574 England, Russia, and Turkey. [ June,’ 
from its being the gate of the grand pass of the Balkan. The city also 
stands at the central point of the roads from almost the whole of the 
fortresses of the Danube, and has the power of protecting, or intercept- 
ing their connexion with the capital. But the position of this important 
city gives it great defensive advantages. It is nearly encircled with a 
range of the mountains, which serve as an outwork, and those hills are 
covered with thickets, which incomparably suit the species of service to 
which the Turkish troops are most accustomed. The inhabitants of 
Shumla are about 30,000, and are, of course, to a certain degree available 
for the defence. The size of the city is advantageous; from its allow- 
ing quarters to the chief divisions that might be left to protect not 
merely Shumla, but the pass of the mountains. It is nearly three 
English miles long, by a mile and a half in breadth. The fortifications 
are rude, and of the class of the Lower Empire—walls with occasional 
towers ; but the true strength of the place is in its locality ; the range 
of hills round it forming the true rampart of the city, and the whole 
being a large entrenched camp, with thickets, precipices, and ravines for 
its fortifications. 
The result of the campaign undoubtedly disappointed, to a great ex- 
tent, the expectations formed of the Russian arms. The Turks were 
often the assailants even upon level ground, and were not unfrequently 
left masters of the field. Some of their incursions into Wallachia put the 
Russian corps into such imminent hazard, that they were saved only by 
an instant retreat: large convoys were intercepted by the Turkish 
cavalry, and the campaign was speedidly discovered to be only the be- 
ginning of a dubious and protracted struggle. The assaults on the 
Turkish posts were generally repulsed with heavy loss ; and, of the three 
great sieges, but one offered the slightest hope of success. Shumla, the 
grand object of the campaign, was early found to be totally impracticable : 
Silistria was nearly despaired of, and finally was abandoned by a disor- 
derly and ruinous flight: Varna alone gave way, after a long succession of 
attacks ; and, from the singular circumstances of its surrender, is still said 
to have been bought from the Governor, Yussuf Pacha, a Greek rene- 
gade. One of the most extraordinary features of the whole campaign, is 
the small force on both sides. The Russian gazettes state the number 
of their army that crossed the Pruth at little more than eighty thous 
Yet this service was of the most popular kind with the court and people. 
The nature of the enemy was perfectly known from long warfare ; the 
difficulties and losses which belong to Turkish war must have been 
clearly anticipated ; and yet the whole Russian empire, setting forth on 
the conquest of an empire, which had been the object of its ambition 
from the days of Peter the Great, was not able to send one hundred 
thousand men across the border. The sultan, commanding a population 
of twenty millions, had probably not forty thousand in arms, from Con- 
stantinople to the Danube. So much does military strength depend on 
public wealth, and so impotent is the mere power of population in the 
struggles of European war. But the difficulty of arming the troops, and 
supplying the artillery and provisions for large bodies of men, are the 
great drawbacks on mutual aggression: and, by a curious and effective 
chain of consequences, nations are compelled to find, in the activity 
of commerce, the sinews of war. 
The campaign was urged into the depths of winter, and the weather © si 
was remarkably inclement ; the Turks were elated by success, and their 
attacks kept the enemy perpetually.on the alert ; the walls of the great 
4 
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