The protocol between Bulgaria and Rumania for the rectifi- cation
of the frontier was signed last week at St. Petersburg. Rumania gains a small new tract which contains the important Danubian fortress town of Silistria. Students of the Crimean war will remember that at the opening of the war Silistria was the scene of an extraordinary episode. The defence of the place, then, of course, a Turkish garrison, was organized by a young English civilian named Nasmyth, who took the command owing to the lethargy and incompetence of the Turks. The defence was so successful that the Russians raised the siege in the summer of 1854. It is probable—Kinglake at least was of that opinion—that but for Nasmyth's defence the Tsar would have prosecuted his Danubian campaign, the Allies would not have invaded the Crimea in force, and the war would have followed a wholly different course.
