The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-08-29 00:00:00

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WAR

NEVER, perhaps, in any war, did so many amateurs ac-
company, at least one of the belligerent armies, and, per-
haps, never did any war disappoint the military world so
much as this one. The campaign of 1853 reduces itself
to one small combat (Oltenitza), between three battalions
entrenched, and a brigade in the open country—a fight
which, in the wars of Napoleon, would have been looked
upon as an every-other-day affair, and which, in the pre-
sent instance, would have been of no importance, but for
being the first time the Turks had tried their arms against
the Russians since their new European organisation. The
whiter was employed by them in looking at each other at
lialafat across indifferent entrenchments, and in making
and resisting one ill-managed sally at Csitate ; the want
'of information on the part of the Turks during the whole
period being so ridiculous that they imagined they had
•constantly 30,000 or 40,000 men in their front, whereas it
turns out that there never were much abovel2,ooo. How-
ever, during the winter, every one prognosticated fighting
in earnest—no child's play in the spring. Month after
month slipped by. The great bugbear, the Russian army,
would be across the Danube, and the fate of Turkey, or
Bulgaria at any rate, would hang on the chances of one
great battle. At length the bugbear is roused from his
lair, and crosses the Danube. , Every one anticipates that
long marches and skilful strategic manoeuvres, on the one
hand or the other, will illustrate some principle which
had been discovered and recognised during the last war.
Nothing of the sort. The bugbear advances most " gin
gerly" on Silistria, and lays siege to it in the most unen-
terprising manner. Every one wonders at the extent and
beauty of the works which the engineers' department exc•
cuted, but all of a defensive nature; the. offensive ones
being ill-directed, and the siege of a wretched earthen
redoubt, defended by an undisciplined body, ending in a
failure, after losing a very great number of men and
officers, and expending an enormous amount of ammuni-
tion and labour. Then arrives the Anglo-French contin-
gent. They break ground by throwing up a series of
field-works near Gallipoli, hundreds of miles from the
theatre of actual war. At length they embark for Varna,
whence every one anticipates a series of brilliant manceu
vres, ending in a tremendous action—won, of course, by
the allied armies. Wrong once more. The only aid sent
to Silistria, whose garrison was in expectation of being
relieved by the united armies, is two engineer officers, who
arrive the very day the Russians raise the siege. Then
succeeds a bungling, ill-conducted passage of the Danube
by the Turks, entihig in their forcing the Russians to
retire a day or two sooner than they had intended. Nor
have the navies done more. The bombardment ea few
unimportant places is all that, up to the present, they
have to boast of. The French and English armies are
thoroughly disgusted, andthe general wish is to be out of
the whole affair, if there were only any means availdble df
getting out of it with honour. The amateurs are riot the
least so. To have to undergo all manner of privations
and disagreeables,whose name in Turkey is legion, with-
out a single thingto repay them for it, is more than was
bargained for. Nor will military history or the military
art have been the gainers by one single fact. We shall
never see any occurrence of this war, up to the present,
quoted in any book, except, perhaps, as an example to be
warned by. It will have done two things, however, were
affairs to be stopped at the present stage, viz., Russia will
no longer be a bugbear, and the world will be completely
desillusioni as to 'Furkey.-llforniny Chronicle.

DEUIDISM.—The second anniversary of the Good Sa-
maritan Lodge took-place on Monday last, at the house of
Host Tyrer, Clement-street ; Dr. Marsh, the surgeon to the
club, occupying the chair, ably supported by P. A. Robin-
son and P. A. Tyrer, the vice-chair being filled by R. A.
Hivey. Several excellent speeches and songs kept the
company in good humour -until a late hour.

FORESTERS' FESTIVAL AT BIRICENREAD.—Yesterday
the streets of Birkenhead resounded with the din of a
baud marching at the head of a procession formed of the
members of several lodges of the " Ancient Order of
Foresters" held in Birkenhead and its vicinity. The pro-
cessionists met opposite the Craven-rooms, at ten o'clock
in the forenoon, and after parading the streets of the
township, they dined together at Mr. Wingfield's, George
and Dragon Hotel, Grange:lane. The day was wound.up
by a ball at the Britannia-rooms, Lower Tranmere.

THE BIBLE.—A wretched monomaniac, styling himself
" The Rev. Joseph Barker, formerly Methodist Preacher,"
desirous of emulating the infamous notoriety of Tom
Paine, has been delivering •leetures during the week at
the New Music Hall, in Bold-street, to prove that the
Bible is not divinely inspired. This blasphemous attack
led, of course, to opposition, and the meeting became so
disorderly that the interference of the police was rendered
necessary. If the proprietor of the hall permit it to be
used for purposes of profanation, and in open violation of
the bads of our belief, he may.and that, when devoted to
a less objectionable purpose, the public will be inclined to
refuse their patronage.

THE CHOLEHA rNEDrwsuxtcll.—After several months'
,cessation, cholera has reappeared in Edinburgh within the
last few days. it seems to have arisen from the simulta-
neous importation of it by persons coming from different in-
fected districts. In consequence.of the outbreak a meeting
of the Sanitary Committee, consisting of representatives
of the police and parochial boards, wasield on Wednesday.
Upzto that morning 12 cases were reported as having
occurred in Edinburgh, and one in Leith. Of the 12
,cases, the three that first occurred were imported, and
were all, we understand, fatal. One was a passenger,
.seizedron the way from London, on board the steam-ship
Trident ; another was master of a small vessel plying from
Alloa or Limekilns to Leith; and the third was a man
coraing7eom Airdrie, who had taken lodgings in the Ca-
nougate, and whose case was followed by Aix others in the
neighbourhood, three of them proving fatal. In two other
spontaneous cases death had ensued after a few hours' ill-
ness. In only four cases were the patients reported as not
yet dead,,or:as likely to recover. The case in Leith was
fatal after.a :brief illness. With regard to the state of the
tity, the Lord Provost expressed his belief that the city
had during the past three or four months been cleaner ex-
ternally at least, than it had ever before been in its,hintory.
Medical reports as to the very healthy state of the town
before this outbreak were also referred to.

Ma. PENNY'S Re...VIS' STRAITS EXPRDITION.—Acconnts
have just come to hand from Captain Penny, of the Lady
Franklin, that his expedition to Davis' Straits, hi fur-
therance of a project of a resident whale fishery, has been
most successful. He is now at Aberdeen with the Lady
Franklin full of boiled oil, and the Sophia is expected to
follow, also a bumper ship. It. will be remembered that
the crew of an American whaler, wrecked in Davis' Straits
three years ago, bad succeeded in killing during their
residence at Kumsooka some eight or nine whales. This
fact, coupled with Captain Penny's large experience in the
Arctic regions, led him to propose that a resident fishery
should be established there, and that a commercial com-
pany, under royal charter, should engage in the enter-
prise. It was intended, also, to work some plurnbago
mines which were known to be in the district ; but the
project was not sustained by government, and fell through.
Captain Penny, however, was supported by a few commer-
cial gentlemen who had the fullest confidence in his specu-
lation, and the Lady Franklin and Sophia, Arctic explor-
ing ships, were purchased and fitted out in Aberdeen for
the expedition last year. Both ships were supplied with
tanks for the oil, and the necessary arrangements were
made for encountering a winter's residence in the Straits,
in order to be ready for the first opportunity of getting at
the fish in the spring. Two hardy crews were engaged,
and provision was also made for the moral and spiritual
good of the natives among whom Captain Penny ex-
pected to have to reside. The ships sailed in July last
year, and this is the first news we have of them since that
time. In a commercial point of view, the speculation
will be a most profitable one, the oil alone being worth
es,ooo, while a large sum will be realised for some ten or
irate tQ a 9f Wu%