Literary Cadet And Rhode Island Statesman

CONSTANTINOPLE.—The siege of this city is an event that may shortly be expected; and the result, according to the views of Colonel Evans, in his pamphlet On the Designs of Russia, is likely to be as follows: "Constantinople receives the water for its consumption from Dumourdere, twelve miles off. These reservoirs are on the sea side, and almost within reach of the cannon of the Russian ships; were they cut off, the town must fall a bloodless prey. A simultaneous attempt to force the Bosphorus might also, perhaps, take place: both wind and current singularly favor this operation. But it is a far-more formidable passage than that of the Dardanelles. Granting, however, that provision of water has been made, and that entrenchments have been thrown up round the unimportant walls of the city, still its fate would not be delayed beyond an inconsiderable period. A well sustained cannonade, storm and bombardment, could have only one eventual result. * * * Mahmoud, we are told, will hold with a firm grasp the last fragment of dominion, and that he is resolved to bury himself beneath the ruins of his capital. This, (if it be so) would probably quite accord with the policy of the invaders; nor is it at all unlikely that their occult machinations may purposely lead to that result. The signal massacre to be anticipated in such a case would, in the estimation of such calculators, be amply compensated by the added terror of the Russian arms, and the consternation it would spread, especially in Asia. The final extinguishment of the Mahometan power might thus also be forwarded. And, though the whole of the edifices at present composing the capital, from the serai, mosques and minarets, down to the humblest shed, were thus given to the flames, what would that signify? Unlike the fall of Carthage this pre-eminent place must rapidly rise again to more than a renovated and palmy zenith of grandeur. The heroic conqueror of the former once powerful city is said to have wept over its ashes. But in executing the stern ungenerous command of the Senate, the last blow may be considered to have been struck in the accomplishment of the unbounded domination of the republic. All the rest was an unresisted march of victory. And yet at that time it cannot be asserted that Rome exhibited to the nations, in any comparative degree the assured, well organized, and preponderating mass. of physical force that Russia now does. Thence forward it was that she took her station on the sea as well as on the land.—English paper.