The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-18 00:00:00

THE WRECK OF THE JOSEPH/NE WILLIE.—THE OFFI-
CIAL INQUIRY.—Ork Saturday Mr. Yardley, assisted by
Captain Robertson, R.N., resumed this inquiry, at the
Court•house, High-street, Poplar. James Gentles,
chief engineer ; Peter Paterson, boatswain ; Patrick
Mahony, Channel pilot ; and several of the crew of the
Mangerton, were then examined at same length, but their
evidence was a mere repetition of that previously given.
At the conclusion of their evidence, Mr. O'Dowd said he
had exhaused all the evidence he proposed to adduce in
suppor'L, of the inquiry. Mr. Yardley said he thought it
desirable that some of the crew on board the Deal lug-
ger should be examined, and therefore the inquiry had
better be adjourned. After some discussion, the inquiry
was adjourned to the Thames Police-court on Tuesday,
at five o'clock. •

Tax RuGELEY POISONING CASEL—Sinoe the termi-
nation of the inquiries before the eoroner into the cir-
cumstances attendant upon the death of the persons, for
the murder of whom Mr. Wm. Palmer has been com-
mitted for trial on the coroner's inquisitions, much addi-
tional information, we are informed, has been obtained,
and which will, of course, be produced at the trial of
the prisoner. In order that he may have every oppor-
tunity of knowing the nature of this additional evidence,
it is intended that the examination of the prisoner shall
take place before the magistrates, on a day yet to be
fixed, when the whole of the evidence will be gone into
and the cases completed, for presentation of bills to
the grand jury. The hearing will take place, we be-
lieve, in the County Prison. We &agave that the bill
introduced into Parliament for the purpose of removing
such trials to the Central Criminal Court, London, pre-
pared with a special view to this case, has passed several
of its stages in the House of Lords, without opposition.
7—Segiorethire AavcreisV.

TURKISH ARMY, MINGRELIA, Jan. 40.—Since the
date of my last letter the tranquillity of the camp has
been in no way disturbed by the enemy, who is sup-
posed to have retired as far as Senakria. On the 2d
inst. Aali Pasha made a reconnaissance with four bat-
talions of infantry, and explored the country for some
distance to the left of the Kutais road. He reached a
point on the bank of the river Seva, from which a small
encampment of militia could barely be made out by the
telescope. Expeditions have been sent in other direc-
tions also, the chief object of which is to exercise the
men in marching, and to withdraw them for a time
from the stifling atmosphere of their charcoal-heated
tents. The rear of the camp just reaches the brow of a
hill overlooking the valley of the Seva ; and on this hill
formidable earthworks have been thrown up and guns
mounted, rendering the position nearly impregnable.
Huts are springing up in all directions, and officers and
men are anticipating three months of not unpleasant
idleness. The axes of the Turks have completely
changed the face of the country, and the dense forest
which clothed it a month ago has nearly disappeared
from the neighbourhood of the camp, so that the inva-
sion must eventually have a great influence in promoting
the cultivation of the rich alluvial soil. Improving
roads are steadily working changes for the better is
the condition of the troops—changes doubtless due,
in some measure, to the presence of Omer Pacha, at
Redout Kaleh. Strings of beasts, laden with clothing
and provisions, may daily be seen upon their way,
although the difficulty and expense of transport are
such as still to limit the supplies. This limitation
has just made itself felt in an order directing all
urbashis (captains) and all officers of inferior rank
to sell their hones -forthwith, so as to diminish the
demand for forage ; while the baggage animals have
been so long on starvation allowance that their tamer--
ova ,carcasse3 scarcely attract the wild dogs-and jackals
of the country. It is much to be wished that civilisation
could so far prevail in Constantinople as to procure the
addition of lime-juice to the Turkish ration ; for, as at
present fed, the approach of summer will inevitably see
the men decimated by scurry, as they were last year at
Eupatoria.

There has been a distribution of, honours and rewards
to the troops engaged on the Ingour, a distribution
which has afforded an amusing illustration of the contrast
between Western and Oriental notions. The officers who
commanded in the action were ordered to send in lists
of such of their subordinates as they deemed worthy of
the Medjide. Lieut.-Col. Ballard satisfied himself by a
list of 13 names. Osman Pasha, who had about
the came number of killed and wourded, and
whose force occupied a position scarcely of equal
importance, sent in 230 ! The requisition of
each officer was strictly complied with. tinder
Col. Ballard the men of real merit were decorated.
Tinder Osman Pasha every officer who either was or
ought to have been engaged—those who ran away, those
who remained at their post—all received the order of
merit. Among the number were numerous pipe-bearers
to the principal officers ; but, under the Turkish system,
rewards to these men are more ludicrous in seeming
than in reality. An officer of any rank, when his troops
are going into action, has his carpet spread upon the
ground they are about to leave, dismounts from horses,
squats down, calls for pipe, wishes his men God speed,
and endeavours, more or less successfully, to deaden ter-
ror by the soothing influence of tobacco. The chibouque-
jee, compelled by respect to stand behind his master, is,
of course, far more exposed to danger than he, and ser-
vants of this class who will do their duty within sound
of fire-arms, and will constantly be ready with the so-
lace so muds needed by their employers,.are not only
highly valued, but deserve decoration at least as much
as their employers. It is, however, unfortunate that
an order, founded with good intentions, should be be-
stowed so indiscriminately as to lose all value, whether
in the eyes of officers or of men. The cost of the deoura-
tion, given alike to the brave man and to the coward, is
a fruitless expenditure of money that cannot be too
strongly condemned. Together with the orders some
jewelled swords were sent to the officers of Oilman Pasha,
and of these swords one has fallen to the lot of a colonel
who sought refuge in a hospital during the whole battle
of the Ingour, and whom the surgeons vainly attempted
to dislodge. Accustomed to the bravery of every class
of our own troops, English readers will scarcely com-
prehend or credit the cowardice of Turkish officers.
Some of those under the orders of Col. Ballard sheltered
themselves in a house during the action, and, when
directed to join their men, objected, saying that there
was no cover, and that they would he exposed to fire on
their advance. It is reported that Col. Ballard promised
these men the cover they required, and that he actually
afforded it, by taking them one by one behind him on
his horse, and thus conveying them to their posts of
duty.
On the 6th the arrival of a mail from England brought
out copies of Lieut.• Colonel Simmons'e despatch. Col.
Simmons mentions with due honour the names of Colo.
nols Ballard and Csdell, and the name of the late Capt.
Dymock ; hut he passes over in total silence the two
other British officers who were concerned in the engage-
ment. Surgeon Edwards, of the British medical staff,
and his assistant, Mr. Turner, were stationed by Colonel
Simmons at a point from which the roads taken by the
tbree columns of attack diverged. They remained there,
exposed to fire, during the whole time of the battle, had
the entire charge of all the wounded, and were occupied
without intermission until daybreak on the 7th in the
performance of operations and in attendance upon in•
juries. They subsequently had all the patients under
treatment until fit for removal, and then accompanied
them to Shemserai, where, for the first time, the poor
unfortunates were handed over to the tender mercies of
the Turks. Omer Pasha, although himself taking the
standard military view of the value of doctors, could
not abut his eyes to the services of Surgeon Edwards,
and requested Col. Simmons to convey to that gentle-
man his especial thanks. But Col. Simmons did not
think this sufficient to procure for Surgeon Edwards the
honourable mention he so entirely earned ; and from
which alone be could derive real credit or permanent
advantage, as a consequence of the proper discharge
of his arduous duties.

AUSTVIA'S COMMUNICATION TO THE

Gft IiMANIC DIET.

The Nouvellisle de Bambourg publishes the text
of the communication laid by Austria before the
Diet at Frankfort on the 7th inst. :
In conformity with the orders of this Court, the Im-
perial Envoy, presiding at the Diet, has the honour to
deliver to tbe distingnished assembly copies of a despatch
addressed by the Imperial Cabinet on the 16th Dec. last
to Count Eqerhazy, the Austrian Envoy at St. Peters-
burg, and of a document from the Russian Chancellor,
Count NesPclrode, dated Jan. 16, and addressed to Count
Esterhazy.

The Diet will observe by these documents that the Im-
perial Court, after putting itself in agreement with the
Governments of France and Great Britain upon the pre-
liminaries of a peace, which those Powers find in con-
formity with the object of their alliance and the general
interests of Europe, has urgently recommended the ac-
ceptance of these conditions to the Court of St. Peters.
burg, and that his Majesty the Emperor of Russia,
moved by the desire to restore the blessings of peace to
his empire and to the world, has decided to adhere un-
reservedly to the Austrian proposition.
The. Imperial envoy has instructions moreover to trans-
mit a copy of a protocol signed at Vienna on Feb. 1,
which states that the representatives of Austria, Franief,
Great Britain, Russia, and Turkey have paraphrased the
text of the above-mentioned preliminaries, and have at
the same time made known the intention of their courts
to name plenipotentiaries who will assemble at Paris in
the course of three weeks, at latest, in order to proceed
to the formal conclusion of a preliminary convention to
the negotiation of an armistice, and te the opening of
negotiations for a definitive peace.
It is a lively satisfaction for the Emperor Francis
Joseph to be able to express in the midst of the govern.
ments of Germany the hope that the moment at length
draws nigh in which the unhappy complications of latter
years will receive a pacific solution. His Majesty is con-
vinced beforehand that the distinguished assembly will
fully participate in his sentiments. If a guarantee was
necessary in this respect, it would suffice to the Imperial
Court to know that the government of his Majesty the
King of Prussia, the august friend, and ally of the Em-
peror, has employed all its influence in order to bring
Russia to conciliatory decisions, and that the langinge
of the other German Courts, expressed at St. Petersburg,
has contributed to the same end.

Hailed with joy in all parts of Europe, the return to
peace, the Imperial Government may be permitted to
believe, will be received by the Diet with a peculiar
satisfaction in consideration of the important bearing
which the objects destined to constitute the tenor of the
treaty of peace have upon the political and commercial
interests of Germany.
These conditions are the same in their essence as those
of which the Confederation has already generally ap.
proved, by anterior resolutions, and the first two of
which it has especially resolved to maintain in the point
of view of German interests. If the basis for the mainte-
nance of which the Confederation has in some degree
pronounced, have received to-day a more complete de-
velopment, the Cabinets of Vienna, Paris, and Lon-
don—whose deliberations could not but produce a pro-
gramme of moderate peace—bad but in view the double
object of preventing in the most efficacious manner the
return of the disastrous troubles whioh the world at this
moment desires to see removed, and to secure, by a suf-
ficiently precise wording of the preliminaries, a stronger
guarantee for the re-establishment of a definitive under-
standing. The distinguished governments of the Confe-
deration will see that the guarantees which the future
peace will bring will only be made the more precious for
Germany by the development given to these points.
On the other hand, the Diet will not misunderstand that
the said Powers, faithful to the principles—the collec-
tive recognition of which forms the bond of their alliance
—are conscientiously interdicted from any proposition
which would not be fully justified by an incontestable
European interest, and which, for this very reason, would
not be of a nature which could not be honourably ac-
cepted by any ono of the great Powere sharing in the