War Topics

An eye-wituess gives a graphic picture of the Russian method of forwarding gtlüH to Itnfttdiiik. Ten yoke of bullooks to a giin, and never more tlmn au average ui fortr railes a day; while in rainy dayö 110 jrfögies is taade at all, btillocks aud gun stioking faut in the mttcL Thk Turks have remaiued in unditnibed possession of Constantinople for abont 425 years. On the 29th of May, H53- the city was then the capital of We Byaantine empire- it was stormed and daWtHfed bt the Turk, Constantino tho Third, the laMÍ "f the Byaantine Emperors, losing his life in tlic dcfenseA letter f rom a foreign officer of rank, at present in Constan tinople, gives.a good insight into the situation and prospects of Turkey. The war she will have to carry on will necessarily be two-fold. It will be an offensive war on the Black ííca fltíd in Afia Minor, and a strictly defensive one on the Dantibp. But noone who does not know the Turkish troops and their invetérate liatred of the " ;ovite doga can yet forra au adequate .dea of the fierceness with which the de'ense is likely to be conducted. They a liave also for them the incalculable c Wintage of flghting at horne, combined tvitli tiie other advantage of not having to care for the devastation of the soil they 1 (ight on; Bulgaria' snffering does not $ touch them. The Bussians, on the other i hand, will have to opérate away from their Erontier, to carry with them all their i risions and ammnnition, and to keep a ] vigilant watch on doubtful allies in thoir , rear. The last invasión of Turkey by the i Rnsuiano ocenrred in 1829-30. On the 'Mil Of Jitly of the latter year the passage of the Balkan mountains was ! pleted by the Bussian army, alld on the 20th of August the invading army, undcr the command of Gen. Diebitech, entered Adrianople alid diotated a peace that would have done credit to a veteran player reverent of the powers of bluff. Turkey's fleet had just been destroyed at Navarino, her jnnissaries bad been wiped out, Bussia commandedboth seas, and threw 100,000 men across tlie Danube. Braila beid out forty-four days ; Varna was only won by Youssouf Pasha's treason ; Silistria feil after a long sicge in the second campaign. By inconceivable negligence the Balkan passes were not fortified, and the BtlBsian Gen. Diebitsch, springing pon these, reached Adrianople with 20,000 men. Gen. Gkant Duff lias written an nrticle iu the Nincteenth Century uponthe Eastern question, in which he arrivés Ot the conclusión, from a political survey of Bussia, that her real object is rather to giiin advautages in Asia than in Europe. He goes on to show that both Austria and England can combine to prevent hor taking Constantinople, securing control of the Danube, orpermanently acquiring territory in Turkey in Europe, but that no power can stop her progress in Armenia. Austria, Trance, Ituly and Germany have no interest there, and it is beyond the power of England to prevent it. It is his opinión that, whether the Bussians establish a protectorate in European Turkey, annex it, or withdraw from it altogether, they will secure Asia Minor and keep it, and, before they conclude a peace with the Turks, will secure certain rights in the Holy Land. The strength of the army which the Government has thrown upon the borders of Armenia, the celerity which bas characterized its movements, and the force of tlie blows which it has already struck, favor the theories ndvanced by the writer. The real danger to Constautinople may yet come from the Bussian army of the Oaucasus. Ome of the most curious features of the war is that the Bussians claim to be anxious only to protect their coreligioniets in Turkey, while tlie Turks put forward their solicitude for the fate of "the Mussulraans of the Crimeau and the Oaucasian coasts, now groaning undr the Bussian yoke." Such, at least, was the language of tlie Sultan in his maoiI f esto to the ofiicers and men of of liis fleet. Yet neither the Christians in Tiu'key nor the Mussulmans in Bussia evince any desire to be "protected." The Christian members of tlie Turkisli Parliament have publicly declared that their coustituents were decidedly opposed to Bussian intervention, and are perfecÜy ready to serve in the Turkish army, and to support such troops as may be sent out to their districts during the coming struggle. On the other hand, the Mussulnian population of Bussia shows its relnctunce to be protected by the Turks in a still more eloquent manner. A división of advanced gnards htm just been formed at Kischeneff, consisting of three mounted regiments of Ural Cossacks, one infantry regiment of Terek highlanders, and a field battery of six guns, the whole force iinder the command of the well-known pnrtisan warrior, Gen. Skobeleff. Nearly all tlie men composing tliis thVision are Turt.irs, consequenüy Miissuhnans.