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I think it very possible that without the intervention of the Prussian Minister, who was known to be acquainted with the feelings of the Emperor, General Diebitch would not have agreed to an armistice. The armistice seems to have been made on August 29. We know of it from Seymour at Berlin. Polignac seems excellently well disposed. He would act cordially with us if he dared.
The Grand Vizier's answer to Diebitch is excellent. The sickness amongst the Russian troops continues, and Diebitch has not more than 40,000 men, even with Roth's corps. The Ambassadors have been very well received at Constantinople. All are in good humour there, notwithstanding the losses near Shumla. The Emperor does not go to the army.
Upon the whole, I think the aspect of Eastern affairs is better than it has been since we have been a Government. Diebitch is said to have 35,000 men, and a reserve of 40,000. I doubt the reserve being so strong. The 15,000 from Sebastopol have joined. Paskewitz is made Grand Cross of St. George. Diebitch will be so, of course. The King, Peel said, is very blind. He has lost the sight of one eye.
On the first point I still think I was right. He mentions some ideas of Russia ordering Diebitch across the Balkan, and even the Danube, of her giving up the Principalities, &c. In short he says all we know is that there is a peace we do not know what it is and it would be ridiculous to remonstrate against we know not what.
Silistria has undergone three resolute sieges during the century; it succumbed but once, and then to Diebitch. Pressing south immediately, he worsted the Turkish Grand Vizier in the fierce battle of Kuleutscha and then by diverse routes hurried down into the great Roumelian valley.
I burned a mosque in defiance of the orders of Marshal Diebitch; the consequence was that I was tried by a court-martial, and condemned to be shot: but on putting in a petition, and stating that I had done so through ignorance, and in accomplishment of a vow of vengeance, my father and brother having been killed by the Turks in the war of liberation, seven of our houses having been burned at the same time, Marshal Diebitch on reading the petition pardoned me."
However, the army seems to have suffered severely. They acknowledge the loss of 130,000 men in the two campaigns. Diebitch has partly evacuated Adrianople, leaving there, however, 6,000 sick and a battalion. The plague spreads in the Principalities, and they do not know how to get the troops out of Turkey. Zuylen de Neyvelt and others give a very bad account of the state of Constantinople.
His master was prepared promptly to reinforce him; Constantinople was perhaps nearer its fall in 1828 than in 1878, and certainly Diebitch was much smarter than were the Grand Duke Nicholas, his fossil Nepokoitschitsky, and his pure theorist Levitsky. The contrast between the character of our own contemporary military operations and that of those of the smooth-bore era is very strongly marked.
The Sultan has but 4,000 troops, and it is said the appearance of 10,000 Russians would lead to the capture of Constantinople. Diebitch seems to dread the catastrophe which might ensue, and the ambassadors have placed before him in strong terms the fatal consequences of an explosion at Constantinople. I must say R. Gordon has done ably and well.
England, France, Austria looked on silent at the work of Diebitch and Paskievitch, "my two mastiffs," as the Czar styled them, and the true "finis Poloniae" had come. A Russian Army marching against Kossuth, and the Czar's demand for the extradition of the heroic Magyar, unmasked the despot.
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