The war news of the week, except on the Montenegrin
side, is not encouraging. It is now but too evident that the notion of taking Plevna by assault is abandoned, and that if taken at all, it will be taken by siege. Twenty thousand men,— Russians and Roumanians together,—were wasted on the almost useless assaults of the 11th September, of which the possession of the great Gravitza redoubt is now the only tangible fruit. On the other hand, the Times' Correspondent says that something like one-sixth of Osman Pasha's army was spent in useless attempts to retake the great Gravitza redoubt ; and at Schipka, again, the Turks have, no doubt, lost much more heavily by their fruitless assault of Monday than the Russians. The Montenegrins have taken Bilek and the block-houses around the Duga Pass, and are clearly very feebly opposed. It is said that they are now threatening Podgoritza. At Plevna there is comparative inactivity,—and the next great engagement, of which we are even now expecting to hoar, will be the battle between the army of the Czarevitch and that of Mehemet Ali, which is attacking the Russian position at Biola, on the Jantra. If the Russians are beaten there, it is but too likely that they may have to recross the Danube, winter in Roumania, and there re-form. If they succeed there, the siege of Plevna will probably be suc- cessful. The die, perhaps, is even now cast.
