The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-12 00:00:00

SERPENTS ISLAIV Li.

The Constitutionnel of yesterday thus excuses
the recent demonstrations of Russia at Kars and
on the Serpents Island :
" The treaty of the 30th March is at this moment
being executed with that spirit of moderation and
loyalty which was to have been expected from the
powers that signed it. France and England had
engaged to evacuate the Ottoman territory within
a period of six months. This period is far from
having elapsed, and yet the evacuation is complete.
On the other hand, the restitution of Kars to the
Turks was to have taken place concurrently with
the evacuation of Turkey by the allies. But the
rapidity with which England and France have
accomplished their engagements has taken Russia
by surprise ; and that power, not Anticipating so
prompt an evacuation, had not provided General
Mouravieff with the orders which he awaited before
giving up Kars to the Ottoman authorities. No
lother reason than this has influenced the delay of
Russia, and the latter has never dreamt of eluding
that important clause of the treaty to which she
sincerely adhered. Moreover, the sensation pro-
duced by this circumstance must cease along with
the conjectures to which it had given rise, since
Russia has acquainted the governor of rzeroum
that she is prepared to hand over Kars into his
hands. The demonstration which appears to have
been made by Admiral Stewart in the Black Sea
will soon be unnecessary. The affair of the Ser-
pents Isle cannot warrant such a demonstration ;
it does not offer the slightest gravity, and belongs
to the jurisdiction of diplomacy. The Serpents
island is nothing but a sterile rock without an-
chorage or roads ; in itself its possession is there-
fore of no importance, only there exists on its
surface a lighthouse which is equally useful to
vessels entering or leaving the Danube, and to
the Russian vessels bound for Odessa. Now that
the navigation of the Danube is placed under the
protection of the European Powers, and that the
Black Sea is neutralised, the only question is to
see that this lighthouse is properly kept up,
and measures will be taken to carry out the
essential point. The latter once settled, it re-
mains of little consequence which of the two
Powers enters into possession of the Serpents
Island. The affair of Bolgrad, though more
complicated, is not more serious. There would
exist at this day no difficulty in tracing the new
frontiers of Bessarabia in conformity with the
treaty of the 30th March, had the maps laid by
Russia before the Congress not been incorrect. Ac-
cording to these maps, drawn up by that power,
the new frontier might have departed from the
Black Sea at a kilometre to the east of the lake
Bouma Sala, have rejoined perpendicularly the
Akerman-road, and have followed it to Trajan's
valley ; then it would have followed the river Yal-
puck as far as the heights of Sara Sika, and have
terminated at Katamori on the Pruth. This line
would have given Bolgrad to Russia. The inten-
tion of the Congress of Paris has been, moreover,
to allow the capital of the Bulgarian colonies to
remain in the hands of that power, and that the
district of Yalpuck should be entirely incorporated
in Moldavia. But these intentions had been formed
from the examination of Russian maps which are
now found to be inexact. The new frontiers pro-
jected for Bessarabia encounter topographical ob-
stacles which had not been foreseen. Ati arrange-
ment becomes, therefore, necessary, and Russia
ought to lend herself to it with the more readiness,
from the fact of her being alone responsible for the
inexactitudes which have given rise to this diffi-
culty."

DINNER TO THE GUARDS.

(Front the Gossip.)

There is to bo a Banquet to the Guards. The
public may be surprised to see two announcements,
emanating from distinct committees, and differing
in their plans, so far as those plans are announced.
The facto are these :—ln June last, before the re-
turn of Guards, and long before the Surrey
Gardens were open, a committee of gentlemen de-
termined to propose a public banquet to the
Guards, and they wrote to the proper authorities to
obtain official sanction. The reply received was
this : The military authorities, though they
looked upon the offer as highly praiseworthy and
complimentary, could not approve of dinners being
given
to soldiers." Subsequently, public feeling
throughout the country, and the appointment of
the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief,
led the military authorities to relax the resolution,
and to state that they would not throw any impedi-
ment in the way of the banquet, if public feeling
manifested a desire that it should be given. The
Committee, therefore, resumed their intention, and
proceeded to augment their numbers, and raise a
fund. In the meantime, the proprietors of the
Surrey Gardens, thinking that it would be a profit-
able affair to draw the banquet to their grounds, or-
ganised a second committee, through Mr. Sams, the
music-seller, of St. James's-street, and in a manner
most unprincipled and unprecedented, issued ad-
vertisements announcing their own plans, and dis-
regarding altogether the previous exertions of the
committee from whom the design originally ema-
nated. It is a pity that a national tribute to a
brave army should be disgraced by selfish acts of
this kind. The Ashburnham Park Committee have
laid these facts before his Royal Highness Prince
Albert, his Royal Highness the Duke of Cam-
bridge, and Field-Marshal the Earl of Strafford,
and from the fact that the Secretary of the Ash-
burnham Committee has been requested to attend
upon his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
this day, and that letters have been received from
the Earl of Strafford and others, of a nature highly
favourable to the original Committee, the matter
must soon assume a definite arrangement, consist-
ent with the propriety and fairness which should
mark the management of such an event. In the
meantime, we would have intending subscribers to
the Banquet-fund to withhold their subscriptions
until official sanction has decided which of the two
Committees are to carry out the undertaking.
We may state that his Worshipful the Lord Mayor,
and the other members of the Surrey Garden Com-
mittee, were not aware of these facts, which, how-
ever, will now be laid before them. His Grace
the Duke of Wellington has strongly expressed his
disapprobation of the course pursued by Mr. Sams
and the Surrey Garden speculators.

A FIGHT FOR A BRIDE.—The Cork Constitution states
that a Miss H-, of Clonbrook, Queen's County, was
to be married on a certain day to a Mr. H.
Another lover of the lady endeavoured to prevent it by
ealiecting a party of friends, who assisted him inllocking
the gate approaching to the lady's house. They also
placed large stones in front to obstruct the passage of
the jaunting car, and, after completing their task, they
lay in ambush awaiting the arrival of Mi s H_ and
her friends. Having arrived, and finding the approach
barred against them, some of the party left the car to
remove the obstacles presented to them, when the lady
was pounced upon by the party of her former lover, and
then a struggle ensued, the bridegroom's party endea-
vouring to retain her and the other to carry her off. The
conflict terminated in victory for W-. the former
lover, who succeeded in placing the lady on a car and in
effecting his escape with his prize, neither of whom was
heard of up to Wednesday last. The intended bride-
groom had his countenance much damaged. The matter
has come before the magistrates.

iEr.LAN D.

DUBLIN, MONDAY MORNING.
THE GREAT ANNUAL CATTLE SHOW.

The Royal Agricultural Society's annual cattle-
show takes place this week at Athlone, and, from
the central position of that town, the exhibition, in
point of numbers at least, is expected to be the
most imposing that has been held since the asso-
ciation first started into existence. Lord Carlisle
leaves Dublin to-morrow to attend the show. His
Excellency during his visit will be the guest of
Lord Castlemaiue, at Moydrum Castle.

THE POTATO.
The accounts from all parts of the country speak
hopefully of the potato crop, and no allusion what-
ever is made to the appearance of the fatal blight
of 1845. The Freeman's Journal states, on un-
doubted authority, that for a considerable quantity
planted in the neighbourhood of Dublin the enor-
mous price of 1001. per acre has been realised.