St. Petersburg to Plerna. By Francis Stanley. (Bentley.)—This is another
of the numerous volumes which are providing material for the historian of the future, materials which it will be no enviable task to sift and set in order. Mr. Stanley went to St. Petersburg, and with a courage worthy of his African namesake interviewed great personages of every kind. Then he left for the seat of war. The most important part of his testimony seems to be his distinct assertion that the Russian corps d'armee were much below their nominal strength. Tho Generals had not the men to carry out the orders that were given to them. It seems, however, rather absurd to charge it as a fault against tho English newspapers which exaggerated the Russian numbers, that they demoralised the Turkish powers of resistance. A General who is worth his salt does not go to newspapers, hostile or friendly, to learn the force which his antagonist is bringing into the field. But then the Turks had no General, Mr. Stanley thinks, of any value. He does not allow oven Osman Pasha to be an exception. Nor were the Russians much better off. The responsibility for the insane attack on Plevna, doomed hopelessly to failure from before, is definitely fixed on the Grand Duke Nicholas and his advisers, especially Levitski. Levitski actually did not visit the lines or recon- noitre the field of action, but remained fifteen miles in the rear. He knew nothing of the forces which were available, and ordered the move- ment of brigades which existed only in his own imagination. Mr. Stanley is rather anti-Russian than pro-Turkish, but he seems, on the whole, an impartial observer, though without, we should say, sound views on the general question. Ho uses very violent language against the Bulgarians, but we prefer the testimony of observers like Mr. Barkley and Lord Strangford, speaking as they do, from the knowledge, not of weeks, but of years.
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