The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-07-15 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

EVENTS OF THE WEEK.  DEATH OF GEN. SKOBELEFF. The news of the sudden death of General Skobeleff, the brilliant paladin whose gallant deeds alone rescued the Russian arms from well-merited contempt during their war with Turkey, caused a thrill of regret to run throughout all Europe when it became known on Saturday morning. His career had been remarkable from its unvarying success. Joining the army as a lad, he was in 1868 captain of cossacks in Tarkestan, and was the last man to quit Khiva, in 1871. Thence he went to Spain, and was a spectator of the Carlist war, where no doubt he obtained some useful hints in the art of guerilla warfare. His next active engagement was against the forces of Khokand. With but little difficulty he conquered and annexed the Khanate, and was rewarded with the lank of general. At Makhran he commanded the cavalry and took 58 guns, afterwards leading a night attack which captured the arms and portable property of the enemy. He stormed the town of Namangau, and was made first governor of the province of Ferghana. Here he remained till the outbreak of the RussoTurkish war, when he at once became conspicuous by his gallantry at the crossing of the Danube. At Schipke he led the first column through the pass, and after the great Russian defeat before Plevna, he led against the Turks a force not one third the number of his opponents. Twice his horse was shot under him, but he came unharmed out of a perfect hail of shot and shell. In a later assault he took a redoubt at a loss of 2,000 men, and lost 5,000 more in holding it, being eventually driven out again for want of reinforcements. After the close of the war Skobeleff again turned his attention to Central Asia, where his skill and determination found scope in the reduction of Geok Tepe, the Turkoman stronghold which so long baffled the Russian arms. This was his last piece of active service, and his name has only been prominently before the public since on account of the violently Pan-Sclavistics speeches he made in Paris and elsewhere, which will be well within the recollection of our readers. The feeling • With which his loss is regarded in Russia oaay be gathered from the following extract from the Russ, the leading Panklavistic organ :—" Our national hope, •our glory, has passed away in the flower of youth at the moment when he seemed to be on the threshold of still more glorious exploits as the future champion of Russia against the foreigners who meditate her ruin. His name was a legion in itself. The whole of Russia and the Sclav world is plunged in bitter mourning, and the enemies of the Sclav people will exult at our loss." General  Skobeleff's death has been variously ascribed to heart disettee and suicide by poison, the latter theory resting 411 iii assertion that though outwardly extravagantly loyal to the Czar, ke at hear despised him for his pusillanimity, and had joined the Nihilists in a plot against him, which being discovered led him to destroy his own life. This theory, however, is scarcely to be reconciled with the fact that his funeral on Tuesday was attended by membera of the Imperial family and high officials representing the Czar, and it is more pleasant to believe that so gallant a man and so ardent a patriot died a natural, and .not a self-inflicted, death.