The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-05 00:00:00

RUSSIA,

Everything is getting scarce in Russia : men,
money, saltpetre, sulphur,
.and foreign produce of
every description. In vain Government offer fa-
bulously high prices to contractors for the delivery
of saltpetre, in the hope of making available the
private stocks of the merchants. The article is not
to be had. Private instructions have been given to
the custom-houses on the frontiers to admit contra.
band of war, and many thousand bags of saltpetre
have been entered as rice, and chests of sulphur as Ha-
vannah sugar; but still the consumption is greater
than the supply, and it is difficult to see where gun-
powder is to come from if the war is to be con-
tinued.

In spite of the severe pains and penalties on the
exportation of gold and silver coin, the profit on
such transactions is so lucrative that the smugglers
are prepared to run all risk of detection ; for they
receive no less than 4 per cent. commission on this
side the frontier, and as much more on the other.

It is therefore no wonder that the Imperials
and demi-Imperials are getting every day scarcer.
The reported discovery of large beds of sulphur
in the neighbourhood of the banks of the river
Wolga turns out to be a hoax.
Admiral Paniutin, the late commander-in-chief
of the Russian naval forces in the Pacific, who, it
will be remembered, lost the frigate Diana in the
waters of Japan, has been raised by the Emperor
to the dignity of a count.

TURKEY.
A letter from Constantinople of the 24th gives
the following information
:
"Important modifications are still expected in the
Ottoman Ministry, and well-informed persons aro of opi-
nion. that they will take place this week. It is believed
that Mustapha Pasha will enter the Cabinet as Grand
Vizier, and the name of Redsohid Pasha has been again
pronounced.

" A few days ago the model of a medal was submitted
to the Sultan, which pursuant to his orders has been
struck, in order to be distributed among the Allied
armies. It had been proposed to his Highness to give
to the officers only a medal of gold, and to the soldiers
one of silver. The Sultan replied, that it was not his
intention to make any difference between the soldiers
who had fought as well and sold their lives as dearly as
the officers, and that, both having given proofs of the
same heroism, both were entitled to the same recom-
pence. On one side of the medal is the word Thom,
(the cipher of the Sultan), surrounded by a crown of oak
and laurel, and underneath the word Sebastopol' in
Turkish characters ; on the reverse are seen the four
flags of the Allied armies, supported by a cannon,
forming a trophy, with an anchor, a shell, and a map.
The intrinsic ♦alue of the medal is from 70f, to 80f."
Other accounts from Constantinople, of the 24th
ult., state that the Ottoman Government was se-
riously intent on devising means to obviate the
fatal consequences that might attend the fall of
Kars should all further advance of the Russians
on the Turkish territory not be immediately
checked. The plan of the new campaign was agreed
upon at a council of war, convoked for the purpose,
and at which the allied Generals Mansfield and
Larchey, Colonel Chiesa della Torre, and the first
dragomans of the English and French Embassies
were present. Ten thousand men are to be de-
tached from the army of Omer Pasha, and con-
ducted by Gen. Mouklisha Pasha from Soukum
Kaleh to Trebizond, where the other troops about
to operate iu Asia are to assemble.