The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-22 00:00:00

(From the German Literary Magazine.)

Of the new acquisitions of Russia on the river Amoor
by which the frontier of the empire has been advanced
as far as to the Japanese Sea, and made to include a
new territory nearly equal in extent to that of France,
little hitherto has been certainly known. The Russians
themselves, as may be supposed, were not eager to pro-
mulgate exact information about the state of their settle-
meets in that regions, since this would have enabled
their antagonists to repeat under more favourable aus-
pices, those attacks which during the campaign of last
year fa led t trough ignorance of localities. The allies
seem to have mi-sed the mouth of the Atnoor, or at all
events, to have kept at too great a de-tance from it to
be able to obtain a knewledge of the establishments
founded by the Russians, whilst on the other hand the
de-criptions given by American merchant captains of a
second Sebastopol built on the Atnoor, with a garrison
of 10,000 men, and the like, were such palpable exagge-
rations, that people were tempted to look upon the whole
Russian colony at the Atnoor a- a myth, a settlement in
fairy land. Nevertheless the fficial reports of the Rue.
sitin actin rals Savojka and Putjatiu, describing the tnili-
tary operations in the Tataric channel, and the return
it the latter officer through Siberia to St. Petersburg,
enleished in the Morskoi Sbornil•, or official gazette of
the Russian Admiralty, relates some particu are that may
serve t, r eata towards partially ascertaining the progress
made by the Russians down to the close of la-tt year, in
occupying and colonising that part of the Maudshoo
district which is watered by the Amoor.
Not far from the mouth of the Amoor, and on its right
hank, lie the posts or forts of Marunsk, or Kisi, and
Nicolsjersk, the latter of which appears to be the more
important of the two. For here it was that the squad-
ron of Rear-Admiral Savojka, consisting of the Aurora
frieate, tee Olivuzze csrvette, the transports Dwina,
Baikal, and Irtish, came to anchor in the June of 1855,
wider the protection of the Latteries that had been
erected there These batteries were probably constructed
in the year 1852, as allusion is made to the observa-
tions, extending over three years, made by Rear-Admi-
ral Nevelek j respecting the course of the ice in the
Amoor. Frene these it would seem that the estuary of
the river is not free from ice before the Ist or 13th of
June, two 'months later than its disappearance in the
Neva, although the mouth of the latter stream is nearly
eight degrees higher to the north. This phenomenon
is owing to the well-known influence of the climate in
the north-eastern part of Asia, an influence that will
assuredly diminish in no trifling measure the advantages
which the Russians expect to derive from the free navi-
gation of the Amour. It is evident, however, from the
reports, that they make the most of the short period
dining which the river is navigable, and that they pos-
sess no inconsiderable number of vessels there, for they
talk about the second and third divisions of the Amoor
flotilla, that arrived in June and July, with settlers on
beard, and who, having landed between Maruneck aed
Nicolajevsk, proceeded, under cover of two companies
from the 14th Siberian battalion of the line, to build
dwellings. Even at that early period this flotilla pos.

sessed at, least one steamer.
From the Anoor the Russian establishments are
already advancing in a southerly direction along the
eastern coast of Mandshooria. When the allies came,
about the end of May, in 1855, for the second time, to
Castries Bay, where Admiral Savojka had been shortly
before on his passage from Kamschatka, and where he
had been blockaded by a divi-ion of the English squad-
ron, they found it entirely abandoned, and disccvered
merely the sins of its having beets used as a temporary
encampment by the Russians. The interval that elapsed
between this aria the reappearance of the enemy was not
neglected on the Russiaii side. The Governor-General
of East Siberia, Moravieff, repaired in person to the
spot, and under his superintendence the works were
carried on with such enemy t aK when Commodore
Met reappeared in Castries Bay with the Sybil frigate
and the corvettes Eric ,neter aed Hornet, in October, he
found a settlement there in an advantageous position, a
garrison of Cossacks, siilore. and gooners, and the place
so far fortified that it was able to withstand successfully
the bombardment opened against it by the ships. The
new colony, which already carries on a brisk trade with
the Americans, who supply it with all kinds of pro-
viione, and especially of ammunition, bears the name of
Alexandrovsk ; it is situate on the little stream of Nelly,
and consists of a certain number of tenements with
magazines, an hospital, and a church in a churchyard.
Quite close to Salmon Bay there is a village of Gdjaks,
where the inhabitants seem to live on very friendly
terms with the Russians. Beyond a doubt the latter
have since then constructed a tort, also on the opposite
e,,ast of Stuz,alio, for the purpose of commanding the
Tataric Channel, and securing, as also eventually closing,
the entrance to the Aumor from she southern side.
With the cFs,ation of hostilities will of course cease
the motives that have hitherto induced the Russians to
keep their undertakings a secret, and we may, therefore,
expect to see the veil raised, with which they have en-
deavoured to conceal their meat recent settlements so
important for the trade of Siberia. A map of the Amoor
by Admiral Putjatin and his officers will very shortly
appear in St. Petersburg, as we are informed by the
Morskoi Sbornik.

We read in Galignani—"Btfore the departure of
,ae
Court for St. Cloud, M. E. Giraud, portrait painter, was
permitted to take a likeness of the Prince Imperial.
The artist is said to have succeeded perfectly in seizing
the resemblance, and the fine blue eyes of the imperial
ihftnt in the picture arc precisely similar to those of the
Empress."
Great numbers of persons have been arrested in .Paris
and the provinces. There is much discontent in the
Faubourg St. Marceau, chiefly on account of the,o3ear•
news of lodging and provisions