FREE LANCES In The TURKISH ARMY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 127, 31 May 1877, Page 4

FREE LANCES In The TURKISH ARMY.

The Conatantincple correspondent of a Londcn newspaper writes : — With regard to She preparations which Turkey has made, and is still makiDg for war, a great deal may be said. Let it be remembered that (here are a great number of adventurers who, however various their motives may be, have but one object in view, namely, that of getting some th ing from the Turkish Government. They have quitted their homes for divers reasons, some have left their country for their country's good, others because they havo (ailed to make that favorable impression upon their compatriots which they desire; others because they lack money; aod some because they desire adventure. There are Americans here who have got new kinds of rifles, and Americans who have brought wondrous new guus; Frenchmen, with patents of all sorts; and nondescripts from every quarter of the globe, ready to sell cartridges, fezzv>s, boots, shells, spyglasses, eworda, bulJete, or beds to the Ottoman Government if it would only buy them. Nor is this motley crowd insignificantly reinforced by Englishmen. Captains on half pay and captains on no pay at all; majors, colonels, and gentlemen whose rank is dabiou3/ail join to swell tbe army of

applicants. Tbey hauat the Porte, they follow the Pashas, (hey bother the Secretaries, and tbey worry everybody else. Bat, worst of all, they - > not confine their energies to tb capital alone. They have pens, every man of them, and to them it seems the simplest Jung in the world that they should periodically inform Europe that Turkey is disregarding all disinterested and sound advice; that unless sho alters her orgauisation or her armaments, her disposition of her troops or the color of their uniform, the pattern of her rifles or the character of her gune, she will be inevitably beaten and driven out of Europe. «• If they only had my patent lever lock, whioh I'll back against any European invention ever produced, I'd bet them to lick the Russians most eternally," said one of them to me only two days since; while another, who I believe has a kind of enlarged mitrailleuse, which, he says, will throw eighty shells upon an enemy in one minute, expressed to me his "belief that if his weapon were only accepted the Eastern Question might be successfully solved. He said he told the Pasha so that very morning. And what did his Excellency say ?" was the response. " Ah I" he replied, "all that the Pasha uttered was, • Bakalum ' (we shall see)." If, however, they confined their efforts to the Porte of Constantinople generally, there would be less cause for complaint. As it is, they tell the world day after day the most absurd stories respecting the condition of the Turkish forces in the field, their position and : their numbers, creating a false impression, and doiug a great deal of mischief. Not one of them, so far as I can disoover, after much effort, has been either to Rustchuck, Schumla, JSilistria, Varna, Toolona, Nisch, or Widdin. They have not the vaguest idea of what has taken place at any of these places, or what troops are there. Yet their fear that Turkey will not avail herself of their services or their inventions is so overwhelming that they perpetually exclaim that she is in the direst danger, hoping frantically all the while that she may possibly be induced to think so, and to employ them.