The formation of a special Ministry of War having now been 
determined upon, the great question of the moment is to know 
who may be selected to fill that office. The Duke of Newcastle, 
who has hitherto combined both the functions of Colonial and 
War Secretary, has long shown a great disinclination to relinquish 
either of his two posts, and seems disposed, if we may judge from 
the tone of The Morning Chronicle,* to stick at all events to the 
Administration of the War Department. The Times of to-day 
recommends for the third time the appointment of Lord 
Palmerston. 

“Lord Palmerston would certainly seem more in his place as Minister of War, 
directing the forces of this country against what we may call his old enemy, Russia, 
than engaged in a series of squabbles with parochial vestries and sewers 
commissions.” 

The Daily News likewise recommends Lord Palmerston. Yester- 
day’s Morning Herald brought a denunciation of this intrigue from 
the pen of Mr. Urquhart. At all instances, these movements in 
Downing-st. are of greater importance for the “war” than all the 
military demonstrations at Gallipoli or Scutari. 

Perhaps you will remember that great expectations were held 
out to the public of immediate and energetic measures as soon as 
the commanders of the expeditionary forces should have arrived 
at Constantinople. On the 18th May, Marshal St. Arnaud, Lord 

* The Morning Chronicle, No. 27282, June 2, 1854, leader.— Ed. 
> The Times, No. 21757, June 2, 1854, leader.— Ed. 

Raglan and the Turkish Sereskier* proceeded to Varna where a. 
council of war was to take place with Omer Pasha and the 
Admirals” on the 20th. Yesterday a telegraphic dispatch arrived in 
London stating that 

“at the military council, held at Varna, it was decided that the allied troops 
should proceed from Gallipoli to Adrianople.” * 

Simultaneously The Times published a leading article in which 
the whole plan of the campaign as settled on at the Varna 
conference was revealed. 

“This conference,” says The Times, “must have taken place at the very time 
when the Russians, under Prince Paskievich, were directing their fiercest attacks 
against the fortress of Silistria, and consequently the principal officers of the allied 
army were in the best position to decide on the measures which might be taken for 
the relief of that place.” 

And _ consequently they ordered their forces to come up from 
Gallipoli to Adrianople—for the relief of Silistria; and consequently 
they arrived at the following heroic determination: 

“That it is not expedient to expose the Turkish army to the risk of a general 
action for the sake of repelling the attack of the Russians on the fortresses which 
cover the right bank of the Danube: ... nor to throw any considerable portion of 
the allied armies on the coast, so as to come into immediate collision with the 
present advanced posts of the Russians.” 

In other words, the allied. generals have resolved not to oppose 
anything to the exertions of the Russians to carry the fortresses on 
the right bank of the Danube. The Times confesses that this plan 
of operations 

“may disappoint the natural impatience of the public;” 

but, on the other hand, it discovers that 

“these fortified places are in reality the outworks of the Turkish position, and 
do not constitute its principal strength.” 

Formerly we were told that Moldavia and Wallachia were the 
outworks of Turkey, and that the latter could not be a great loser by 
surrendering them to Russian. occupation. Now we learn that 
Turkey may, with the same tranquility, abandon Bulgaria to the 
Russians. 

¢ The Times, No. 21756, June 1, 1854, leader.— Ed. 

“The Balkans is the real bulwark of the Ottoman Empire, and it can profit the 
Russians nothing to carry the outer line of circumvallation with heavy loss, if fresh 
obstacles of incalculably greater magnitude rise up before them as they proceed. 
The further they advance within this region north of the Balkans, the worse their 
position becomes.... The invading army exhausts its strength against the fortified 
places on the river and the scattered detachments of the enemy; but in the 
meantime the forces in defense of the main position remain comparatively fresh 
and unbroken.” 

There is no doubt that if the beef-eating allies* can only avoid 
encountering an enemy their forces will remain very fresh. But 
how will it be if the Russians do not further advance within the 
region north of the Balkans, contenting themselves with the 
possession of the fortresses, the keys of Bulgaria, and with the 
Principalities? How will their evacuation be effected? 

‘Behind the lines of the Balkans a European army is preparing to advance, at the 
proper time, with irresistible force, and the concluding months of the campaign 
ought to effect the annihilation of the enemy.” 

This irresistible advance will, of course, be greatly facilitated by 
the Russian possession of the Danube fortresses, and what may not 
be achieved by the allied armies, the season will have no difficulty 
to finish. 

The Moniteur, it is true, announces that Omer Pasha was 
preparing to come to the relief of Silistria; and The Morning 
Chronicle finds fault with the above article of The Times, observing: 

“The author of this project probably hopes that Austrian diplomacy may 
induce, in the meanwhile, the Czar to withdraw his troops, with the. satisfaction of 
having obtained uninterrupted and unresisted success; and on the other hand, it 1s, 
perhaps, imagined that, in the alternative of an advance on the Balkans, the remote 
contingency contemplated in the Austro-Prussian treaty would at once come into 
operation.” © 

The news of the Moniteur, however, is notoriously so arranged 
as to keep the Parisians in good humor; and the manner in which 
The Chronicle comments on the plan of The Times only increases 
the probability that it is the plan of the coalition. Other sources of 
information further confirm this assumption. The Constantinople 
correspondent of The Chronicle, under date of 18th May, observes: 

“A campaign will scarcely be undertaken on the Danube in, midsummer, as 
more men would be lost by fever and disease than otherwise.” 

Report from Belgrade of May 29, 1854. Le Moniteur universel, No. 151, May 
“ The Morning Chronicle, No. 27282, June 2, 1854, leader.— Ed. 
Ibid., No. 27281, June 1, 1854.— Ed. 

Besides, the ministerial Globe of last evening publishes an article 
conceived entirely in the same spirit as that of The Times. It tells 
us, firstly, that there are at this moment “only” 45,000 allied 
troops in Turkey—29,000 French and 16,000 English, the same 
Globe stating, in another column, that the Russians have only 
90,000 men before and around Silistria, and that the regular 
Turkish army in the field amounts to 104,000 men. But this 
aggregate of nearly 150,000 Turkish, French and English troops is 
not deemed sufficient by The Globe to prevent 90,000 Russians 
from taking the Bulgarian fortresses, not to mention the 
cooperation which might be given by three powerful fleets. The 
Globe thinks it sheer superfluity that either Turks or allies should 
fight against the Russians, as “time is fighting against them.” In 
revealing the plan of campaign concocted by the allied command- 
ers, The Globe even goes a step further than The Times, for it 
says: 

“Whatever becomes of the fortresses on the Danube, adequate force must be 
brought up to render hopeless the invader’s further progress, and punish his 
audacious advance.” 

Here we have the clear proof that the Austro-Prussian treaty has 
been acceded to in the last Vienna Protocol, by England and 
France. The fortresses on the Danube and Bulgaria are to be 
given up to Russia, and a case of war will only be constituted by 
her further advance. 

When the 15,000 Russians who first invaded Moldavia crossed 
the Pruth, Turkey was advised not to stir, as she would be unable 
to prevent such a formidable force of 15,000 men from occupying 
Wallachia also. The Russians then occupied Wallachia. When war 
had been declared by the Porte no operations could be under- 
taken against the Russians because it was winter. On the arrival of 
spring, Omer Pasha received orders to abstain from any offensive 
movement, because the allied forces had not arrived. When they 
arrived nothing could be done because it was now summer, and 
summer [is] an unwholesome season. Let autumn arrive, and it 
will be “too Jate to open a campaign”. This proceeding The Times 
calls 4 combination in strategies with tactics, the essence of tactics, 
in its opinion, being the sacrifice of the army in order to keep 
“fresh” the reserves. Observe also that all the time since this 
juggle has been going on under the very noses and eyes of the 
opposition journals and the British public at large, The Morning 
Advertiser rivals with The Times in expressions of angry denuncia- 
tion against Prussia, against Denmark and Sweden, for not 

“joining” the western powers! That the motives which determine 
the tendencies of all the smaller Courts to side with Russia are not 
without a very good foundation, is seen from the tone, for 
instance, of the Danish Government journals. Thus _ the 
Copenhagen correspondent of The Morning Chronicle writes: 

“The threat, by holding out which the Ministerial party manage to keep the 
National party quiet and discouraged, is that England has ever been perfidious 
toward Denmark, and that if the latter now joined with the western powers, 
100,000 Prussians, perhaps with a corps of Austrians, would ravage Jutland down 
to the Eider, and occupy the whole Danish continent.” * 

It might be expected, and certainly was expected, by the 
coalition, that the delicate services—diplomatic, military and 
otherwise—rendered by them to the “good cause” of Russia 
would at least meet with a certain delicate gratitude from the 
Autocrat. So far from this, they receive a great deal of abuse from 
him beyond the understanding, and in excess of the exigencies of 
the case. In illustration of the manner of expressing this sovereign 
contempt of the Russian Court for their sham-adversaries, I will 
give you a translation of a fable lately published by the Nordische 
Biene,” by some anonymous Tyrtaeus of Russia. Its child-like 
simplicity of language and structure must be accounted for as an 
exigency of the semi-barbarian understanding to which the poet 
addresses himself, exactly as the ironical urbanity of criticism to 
which the late Odessa report of Admiral Hamelin has been 
subjected by the St. Petersburg Gazette, is to be explained by the 
circumstance of its being addressed to the diplomatists of Europe.‘ 
The fable is headed: The Eagle, the Bull-Dog, the Cock, and the 
Hare. 

“A royal eagle, great and strong, sat on the summit of a rock, and from his 
lofty seat surveyed the whole world, far behind the Baltic, (Weit hinter Belt die ganze 
Welt); there he sat quietly and contently, satisfied by his modest meal, scorning to 
store up provisions from the valley beneath him, since he commands everything at 
every hour. A bull-dog viewed him with envious mien, and thus he spoke to the 
cock: Be my ally, we will combine, from vengeance thou, myself from envy, and 
put down yonder eagle. So said, so done. They marched on, and taking council on 
the road how they would best subdue the eagle, the cock said: Stop! look at his 
talons, his wings—may God assist him who would try them! More than once heard 
I the curses of my ancestors, lamenting their sad fate when beaten by his wings. 
’Tis true,’ said the bull-dog; but we will devise a plan to catch the eagle. Let’s send 

May 29, 1854.— Ed. 

a hare near him; he will clutch the hare.. Meanwhile do thou turn his attention by 
crowing and jumping, as thou always know’st how to do, affecting to begin a fight 
with him. When thus we shall have diverted his attention and his talons, I will 
attack him in the back, so that he cannot defend himself, and soon he will be torn 
to pieces by my sharp teeth. The scheme pleased the cock, and he took his stand at 
a near post. The bull-dog enters a wood and barks, driving a hare toward the 
eagle, who watches quietly. The hare, stupid and blind, falls quickly into the eagle’s 
clutch. The cock, faithful to his agreement, leaves his post and jumps after the 
hare; but lo! what disgrace! The eagle without stirring from his seat, lifts but his 
wings and, disdaining to take hold of the hare, drives him away with one and with 
the other, just touches the cock, who neither stirs nor crows any more. One knows 
the tendency of hares to fly; behold him run, senseless and unconscious into the 
sea, and there expires. The eagle saw the fat bull-dog at a distance conducting the 
intrigue—for, what escapes the eagle’s eyes? He has discovered the hero concealed 
behind a bush. The eagle spreads his large and sturdy wings, and rises up in 
majesty. The bull-dog barks and flies with hasty leaps. In vain, it is too late. The 
eagle rushes down upon him and plunges his talons into the traitor’s back, and 
there he lies, torn in pieces.” 

In consequence of the favorable harvest prospects, and through 
the absence of speculative buyers, the prices of grain have 
experienced a small decline during the week. A reaction, however, 
is inevitable, because 

“all the evidence which can be brought to bear on the subject tends to lead to 
the belief that the stocks in farmers’ hands, are reduced to a much smaller compass 
than is usual at the corresponding period of the season.”—(Mark Lane Express.) 

The advices from Danzig, Stettin, Rostock, etc., concur in the 
statement that the stocks on hand are very small, that the 
surrounding farmers had little dr nothing more to deliver, and 
that assistance from those quarters could not be expected but at 
very high prices. The deliveries from the grower in France 
appear, also, not to have increased, and the wheat brought 
forward at the markets of the interior is described as scarcely 
sufficient to meet the demand for consumption. 

I have also learned from a private source of information'’™ that 
The Times reports of the state of trade in the manufacturing 
districts around Manchester* are generally misrepresentations, and 
that trade is everywhere in a declining condition except at 
Birmingham. The Manchester Guardian confirms this, and adds that 
the resumption of work by so large a number of operatives on 
strike could not be expected to act otherwise than to depreciate 
prices. 

For the measure announced by Sir J.Graham in last Monday’s 

* The Times, No. 21753, May 29, 1854.— Ed. 

House of Commons,'™ viz: The non-blockade of the port of 
Archangel, The Morning Herald accounts in the following laconic 
paragraph: “There is a house at Archangel which bears the name 
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.’*”’ 

Written on June 2, 1854 Reproduced from the New-York