TURKEY and RUSSIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 170, 8 April 1854, Page 9

TURKEY and RUSSIA.

Under date of Bucharest, Nov. 26, the Austrian Correspondenz states that Prince Gortschakoffhad .arrived at Giurgevo, to inspect the troops. The Turks have abandoned the island of Mokanon, and retired to Rutschuk. Another despatch states that Prince Gortschakoff intends crossing the Danube at Giurgevo, and has commenced the construction of a bridge ; and then absurdly adds, that the Turks are entrenched at Giurgevo. A despatch, dated Bucharest, 27th,says ; —: £ On the night between the 25th and 26th the Turks made eight abortive attempts to get possession of a Wallaehian island near Giurgevo. They were repulsed by the Russian batteries." On the 14th ult. the city of Belgrade was on the point of being bombarded by the Turkish garrison of the fortress. The difference was caused by the presence in Belgrade of the Russian Consul. The calamity was averted by the intervention of the Austrian Consul-General". Information from Constantinople up to the 16th, states that about 7,000 Bosnian and Albanian Catholics have formed a free corps, and are about to join the Ottoman army. Another corps of Christians, Cossacks, is forming at Constantinople, from the descendants of the Greek refugees in the days of the Czaiina Catherine. Twenty-five Turkish men-of-war have proceeded into the Black Sea. A Turkish transport, towed by a steamer, had a very narrow escape, having been chased by several Russian men-of-war. It had, however, safely reached Trebisond. The Constantinople correspondent of the Constitutionnel says, that four English frigates, the Retribution, Tiger, Niger, and Sampson, one of them carrying the flag of Admiral Dundas, were to enter the Black Sea on the 16th ult., to explore the European coast as far as Varna; while a divisoin of four French steamers, under the command of Admiral Hamelin, was to take a similar cruise as far as Trebisond. Letters dated a day later (the 17th ult.), state that the English divison, composed of the above steamers, had actually entered the Black Sea, and had gone to the Sulina mouth of the Danube, where, it was said, the Russian authorities had detained a certain number of merchantmen loaded with corn. The French division had not moved. Letters from Odessa state that the Russian vessels in that port were unloading their cargoes in consequence of the intimation from the Turkish Government that all Russian vessels would be considered lawful prizes after the 29ih ult. The Russians had announced their intention of seizing Turkish vessels after tbc 22nd ult. On the 6th of November a body of Turkish troops, which was on its way to Monastir (Bilolia), committed some excesses in Salonica. Stones were thrown at the windows of the house which had been inhabited by the Russian Consul, and also at those of the Greek Consul, anil of the dragoman to the British Consulate. Speedy justice was, however, done ; for before the troops were out of the city, the new Pasha, who was riding at their head, not only had the

offenders punished, but paid for the damage done out of his own private pocket. Achmet Effendi, the Commissioner of the Porte, then called on the Austrian Consul, under whose protection the property of Russian subjects had been placed, and expressed his own and the Pasha's sorrow for what had occurred. It was added, that such behaviour on the part of the Turks would give great annoyance to the Sultan. Letters from Constantinople mention that Lord Stratford de Redcliffe had requested the Divan to state, in writing-, its refusal to take into consideration the last project of arrangement which had been communicated to it, and that Redshid Pacha made no objection to doing so. The Turkish Government appears decided not to renew, by any sort of convention whatever, the atfcient treaties which Russia had extorted from Turkey. Pnblic feeling has been excited to a high pitch by the advantages obtained at Okenitza, and the Turkish troops were much flattered by the praises of the foreign officers, Spanish and English, who were at the headquarters of Omer Pacha. The infantry is described as having on that occasion exhibited all the steadiness as well as bravery of European veterans, and the rapidity and justness of aim of the artillery were much admired. It is stated that Omer Pacha, in entering Wallachia, acted in direct contradiction to the orders sent to him by the Government; and his disobedience, though it exhibited great vigour, and has added to his reputation as a soldier, gave umbrage to the Sultan, and it is said, to the English and French Governments also. Omer Pacha has published an official despatch containing a detailed account of the battle of Okenitza, which concludes by saying that " the engagement lasted four hours, from noon till four p. m., and during this interval the waggons never ceased to carry off their dead, and twenty were observed heavy laden even after the conflict. With a view of 'facilating this duty as long as it lasted, we abstained from molesting the enemy and from firing a single shot, but found nevertheless 800 bodies on the field. A private carriage, moreover, was remarked, and from the pains taken in the search, we conjectured it must have been destined to receive the body of a general officer. At 5 p.m., a total confusion ensued iir the Russian rank; their lines completely broken and their retreat precipitate. An hour later some few raillied in the neighbouring villages, but the remainder fled in disorder. Some of our men pushed forward in pursuit of them beyond the lines, but were summoned back by the [trumpet to their own quarters. Our loss amounted to 106 men. We found on the field of battle 500 muskets, sacs, cartridge-boxes, equiqments, &c." The Russians fired into the Pesth, Austrian Lloyd steamer, as she was passing before Giurgevo, on the 24th ult., but no material damage was sustained by her. The following telegraphic despatch from Bucharest, of the 29th ult., reached Paris yesterday : — iC The Russian war-steamer Wladimir has returned to Sebastopo] from a cruise in the Black Sea. She brought in a Turkish vessel with a cargo of pepper, and an Egyptian warsteamer of 10 guns. This last named vessel was captured after a spirited engagement. The Russians had two men killed and two wounded. Letters from Bucharest state that large masses of Russian troops were expected, and that the military preparations decreed by Prince Gortschakuff' were being executed on a large scale. The Russian army was expected to be soon in a condition to take the offensive. The Austrian Cabinet lends its most strenuous support to the Servian declaration of neutrality in the war between Turkey and Russia. The Porte, on the other hand, does not sanction that neutrality, and it has informed the Servian Government that if strategical necessity should command it, the Sultan would make use of his power as Suzerain, and march his troops through Servia. The Turkish Government has issued a strict prohibition against the granting of letters of marque. A British steamer has arrived at Varna to take off the British Consul to Constantinople. There are good reasons for supposing that the Russian Government have been trying all the means at the disposal of secret diplomacy, to induce the English government to recall Admiral Slade and Captain Borlase from their commands in the Turkish fleet.

Tw<£ Hundred Miles in a Quarter of an Hots. —Mr. Richardson has satisfied our capitalists that it is entirely practicable to build an atmospheric tube from New York to Boston (200 miles), through which mail bags or parcels of any description may be regularly, certainly, and safely sent in 15 minutes. He has perfectly obviated the most apparent difficulty, which consisted in a collision of the parcel despatched on reaching its termination. This he has accomplished by the counter pressure arising from the elasticity of inexhausted air, thereby reducing the shock until it becomes absolutely imperceptible. A considerable part of the stock for the building of this mail tube has already been subscribed. — Colonial Times. Treasures sunk at Navarino. —The Official Gazette of Savoy states, that an inhabitant of Chamberry has just quitted that place in concert with a company organized for that purpose, to save some contents of the vessels which were sunk at the battle of Navarino, particularly the Admiral's ship, a three decker, •which, it is said, had on board at the time she went down a sum of 6 5 000,G00 fr. in gold. All the necessary apparatus has been embarked, a number of divers have been engaged, and, in addition to the ordinary diving bells, all the recent inventions for such purposes will be put in requisition. Evidences of a future state of existence derived from nature and revelation. Revelation declares that we are to live hereafter in a state differing considerably from that in which we live here. Now the constitution of nature in a manner says so too. For do we not see birds let loose from the prison of the shell, and launched into a new and nobler state of existence? insects extricated at length lrom their cumbrous and unsightly tenement, and then permitted to unfold their beauiies to the sun ? seeds rotting in the earth, with no appatent promise of future vegetation, vet quickened after death, and clothed with luxuriant apparel? Is not our own solid flesh perpetually thawing and restoring itself, so that the numerical particles of which it once consisted have by degrees dropped away, leaving, meanwhile, the faculties of the soul unimpaired, and its consciousness uninterrupted for a moment? Is not the eye a telescope, and the hand a vice, and the arm a lever, and the wrist a hinge, and the leg a crutch, and the stomach a laboratory, and the whole frame but a case of beautiful instruments, which may accordingly be destroyed without the destruction of the ;igent that wields them? Nay, cannot that agent, when once master of its craft, work without the tools, and are not its perceptions in a dream as vivid as when every organ of sense is actively employed in ministering to its wants? "What though the silver chord be loosed, and the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher broken at the well, and the wheel broken at the cistern, still may not the immortal artist itself have quitted the'ruptured machinery, and retired to the country from which' it came? What though the approach of death seem, by degrees, to enfeeble, and at hist to suspend the powers of the mind, will not the constitution of nature bid us be of good cheer, seeing that the approach of sleep does the same? Of sleep \v! ich, instead of paralyzing the functions of man, is actually their- — " Second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast." And if, in some instances, death does lie heavy on the trembling spirit, in how many others does it seem to be only cutting the cords that bound it to the earth, exonerating it of a weight that sunk it, so that, agreeably to a notion too universal to be altogether groundless, at the .eve of its departure it should appear ■" To -Attain To something of prophetic Strain ?" Here, then, the constitution of nature and the voice of revelation conspire to teach the same great truth, noa omnis moriar. — Quarterly Review for Oct.