204
excelled; and the Turks had little confidence in their
leaders, so that the fall of Silistria was accounted
certain; but in the two British volunteers who had
come to their aid, they at once felt themselves a
match for the enemy at their own weapons. Of their
firm resolution to defend the town to the last they
also gave an amusing indication at the commence-
ment of the siege. A Turkish officer, who was sent
over to the Russian camp, was warned of the im-
possibility of saving the town, and advised to sur-
render it on easy terms, "for," said the Russians,
"we must take it, as the emperor has ordered us."
"Well," replied the Turk, "it shall not be taken,
as our sultan has ordered us to keep it."
It is not our purpose to enter into the details of
the defence of Silistria, more especially as this was
given in the diary of Lieutenant Nasmyth published
in the Times. The resolution of the two belligerent
parties, which they had expressed as above, was fully
borne out by the deeds that followed; and as fast as
the Russians advanced, whether by mine, cannonade,
or hand-to-hand conflict, they were met and baffled
by the indomitable obstinacy of the Turks, whose
fortitude in the defence of streets and walls has
become proverbial. Eight batteries were erected
against the town, and each was armed with artillery
of very heavy calibre. The Russians had sixty guns
in position at Silistria, 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, sprung six mines,
and kept up their persevering assault during forty
days. On the other hand, the Turks, confident in
their two British leaders, whose directions they im-
plicitly obeyed, handled spade or weapon as the
emergency required, and either worked or fought
with equal coolness under the heaviest of the fire.
In every circumstance these two volunteers were
the soul of the defence and the directors of all its
movements. Captain Butler died, rather worn out by
the fatigues he had undergone than of the wounds he
had received in action; but Nasmyth, although left
alone, with a double amount of toil, still animated
the defenders, and taught them to hold out. And
well was his perseverance rewarded at last; for after
losing about 12,000 men by wounds and sickness,
and alarmed at the threatened advance of the allies,
the Russians hastily raised the siege.
The young artillery officer was now the object of
popular applause. At a single step he had risen to the
character of a skilful and successful commander, by
producing such results with materials so unpromising;
for he was unacquainted with even the language and
manners of the people whom he had so generously
come to defend, and whom his example and instruc-
tions had converted into heroes. Nor was the defence
of this Turkish fortified town of inferior consequence
in the war that followed. It saved the British and
French armies from the necessity of conducting a
campaign amidst the swamps and marshes of the
Danube, which in all probability would have proved
another Walcheren, and enabled them to transfer the
scene of operations to the Crimea. From the East
India Company's service he was transferred to the
royal army, and in the Crimean campaign, through
which he served, he obtained the medal with clasps
for Alma, Inkermann, and Sebastopol. Being in-
valided from the Crimea in consequence of failing
health, he returned to England, and was subse-
quently appointed to the Kilkenny district as an
assistant adjutant-general, afterwards brigade-major
at Curragh, and latterly brigade-major and deputy -
assistant adjutant-general in Dublin. But his health
again breaking down, he was transferred to Aus-
tralia, from which he was invalided home in 1859.
It was not surprising that the fatigues he had un-
dergone at Silistria, under which Captain Butler
succumbed, should have completely undermined the
constitution of Major Nasmyth. He retired to Pau,
and there he continued to reside until his death,
which occurred on the 2d of June, 1861. Among
the honours and promotions which he so justly won,
it should not be omitted that the freedom of the city
of Edinburgh was conferred upon him for his services
in the Turkish campaign, and particularly in the
defence of Silistria.
NASMITH, DAVID. This energetic Christian
philanthropist, the originator of town and city
missions, was born in Glasgow, on the 21st of
March, 1799. His parents were of respectable sta-
tion, and eminent for piety. Like other boys of his
condition, David Nasmith, after the usual course of
an elementary education, was sent to the city gram-
mar-school for the purpose of learning Latin; but
after a four years' course at this academy, it was
found he had profited so little, that he was found
ignorant of even the rudiments of the language,
and therefore unfit to enter college. And yet, dur-
ing all this time, he had never been an hour absent
from his classes. Judging it of no use to train him
for a learned profession, his parents had him edu-
cated for business, and afterwards apprenticed him
to a manufacturer. Even at these tender years, such
was the religious sensitiveness of his character, that
although apparently no worse than other boys, his
impressions of his own worthlessness were so harass-
ing, that more than once he was tempted to take re-
fuge from them in suicide. But in process of time
this evil spirit was cast out of him, while these ex-
periences only tended to strengthen and confirm his
faith, and prepare him for a course of correspondent
action. His religious training also from earliest
boyhood was such as to fit him for that especial mis-
sion to which his life was devoted, and in which he
was to be so successful. From the time that he was
six years old he attended a Sabbath-school; and when
he had reached the age of fourteen, he and two of his
school-fellows formed a society in their school, which
was called the "Glasgow Youths' Bible Association,"
for the purpose of distributing Bibles among the
poor. Of this society he was elected secretary, al-
though, as he confesses, he neither understood the
name nor the duties connected with the office. It
was the commencement of a new era in his history.
It brought him into contact with those youths of
Glasgow who were like-minded with himself, and by
whose society his religious impressions were enlarged
and elevated. The circulation of the sacred volume
in which he was employed made him study more ear-
nestly its contents, that he might be better able to
recommend its perusal to others. And above all,
his office of secretary habituated him to the work of
organizing and directing those religious societies
which afterwards acknowledged him for their founder.
On completing his sixteenth year he became a mem-
ber of the congregation assembling in Nile Street;
but although a Congregationalist or Independent, his
aims as well as his disposition were of too catholic a
character to be circumscribed by any sect, so that to
the close of his life he regarded all Christians as his
brethren.
With his growing enlargement of views, it was
natural that David Nasmith should seek a field of
action more immediately connected with the ministry.
It was the common desire of a young enthusiast, who
had not yet learned that the cause of religion can be
promoted in any station of life, whether lay or clerical.