Hysw7s are tending rapidly to justify Lord Derby's remark, that the time when intervention in the Hast might be opportune was probably not far wistant. Hverything tended to show that decisive fighting must take place shortly between the opposing forces in Bul-gona; and the battle now going on at Plevna is probably the first of a series which will shortly decide the present campaign. If the Russians can subdue Osman Pasha, the road to Sophia and the whole eastern portion of Bulgaria will be open to them. Hence the importance of the position, and the repeated efforts that have been made to carry it. How completely the first attack was foiled, we have seen from papers brought by the Inst mail. The Russian right wing, which formed the army of attack, was so badly defeated that Roumanians had to be asked to gar-risen Nikopolis while it was being strengthened and reorganised. Now, after five weeks preparation, the Russians have again advanced to the attack, under circumstances which justify us in assuming that they are bringing to bear the whole force they can make available, or at any rate such a force as their generals calculated should make success a certainty, if success is to be achieved. The attack was preceded by six days' bombardment of the Turkish positions; and on the 11th September a general assanlt- was made which resulted in the Russians taking four redoubts, at a cost of three generals and 5,000 men wounded and an unknown number of killed. The gain was not great after so mucit preparation, and proves the desperate resistance that was encountered. But even this measure of success has been since reversed. A telegram from London of the 16th September says the Turks have succeeded in recapturing three of the four redoubts, and that the loss on the Russian side during the fighting was "enormous." So far, then, one redoubt is the measure of the impression they have been able to make on the Turkish positions; and, in spite of this prize, the balance of advantage seems rather' to rest with the side which has so far heldvits own, with this exception, against the exhausting efforts of the assailants. Besides, the garrison does not appear to be left unsupported. A telegram of the same date as that announcing the recovery of the redouble, says that Suleiman Pasha has silenced the Russian batteries on what we assume to be the Troyan road. This is a rond leading due south from Plevna to the Balkans, and the inference we draw is that Suleiman Pasha is operating from this direction against the besieging force.
Wo said at the outset that the action promised to rank as a decisive one.
the Russians succeed in taking Plevna, Osman Pasha's army will probably be crushingly defeated in the action, and the road to Sophia thrown open to the invader. But if this now, and we must assume exhaustive, effort of the Russians be defeated, he will be able to join in the forward movement with Mehemet and Suleiman Pashas, and the positions of the Russians south of the Danube will be dangerously threatened. The Russian left wing has, in fact, so far been even more unfortunate than the right. The latter has failed to take Plovna; but the former was encountered and defeated at Eskijuma, in ita attempted advance on Shumla; and has apparently been followed and again twice defeated, at Karahasankioy and Katzelevo, on its retreat. The siege of Rustchuk has been raised, and the line of the Lom freed from the invader. And Mebemet Ah, according to the latest advices, was preparing to attack the Russian positions on the Jantra, which was the lino of their first advance. Much, very much, therefore, we repeat, must depend on the result of the fighting now going anat Plevna. Tf the Tarkish left wing is defeated there, Mehemet Ah will probably be compelled to halt in his advance; while if the Russians are finally repulsed, they probably will find themselves driven back in turn on Nikopolis and Sistova, and their invasion as completely foiled for the time, as the similar movement in Armenia, to which the course of the present campaign seems to offer a striking resem-Blanco.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.