The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-24 00:00:00

THE WAR IN THE EAST.

Although the Czar's determination with respect
to the proposals for peace cannot be positively known
in Paris or London before to-day or to-morrow at
the earliest, as the message did not leave Vienna till the
13th, and could not arrive at St. Petersburg till the 18th
or 19th, there is every reason to believe that the reply will
be hostile. It is stated at Vienna, and very generally re-
ceived as a fact, that the Emperor of Russia behaved in
such a way on hearing of the resolution taken by the
French and English Governments to send their fleets into
the Black Sea as to leave little doubt that he had made up
his mind to a rupture with those Powers, whose Ambassa-
dors would therefore shortly leave St. Petersburgh.
Perhaps the truth is best told, in the following short
sentence, by the • Prussian Ministerial Zeit :—" The in-
tentions and resolutions of Russia are shrouded in mystery,
but she continues to march hertroops to the scene of action."
The latest private letters from the coasts of the Black
Sea announce that the Russians were making very sig-
nificent movements at Sebastopol and along the whole
south-eastern coast of the Crimea. They were organizing,
at the different strategetic points, defensive works and
coast batteries for sweeping the sea ; and they had just
altered the direction of the lighthouses erected for guiding
ships through dangerous passes and securing anchorage.
Finally, they had given orders to those battalions which
form the. vanguard of the military colony, to enter the
town as a reinforcement to the regular garrison. which had
already acquired its war complement.
Letters from the shores of the Black Sea state that the
Russians are establishing at different points, and more
especially in the Crimea, defensive intrenchments and
coast batteries. They have changed the direction of the
fires and lighthouses constructed to protect vessels ar-
riving from the offing, and have also reinforced the garri-
sons of the towns beyond the maximum of war. _ _

The news of the -entrance of the fleets has produced
great terror in the Russian ports. It was only on the
4th inst. that the two fleets entered the Black Sea, under
the command of Admiral Dundas.
It was rumoured that the whole Russian fleet had sailed
from Sebastopol. Admiral Dundas his decided on not
dispersing his men-of-war, as had previously been resolved
upon, and he has accordingly entered with the whole of
his forces.

Brrcn.i.ussr, Jan. 4.—The troops under General Aurep
have marched down towards Kalafat. New contracts for
supplying the Russian army in the principalities with
food and forage, from the month of March next till the
end of June, have just been made.
VIENNA, Jan. 17.—Despatches from Orsova of the 12th,
and from Bucharest, of the 15th, state, that after the
sanguinary battle near Citale, the Turkish army had
returned to its intrenched camp at Kalafat, and that the
Russian army was being reinforced in the position which
it originally occupied.
VIENNA, Tuesday Evening.—A Russian messenger has
arrived with news of the Bth. The Russian cabinet sub-
mitted to the Emperor a reply to the notification of the
approaching entrance of the fleets into the Black Sea on
the 7th. It was confidently believed that Russia will de-
clare herself released from all conditional promises previ-
ously given to the mediating powers. The note of the
Vienna conference was forwarded to Russia last night.
At the express desire of the Servian Hospodar, the Porte
has consented not to publish the new firmans. The forti-
fications round Kalafat and Widdin contain 250 pieces of
the heaviest calibre. 60,000 men were collected within
the rayon. Workmen and divers had gone to Sincope.
BERLIN, Wednesday Night.—We have advises from
St. Petersburgh of the 12th instant. M. de Reizet had
arrived with the French categorical note. It was pre-
sented simultaneously with the English note of the same
character, which Sir Hamilton Seymourhad received some
days previously. The Council of Ministers was in delibe-
ration on these notes, but had not determined on their
answer. There seemed little doubt that the entry of the
fleets into the Black Sea would be regarded as a hostile
act by the Emperor of Russia, and the state of public
feeling manifested great irritation against France and
England.
CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 5.—" Yesterday morning, at
daybreak, the combined fleets entered the Black Sea, leav-
ing at their old anchorage the Arethusa and three
steamers. " The Turkish fleet has not yet sailed, but six
Turkish steamers,carrying 6,000 troops for disembarcation,
besides artillery and ammunition, have followed the fleets,
which are bound for the Asiatic coast." Two private de-
spatches from Vienna and Berlin announce that the Em-
peror of Rusaia has positively rejected the propositions of
the Conference of Vienna.
A letter from Constantinople of the 2d says :—"_One
hundred Coebocks from the neighbourhood of the sea of