Crimean texts
The intelligence we now receive from several quarters shows that the suspense which has prevailed for the last fortnight in the military operations of the Allied Powers, and in the political combinations of Europe, is almost at an end, and that the present state of affairs must very speedily be followed by more decisive results. Upon the 2d of June the British Light Division was ready to march, having obtained the animals necessary for the transport of the baggage of the army, and on the following day General BROWN appears to have commenced his advance upon the Danube. The road lies, in the first instance, through Pravady and Shumla — that fortress being situate at the apex of an equilateral triangle formed by the two roads leading to Rustchuk and to Silistria, at a distance of about 60 miles respectively. The Moniteur states positively that from 15,000 to 18,000 men of the Anglo-French army joined the Turkish forces at Rustchuk under OMAR PASHA between the 7th and 8th inst — a fact not inconsistent with what is known of the movements of our troops, for the distance might certainly be performed in four or five days by the cavalry, artillery, and light regiments of the army; and we learn from Vienna that on the 10th 25,000 of the allies were at Rustchuk. The Guards began to march from Varna on the 3d, and reached on the 4th the position at Aladyn, which General BROWN had just quitted. There is reason to believe therefore that by the 12th the whole British division had reached the Danube, but whether the Anglo-French troops have crossed the river is a point on which we wait for further intelligence. Upon ascertaining the retreat of the Russians and the relief of Silistria, OMAR PASHA ordered a general advance, and by the 2d of July he had transported his head-quarters to Rustchuk, and on the following day the Turks made a successful attack on the island of Radoman, lying in the Danube between that place and Giurgevo, and forming one of the outworks of that town. On the 5th and the 7th the action was renewed, and the Russian detachment under General SOIMONOFF (10th division of the 4th corps) was surrounded by the Turks, who had crossed the river both above and below Giurgevo. The Russians cut their way through with considerable difficulty, and General CHRULEFF was severely wounded. Prince GORTSCHAKOFF immediately advanced, with a large force, to Frateschti, a place within six miles of Giurgevo, where he offered battle to OMAR PASHA. According to the latest telegraphic intelligence from Vienna, the Turkish General felt himself strong enough to attack, with 25,000 men, the divisions of General PAULOFF and General SOIMANOFF in this position on the 9th and 10th inst, and completely routed the Russians, who fell back on Bucharest, leaving the road to the capital of Wallachia open to the allied forces. The Turkish army, excited to enthusiasm by its successes, and conscious that it is supported by a formidable division of the best troops in Europe, appears to have pressed onwards with irresistible vehemence, while the Russians, paralyzed and dispirited by the loss of their best generals and of their military prestige, have not even shown their habitual tenacity in holding the positions which they occupied, but fled like troops who have lost all confidence in their leaders and in their cause.
These facts suggest several considerations of great importance. In the first place, it is evident that the alleged retreat of the Russian army from Wallachia is at an end, and that Prince GORTSCHAKOFF occupied till he fought this battle the same position which he held in October last, when the battle of Oltenitza was lost. In fact, the conjecture which we hazarded the other day now turns out to be quite correct. Prince PASKIEWITSCH, acting like a wise politician and a skilful general, no sooner found that he was foiled at Silistria, than he ordered a general retreat, hoping, no doubt, that the evacuation of Wallachia might render it possible to negotiate with Austria, and would at any rate withdraw the Russians from an untenable position. This movement, however, was entirely disapproved at St Petersburg. Orders arrived for Prince GORTSCHAKOFF to reoccupy the country, and, while that general has to meet the advance of the Turkish and allied forces on the Danube, he has also to watch the passes of the Carpathians in his rear, through which at any moment the army of Transylvania may descend into the Wallachian plains. It is an undoubted fact that on re-entering the country the Russians have at once proceeded to break up the roads and throw up fieldworks against these lines of communication with the Austrian dominions. Prince GORTSCHAKOFF has very recently inspected these passes in person, and the Russian officers have reconnoitred the frontier with so much imprudence within sight of the Austrian boundaries that a skirmish is said to have occurred at the Tomosch Pass between the officers if the Russian staff, assisted by a pulk of Cossacks, and the Austrian outpost.
It is characteristic of the Russian Government that while these acts, approaching to the very verge of hostility, are committed under the orders of one Prince GORTSCHAKOFF on the Austrian frontier, another Prince GORTSCHAKOFF has been sent to Vienna to endeavour by the amenity of his manners and the confidence of his assurances to shake the resolutions of the Austrian Government and to prolong the delusion of inactivity and peace. Nothing, it is said, can be more pleasing and urbane than the language of this gentleman. He has taken his lodgings on the Freyung at Vienna for several months; he is ready to exchange all the courtesies of society; and only wonders at the unfortunate circumstances which can have created a prejudice in the minds of Austrian statesmen against the virtuous intentions of their Northern ally. The mission of Count ORLOFF was short and imperious; that of Prince GORTSCHAKOFF is indefinite in its duration and insinuating in its language. He is, in short, to remain at his post as long as the Austrian Government will let him — the SINON of the Russian camp; and he will not throw off the mask until he is taught that all the artifices of the Greek are of no avail.
Although it appeared a short time ago that a momentary check had been given to the intention of Austria to enter the Principalities on the 3d of July, partly by the remonstrances of Prussia, and partly by the arrival of the Russian answer, it is now more clear than ever that the cabinet of Vienna has no choice but to proceed with the military execution of the engagements entered into with the PORTE by the treaty of the 14th of June, unless, indeed, the astonishing vigour and success of the Turks, backed by the Anglo-French army, should already have cleared the province. It may well be that in consequence of the last change in the Russian positions, the entrance of the Austrian forces from Orsova into the plains of Little Wallachia would no longer be the best mode of advance; but the strength of the Austrian position consists in the fact that the army of Transylvania commands the Russian line of operations on its base, and if a successful attack be directed against the Russian position in Moldavia, while the allied armies converge upon Wallachia from the West and from the South, it is scarcely too much to assume that the 3d and 4th corps of the Russian army may be reduced to lay down their arms. OMAR PASHA and the Generals of the allied armies probably know more of the intentions of General HESS than can be ascertained from politicians at Vienna, for it is certain that confidential officers of the Austrian staff have been sent to Shumla to concert operations with the Turkish General, in pursuance of the agreement in the Convention of the 14th of June; and it is impossible that a strategist of the high character of the present Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian forces should not have taken measures to secure those joint and simultaneous operations on which the success of a campaign like the present depends. The military importance of this co-operation is so incalculably great, at this season of the year, and in the present relative positions of the belligerents, that we cannot conceive any motive sufficiently strong to delay that resolution at which the Austrian Government must at last arrive. The advance of the Russians is extremely favourable to the combined operations of the allied armies, and we had nothing to fear so much as their retreat; but this fact ought to be decisive upon every consideration of military science and political necessity, for the moment is come at which a stroke in this great contest may be dealt with undoubted advantage and immediate success.