are, that the number of persons to be conveyed
without a medical officer be reduced from 500 to
300; and that except in special cases the number should
not exceed 500, where a surgeon is on board. Vessels
carrying passengers in the ratio of two to 100 tons to be
brought within the scope of the passengers' act; that
the "detention money" paid to passengers be increased
from 1s. per head to 1s. 6d.; that improved arrangements
be made for the conveyance of the persons to the
port of embarkation; and that vessels be detained where
epidemic disease is suspected. It is further suggested,
that negotiations with the United States be entered
into, with the view of concerting an effective plan of
cooperation between the two governments.

Two large emigrant ships, the Lord Raglan and the
Appoline, having embarked their respective complements
of emigrants from the government depôt at
Plymouth, sailed on the 16th inst., the former for
Adelaide and the latter for Melbourne. The Lord
Raglan has been fitted up on a most excellent plan, the
result of the experience of Captain Lean, R.N., the
government emigration officer in London. Among
other advantages, one-third of each bed can be turned
up from the sides of the ship, so as to admit of a free
passage two-feet wide all round her, and thus secure an
effectual means of cleansing and ventilating the vessel
every day. The Appoline is commanded by Captain
Tomlins, who has made some very successful passages.
The Isle of Thanet and the Pomona, also under charter,
are embarking emigrants from the depôt. They will be
followed by the Patrician, for Sydney; the Duchess of
Northumberland, for Hobart Town; the Clara, for
Portland Bay; and the Lady Kennaway, for Sydney;
and the private passenger-ships Orient, for Melbourne;
the Vimeira, for Melbourne and Sydney; the Anglesey,
for Melbourne; the Waterloo, for Sydney; the Derwentwater,
for Van Diemen's Land; the Royal Stuart, for
New Zealand; and the Statesman, for Melbourne.

NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS.

The intelligence in last month's Narrative, respecting
the Hostilities on the Danube, came down to the raising
of the siege of Silistria and the retreat of the Russians.
Many interesting particulars of this memorable siege
have been given. From the different accounts it appears
that before raising the siege, the Russians for three days
and nights subjected not only the two redoubts but the
town itself to a bombardment of which history does not
furnish a parallel case, and which, from a cruelty without
any motive, was extended to the inoffensive parts of
the town, and directed not against the soldiers but the
inhabitants. A number of mosques, minarets, and
houses were destroyed, and several old men, women,
and children perished. In a military point of view the
act was completely useless. The absurd manner in
which the Russians made their approaches, and the
little they effected during the protracted siege, appears
from the following extract from a military correspondent
of the Times, (Lieutenant, now Major Nasmyth) dated
from Silistria, June 29: "The Turkish army may well
talk with pride. Their opponents had an army on the
right bank of the Danube which at one time amounted
to 60,000 men. They had sixty guns in position, and
threw upwards of 50,000 shot and shell, besides an
incalculable quantity of small-arm ammunition. They
constructed more than three miles of approaches, and
sprang six mines; yet during forty days not one inch of
ground was gained, and they abandoned the siege,
leaving the petty fieldwork against which their principal
efforts had been directed a shapeless mass from the
effects of their mines and batteries, but still in possession
of its original defenders." The death of Mussa Pasha,
the brave commander of the garrison, has been already
mentioned. Our gallant young countryman Captain Butler,
of the Indian army, also fell. He was twice wounded
during the siege, but continued to flight with unrelaxed,
indefatigable zeal, and died at last of utter exhaustion.
He was only twenty-seven years old. To him, and to
his companion, Lieutenant Nasmyth, is ascribed a great
share in the successful defence of the place. He fought
and was victorious; the Russians retreated, foiled before
the earthwork parapets of the Arab Tabia; and two
hours before the retreat was discovered the heroic
Butler was a corpse. Omar Pasha mourned his death
more than any event of the campaign; and the garrison
of Silistria, with arms reversed, followed his body to the
grave. The Russians having retreated across the Danube,
the Turkish forces crossed that river at several points,
between the 4th and the 11th of July. On the 7th, the
Turks attacked the Russian position at Giurgevo, on
the left bank of the Danube, and, after two days'
fighting, the Russians were beaten at all points, with
the loss of 1700 men killed and wounded. One party of
them retired in the greatest disorder to Frateschti;
others northwards, towards Calugereni, and eastwards
towards the Argis. From 7000 to 8000 Russians of the
division Chruleff, took up a position, on the evening of
the 7th, on an extensive plain on the slope of a hill a
short distance from Bucharest. During the fight on the
banks of the Danube, which continued till late in the
evening, a division of the Ottoman forces landed about
three miles above Giurgevo, and surrounded the above-
mentioned force of 7000 to 8000 Russians. At the same
time (about midnight) 6000 Ottomans crossed over to
the left bank of the river, below Giurgevo. Thus the
engagements went on simultaneously on three points—
namely, on the shores of the Danube, and partly in the
town; below Giurgevo, with the aforesaid 6000 Ottomans;
and finally to the north, where the combat with
7000 Russians was the bloodiest. 12,000 Turks were
at Oltenitza on the 9th, and commanded the road from
that town to Giurgevo. Omar Pasha left the latter
place for Oltenitza on the 10th. On the same day 3000
Turkish troops crossed the Danube at the embouchure
of the river Bede, and took the road to Babile, near
Bucharest. They were the advanced guard of a larger
force. At Turnu, on the 9th, Halim Pasha and Said
Pasha effected a junction with Iskender Bey, and
attacked the Russians under Generals Pagoff and
Bebutoff, and defeated them with great loss. Both the
Russian generals were wounded—General Pagoff
seriously, in the breast. The Russian regiment
Krementshuk got between the cross-fire of two Russian
batteries, and was nearly annihilated. General Aurep,
who had been disgraced by the Czar for want of success,
has committed suicide; an event which has made a deep
impression on the Russian troops.

The present positions of the Russian forces cannot be
accurately stated. It appears that Prince Gortschakoff,
having drawn all the forces he could from the line of
the Jalomnitza, had posted them behind the Argisch.
This river, rising in the Carpathian mountains, flows
directly southward towards the Danube, but suddenly
turning to the east, about twenty miles from Bucharest,
falls into a lake. The main roads from Giurgevo to
Bucharest cross this river; and the positions of the
Russian general cover the roads. There, it is said, he
had concentrated 60,000 men. The Turks at Oltenitza,
therefore, menaced him by his left, while those at
Giurgevo fronted him. The Russians were reaping the
crops in the Wallachian plains.

By the latest accounts from the British army it
appears that the light division had not got beyond
Devna on the 8th instant; that the second division lay
between Devna and Alladyn; that the Guards were at
Alladyn; and that the third division was about half-
way between Alladyn and Varna. The line of the
lakes, which stretched from Varna up to Devna for a
distance of nearly twenty miles, was occupied by the
four divisions of the British army, at distances of about
four miles apart, with their left resting on the crest of
the hills which run at right angles to the lake, and their
fronts extending along the ridges and plateaux of those
hills, with their face towards Schumla. On the 5th
instant, Omar Pasha was at Varna, where he reviewed