We should have imagined that even though the Sultan had
or- dered the campaign to be continued during the winter, the snow and the ice would have formed an impenetrable barrier between him and his enemy. Not so: the Paris papers of Thursday tell that Varna has. been recaptured after some hard fighting. This rumour comes from many quarters of the Continent ; and although we expect to find the Russians still in great enough force round Varna to make its recapture by the Turks a most doubtful enter- prise, it is not improbable that, in the present temper both of ruler and people, they should make the attempt. In spite of the Russian blockade—if it was then established—a large quantity of corn had been brought in November to Constan- tinople; and that this supply might last the longer, the Greeks and Armenians had been ordered away. The Sultan has also decreed, what only a Turkish sovereign could hope to be obeyed in, that there shall be no monopoly on the part of the opulent; and has ordered the Pachas in Asia to send provisions to the capital by land.
It appears that there is a pacific party in the councils of the Porte ; but the Commander of the Faithful is inexorable in his determination not to treat with the Infidels at present. Towards the close of November, the Russian fleet was at Te- nedos: it was accompanied by a swarm of Greek privateers, -which, it is said, plunder every vessel they meet, after the manner of pirates. Lord Cochrane, if we may trust to the report, was about to do something similar, in his own line ; he was preparing for an expedition against Salonichi, to "impose a heavy contribu- tion on the Jewish inhabitants of that place," who constitute the great bulk of the population. It would seem that the French expedition is in truth about to return borne, or at least that the cavalry is to be dismounted: orders have been issued by the French Government to send away forage for the horses, on the voyage. On the other hand, it ap- pears but too evident, that if the French abandon Greece at present, they will leave that country in a state of the utmost disorder.
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