front, sallied boldly out with half his remaining garrison against the rifle-pits; to his right, Captain Teesdale (aide-de-camp of General Williams), at the head of a small detachment, charged out of Yuksek Tabia; and four guns which I had caused to be placed a little to the left of Yarim Ai, were directed first against the retiring enemy, &c." General Kmety tells us nothing of the heavy gun worked so admirably by Mr. Churchill, by the special order of General Williams, although this gun played with deadly effect on a battery of Russian artillery, which had turned the left flank of Tachmas, and was firing on the reserves pushed forward by General Williams against the enemy's infantry, which had also turned the left flank of that position, and was marching to renew the assault on Inglez Tabias. General Kmety only mentions this gallant young Englishman, as "Mr. Churchill, a gentleman who doubtless rendered you [General Williams] important service in the functions of secretary;" but though the merits and services of our gallant countryman were overlooked by his companion in arms, to whom he afforded such signal assistance, they wrung a compliment from a generous enemy; and Colonel Lesaget, who commanded the Russian battery, pointed out Churchill to his brother officers as the man who had, by his accurate fire, so cut up and disabled his men and horses, that he was obliged to withdraw. And, if General Kmety is chary of awarding praise for military service on this occasion, he might have judiciously paid a tribute to the firmness, judgment, diligence, and administrative talent evinced by Mr. Churchill in the distribution of the scanty provisions of the garrison, by which he and all the army were so greatly benefited, and which earned for Mr. Churchill the high praise of General Williams and the warm approbation of the British government.

The pamphlet devotes a couple of pages to the attack on the Inglez batteries, thus making it appear a very minor affair, although, as to the numbers engaged, the intrepidity of the assailants, and the resolution of the defenders, it at least claims rank with the attack on Rennisson's lines, where General Kmety himself was engaged. But the chief actors in this glorious conflict were English officers, not Hungarians or Poles; and the gallant Colonel Lake and the valiant Thompson are barely mentioned by their ancient comrade. The desperate character of this struggle, however, was amply attested by the loss of the Russians, who fell back over heaps of their dead.

General Williams, from his central position, directed the whole battle. He might not have been observed by General Kmety, whom we may believe to have been too much engaged to be looking idly about him; but he was seen by General Mouravieff, who afterwards expressed admiration of his conduct; and General Kmety, though not acknowledging his presence, continually received his orders. These were transmitted to the scene of action through Feyzy Pasha, (Colman), chief of his staff, and occasionally communicated direct to General Kmety, when they were afterwards reported to Feyzy Pasha by Mr. Churchill. General Williams also dispatched battalion after battalion to reinforce the defenders, at every point where they were most endangered; and we learn from the pamphlet itself that it was U. S. MAG., No. 338, JAN., 1857.

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these succours that held the ground and gained the victory, by enabling the brave defenders of Tachmas to surmount the last efforts of the enemy, and also by expelling the Russians from the English lines, in failure of which Tachmas would have been defended in vain. Nay, the defences themselves were constructed, and the position occupied, by order of General Williams, who, as we have shown, charged his present adversary with their defence; and in the despatch announcing the victory, and in which he notices every one but himself, made the following handsome mention of him to the British government :—

"The entrenchments of Tahmasb, being those nearest the enemy's camp, demanded the greatest vigilance from all intrusted in their defence. General Kmety, a gallant Hungarian officer, commanded the division which occupied this eminence; he was assisted by Major-General Hussein Pasha, and my Aide-de-camp Major Teesdale, who has acted as Chief of the Staff.

"The central column precipitated itself on the redoubts of Tahmasb and Yuksek Tabias, where desperate fighting occurred and lasted for several hours, the enemy being repulsed in all his attempts to enter the closed redoubts, which mutually flanked each other with their artillery and musketry, and made terrible havoc in the ranks of the assailants; and it was here that Generals Kmety and Hussein Pasha, together with Major Teesdale, so conspicuously displayed their courage and conduct. Lieutenant-General Kerim Pasha also repaired to the scene of desperate strife to encourage the troops, and was wounded in the shoulder, and had two horses killed under him.".

As the moment arrived when all hope of holding Kars must be relinquished, and it became necessary to treat for terms, General Kmety chose rather to seek safety in flight than trust himself to the mercy of the Russians. General Williams afforded him the means of carrying out his design, and after a hazardous journey, he succeeded in reaching Erzeroum. He was then fresh from the besieged city; his mind had not yet been stirred up against his friend and commander; and he gave the following account of the state of affairs to Mr. Brant, the British Consul at Erzeroum, reported in a letter from the Consul to Lord Clarendon, at page 334 of the blue-book:

"Erzeroom, November 28, 1855. "I had the honour yesterday evening to address your lordship a few hasty lines, to inform you that Kars had offered to capitulate.

"General Kmety had then just arrived from thence, having, with General Kolman, escaped the Russian patrols. He was charged by Brigadier-General Sir William Williams to communicate to me the fall of Kars, and the sad events which preceded it. Late on the 22nd a foot messenger reached him with a packet from me. This was the first he had received since that which conveyed the news of the fall of Sebastopol, several weeks before. The general kept its contents secret for twenty-four hours. He then called in from his out-stations General Kmety, and told him how little hope my communication held out of assistance from Selim Pasha; and seeing that famine, which had already filled the hospitals with sick, was beginning to produce a serious mortality among the troops-about eighty having died that day-and their bread being reduced to a few days, he declared he could see no possibility of holding out any longer, and he proposed next morning assembling the Pashas, to consider their position. Early on the morning of the 24th all the Pashas assembled, and their actual situation, with their prospects, was clearly laid before them by the General, who asked them whether a prolonged defence was possible, or whether the troops

could or would attempt a retreat. Both questions were answered in the negative by every Pasha declaring the men, with few exceptions, were not in a physical or moral condition to march or fight. The General then proposed that he should request an interview of General Mouravieff for the next day, to treat for terms, which being thankfully acceded to, at about half-past two P.M. of the 24th, Major Teesdale was dispatched with the message to the Russian camp.

"When the decision to retreat was adopted, Generals Kmety and Kolman requested General Williams to accept their resignation, and to allow them to make their way through the Russian patrols. They had been condemned to death by the Austrian Government, for the part they had taken in the Hungarian War of Independence, and they expected that, if made prisoners, they should be delivered up by the Russians to their government, and their fate would be in such case certain. General Williams promised to do all in his power to make special conditions for them, but as their swords had now become useless, they entreated permission to retire, to which the General consented, after thanking them in the warmest and most feeling terms for their gallantry and good service.

"Major Teesdale had not returned by nightfall from the Russian camp, and Generals Kmety and Kolman, wishing to profit of an hour of darkness before the rising of the moon, to glide by the Russian patrols unmolested, took their leave of their companions in arms, and accompanied by five brave and trusty Koords, hired as an escort, quitted the famine-stricken city. The party, by their knowledge of the modes of challenging the Russian patrols, passed close by two unmolested, but a third recognised them, and they were obliged to disperse over the hills, and met again twenty-four hours afterwards at a place of rendezvous fixed on, and from thence they came hither without further rencontre, after riding uninterruptedly for three days and nights. General Kmety says that the position of the garrison and city was such that any conditions, however hard, must be accepted. Human nature could neither resist longer nor endure more. Scarcely 1,000 men of the whole garrison were in a state to use their weapons, and not many more could have sustained a march pursued by an enemy. Had a retreat been attempted very few would have survived it; those who escaped the arms of the enemy would have died of exhaustion. The women crowded round the General's house with their starving children crying for food, and, throwing down their little ones at his gate, would not depart but with food. Himself, whom it had been their delight to salute and recognise as he passed, they no longer noticed kindly, but hurried by with an ominous half-averted scowl; the same look was perceived in the soldiers; and how much must this have lacerated a breast which always overflowed with tenderness towards suffering humanity.

"Lieutenant-Colonel Lake was suffering from gout, brought on by night patrolling and fatigue in the trenches; Mr. Zohrab was laid up with typhus, but was recovering; the other officers were well. Nothing is yet known as to the conditions of the surrender; probably a few days will inform us.

"General Kmety says that Sir William Williams had received the infor mation of the honour conferred on him by her Majesty, and that when he congratulated him, Sir William thanked him in a few words and with a faint smile; his mind was then overwhelmed by painful feelings, and occupied by the impending calamity, and he could scarce feel pleasure even at the honour received."

Such is the report made by General Kmety, two months after the attack on Tachmas, of the state of the garrison of Kars, of the unremitted exertions of General Williams, and of the unanimous approval of

that officer's proceedings by all the Pashas, including himself. What a picture is presented to us in the last paragraph, describing the demeanour of the English general in this hour of trial, when even the honours and approbation of his Sovereign failed to reconcile him to the event! But at this time General Kmety had not basked in the smiles of a certain saloon at Constantinople; and he would have been the last to plunge a knife-we can use no other word-in that breast"which always overflowed with tenderness towards suffering humanity.”

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General Kmety has displayed a remarkable want of candour, if not of accuracy, in his closing statement, in which he contends that the success of Tachmas ought to have been followed up by an attack on the Russian detached camp at Ainalli. His words areThe Turkish army, profiting by the enthusiasm which prevailed, and taking advantage of the inequalities of the ground and the darkness which reigned during the early part of the night before the rising of the moon, should have undertaken an attack on the night after the victory by several light moveable columns, directed from different sides upon Ainalli, to surprise the enemy's troops, which, some 3,000 or 4,000 strong, after having been beaten back from the Ingliz Tabias, had retired to that village, and were there encamped. This camp was distant more than four hours' march from the main camp at the enemy's head-quarters near Tchivilli Kaya, whereas it was only one hour and a-half distant from us. The enemy's troops écheloned between these two camps had been withdrawn, immediately after the battle, to his head-quarter camp. No support, therefore, could have come to Ainalli for four hours. The want of horses for our artillery is no excuse; for by night, and on broken ground, we required no guns, and we had three battalions of rifles. The usual order and discipline could not have reigned in the enemy's camp after so bloody a day, on which so many of his superior officers had fallen, and encumbered, as it must have been, with wounded." Why was this not done?

Can General Kmety be in earnest in making this statement? If so, we should be sorry that the Turkish government, while it is in alliance with England, should place him in a responsible command; for such an operation as that he mentions could only have led to disgrace and ruin. The camp at Ainalli, instead of being the accessible place he would have us believe, occupied a formidable, elevated, and precipitous position; and the very first shot which announced to the Russian General that the Turks were beyond their intrenchments would have brought down upon them the whole of his army, backed by his magnificent artillery, as yet untouched, and supported by 9,000 splendid cavalry, to which General Williams could only have opposed a single squadron of half-starved horse. Moreover, the Turkish troops, instead of being in the high condition he represents, were completely used up; and for some time after the battle, were incessantly occupied through the day in labouring on the intrenchments, and were kept to their arms through the night. But supposing that General Williams had engaged in such a reckless operation, and even supposing, against all probability and reason, that the effort, after fearful loss, had been crowned with a momentary success, can there be any doubt that Gene

ral Mouravieff would on the following day have re-established himself in the position, and resumed the blockade? How, then, can General Kmety say that an assault on Ainalli would have been "utilizing" the success of Tachmas, when, granting that it could have succeeded, it would have led to no purpose whatever?

We are ashamed that this pamphlet has been put forward by a soldier, who, though a foreigner, has fought in connection with our flag; but General Williams, far from having anything to regret, may thank General Kmety for an incident which has again brought his conduct and services before his countrymen. These make us aware that he possesses, and has signally and memorably displayed, the first qualities of a commander, proving that we have still in our ranks worthy successors of Wolfe, Moore, and Napier, men meet to tread in the steps of Wellington. The day may not be distant when we shall again hear the alarm of war; and when our army calls for a commander in the field, we venture to predict, in spite of the machinations of envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, that the finger of the British nation will point directly at Sir William Williams of Kars.

EDITOR.

AT the beginning of each month many of the retail booksellers adorn their windows with pamphlety-looking little volumes, decorated with red covers, and bearing, in very prominent print, the words "War Department," "By Authority," "Army List." To the uninitiated, or Dickens's military gent., these present a most important appearance— an appearance, indeed, so grand, that we would wish that even the shadow of it might rest on those who are obliged from time to time to open their pages, for, in a country with a free constitution and a free press, we are not in the habit of witnessing much published by authority. Once in a man's life a gazette comes out supposed to have been penned, and printed, and issued by the Prime Minister himself, making an impression which only a publication by authority can make. Indeed, authority is a very important subject. The Houses of Parlia ment, the privy council, the ministry, her Majesty herself, are all included in that ominous word. It was, therefore, with much diffidence and respect that we purchased one of these blushing little works, in the hopes of enlightening ourselves, with some degree of satisfaction, as to the arrangements and nature of our army. The cover was full of information, We could indeed have asked for nothing more, but we were rather puzzled how those very exemplary publishers, John W. Parker and Sons, came to be connected with the printing of our army list. Nothing can be more opposite to the usual nature of the works published by that firm. It has nothing in common with the ordinary style of Oxford reading. It is perhaps, however, on account of the honour these gentlemen had conferred on it, that I was requested to