The campaign in the East is began. On the 13th
of May, General Diebitsch broke up from his encampments, and advanced with his whole army towards Silistria. It appears from the first bulletin, that on the 17th, he was within four miles of that fortress ; but that it took him eleven hours to reach the Turkish entrenchments, which were only two miles from the point of his departure. The bulletin speaks of the Russians having discomfited a Turkish corps of five thousand men, and of having also taken two "strong redoubts advantageously situated," in a "moment." The fortress of Silistria is now invested. Despatches received yesterday from Lord Cowley, our Ambassador at Vienna, mention a prevailing report in that city, that the Turks had defeated the Russians at a place called Czernadova. This is supposed to be the same affair alluded to in a Paris fetter also received yesterday, which mentions that a general battle had been brought on by an attempt to push some cattle into Silistria ; that the garrison had made a vigorous sortie; and that the Russians were defeated with great loss. A German paper states that Varna has been recaptured by the Turks, after a lionible carnage. The Russian army, it is generally agreed, has suffered during the spring from sickness,—the plague and various contagious disorders having made great havoc among them. It is mentioned from Sicily, that Admiral Malcolm had issued orders for all the English vessels of war in the Mediterranean immediately to join the fleet off Syracuse.
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