THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 35, 22 March 1856, Page 3

THE WAR.

Another Great Battle.—The telegraph announces in brieT but explicit terms a victory gained over the Russians by the Turks in Asia Minor, led by Omar Pacha. The battle, it is alleged, lasted five hours, and the enemy suffered severely. The scene of the conflict was the river Ingour, the passage of which the enemy disputed, with according to one account, 10,000, and to another account, 16,000 men The lurks, under their brave commander, waded up to their armpits in the stream, and the Russians, although they were partially entrenched, sustained a defeat, and left 400 dead on the field. The Turks lost 300 men. The Tngonr, on the banks of which this battle was fought, rises in the Caucasus, and falls into the sea at Anaklia. The army under Omar Pacha numbered 20,000; but the passage of a rapid river in the face of an enemy so powerful, has added to the laurels of the Ottoman General, and goes far to atone for his past, inactivity. It is believed by some that Omar Pacha is by this time in possession of Kutais, the chief city of lmer'uia, where he will winter ; while others incline to the belief that with favourable weather he will push on to Till is, from which point he can as effectually relieve Kars as if he had proceeded direct to that belcagured place. The fear some time ago was, that the season was too far advanced to enable Omar Pacha to complete his enterprise ; but it is evident from the iiueiligence which has now come to hand that the

position of the Russians in the trans-Caucasian provinces will be even more critical than in the Crimea. With a powerful garrison at Kars, flushed by the great victory which it secured a couple of months "back, under Gen. Williams, ready to march out on the instant, and with the Turks under Omar Pacha on-their flank, the Russian situation in Asia Minor must be critical if not desperate. The details are 100 meagre to enable us to conjecture eventualities; but enough has transpired to prove that it will require all the skill which Mouravieff, the ablest of the Russian generals is said to possess, to get out of the trap in which he is placed. Indeed, rumours abound that his defeat in September has reduced Mouravieff to a condition, of hopeless insanity,—a statement, however, which must be received with caution. The allies are reported to have applied to the Shah of Persia for leave to march an Anglo-Indian army through his territory into Asiatic Turkey, but assuming the correctness of this battle and victory of the pass of Ingour, the principal work will be consummated before its arrival. The Shah of Persia is not a very reliable personage ; but as the fortune of war is against the Czar and his troops, he is far more likely to concede than to refuse the request. Russia.—The Emperor of Russia arrived at St. Petersburgh in the night of the 19th to the 20th inst., on his return from the south. The Russian Government in Warsaw issued instructions on the 18th ultimo to the local authorities of the different circles in Poland to take particular care that the produce of this year's harvest be carefully stored away in the different granaries of the agricultural population, experience having shown that carelessness on this point had often reduced an ample to an insufficient harvest. At the same time they are called upon to send in an accurate account of all the stocks of grain now in store in the kingdom, as well as of all the horses fit for military purposes. In the parts next to the Prussian frontier there is said to be a great deficiency of horses, and that the supplies of serviceable horses from the Russo-Prussian frontier described the great difficulties with, which recruiting in Russia is now accompanied, so many men of the ages required having fallen a prey to the sickness of last summer ; so many with whom it as not terminated fatally are still rendered incapable of service ; many have fled over the frontier, and still more are in hiding. The owners of estates and the communal authorities, on wh >m it is obligatory to produce the required number of human sacrifices, are obliged to exert themselves to an extent hitherto unknown to hunt up their men in their lurking places, and make up their requsite number; as soon as ever the recruits are accepted by the military commission they are sent off to a distance, to prevent any possibility of their desertion. The insuffiieucy of the harvest in Russia, as the Journal de St. Petersbourg lately slated it, is further proved by the circumstance that considerable quantities of corn are being imported by the Russian Government from this country for the supply of the western provinces. In Courlaud, Friedland, and Finland the harvest is understood not to suffice even, for the wants of the population.