The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-08 00:00:00

THE EAST.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Dec. 27.—Kars, the commis-
sion named to inquire into the state of affairs in
Asia, and the councils of war held at the Seras-
kierat, still occupy public attention, so that even
the rumours of peace which every post brings us
from Europe do not excite so much interest as they
would at other times.

The arrival of Dr. Sandwith, and the particulars
of the siege which reach us daily, have given quite
a tragic character to the history of Asia during the
last two months.

General Williams's intention had always been to
cut through the enemy when every hope of relief
had disappeared; but the letters which he continued
to receive up to the last moment, especially from
Selim Paella, of Erzeroum, made him hope and per-
severe, and when at last the futility of all these pro-
mises dawned upon him it was too late for such
a resolution. A council was held to discuss the
possibility of this last remedy, and Kerim Pasha,
—one of the best and bravest of the Turkish com-
manders—did not hesitate to declare that the
emaciated soldiers, even with the courage of de-
spair, could not march with their muskets for a
mile without sinking under the load, and the
nearest Russian forces were at four miles' distance
from the town. One may imagine what point ex-
haustion had reached when some time before the
surrender a body of Cossacks with two guns ap-
proached one of the forts and began to throw shells
into it, and of all the guard only three men were
able to crawl to their post. Had the Russians
known the exact state of things they could have
taken the town without resistance.
While in the town all were vieing with each other
in perseverance and self-sacrifice, meanness and
selfishness seemed to be the order of the day with-
out. In spite of all indications of an approach-
ing movement on the side of the Russians, and
with all the facilities afforded for providing the
town with every thing necessary in the beginning
of the siege, the grossest neglect prevailed in every
department.
First, as regards the munitions of war, it will be
scarcely credited that only three days' ammunition
was in the town for the guns of position. The
secret was well kept, and the Russians will have
discovered it only after taking possession of tho
town, for, had they known it, they would certainly
have made a few successive false attacks, which
would have soon exhausted the ammunition of all
the heavy guns. And this was the case in a fron-
tier town, exposed every moment to an attack of
the enemy, while mountains of ammunition encum-
bered the magazines at Erzeroum and Trebizond !
Halett Bey, the Chief of the Ordnance Depart-
ment of the Asiatic army, is under inquiry in con-
sequence.

The starvation which led to the final surrender of
the garrison in less than four months tells its own
tale. An exposed fortress like Kars, the key of
the surrounding country, ought to have had at
least one if not two years' provisions in it, while
the garrison received even in the second month
half, and in the end a quarter of a ration. Tahir
Pasha, the defterdar, or commissary-general, is
accountable for it. Notwithstanding repeated re-
quisitions from General Williams, from the very
beginning, he found pretexts for refusing. Had it
been left to him, the town would have been abso-
lutely without any provisions at all at the begin-
ning of the investment ; fortunately, General
Williams took the matter into his own hands, and
thus was enabled to hold out so long ; but the
difficulties thrown in his way were such that, with
all his energy, ho could not complete his arrange-
ments.

Thus, you see, there were not a few proximate
causes which 'contributed to the fall of Kars, but
they do not excuse anybody for this state of things,
which was pretty well known by the constant de-
spatches of General Williams. As Kars was not
in a position to save itself, it was to have been saved
by others. Now that it has fallen there are no
end of councils of war, sendings of troops, and seri-
ous thoughts of appointing a proper commander-
in-chief for the Asiatic army. The 14 Pashas were
the real bane of it, and it is time that this absurd
and fatal state of things should be altered.
Several men-of-war, which had been left at Kin-
bourn, after the departure of the English expedi-
tionary forces, among them the Tribune, 30, and
Curacoa, 30, have arrived on their way to Malta, so
that now only one English man-of-war remains there
to represent the flag. Admiral Lyons offered to
leave one of the English floating batteries during
the winter there, but it was not accepted.
The departure of the English squadron was caused
by the ice, with has set in in great force. The gar-
rison, although shut up completely from the land
side by the Cissacks, is in good health, and quite
prepared to receive the ItHssians should they trust
themselves on the ice. Some such attempt is, in-
deed, expected during the winter, but no appre-
hensions are entertained on account of it. _

The two great rafts of timber which had gone
adrift were thrown on shore, and are going to
pieces ; but, even had this not been the case it
would have been a hopeless experiment to attempt
to tow them across the whole width of the Black
Sea at this time of the year.