THE WAR.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 99, 23 November 1877, Page 2

THE WAR.

• The London,, pr respondeat of the Auck.. land-Star -writes ."^ «"-" { '-' „, •' vrwi'^.^^S?^^ o .'^- I Really dbn;b know hoy/: to begin, but perhaps the most honest course will ba ''tpadmjt at the outset t&Jft I hhve made I a'.w.rong estimate of the Russians. .Not, ! of their. bw.ve.iy, pluck, andindomnitable 1 perseverance ! Nothing could Vecwd that. I mean that I ccrtaiuly had expected (and probably I: wrote, to you) that hy tliis time they would have invested Con-. staulinople. I believe oven now that tho Turks expßCleJ. it too. But it is m>_;

evideut that on neilh.-r side thers is . dpcent general. Bravery, dash and every thing to make a slap-up soldier, we hav< itUtlh .ndaqce, but no tactician. I can mr jigitje the Czar crying in despair-*" My TcSr&do ii} 'for a Moltke P Here tre thp^j .gallant felfqws dying and being cut ie pieoea by thousand . and qt| for nothing. At tbis jmjptijre England is thrilled wit'l excitement, and the rush fur. the daily papers ti extraordinary, Til" Daily News is the favorite; for now, as ii the Frunco-_Gei*q*an war, thoy h .ye bj far the iqosfc graphic as \ye\l as the pjost reliable accounts, Mr Forbes is i piarvcllous man. l(is coolness and infrepedity aro estraai'dina/y. He pens Iti-i telegraphic despatches amid shower.* pf bullets, and rides through the thickest pf the fighting without a flinch. He has l*.pen decorated by tbe C?.»r, who bas beeu lost ju admiration at bis courage. Ifot that other correspondents have been behindhand, but Forbes stands out in relief, wit{» . b .ck ground of sulphureous smoke as t\ phenomenon in the juurualbm of tho day. Napier's " Peninsular War " Vfus penned iq the retirement of a quiet study, but Napier's descriptions nvo ityne in comparison with the words of Forbes, ijcribbled iv a rough notebook, on thp back of a horse, amid the screaming of ehflls, the thunder of artillery, anrl thp groans of the dn'ng. And, good God ! \to\y these Turks and l.u.ssians fi, r ht! "VV<5 used to say (or Napoleon did) that n Triton nover know when he was beafen, but we mq-?t pale our diminished flies bwfore lhe ferocious conflds of these pastt-rn combatants, The struggle around PJevjpi bis been not o ly ihe most bloody, but lb« most extraordinary in point of tpiiacity and bull«dog ,oourQ£Qof any /}gl|ting on vecard. It would sepfli.as if the spectacle of rotting corpes. $md the siflpU of blood, o rily egged on the cOplbatantß ta sterner and wilder conflict, %t is. simpiy horrible; and ns fyr as sympatbie-* go, whatever one's side, one caiinot refraiu from giving an equal riieoil of glory tq both .sides, when lie seas the •tfttei. forgbtftdness of everything but the flvyful dutipa of the hour, or the moment, on the part qf both ltu«*siaq ami Moslem. | spoke yesterday with a Germ-iq who liad jilst returned from Moscow, and ho tells' me tljat \n. Hu-*sia there is a terrible coiidjtioq of distress. Thousund-* of fumiliea -ir-e rendered farthcrless and sonless.. The ooantry is ns if a vast funeral pall had bpen cast over it. And of .-nurse Tui'key c«n be r^io beHer. for both before Plevna, aqd at the Siiiplra Pass, her losses have been enormous. What will bo (ho end, who pan foresee . No. one seems to liave' any -do .fet t liat Unxsiu must be vie** torion. . and history siems tq point to tiie laet that the Om. of hre yeirs has even borne down tjlie Ort*-'e.. f . That. the d*y« 'of the ' Man of >in" nre niimhered can hardly be doubtful, and tint it \< liruwing Up for a' grand •'Oiis\unmaiiQn of events is •pot to be denied, Idq not claim lo be a wropaet, but ns a clever wtitev has caffl, % read' my B;tb!e a»d .i\e Ttmcs. Audi dratv"my 'inferences.