan and.
the Furious have been discharged, only one acci-
dent having occurred—one of the Paixhans, of 44
olzes alias a 120-pounder, having from miscalcu-
lation of the enormous weight sunk a short dis-
tance from the jetty, but in shallow water, and
therefore in the hope of being fished out very shortly.
This extraordinary activity we owe to the impulse
communicated to all branches of the service by
Omer Faiz Pasha, the newly-appointed military
governor of this important fortress, for notwith-
standing a succession of gales and snow storms,
in which the Furious snapped a cable and deposited
pro tern. an anchor in the road of Varna, this
man has been down every morning to the jetty,
before daylight, in fair weather and foul reprov-
ing the indolent and encouraging the active.
The Anglo-French fleet in the Black Sea is ex-
pected to pay a visit to this port very shortly, and
the large steam-mill of Messrs. Charnaud is in full
activity, this house having entered into heavy
contracts with the French Government for the
supply of flour and biscuit to the squadron. The
numerous water mills of the valley are not equal
to the exigencies of the now important station of
Varna, for to take flour or biscuit to the shores of
the Black Sea is like taking coals to Newcastle.
The great abundance of provisions stored up in '
the magazines of the fortresses has arisen from
the Government having forbidden the export of
grain, and laid its hands on the large supplies
which go to Constantinople, the Mediterranean, and
England ; therefore, the rise of price is not indica-
tive of scarcity for the army, but a result of the
extraordinary measures to provide against a de-
ficiency for the troops. Omer Pasha mid some
time ago, Why is the Government continually
sending me wheat. I do not know where to put
the wheat I have. What we want is barley and
forage.'
" The merchants of Varna complain loudly of the
prohibition to export, and there can be no doubt
that their case is a hard one, for not only are they
forbidden to export what is in the hands of the
peasants, but they cannot even do what they will
with their own, that is, with the corn bought, paid
for, and lying in their own stores. The state of w4r
also presses heavily on all the other operations.
"The report of the speeches of Messrs. Cobden and
Bright at the Manchester meeting has arrived here,
and to a person practically acquainted with Turkey,
or living on the spot, they are a mass of fallacies,
showincy, extraordinary ignorance of Turkey. One
would think that those speeches were made 15 years
ago, when the Empire was in all the travail of her
national difficulties, with her powerful revolted
satrops, with the gr eat work of her unfeudalising
revolution not yet begun, her arming an untu-
tored horde, and justice to the Christian popula-
tion not yet recognised as a sound maxim of policy
by her leading statesmen. Doubtless Turkey is
still terribly behind in road-posts, and many
other institutions. But Messrs, Cobden and

Bright do not see that Turkey, after moving acci-
dents of flood and field, had, twelve months ago,
arrived at the plane of domestic tranquillity, of
silence of powerful vassals and political factions,
and, was just entering on a rapid career of internal
organisation, to which the invasion of her terri-
tory has put a full stop. The railway from Varna
to Rustchuk was in everybody's mouth. The line
to Adrianople, Philippopoli, &c., was actually de-
cided on and the surveys in progress. Is it pos-
sible to avoid laughing at the anomalies which the
history of this question has presented from first to
last ? Peace was the policy of Turkey, war was
the policy of Russia, and yet the great Apostle of
Peace falls foul of Turkey at the very period when
she is beginning to cease to be a reproach to the
civilised world for lawless barbarism."