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MR. URQUHA.RT'S STATEMENTS.
Ark-Bury, near Alresford,20th _August 1853. 5m—You have been so faithfully expounding English duties and English interestdin respect to the Russian invasion of Turkey, that I feel sure you would -not willingly cast a slur on one who is the object of calumny because he devotes his life to the same cause.
In your review of "The Progress of Russia in the West, North, and South,' you hesitate to believe several of Mr. Urquhart's statements. Some of these however apparently extravagant, are confirmed by the evidence of others. 'The author of "The Frontier Lands of the Christian and the Turk" writes as an eye-witness, and describes as strongly as Mr. Urguhart the effi- ciency of the Turkish regulars, and the difference between their diet and that of the Russian troops in the Principalities; who were, he Bays, half-starved. (See pages 340-349, Vol. I.) He also dwells on the differences between the Russian and the Cossack, and the intense hatred which the latter feel towards the former: Ile enters largely into the permanent conspiracy in which Russia is engaged, the number and variety of her instruments, and the base means by which she works out her evil purposes. His account of the exac- tions and difficulties by which Russia oppresses English commerce at the mouths of the Danube would be more incredible than any of Mr. Urqu- hires assertions if unconfirmed by other testimony ; and it gives a painful impression not so much of the insolence of Russia as of the degradation of England. -
If you will admit these few lines in defence of the truthfulness of a friend, you will raise the already high opinion I entertain of the way in which the Spectator is conducted.
- I am, Sir, your obedient servant, F. Meas..
[This letter was mislaid, otherwise we should willingly have given Mr. Irrluirt the benefit of its testimony two weeks earlier.—En.]
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