The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-26 00:00:00

PROMOTIONS.

Mates—George A. Pidcock (1547), and R. Dawkins
(1847), to the rank of Lieutenant.

APPOINTMENTS.

Master's-Attendant—John Macdonald, master (1839).
late of her Majesty's steam-yacht, to Portsmouth Dock-
yard.
Mates—C. Fairholme, to the Victory flagship at
Portsmouth; E. M. W. Carrington, to the Penelope,
Commodore Hotham's ship, on the coast of Africa; J.
W, D, M'Donald, to the Excellent gunnery ship at
Portsmouth,
COURT -MARTIAL—A Court-martial is ordered to sit
to-morrow on board her Majesty's ship Victory, in
Portsmouth harbour, for the trial of John Crashaw
Bailey, Esq., Lieutenant R.N., commanding her Ma-
jesty's steam-vessel Sharpshooter, for having run that
ship on shore on the Brighton coast, on Thursday, the
14th instant.

ROYAL MARINES.—Messrs. Ambrose Wolrige and
Douse to be second-lieutenants, and appointed to the
Chatham division. The following cadets, in the Excel-
lent, have passed for commissions in the corps:—Mr. T.
G. J. Meheux, M. H. Graham, W. T. Savary, George
Gill, George Brydges. The following officers, studying
in the Naval College, have qualified to join the Marine
Artillery Companies I—Lieutenants H. B. Roberts, E. R.
Horsey, N. Macnamara, and E. H. Cox.
Letters from China mention the deaths of Lieutenant
Quin, of the Medusa steam•sloop, and John Beal, Esq.,
paymaster and purser of her Majesty's ship Cambrian.
PoRTSMOUTM, Dxc. 25.—1 t appears that some of the
worst cases in the Hashemy convict-ship were not re-
moved to the Menelaus before to-day. A small party of
shipwrights, and another of sailmakers, were ordered
into the dockyard this morning to fit a temporary awn-
ing to one of the spare boats for their accommodation, and
she has been towed to the Motherbaak since by the Echo
steam-tug. Three deaths have taken place among the
cholera patients since yesterday.
The Bloodhound steam-vessel, Lieutenant-Command-
ing Robert Phillips, which arrived yesterday from Ire-
land, came into harbour this morning. She is to be paid
off all standing, and will be perfectly prepared for that
process as soon as her pay-books, which have been
transmitted to the Admiralty, are returned from London.
The Doterel, one of the steam mail-boats recently
employed at Holyhead, Lieutenant-Commander E.
Wylde, arrived to-day on her way to the eastward, to
be paid off, and came into harbour to obtain fuel.
Wind, south; fresh breams and hazy weather, with
rain.

PLYMOUTH, Drc. 23. —Her Majesty's ship Penguin,
6, Lieutenant-Commander William Swainson, was towed
down harbour to-day by the Confiance steam•tug, and
sailed for Falmouth.

-
At two o'clock this afternoon the general quarterly
muster of the officers and artizans of the dockyard took
place under the inspection of Admiral-Superintendent
Sir John Louis. _

This morning the surgeon of the yard examined the
following men preparatory for superannuation, viz., 16
shipwrights, 2 joiners, 3 ropemakers, 1 locksmith, 1
millwright, and 1 labourer.
The merchant vessel Olgar, Captain Reay, fifty days
from Quebec, with timber from Sunderland, came in
to-day.
Wind, S.E., blowing strong.
GENERAL ORDERS OP THE COMMISSIONERS or
EXCISE FOR THE REGULATION OF TUE SERVICE.—
The following orders by the Commissioners of Excise
were issued on Saturday:—" With the view of ensuring
educated men for the surveying branch of the depart-
ment, it is ordered—That the candidate be required to
write well, to understand the first four rules of vulgar
and decimal arithmetic, and book-keeping by double
entry. That he write fluently and correctly from dic-
tation, so that his handwriting, spelling, punctuation,
and general fitness may thus be subjected to an addi-
tional test. That the age of the candidate must not
exceed 25, nor be less than 19 years, and ho must at
the period of his entering the service be unmarried and
without family. That the examination may be impar-
tial and uniform, it shall be conducted by persons of
experience ; and the candidates, if more than
one, shall go through the examination in each
other's presence. Previously to examination, the
age and handwriting and qualifications of the
candidate shall be reported on by a supervisor. On
these being approved, an order shall issue, directing
him to attend at the chief office, or on the collector, :at
such time and place as shall be appointed. The examin-
ing committee in London shall consist of two surveying
general examiners, the Accountant-General, and one of
the secretaries or correspondents, as may from time to
time be decided on by the Board. The examining com-
mittee in the country shall consist of the collector, a
supervisor, and the collector's clerk. The candidates
shall be required to write a sentence from dictation, and
to set down, also from dictation, and work out sums in
common arithmetic, in decimals, and in vulgar fractions,
and shall be examined in book-keeping. The identical
papers so written shall be transmitted to the Board,
signed by every ono present at the performance; and
annexed to them a report, by the examining committee
in London or collector in the country, stating their
opinion of the talents and attainments of each can-
didate. On his performances being approved by the
Board he shall be placed under the instructions
of an officer selected for this duty ; and after
he has surveyed for a period of at least six
weeks, and the instructing officer considers him
qualified, the supervisor shall survey with and
examine the pupil ; and, if deemed competent,
he and the officer shall certify the same to the committee
or the collector, who, on being satisfied as to the quali-
fications of the pupil, shall forthwith endorse and trans-
mit the certificate to the Board. Should ho not be so
qualified, or be deficient in any other respect, the collec-
tor shall direct him to be further instructed, or shall
report specially to the Board. One or more officers of
intelligence and general good conduct shall be selected,
under the sanction of the Board, by the surveying general
examiners in London, and by the collectors in the
country, for the very important duty of instruatiog
pupils, and, if practicable, one such officer shall be in
the residence of the collector. Supervisors, on each
visit to stations wherein a pupil is under instructions,
shall examine his performances, and observe his general
conduct, for the purpose of ascertaining his progress, sad
giving him any needful assistance, amounting for hie
duty in their diaries, and adding their remarks. The
surveying general, examiners, and collectors shall also
avail themselves of every opportunity of examining the
performance of the pupils, so as to make themselves ac-
quainted with their conduct and proficiency, reporting to
the Board as occasion requires.—By order of the Board,
George Ballard, Excise-office, London."
We have prepared, but are forced by the pressure
of advertisements to defer, a report of the meeting, con-
sisting of numerous most respectable inhabitants of the
populous Plymouth neighbourhood, which on Tuesday ,
last, at the Royal Hotel, adopted unanimous in their I
earnestness, a resolute protest against the Tractarian
superstitition which, under the patronage of Bishop
Phillpotts, corrupts the religion of the people, paralyses
the efforts of the friends of true education, and tends t:
make the Church an instrument of
üblc instructiondebasingi and en-
slaving men, instead of the organ of p
which it is in theory designed to be. This
in.,
of great importance; it must be a precursor
of meeting
nimogvel!
ment for ecclesiastical reform, now for the first
time
taking its definite aim and attitude, such as England has
not seen for centuries—not since the reformation,
which incomplete and interrupted as it was by the
retrograde influence of the Stuart dynasty, has done but
half its work; leaving
abuse andthe foul remnants of fraudulent
mystical absurdities to be cleared away by
the daylight of the ninteenth century. We cannot now
pursue the subject, but will enter into it next week. The
meeting was presided over by Colonel Dunsterville; it was
addressed by Mr. J. N. Bennett (who admirably re-
viewed the recent history of Tractarianism), by Dr.
Bellamy, Mr. Little, Mr. Soltau, Mr. Greaves, Mr. El-
worthy, Admiral Thomas, and others. A memorial to
the Archbishop was adopted; and a resolution passed,
to the effect that the Tractarian evil " receives encou-
ragetnvit from the Lord Bishop." The cases of the
Rev. tames Shore and the Rev. Mr. Gorham were re-
ferrlid to; the meeting had a comprehensive scope, and
was not confined to any personal or local transactions.—
Wartern Times.
A SRA..SERPENT ON A SMALL SCALE.—A monster
eel was caught on Friday last at Kersock Ferry. It was
seen by one of the men swimming slowly in the shallow
water at the wooden jetty. A boathook was imme-
diately procured, -and a lucky blow on the head stunned
the monster. It was then transfixed and hauled ashore,
when it was found to measure five feet in length and four-
teen inches round the thickest part.—lnverness Courier.

INTERVENTION OF THE RUSSIAN
AND TURKISH ARMIES IN THE DANUBIAN
PRINCIPALITIES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING HERALD.
Sir,—On the 11th of June last the Wallachians made
a revolution—or rather, they modified their fundamental
laws, for the revolution was effected entirely by pacific
means. The reigning Prince accepted the new constitu-
tion, and then abdicated. Shortly after, the Turkish
plenipotentiary, Soleyman Pacha, recognised, in the
name of the Sultan, the new Government; and his ex-
ample was followedby the representatives of the different
European powers residing at Bucharest. Soleyman
Pacha likewise recognised the new constitution which
the Wallachians had just established, after having sug-
gested some trifling modifications in it. Subsequently, at
a moment when all the functions of the Wallachian Go-
vernment were being exercised with the greatest regu-
larity, and when the country was enjoying a state of per-
fect tranquillity, a Turkish army presented itself before
the gates of Bucharest, professing to be actuated by an
amicable spirit and to have been sent thither merely to
deprive Russia of every pretext for an intervention, and
to prevent her from marching troops into Wallachia.
Confiding in the word of the Turks, 100,000 of the in-
habitants went out on the 25th of September. unarmed,
in festive garments and with the clergy at their head, to
meet and welcome this army. Fuad Effendi, the com-
mander of this army, then invited- the Wallachians to
send a deputation to his camp to receive his instructions.
No sooner did the deputation, acting in accordance with
this order, present themselves before him, than they
were made prisoners (the most eminent among them
were afterwards, during a whole month, dragged from
prison to prison by order of the Russian commissary,
General Duhamel, and have only lately effected their
escape), and at the same time Fuad Effendi's army
precip • itated itself in a forced march upon Bucharest,
trampling down under the hoofs of the cavalry the
peaceful inhabitants who had gone out to meet the
Turks as friends, tearing down their banners, deb'troying
their crosses, bombarding a military barrack it encoun-
tered on its passage, as well as a whole quarter of the
town, shooting down with grape-shot the few Walla-
°hien soldiers who occupied the barracks, having first
induced them to capitulate and to lay down their arms,
putting to death the sick, and having reached the town,
giving itself up to pillage, massacres, and other horrible
deeds, the equal of which might be sought for in vain in
the darkest pages of the annals of history. It is true
the inhabitants of Bucharest might perhaps easily have
routed the 16,000 Turks who committed these outrages,
for a single company of the Wallachian fire-brigade
(pompiers), which was advancing towards the barracks,
finding itself suddenly surrounded by the Turks, and
fired upon with grape-shot, without having pre-
viously been called upon to surrender, defended
itself heroically, slew 400 Turks, and captured two
pieces of cannon. But in the first place the Wallachians
thought that the Turks were their friends, and in the
second they abstained from all resistance in order to
deprive Russia of every pretext for an intervention.
They were unfortunately doubly mistaken. W
have just seen what were the proceedings of the
Turks, whose movements were, it must be con-
fessed, directed by the Russian commissary, General
Duhamel, who was present in the Turkish camp, while
on the morrow of the entry of the Turks into the city
of Bucharest, a proclamation of General Luders an-
nounced the violation of the Wallachian territory by the
Russian troops. The latter rivalled the Turks in bar-
barism; they respected nothing along their passage ;
everywhere they arrested the public functionaries, and
dragged them after the army bare-footed and loaded
with chains; they devastated the fields, carried of whole
herds of cattle, took possession of all provisions and
other moveables which they found on their way, and then,
as if they had been in a conquered country, they sold
their booty at public auction in the market places. When
they arrived at the principal towns of the departments,
they laid hands on the money contained in the Govern-
ment coffers, in order, they said, to defray the expenses
of the army ; but the superior officers pocketed the
money, and then levied contributions in kind from the
inhabitants. The resources of the country having by
these means been entirely exhausted within the space of
a few days, the Turkish Government observed to the
Russian that the principalities were entirely exhausted;
that they were menaced with a general famine, and that
the Emperor Nicholas ought to follow the example of
the Sultan, and himself defray the expenses of his troops.
Hereupon the Czar, in order to have a new hold
upon the principalities, immediately opened a credit for
them on the Imperial Treasury at St. Petersburgh, and
forced them to draw from thence the money required for
the support of a foreign and inimical army, which was
held in readiness in the country to march upon Ger-
many, Italy, or Constantinople, as circumstances should
require. The Russian and Turkish commissaries, to-
gether with Constantine Cantacuzene (a man who had
been gained by Russia; and who, as a matter of form,
was nominated lieutenant of the Prince) were installed
in the place of the Government; a pacha was nominated
military commandant of the city of Bucharest; all honest
men were disarmed or proscribed as persons of suspicious
character; an iron yoke was laid on the shoulders of the
Wallachians; all their liberties were taken from them,
and terror spread its deadening influence throughout the
country. One man alone—General Maguero—the com-
mander of the irregular troops, who had withdrawn to
the foot of the mountains with a force of about 20,000
men, was still in arms, and protested against these mon-
strous proceedings. But he also, by the persuasions of
the British Consul-General, who represented to him that
the presence of his army paralysed the action of diplo-
macy, which %%:9914, tfiglef 111. V fifiß3),llintilidiN;
beyond the Carpathian Mountains.
We have only very cursorily recapitulated the melan-
choly and terrible events of which Wallachia has been
and is still the theatre, for the pen refuses to d well in
detail upon the cowardly barbarism of the Turks, and
the still more infamous deeds of the Russians, who
pushed on the former to commit the excesses perpe-
trated by them, and afterwards surpassed them in every
act of cruelty and injustice. Turkey is already sinking
under the weight of her crime ; her sentence was pro-
nounced on the very day when she presented to the
world that hideous spectacle of a barbarism unworthy
even of the darkest ages ; from that day forward civili-
zation must hold the Turks in abhorrence, must repulse
them from her domains. Were the Porte to call to an ac-
count Fuad Effendi, who, whether from cowardice
or from treasonable motives, allowed himself to
be the instrument of all these cruelties—to award
a full and entire amnesty to the Wallachians who
have been proscribed because they have been will-
ing to sacrifice their fortunes, and even their
lives, in order to establish more firmly the Ottoman
empire, and who had been promised impunity—to
exempt the principalities for some years from the pay-
ment of the annual tribute, in order to leave the country
time to recover from the deep wounds inflicted upon it—
to recognise and to respect their right of national sove-
reignty and self-government, and protect them effica-
ciously against the designs of Russia—even all these
tardy. but just measures of reparation would not now,
perhaps, suffice to wash out the crimes of the Turkish
Government, and to reconquer for it the affection of the
two principalities and the esteem of Europe. As for
Russia, the hour of justice for her is also nigh at hand,
fur crime never remains unpunished.
But let us now disengage the question from these me-
lancholy and sudden changes of fortune, and merely
turn our attention to the fact of the intervention of the
Turkish and Russian armies in the Danubian principa-
lities, which is in itself so monstrous, so flagrant a viola-
tion of the law of nations, as no treaties recognise the
right of these powers to take such a step. This inter-
vention is the more inexplicable, as nothing had oc-
curred to give the least colouring of a pretext for it.
The Wallachians, in modifying their constitution,
simply availed themselves of the right of autonomy,
which they have repeatedly, on former occasions,
exercised in their national assemblies, and which has
been ensured to them by their capitulations with the
Turks; capitulations recognised, and constantly in-
voked, by Russia herself. Besides the revolution had
been consummated more than three months previous to
the intervention ' • perfect tranquillity reigned in the
principalities, and the new Government had already been
recognised by Turkey and the other European powers.
But we need sot discuss the question of right, for the
Russians were fully aware, when they crossed the fron-
tiers of Moldavia and Wallachia, that they were violat-
ing a neutral territory, and, as a proof of this, we will
only mention their previous endeavours to prevail upon
the Bayards to call them in, so that they might obtain a
preTtehxist
afottremthpetirin
having asi
on.
failed, they at first timidly crossed
the Prutb, then retired again, r gning themselves
during three months to allow the_
Wallachianesi revolution
to pursue its pacific course, and it is only very lately
that they have ventured to recommence their endeavours
to crush it. Russia did not venture boldly upon this step
before she observed, on the one aide, that her mani-
festoes, her threats, her pressure upon the Divan, not
only did not encounter any opposition from the other
Cabinets of Earope; but that the foreign ambassadors
at Constantinople remained deaf to the cries of the
Wallachians and to the representations of the Porte.
Sho then conceived, and unfortunately with too much
reason, that everything would be permitted to her, and
that she would nut be called to an account for our acts
of aggression. As for the Turks they have foolishly
fallen into the snare which they knew was spread for
them, and which they regret not having been able to
avoid. They confess that they only intervened in the
hope of preventing Russian intervention; they aro even
willing to withdraw from the principalities, but the
Russians oppose this, as it would force them to do the
same. The Divan even openly avows that it would
publicly protest against the entry of the Russians into
Meldo-Wallachia were it but sure of the support of ono
only of the great Powers.
The aggression of Russia, however revolting, is not
surprising to those who are acquainted with the Russian
policy; we should, on the contrary, be more surprised
had she, from any scruples as to legality, abstained
from taking possession of so important a stategetical
position as that afforded by the Danubian principalities.
It is the attitude of Great Britain which astonishes ns.
For is it not astonishing that, in the face of circumstances
of such gravity and such importance, she should have
shown so little sympathy for the oppressed, and that, on
the other hand, she should have carried her deference
for the oppressors to such lengths as to be suspected in
the East of being the accomplice of Russia; that, in a
question of so much importance, and in which she could
be sure in advance of having almost the whole of Europe
on her side, she should not have taken the first step; in
a word, that she should not have taken up that position
at Constantinople which oven the Porte invited her to
adopt, and which all the other powers were forced to
abandon on account of the revolutions and counter-revo-
lutions which succeeded each other every fortnight in
their dominions?
A WALLACLUAN.