this achievement;—" I beg to congratulate their
Lordships on the fall of this important fortress, which will
be followed by the submission of the Garden of Islands,
with so small a loss; and I am happy to say the greatest
cordiality has subsisted between the French General
and Admiral and myself, as well as between the soldiers
and sailors of the two nations." The Aland Islands are
now no longer under the Russian dominion, but are
placed under their own administration. On Sunday,
the 13th inst., a proclamation, signed by General
Baraguay d'Hilliers, and countersigned by the Crown Baillie
Lignell, announcing that the Aland Islands were
independent, and placed under the protection of England
and France, was publicly read in all the parish churches
of the islands.

The intelligence from the Danube contains interesting
particulars of the sanguinary battle between the Russians
and the Turks at Giurgevo, on the 7th of July, previous
to the retreat of the Russians. Above the town of
Giurgevo, and opposite Rustchuck, there is an oblong
island, about two miles in length. The breadth of the
Danube between it and Rustchuck is about nine hundred
yards, and it is separated from the main land on the
Wallachian side by a narrow channel of no great depth,
but still not fordable. Down the centre runs a long
narrow pool or canal, and almost the whole surface is
covered with tall sedge and marsh weeds. Ever since
their occupation of Wallachia last summer the Russians
have held it, and fortified it by the erection of two or
three batteries. Hussein Pacha, the Turkish
commander, having received false information that the
Russians were in retreat, determined to pursue them
without waiting the arrival of Omer Pacha. General
Cannon (Behram-Pacha) was consulted, approved of the
scheme, and volunteered to lead the expedition.
Commands were likewise offered to Lieutenant Burke, of
the Royal Engineers; to Lieutenant Meynell, of the
75th Infantry; and to Captain Arnold, of the Bombay
Engineers; all of them amateurs, with the exception of
Burke, who strongly condemned the movement, and
was most unwilling to take part in it. About ten
o'clock four boats, filled with men, crossed the river,
under the orders of General Cannon, and effected a
landing opposite Rustchuck, without any resistance.
Colonel Ogleby , General Cannon's aide-de-camp, followed
with 200 men in a steamer, and landed a little higher
up. The enemy's piquets retired hastily, but very
shortly afterwards a large body of riflemen made their
appearance, and opened their fire from the sedge and
brushwood. The Turks replied by the same arm, their
chasseurs advancing steadily, and pushing those of the
enemy before them. Large reinforcements of infantry
now, however, began to arrive, and commenced a
murderous fire upon Gen. Cannon's small party of 350 men,
who were driven back to the water's edge and the general
himself reembarked and went across to tell the pacha he
must either withdraw the troops or send reinforcements.
In the meantime, Colonel Ogleby had joined his forces
with those of his chief, assumed the command of the
whole, and maintained the conflict with great determination,
resisting all the efforts of large masses of the
enemy during ten hours of hard fighting. Battalion
after battalion went to his aid, and at nightfall, when
darkness put an end to the conflict, he found himself at
the head of eight or nine battalions, or about 4800 men.
Early in the day, Burke, Arnold, and Meynell had
passed at the head of two or three hundred men each,
and, by some strange infatuation, were sent to different
points of the island, at a great distance from the main
body of the forces. Burke was disembarked a thousand
yards from the others. His party had hardly gained a
footing on the bank when they were attacked by an
overwhelming force of the enemy. They resisted as
long as their ammunition lasted, and then were all
bayonetted or thrown into the river. Burke fell amongst
the foremost, having received two rifle balls in his body,
and thirty bayonet wounds. Captain Arnold was at
first more fortunate. He made good his landing,
advanced against one of the enemy's batteries consisting
of two guns, and drove them out of the entrenchment,
but without being able to capture the cannons, which
they carried off with them. Attacked in turn by a
superior force, he was compelled to retreat, and he and
his men slaughtered or driven into the Danube. Meynell
and his detachment met with exactly the same fate.
The Turks occupied themselves busily during the night
in throwing up entrenchments, expecting a renewal of
the engagement on the following morning—but when
day broke, the rear-guard of the Russians was seen
marching out of the village of Slobodsa on the opposite
bank. The Turks immediately advanced and occupied
Giurgevo, which the enemy had evacuated. The loss
of the Turks was 600 wounded and 300 killed; that of
the Russians is believed to have been 2000. The bodies
of the slain floating down the river brought the first
news of the battle to Silistria. Those of Arnold and
Meynell were never found. Burke was buried outside
the town at the south-eastern angle of the fortification.
A small cross, bearing an inscription containing his
name, and age, &c, marks the spot. His loss was
greatly and generally regretted, as he was a favourite
with the whole army, and all the more owing to his
unwillingness to take part in the expedition in which he
met his death. He had been sent from Varna to Silistria
to assist in the defence of the place. He arrived in
Silistria the day the seige was raised; but charged the
rear-guard of the enemy with some regular cavalry and
bashi-bazouks, for which Omer Pacha bestowed on him
the fourth-class decoration of the order of Medjudia.
He was soon after ordered to Redout Kaleh, in
Circassia, and was on his way when he lost his life. Omer
Pacha arrived at Giurgevo the day after, with the
main body of the army, amounting to about 45,000 men.
He remained there at the date of the latest accounts,
occupying both banks of the river. The English
Sappers and Miners had laid down the bridge from the
island already mentioned to the Wallachian bank, and
preparations were making for an  advance.—The
Russians evacuated Bucharest (from which Giurgevo is
thirty-five miles) on the 28th of July; Prince
Gortschakoff having previously issued an address to the
inhabitants, stating that the Emperor had ordered .the
troops to quit the unhealthy regions of the Danube for
a short space; but promising, on the arrival of a
healthier season, to return and deliver them for ever
from the barbarous Turks. The advanced guard of the
Turkish army, 8000 strong, entered Bucharest on the
8th inst. , and were joyfully welcomed by the inhabitants.
The latest accounts state that the shops which had been
closed were re-opened, and that tranquillity and order
prevailed in the city. The following proclamation was
issued by Halem Pacha, the Turkisk commander:—
"Inhabitants of Bucharest.—The troops of your
sovereign have entered this city to maintain good order and
the respect due to all established authority. Let no one
presume to take the initiative in committing any
violence tending to produce any change whatever. At
the moment of their retreat the Russian troops confided
to our care the sick, whose weak state did not permit
their removal. We will show that we are worthy of
this confidence, and that, until such time as our
hospitals shall be established in this city, they shall be
treated in the houses where they now are with all the
anxious attention demanded by the love of our neighbour
and by humanity; for two empires, enemies at
this moment, may be friends to morrow, and ought to
esteem each other, even amidst the horrors of war. Such
are our wishes; the Wallachians, by conforming to
them, wiil prove the gratitude and respect they owe to
their all-powerful sovereign."

By the latest accounts from the Allied Army in
Turkey, it appears that the troops still remained at
Varna and its neighbourhood, but were in expectation
of orders to embark on the contemplated expedition to
the Crimea. At the date of the 9th inst. there were
360 sail of vessels at Varna at the date given, and nine or
ten of the immense flat-bottomed boats made at the
Turkish arsenal for special service, were lying with
them; but the artillery had only six boats fit to land
heavy guns in. Only a part of the French siege-train
had arrived. Thirty guns of the British siege train was
in Varna Bay. No concentration had been ordered,
but an order to be ready to march somewhere on the
12th had reached the light division. The Commanders-