From the East we have the report of the first
action in which our arms have been engaged : Odessa has been bombarded, in retribution of an outrage committed by the Russians in firing on a flag of truce. The bombardment was not so indiscriminate as the early reports describe it to be, but the chastisement fell effec- tually on the aggressors; and after it the joint fleet moved off to- wards Sebastopol. Other reports have not yetproved to have so much of substance in them. A " glorious victory" achieved by Omar Pasha over the Russians between Silistria and Rassova, asserted by the electric telegraph, has been almost refated on previous knowledge of the position of the parties, and conjecture sinks down to the modest supposition that Omar Pasha may have gained some partial success somewhere near the ground of this " decisive " victory.
So again, to the North, instead of the " sudden blow," we have nothing to record this week but a most friendly reception for our Admiral at Stockholm • and the search of our cruisers for single Russian ships apocryphally said to be off our coasts.
Greece continues troublesome ; but we have at present only fur- ther proof of her perfidy in the plausible circular which Paikos,
the Foreign Minister, has issued, to prove how aggressive Turkey has been, and how compliant and faithful Greece. The French and English Ministers, however, by a simple recapitulation of facts, reestablish the truth that it was the Greeks who had attacked and crossed the frontier, not the Turks—showing, in short, that Paikos and his circular lied like the Czar and his declarations. It does not follow that Greece will not continue to be troublesome, or that part of the allied forces will not have to be engaged in keeping down that working ally of Russia ; while the Montenegrins with their insurgent aggressions on Turkey, threaten to draw Austria into the field of active warfare.
And yet the Emperor Francis Joseph conducts his marriage with a magnificence and largesse worthy of an empire at peace and an imperial conscience also at rest.
