EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 198, 23 September 1854, Page 3

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

SILISTRIA.

Bucharest, May 28.—Silistria was stormed from the north-eastern, southern, and western sides. The Russian loss was enormous. On the 291h May, a new attack upon Silistria was victoriously repulsed by the garrison. The Wanderer informs us, in its letter from Bucharest of the 24th, that no Turkish messenger of any kind had arrived in the Russian camp before Silistria to treat for a capitulation; that this is quite certain, the other story being a mere Russian fabrication. There is also a very interesting letter from Kalarash, of the 21st. It is said that Prince Paskiewitch has now found it hopeless attempting to take Silistria by storm, unless he is willing to sacrifice at least 20,000 or 25,000 men in the attempt. Although the walls of Silistria are not high, still the interval between the ring or double encircling walls is filled with soil, earth, and in a range and to an extent about equal to three of the bastions of Vienna; then there come deep trenches, filled from the ample volume of the Danube, which is only 200 or 300 paces distant from the walls. Hence it is found impossible to assail Silistria from any but the southeastern side, and far below the town. But even this is commanded again by the new citadel, which has been the object of the uninterrupted labour of seven years. The " number of Russian forces (.stationed between Kalarash and Oltenitza could not," the writer added, "be put at less than 100,000 men," and that without the slightest exaggeration. THE DANUBE. A letter from Belgrade, 31st ult., says "A fresh corps d'armee, is about to enter Moldivia ; the effective strength of the Russian forces on the Danube will be thus carried up to 250,000 men. It is thought that the Russian Government will at length accede to a demand made several years ago by the commerce of Ismail to put the Kilia mouth of the river at the disposal of the commerce of the Danube, and the Russian consul at Galalz recommends all the captains of vessels who apply to him for certificates to take that mouth instead of the Snlina. The Danube Steam Navigation Company has sold off all its stores, and even its coal, which is a proof that the navigation of the Lower Danube is considered as likely to be interrupted fora long time. An embargo has been laid on an English vessel, the Hunter, Captain Raind, now at Galatz, and the captain and crew have been removed to Ibrail. It is said that several Turkish subjects, placed under English protection, who were at Ibrail, and other places where they had long been established, have been expelled. GREECE. Athens, May 28. Mavrocardato is expected. Athens remains tranquil. The population is opposed to Russia. The monks of Mount Athos have repulsed the insurgents. The accounts show that King Otho has eaten " humble pie " most extensively. He received the envoys from England and France on the 26th May, and spoke to them as follows:— " I declare that I will faithfully observe a strict neutrality towards Turkey; that I will, without delay, take all the necessary measures to effect it; and that for this object I will call to my counsel new ministers who, by their character and their intelligence, are the best calculated to carry this engagement of mine into execution." Mr- the senior minister, replied :— Sire, we shall hasten to report to our governments the words which your Majesty has just addressed to us, and we doubt not that by giving your support to the new councillors whom your Majesty has deigned to call to your aid, we shall no longer have to transmit to our courts any information but what will be very satisfactory as regards Greece. x AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA. The Emperor of Austria aud the King of Prussia would meet yesterday at Chemnitz or Tetschen, on the Bohemian frontier. Counts Buol Schauenstein andjAlvensleben from Vienna, and Count Thun, ambassador from Berlin,have been suddenly summoned by telegraph to attend this unexpected conference. Baron Mantenffel accompanies the King, Count Arnin has been also summoned, but illness prevents him from attending. The object of this meeting is totally unknown, but it is supposed to have some relation to Russian proposals.

« yevef ci in» this meeting a Paris letter says : As the King of Prussia is knowa to have expressed a decided reluctance to engage i n hostile demonstrations against the Emperor of itussia, many persons here think that he has proposed a conference with the view of making important modifications in the Austro-Prussian treaty. If this were the case, however, M. de Manteuffel is not the man whom he would have taken with him, for it was under the advice of that minister that he agreed to the treaty." RUSSIA. A letter from the Gulf of Finland gives some details relative to the late visit of the Emperor of Russia to Oronstadt, in company with the grand duke Constantine. After having passed in review the 12,000 men of the Imperial Guard sent to reinforce the garrison, the Emperor ordered a re presentation of a defence on the part of the forts Constantine, Alexander, Peter I, and Cronstadt, which command the entrance of the pass. They fired for an hour, but did not, it appears, give much satisfaction to the grand duke Constantine who is considered a good judge in such matters. The Emperor afterwards visited three screw steamers, the Czar, the Constantine, and the Vihorg, which are now being terminated, but whose machinery, ordered in England, is still wanting. He then went to see a new apparatus for obstructing the passage into the port, and which was invented by an American engineer, consisting of a square wooden framework, filled with enormous stones, and presenting sharp stakes sticking out and coming nearly to the level of the water. It is said that the immersion of these machines is a difficult matter, and they do not answer. The Emperor seemed out of spirits during his visit to Cronstadt. That circumstance did not tend to remove the disquietude of the population; and the next day great terror was excited by the fact of the general and colonel charged with the direction of the artillery, as well as the colonel of engineers, being seni off to Caucasus to serve in the army in their grades, but at the T)ottom of the list for each. Every person has been forbidden to quit Cronstadt, for fear of augmenting the public disquietude. " Yesterday morning," says the St. Petersburg correspondent of the Vienna Presse, writing on the 21st ultimo, "there appeared an order of the Ministers of Police, prescribing what the inhabitants of St. Petersburg are to do in the event of a siege, or rather a i blockade of that city. If Cronstadt should fall into the power of the allied fleets, women, children, and old men, are immediately to leave the capital. The troops are to be removed from the houses, the streets are to be unpaved, and the bells of the holy churches and the images of the saints are to. be removed to Moscow. Notwithstanding all these precautions, the oider expresses the assurance that the enemy's fleet will perish on the rocks, and under the cannon of Cronstadt. All measures necessitated by a long and energetic war are being taken here. Both sides of the mouth of the Neva are being protected by strong defensive works." The want of recruits to supply the appalling losses of the army is making itself felt in Russia. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Cologne Gazette, writes on the 23rd ultimo, that the Director of the Domains has presented to the Emperor a report, from which it results that the recruiting ordered among the peasants of the Crown in the eastern part of the Empire, cannot be carried into effect, if the measure is only confined to the men belonging to the class prescribed by the law. The Emperor has in consequence ordered that the number of men wanted to make up the deficiency shall be taken by lot from the class of men of from 25 to 30 years of age. By order of general Rudiger,who commands in Russian Poland,- fanners, gamekeepers, and others who by special permission, have been allowed to possess firearms, are to deliver them forthwith to the local authorities. Possession j of firearms; will henceforth be permitted solely j to the military and civil officers of the Empire, j