FALL OF EARS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 363, 26 April 1856, Page 5

FALL OF EARS.

FCBTHEB PARTICULARS

We have now full particulars of the fall of Kars, afforded by a Turkish account in La Presse, and General Mouravieff's in the Invalide Russe. It is a distressing tale.

" For seven months—seven whole months— the garrison of Kars has received no suppliesAll the convoys announced from Constantinople have either stopped here, or have not proceeded beyond Erzerouiu. Hafiz Pacha, our ex-go-vernor, dismissed the other day in consequence of an inquiry entered into by Cabouli Effendi, has a long aud heavy reckoning to give on this score. In the month of October the garrison of Kars was living on in a state of destitution. In November, famine was there. Most &f the horses were eaten ; each man received a daily ration of eighty drachms only, which is about the same as 250 grammes. For a long time past they have had no meat to eat." A thousand men had sunk from sheer want, aud horseflesh was reserved exclusively for the hospitals. The blockade was maintained most strictly by the Russians, and it was impossible to leave the place. "In this distressing state, the Russian general .offered terms of capitulation on the 14th of November. General Williams asked for ten days, and permission to send a courier to Erzerouiu. This was granted, and Captain Thomson, provided with a pass, proceeded there. Within nine miles of the town he fell in with a Russian corps, and was allowed to traverse its position. At Erzeroum, Mr. Brandt informed him of the veal state of the case; that there was no prospect of Selim Pacha advancing, aud his troops (chiefly irregulars) were breaking up. Captain Thomson returned to Kars ou the 22nd. Three days later, General Williams, as the plenipotentiary of the Muchir Vassif Pacha, met General Mouravieff, and arranged the terms of capitulatiou. The Russian narrative proceeds :—

" General Williams was to return next morning: to our camp to bring the definite reply of the Muchir ; the regulation, however, of affairs inside, and the announcement to the garrison of the surrender of the fortress, which the leaders received with agitation, rendered his presence necessary in the fortress. He sent his aide-de-camp to explain these circumstances." On lhe-27th the formal signatures were given,and the next day, " conformably to the stipulation!} agreed upon, the remainder of the army of Anatolia, which had formed the garrison of Kars, were to leave the fortress, carrying their muskets, with flags flying and drums beating ; but at the request of the Turkish commanders themselves, the whole army left their arms piled, and placed their ammunition in their, camps, leaving only a small Turkish guard until it should be relieved by our men.

" Although it hail been arranged that the Turks should be assembled at ten o'clock in the morning, near the ruins of the village of'Gurahel,. it was not till two o'clock in the afternoon Unit the Muehir of the army of Anatolia presented himself to General Monravidf, accompanied by General Williams and the English officers. 'Ch:r troups were drawn ui>in lineof battle on both banks of the Kars-tcbai. The colours of the Turkish regiments were then brought to the front of our lines by a detachment of Touln Chasseurs, and received with the hands pla\in; aud repeated cheers from our troops. A'purtion of the Turkish army, consistin"- of the older and most feeble of the men, soldiers ou unlimited leave (Redifs), and uulituu

wen (Bashi-bazonks and Lazes), altogether about 0,000 men, were sent buck to their homes after the capitulation, with the obligation not to take uy> arms against his Imperial Majesty during the whole coarse of the present war, and were accompanied the first sta«-e hy a military escort, After ihe defile ol the Redifls, the commander in chief received a deputation consisting; of the tnest notable inhabitants of the town. Hiving n^sed along the front of the line of the Turkish regular troops who surrendered prisoners, to the number of from 7,000 to 8,000 men, Genevjtl Monrnvieff ordered the . repast to be given to them which lie had previously prepared for them in the military kitchens on the left bank r.f the Kars-tchai. On the same day (28th of 3sovetnl>es) the fortress was occupied hy our troops under the command of General de Saget, and the Russian standard was hoisted on the citadel. Thus, with the surrender of .Kars, the last remnant of the army of Anatolia, which in last June, numbered 30,000 men, has vanished. The Mnebir Vassif Pacha, commander in chief of that army, is himself a prisoner of war in our hands, without counting eight Pachas, n great number of superior subaltern officers, including the English General Williams and his whole staff. In the fortress we took 130 cannon and a great stock of arm«." On the 23th November, General MouraviefF issued an order of tiie day to his troops, congratulating them on vheir success. A St. Pe'ershnrg despatch s: iys that the General in ordering the gairi«on of Kars, to file off before him, dispensed with t»e English taking part in that movement. From Constantinople we learn from an account.that the allied commanders concluded an arrangement with the Porte, by which the allied troops in that city will have the right of repressing crimes and offences at Constantinople. Another account states that the Fullan had refused to allo*v an English or French police. Ismail Pacha has been summoned home to explain some bitter complaints he has been compelled to make of Austrian behaviour in the Principalities. It is said the Austrian*? have established a battery of sixty guns at Giurgewo, v town the stnitegic.il importauco of which is well known, it being opposite Iloutcc'nouk, and in the neighbourhood of Silistrin. The works were suspended on the remonstrance of the Pacha. Ti is noticed also from other quarters, that whilst Austria is proessing to put her army on a peace footing, ■whatever she may be doing at home, she is auguinenting it in the Principalities.

Turkey.— Omer Pacha {rained .in other fictory after the battle of the Inijnur, mil through .cirenni«!ance.s, not of endurinsr importance. After, waiting some days at Sujjlkli to mature liis communications and perfect his commissariat upon which he is dependent fur feeding his troops in a ho«:He country, Chner Pacha pushed, on. stieee'-'-h'f-lv crossing several hnmches of the PhaMs -viuK'nt m»eii:i<r with any serious resistance, ihe Ottoman troops at length reached the village of Cli«pi. which had heeni .surrounded /with fortifications by the Rti«yiaTi«s, and where they ]»>.<! e«ta!'"iislie;i n tolerably ]:trjre depot of ammiiniJion nnd provisions. This pi.s'ninn was defend"!] )>y ei^'ht 'naitnnons. The unexpected appeisnuu-:; *ii ;he Oitoman forces threw the garrison int«> dismay, and the generalissimo comprchpnuin^; the advantage wliich lie ini^ht derive fr<ira tnnkhifj an immediate attack, ordered his trni.ps lo advance ;it once. The Uussians only jmde a very frelile resistance, and soon refreared i;i disorder. The affair ■■x.\< settlerl so rapidly that the enemy had not iiine to dcsirov their supplies according- to their usnal system. Ereryumiir fo'i iisto th» hands ( .f the Ottom-M) troops, and suni.njr the spoil were 12,000 sheepsK'in^. Oaj'-r Pacha, after this success, continued his inarch on Ktilais, which, according to one acconis!. wn« feei.iy dcienilsd 'ny S.OOO riussjans :i)i'i '.vojilil he speedily in his possession. A li:i<-i:ir, r«'p<irt. h<:\vev"v, is thai Oines Pacha. on lieaiiii;: tiia: Priiu-i: li-.-.^rati-.u had received reinfor<-#'M)'.MK=, h-istUy rc-i-ross«-d the Iti»our, and fell hack 'vi SoukotiTii Ka'e. Por..lJi'"J—T.'is Vk'hh are/■'Xtipiie'-cirifr some hpnfiit from tli-.- -.var, in the inhibition of the ritrour of liii~-i;iji rule. An iilrasc of the Emperor Alex.ui'ivr 11. ura-.its a!) imk-jniutv to tho civil nnd military fisnciionaj-ies of !*<,[.:isd wh<<, in ]BSO. wstc cjis:t(is-eii ii> tiic I ")«iirrectioiial Gorerninciit, "r p.;!n--/ii to serve- it ; and moreover, a?!Sh'.>/i<e>i all i:!fi:-v:iiiia's C(inj]»r'«!sii-'.?fl in political ajf.sir.s to ru-tnler the service uf tlje Slalc%

Spain a>-d mv, Wkstehx Powers.—The following is a speech delivered by General O' Donnell, Minister of War, at the sitting of the Onrtes, on the 4th October: —M. Orense has just been thundering away against France, England, ami everybody. I do not wish to answer these harsh attacks: T confine myself to observing that threat events are taking place in Europe, which may bring on a general war. More than people think or desire, it is undoubted that a day may come when our own interests may compel us to take part in the struggle, if M. Orense imagines that a nation can remain isolated when Europe is engaged in a sanguinary content, he deceives himself; he thinks like ihe man who 'believes he has only to be. peacefully disposed to avoid the chance of being involved in an affair of honour. It is with nations as with individuals, they often cannot aroid fighting, however pacific they may be. Do you know what would bar,, en if we were, to carry out to the extreme this system of isolation? Sooner or later we should be despised by all, and other countries, would make war upon us. When the Government shall deem it fitting, it itill frankly submit this question to the Cortes; until then I shall not say another word upon the subject. But I cannot pass over in silence M. Orense's observations, when speakinij of nations which prove every day their attachment to Spain. France has never, even in the time of Louis Phillipe, proved more religiously than she is*now doing all her sympathies for Spain ; she has always maintained—she now maintains —the strictest vigilanc3 of the Pyrenees. England has lately offered us ships for transporting our troops to Africa. All hough we do not require them, we ought not the less on that account to express all our gratitude for the offers and services of friendly nations whom M. Orense never fails to attack whenever he can find an opportunity. In his opinion, the government ought to take a very liberal course. I flatter myself that I am very liberal, though not exactly in the same way as M. Oxense. I signed the programme for Manzannres and lhat at a time when many soi ditant. liberals returned to their homes and looked out for the Messiah. But I will tell M. Orense that the path he is treading in I shall not not follow, because if I did I should be afraid of stumbling down a precipice ii,to anarchy, and at last into despotism, which I detest quite as much as Ido anarchy."

The Times has a short letter from its correspondent in the camp, dated Dec. 11. The only novelty is the news of tho small affair between the French anil Russians at Bajjn (already reported by telegraph). The correspondent jjives the following account of the affair:—As the French have retired in the presence of winter the enemy has thrown forward their advanced posts at Kolnltiz and Marknl to the north-east, and from Aitodor and Ozemhasli to the north of Baidar. Sunday morning was dark and drizzly, and the previous nijrM h-.id been wet and stormy. The Russians with their usual feline aptitude for surprises, crept round the little village of Baira in the dark, and just at the dawn rushed in upon ihe small party of French which occupied it. Fora time the surprise was complete, but ;,our gallant Allies soon s;ot tojjeiher, and at the point of (ho bayonet after fa smart fusilade. drove out tho cnemv, who had many horsemen with them. In the pursuit of the Cossacks our allies managed to capture some 40 horses, for the former gentry fled by a road which in old times was pfood enough for a run, but they were astonished, to find themselves slopped by a deep scarp at a pretty spot wlice a wall of rock closed the road at the right-hand side, and a precipice funned the left baud boundary, so they bad nothing for it but to dismount and scramble across, leaving the horses. accoutiement«, and all to their fate. In this affair the French had one officer mortally wounded, seven tricji hilled, and tiiirtcen wounded, and the Russians are said to have h-i't F 7O dead on the ground, and'JO men prisoners in the liands of th« French. [A suli-crpienl report, yives the number of prisoners to lave been ].'>(")."]

M;irs!i;il Polissier iias :wl(Irps««?«l n most flattering If-rtcr ;tccor:ipnTiic<i by a rinjj in hril]i;uits to M. Mi--!"r, in iioVii'iwlcif'jtMwm of ihf: " Miirc'nir Tri/.rivT.h;,; t ., '" ()f.r.C;iit.'il to his Kxi'r-liciicj, by tli.-it di-vpr y<i:rrjr ( ;., m j W , s , r- -J",,,. Alini«:iT of War lias aisn (iircetcd it to be peri'-innc'il by cvh'v rt'^iincnt in iiis servivo, aii'i it has like wi'-t-been or'iurt:«i for the Icvmls ul" the Xalioiuil Gu.'irtis of ihti Seine.