The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-08-03

under sentence of death in Vermont, and who
was reprieyed only few moments before the
hour of execution.
THE TURKo-RUssIAN WAR.
The Russians are slowly and steadily prose-
cutting their mssch to Constantinople. They
have met with some repulses, among them
severe one at Pleova, but these checks are
doubtless but temporary, and there is little rea-
son to apprehend that the Turks can make pro-
longed resistance to the invasion. The war is
apparently characterized by great ferocty on
the part of the combatants. There is great
military activity in Constantinople, the certain
advance of the Russians causing great conster-
nation. Midhat Pasha, the foremost of Turk
ish statesmen and author of the reform con-
stitution, who was banished for alleged dis
loyalty, but who was clearly the victim of Rus
sian di pl omacy which wanted to get him out
of the way, has been recalled to the capital
where the fall of the Grand Vizier is impend-
ing. The left wing of the Russian army in the
Dobrudsha has made forward movement and
invested Silistria. The defeat of Suleiman
Pasha adds another to the list of Turkish dis
asters. The Russians followed up this victory
and destroyed about all the railroad bridges
between Jamboli and Philippolis. The latest
dispatches from English sources, given below,
represent the Russian position as rather critl-
cal, but there reason to believe that they ex-
aggerate the danger.
London advices say the position of the Rus
slams in the Shipka and Slivno passes and on
southern slope of tho Balkans is becoming
hourly more grave. Their effective forces eche-
Toned on this line do not exceed $4,000, which
are threatened from four sides simultaneously,
mainly from Adrianople and Jombli by Sulei-
man Pasha and from Osman Bazaar by Mehe-
met Ali, while Osman Pasha is advancing in
the direction of Sclavi, and reserve corps from
Sofia could approach by way of Philippopolis.
1t seems also that the Russians are not making
much progress before Silistria and Rustchuk,
where they are meeting with desperate resis
lance.
Gen. Zimmerman's corps, advancing through
the Dobrudsha, is greatly menaced by the right
wing of the Turkish army from Varna to Par
aoii. The 9th Russian army corps has become
almost incapable of fighting in consequence of
the loss it suffered at Nikopolis and Plevna
Several kilograms mention the fact that the
Roumanians occupied Nikopolis at the request
of the Russians as a proof that the Russian
cause is not prospecting.
A Bucharest despatch says Russia is mobil-
izing two new army corps, and new reserve
of $4,000 men will soonibe in camp at Ployesti
A despatch from Plymouth states that the
steamships Flar,ingo and Condor, which go to
the Danube to protect British interests and as
se-t Great Brtain's treaty right to maintain
two gunboats on the Danube, will be accompa-
MED to the Black Sea by the iron-clads Shan
non and Agincourt, to support them should
their passage be opposed.
A Kustenje despatch says frightful cruelties
have been perpetrated by the Circassians in
northeastern Turkey, where 5000 Bulgarians
had arrived half starved and n aked. Many
were horribly wounded and marched three days
without food to escape the Circassians and
Bashi-Bazouks.