Perhaps nothing indicates more clearly the highly magnify- ing character
of the medium through which all rumours of Russian intrigue in the East have been regarded in this country, even by official eyes, than Lord Derby's statement, in the debate of Tuesday week, that "the Servian army was almost entirely composed of Russian volunteers." Gene- ral Tchernaieff, writing to the Times of yesterday week, declares that he is in a position to prove that while the army of the Morava, under his command, numbered 28,000 at the time of the battle of Djunis, not more than 2,452 of these were Russian volunteers ; while there were never in the whole theatre of war more than 3,000 Russian volunteers, officers and sol- diers all included. We believe that those who take any pains to verify the figures accurately, confirm General Tchernaieff's estimate. But prejudice and fear resemble those mountain mists on which the rising sun is sometimes seen to project such gigantic shadows of human attitudes and gestures.
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