The Sun. — London, England, 1855-09-26 00:00:00

.r' give b , s sot I, app , 3e J ll lb' !el Da l tr sb iS In ha' sew' T 11 E of the Zouavea who led the attack. I learn that the ere; on the spot where they fell. The enemy had carried off pared resistance was much less than had been extra ted. ' 'neatly all their dead and wounded, which accounted f a • The enemy had evidently been taken by surprise, a nd the fe enesss of the former found inside the redoubt. after 3 feeble stand made by:the supports within the re- Terrible were the traces of our fire which here met the doubt when the French entered, the place was vacated by eye—to say nothing of dismounted guns, shetterett plat , its former hoblers, who kept up a running_ fire as terms, arid broken carriages, ',early every square yard of they retired ; reserves, however, were speedily the place was torn up by round shot and expleded shell. : • brought up, but as the French continued to pour How any huaian beings could have existed in such a in at all points in more than an equal ratio,, these t oo pandemonium of explosive horrors it puzzled every one . were soon overpowered, and in less than half an who looked on the spot to conceive. The place bad for hour aftee the first Zeutave scaled the parapet, the - - merly been a vineyard, and was consequently honey combed originally; but these small hollows had been Malaklaoff was won. The deafening roll of musketry, however, in no degree diminished, but sw e pt on to the knocked into every possible shape, and scarcely a foot of eight towards the Little ROdan, whose guns fl inkal th e space left which hid not been ploughed up by the fire of tower ; here, and in the adjoining works, the strugg'e our own and the Frerch guns. Leaving, however, a mere, detailed description of the interior of this formid was contir.ned for nearly a couple of hours, till the last' snore work fir a future letter, I pass on to the portion of Muecovite was driven f rom hi s c o v e r, a n d the grou n d l occupied by our allies, the town at, the base of the slope which it crowns, and here, for the firmtime, I tint a glimpse of the utterly - In the meantime, however, ou r ow n assault had begun, unknown extent of the injitry which, had been done to But it must first be men ti one d th a t instead of h av i ng the town itself by our fire. As viewee even with the aid before them a w o rk w h ose embrasures had be en b unge d the a good glass from our most advanced parallel, not a lop and its guns sil e nced, lik e th e lalalakhoff, our men Led to rush upon a li n e o f b a tt er y nearly ev er y pi e c e i n tithe-of the mischief was visible, except amongst the Which was ready to receive them with grape a n d cau is- houses oppo its the French left attack, But even here, ter. The French, to o , s t ar t e d fr o m a li ne o f t renc h on l y in a portion of the place which everybody supposed to some forty yards from the point to be att ac k e d, w hil s t be comparatively uninjured, nothing but ruins met the our own troops were compelled to cross au open space eye. ' Shot and shell had smashed in roofs, penetrated of full six ti mes th e ex t en t, an d th a t, t io , un d er a di rect and knocked down walls; and, in fact, left nearly every building one came to crux: bling and shapeless masses and flanking fi r e f r o m near ly a score o f guns . It is need of battered masonry. My exploration in this direc less to dilate upon th e comparative difficulties of the tion, hewever, was soon brought to a. dead halt, for as I • two attacks ; but, w h i l s t awar di ng to th e F renc h a f u ll wasecressing what had been a small vineyard behind one meed of praise for th e i r brilliant gajlantry on the (meat of the main buildings which led down to the Admiralty sion, I cannot be' b e t ra y e d• by an y maw ki s h generos i ty into a concealment of the i n fi n it e ly grea t er d angers i n - and Fort Nicholas, a rascally French sentry ordered me volved in that portion of the day's achievements which to step, and, before I had time to ask why, the scoun drel deliberately levelled his piece and fired, sending a fell to the lot of th e B r iti s h. O n the day f o ll ow i ng t h e assault I crossed over th e s p ace b e t ween our f ifth p ara ll e l bullet Within -a few inches of my sea f. As there was no and the Redan, and w a s th en a bl e in soma degree to replying to :such arguments as this, I thought it best to " realize the diffi cu lty o f ma ki ng a run over suc h a di stance prosecute my researches elsewhere, and so turned away and such gr o u n d un d er th e d eso l at i ng fi re o f HOMO 20 to explore the main body of the tow n on the opposite side of the druit ahy Creek. But at every point I found ' 68 pounders loaded with gr a pe and canister. L e t a ll this be borne in mind bef ore an y . o f y o u r rea d ers j ump Frenchmen' poking into every nook amid tr armee over to the false c onc l us i on th a t th e F renc h d sp l aye d a hauling everything and apprepr ating whatever appeared greater heroism than ourse l ves ; f or , raw an d i nexper worth carrying away. A few of our own men had ma a; neged to- dodge the sentries, and were similarly em enced as were many of our troops enga g ed, w ith some faW exceptions they fought as became the conquerors of . ployed ; but, besides being numerically only as one to a tee Alma and Inkerrnann. As soon at the French had : hundred of the Gaul, they went about the business with a clumsiness and evident inexperience 'which contrasted made good their f o oti ng i n theMel a k h e ff a tr i co l our was run up to announce the triumpb, and immediately after i striki ng l y with the practise d tact and professional ability ' -a. small white flag—the signal appointed for the ativance of the red-breeched enfants aroyuetl. Ia deecending the of our own men—was waved from the parapet of the ' slope which leads down to the head of the Creel:, I came i Manoelon. At th e fi rs t g l ance o f it th e or d er was passe d in sight of piles of new cannon and shot, ranged as one on from General Codr ing t on f or th e s te rmers t o l eave may see them along the river front of Woolwich Ar s corer, and a half a minu t e a ft er M a j or W e l s f or d an d his sepal, on both sides of the Creek. Certainly this was a c party, carying the scali n g l a dde rs , b oue d e d over t h e contradiction of the generally-believed reports of the enetny's shortness of guns and ammunition ; and similar parapet of the boyeau. A vo ll e y o f grape struc k d own inearly a third of them, poor Weleford included, but the evieence met my eye at every battery I passed—shot, shell, grape, canister, powder, end' musket cartridge remainder rushed aa g en tly or . l ii t h e meant i me th e seemed everywhere abundant. On gamin, the summit Rifles, under C a pt a i n F yers , k ept up a v i gorous an d of the opposite slope,on and beyond which the main body deadly fire on the embrasures ; but the thick-matted ' of the town is situated, French, nothing but French, were onantlets with which these were curtained in a great measure counteracted this, a n d the g r a p e conti n u e d to to be met with, the m a j or ity o f th e m d run k, an d a ll l a d en with every co nce i va bl e ki n d o f p l un d er . fahairs tables,fly thick and fast over th e d ea th- space t o b e crosse d, looking-glass es , c h urc h otnatnente, poultry kegs ochraudy, The second body o f s t ormere f o ll owe d qu i c kl y on t h e matins. es, bed clothes, cooking utensils—et cry de hills of those who were already placing the ladders, and, mastic movable, in fact, that ever figured in a catalogue being well supported by those behind, were soon inside ' at the city auction ma r t, was being can ial or dragged he Redan. H e re a mu rde rous b u t b r i e f strugg l e ensue d , along by our li g ht-fi ngere d allies, whilst only at long in and before many mi n ut es h a d e l apse d s i nce t h e fi rst of our men gained the parapet, none of the enemy, but the tervals was an Et-glielanati to be seen ,with a single dead and dying remai ne d w ithi n i t. T he R e d an, l i ke article, and in three. i n stances I found Frenchmen dis the Malokheff, wa s won . A n d h ere I m i ght have voting their right even to these. More than one lament on our fai ura before the Redan was also utt e r e d, and i n triumph, too, h a d no t t h e blund f chanted a paean i n h onour o our unqualifiedmismangetnent one case .n Whmh reproach was thrown into the teeth of ering which has so oft en b orne f ru i t i n t h e sacr ifi ce a brawny Irish Grenadier by a diminuti ve (M asseur w i t h of our troops aga i n t urne d up to d epr i ve us more impudence than disc re tion I t a k e t o m y se lf th e credit of having sacral a subject of the Emp e r or f rom Of our full shar e o f th e glory of this memorable day. In summary annihilation. Pat had laid hand s on a b un dl e bused of pouring in supports to the aid of those in pos ef erockery ware, an d was p rocee di ng c , m f orta bl y along session of the redoubt,Geneial Coerington —I believe I under the iefluence of a doubl e a ll owance o f rum , w h en am only justly attributi ng th e bl ame t o him—for some I Myeterious strate g i c eeasons k nown on l y t o himself, the Frenchmen, still were o ff f or liq uor , came ree li ng b y - ' with a lnokieg-glass antler tine arm and a couple of ducks kept back el l e troops w h o crow d e d t h e trenc h es i n t h e rear till the enemy had time to bring up his overpower- toider the other. ` 0 Ha, R e dan, no, Mal a kheff y es ; ing reserve s an d c l ear the R edan of our men. The Ingelese no bons !" spirited out the son of France, tap ahem fed to make a stand plug the Irishman to h impudent familiarity on the anxiously exp ec ti ng eve ry latter bravely, but vainly, minute elbow. The " whirron !" that followed was worthy of p t , he arrival of supports, Donnybrook, east in an instant, dashing his crockery to but no support s Caine, an d t h ey were ' swept back into Donnybrook, the ground, Paddy g ras p e d the Fre nc hm an by the most another marvellous piece of neg l ec t no a t tempt at spik i ng the open to retreat u n d er fresh *teams of grape—for by . capacious portion o f h i s p an t a loo ns , sen t the looking glass to shiv ers , an d wou ld h ave wide wor k f or t h e the gune a tb.e place had been made by th o s e w h o h a d hleetor out of its o wner i f I h a d riot at that moment come ports were the n g i ven b ut i n h armon y w ith th e b' un d er geined a footing inside. Orders for the withh e ld sup upte the resc ue , S ee i ng F renc h men h urry i ng to the which had gone before, the intelligent aides-de-camp w h o sesite. of this ttagi e inoedy from all points, I deemed it carried the commands, bein g abut as i gnoran t of th e best, for my countryman s own sake, to prevent his ad topography of the trenches a s o f th e i n t er i or o f S e h asto - mini :tering a .chasti semen t w hi c h, h owever anniey de pier, stumbled on the wrong regiments, an d or d ere d up served, might have e n d angere d th e sa f ety o f i ts b estower, the first brigade of th e Li g ht Di vis i on, w hi c h h a d b een and so liberated the f r i g ht ene d i mpu d ent, an d endea eold off as the p ro p er reserve. E v id ent, however, as youred to calm down th e wrathof the infuriated Kerry - _ was the blunder, th e ga ll ant " fi g h t i ng 7 t h , " l e d on b y man. This, however, w as no easy t as k ; b ut b y en - Maor Turner and the 23d under (Jul. Lons advanced 'pursing his declaration o f b e i ng a bl e to b eat t en F rench to th j, , e renewed attack. Th e ot h er regim en ys whot°, should men any day -I finally reduced the storm, and sent him have preceded, f o ll owe d i n estate o f b eautiful pell. m ell, and on his way to the outskirts of th e t own . under a fire of grape and canister before which the bravest I cannot refrain from adding one sentence on a sub columns of the Old Guard would have staggered, our ject to which I shall again recur—the prohibition which. young levies—f or suc h were three -f ourths of the troops has been issued against our own tr oo p s sh ar i ng i n th e engaged —were led on to regain the ground which had. spoil, whilst carte blanche has been allowed to the French. been lost through mismanagement before. It was not; Our catnip is swarming with these last offering for sale, however, in human nature to make headway under such 'every conceivable description of plunder, and getting an iron storm; the men turned, and fled back under high prices air their goods toe—whilst our own men, cover of the parapet, keying very many of thei r own who have equally shared in all the danger and toil of elle number, and more in proportion of their officers, dead siege, are prevented front fingering as much as an empty . or dying on this field of death. Two young lieutenants, bottle. The discontent which has risen amongst them Wright and Colt, of the 7th, were amongst the killed, in consequence is not deeper than it is just, and reflects and three of the same rank of the 23d. Major Turner credit neither on the jeclement northe regard fir fair play received a ball through his scalp—one of the narrowest ef those from whom the prevention proceeds. But with us escapes of the day—whilst Lieutenant Alma Jones, of it is always so ;at Bench, where there was a colouring fighting fame, was knocked over by a fragment of a fur the prohibition the French plundered all before them shell. Colonel Lysons carried away a rifle bullet in his —to their own indelible disgrace ; but why. a similar leg, and only three of all the remainine officers of these bar should be here again placed on the exercise of what two crack regiments escaped untouched. From the is a right of every soldier who has taken part in the failure of this second attempt, the attack became one of siege puzzles many more than myself to understand. musketry-fire over the parapet, aided by the guns of the SEPT. 15. Quarry and other batteries which bone upon the Redan. My last letter, though written on the third day after Brigadier Straubenzee, commanding the 13t Brigade of the enemy's abandonment of their stronghold, was ne ther Light Division, tried to induce his chief to storm cessarily confined to a narrative_ of the incidents of our again, offering to lean the assault with the still eater own and the French attack. With a view of giving you though shattered regim e nts of hi s own comman d ; b ut the latest news, I had deferred waving it till thelitst Sir William declined repeating the attempt at th a t ti me . h our a ll owe d me b y the post, and was" u consequently u - Thence on till dusk, we wage d a f ut il e war o f mu -k etrt at e e to do more than refer. to the fact that the town and artillery fire, which was vigorously replied to by the was already being rifled, Kertch like, by our allies, enemy, and night c l ose d upon our men, discouraged and whilst our men wer e vir t ua lly d e p r i ve d o f t h e very humbled that, through mismanagement on tee part of smallest benefitis in the shape of plunder. The same those with whom lay the direction of the assault, they had necessity compelled me to postpone till now any detailed failedavhile the Fre nc h h a d tr i ump h e d . I t seemed as if we description of the state of the town itselaan and of the were aeain to reap the bitt er exper i ence enta il e d on u- works b y means of which it has been so long and so by similar causes on the 18th of June, after having lost, .bravely defended. In the present letter I shall a tt emp t in the killed and w oun d e d, near ly h a lf th e num b er of toeltiee your readers som e rough idea of both. men, and much more than that proportion of officers, of Before entering on anything in the shape of ade _the whole f orce engage d . T he R uss i an apot h egm o f scr i pt i o n , e i ther of the defending redoubts, ot. of Seloa; " enermy of lions led on by, denkies," had once more topel itself, however, I wish to add to my former brief been' illustrated ; and whilst our allies were jubilant account of the operations of the Bth a further re h with well-earned success, we were humbled by the con- mask or two in defence of the p ar t enac t e d b y our sciouspessuf undeserv e d defeat. tar ) men, aed in correction of an error which I there Up till midnight, such was pr e tty muc h the s t a t e o f com mi t t e d, i n s t at i ng t h at the F rench sal stormed the ' feeling prevale n t throughout the camp, as also amongst ' Little Redan and its adjoining works in Careening Bay. the men who remained in the trenches keeping up the I should be most sorry to pen a line which would boar distant attack on the work which they hid won and lost. the interpretation of jealousy or ill-sag towards our gal- It was known that with dawn another assault would lane allies, whose bravery and ink:imitable energt I have be made, and continued at whatever cost till the redota t so often had occasion to admire ; but, whilst extending had been finally gained ; but this hope was, after all, a full meed of praise fir all they have both endured and but a feeble consolation after the signal and costly re accoMplis.hed, I would permit no squeamish generosity pulse we had sustained b e f ore th e e y es o f th e t riump h ant - towar d s them to dull my recollection, or qualify my French. However, there was nothi ng else for it ; anti, eulogy, of what our own troops have in like manner But so everyone anxiously awaited daylight on Sunday fered and achieved. That in the two combined attacks, morning, when our slau g ht ere d h un d re d s were to b e 'however, which have terminated' the siege of Sebastopol, , avenged, and the tarnish c as t- upon our mi li tary h onour our allies succeeded in that undertaken by them, whilst Wiped away. About authry ter midnight. however, ?we failed in the other allotted to us, may at first sight the enemy forestalled all t is y blowing up their maga- ' seem humiliating to of r th m e ili t tar o y pride h but when the zine, and abandoning the redoubt. Such, it is presumed, relative difficulties opera t ions are cf, pestle the fact, though it is not improbable that the explo. tiered, I venture to think that w we shall suffer eta sion may have been caused by one of our own shells. either in our own estimation or in that of Europe .Be this as it may, the re-alt was the same ; and on a generally. Mainly owing to the fire of our Eng party of our men being soon after sent out to recnn- lish batteries during the three previous days of noitre, it was discovered that the Russians had given the bombardment—for the Marnelon had ained up the game. Our troops were accordingly marched all lint silent throughout that period—the re F u ren b c o h .in, and the first grey streaks of daylight saw the on the forenoon of the 8 h found every gun d t British ensign waving over a surrender which one in the Malakh .II silenced. Their advanced had already been a prize. Long before darkness sap, too, had brought them to within some forty had set in on the previous evening, the French had yards of their point of attack, and d ur i ng th e ir r a pid swept the chain of wor k s on th e proper l e f t o f t h e Ma- drab in column over this narrow space, they were ex-' laahoff; and thus the whol e line, from the Quarantine paired only to the grap e - s h o t o f t hi s one gun. O nce on se .. Fort, the mouth of the T c h ernaya , was i n th e h an d s t h e f ace of the parapet,from they were sa f e a second of the Allies—th e R uss i an b atter i es opposed to the discharge, and had then only to contend against the , . French Left having been simultaneously evacuated, faint and brief resistance of a body of trench gutrds,• , Dawn showed the last str agg l ers o f t h e ret i r i ng enemy who bad evidently been' taken unaw ares . A ;rapid,and la- hurrying ever the bridge of boats, which w as promptly well-sustained fire of musketry soon expelled these, and l' ,e t - destroyed wh en th e y h a d crosse d ; an d as the ent i re the reserves who were hurried up by the enemy had - slopping—one frigate and a couple of small steamers equally little. chance against the swarming catunne of alone excepted—had been sunk during the night, the our allies, whom good generalship kept pouring in to h , • sun rose upon as desolate a scene as if Sebastopol had the support of the first stormers as fast as human legs never been inhabited, nor its splendid 'harbour covered could scramble up the broad parapet and jump i ns id e With ships of war. Eve n b e f ore th e bl ow - up o f the the redou b t. Such a contest was merely a question of Redan several mines had been fired by the enemy along numbers ; and, baying made excellent arrangements to and within their line of works, and &meg the night secure their own superiority in thi s respect, the French • they consummat e d th e sacr ifi ce o f t h e i r stronghold by commenelers had no cau eto doubt the result. Widely blowing up Fort Paul, and firi ng nea r ly all the principal different, however, was the case on our side. Differently buildings which had not already been in flames. And construcSed-as I shall presently describe—and stretch ,thus ended the attack and capture of Sebastopol. 'leg over a long line, in hardly any point exposed to so By early daylight, as soon as it was evident that the close and direct a fire as that which bore upon the Ma enemy had indeed cle are d ou t of t h e town, t h e French leicheff, th e R e d an h a d repli e d to our batteries with a :n. cro,vded in, like crows to a carrion, to gorge their plan-• [referable vigour throughout the entire bomba r d men t ; doming appetites w i t h w h at spo il b a d been left behind , and at noon o f t h e B t h st ill cont i nue d to show fight with $a on the whole of th e p rev i ous day, during the pro- a dozen or so of uninjured guns. Instead, too, of forte grew of the attack, double lines of cavalry sentries yards of open space, the nearest point from our were posted along the whole front of our camp ; and most advaeced parallel to the ditch' of the Redan mea. through this impassible barrier no one not on cured 220, and this, also, everywhere exposed to the fire duty, or not belonging to the omnipotent staff, was of twelve or fourteen 68-pounders. I have several times allowed to .go. About noon, however, armed with a crossed this fatal spot since the capture of the pl ace , p Pass, courteously given me b y G eneral Sim son, I and each time with increased wonder how a sin g l e m an crossed the. line, and p rocee d e d d own to the scene of- of our whole etorme re could have escaped the tornad o o f ihe the preceding d a y' s carnage. B y t h e t i me I reached the grape and canister which such an armament to mid, and fatal open in front of our fifth parallel, ho wever , th e - 'did , sen d f or th. •Se arcely : afoot of surface is there Ariak e S dead had been gathered off the ground—the officers n did not swee ; 1,0 E71 4 v/hen I add that the eddy hiving been taken to the camp, and. the men thrown a ha g d u time to fire three n S from every piece, frontlet:Do into the deep and broad ditch of the Redan. And there fiat issue of our men from th e shelter of our own para . was a sight harro w i ng e n oug h to affect nerves of iron pet till their arrival at the broad ditch where so many and.a heart of stone ; piled up, row upon row, lay the have since found a grave, lam di spose d t o thi n k th a t bodie s ' o f th e b ra i e fellows salaam blood had ga i ne d our your re ghastlya,ders ivill share in nay Fur prise. itably re . triumph, nearly filli ng th e huge dike—a a n d pulsed, th e e.; as they Were, our shattered lnev companies mangled m u ltit u d e . Th ose who had diedwithin the were compelled to fall back on the trench which they Iteda n had also been gathered into the ditch ; so that I had left ; and to, regain this they had to pass through the looked upon nearly all the British who had fallen in this same storm of fire as before. Had they, indeed, been last scene of an e l even mon th s ' tragedy. The first' fact p r ope r ly su pp or t e d, thi s secon d or d eal would have been Which struck an obs erve r was , that nearly all who i lay spared themh and, insp i ite of all its grae cauister, :th ere were o ld soldiere, men who had bo rne the heat and the Roden would, without doubt, havebeen our own. burthen of th e day.Lh aa ay a beirdlesa - face was to be To every attempt at repeating the attack the same for 'een ; the second, the c a l mn ess which appeared on midable f ron t was s h own, ari d cut up as they had been almost every count enance , e ven w h ere the l ie eth•wounds in their first essay, it was not to be wond ere d at that had been. the mo s t severe. Some, whose death must our young troops, many of whom were under direct fire hav e b een i ns t an t aneous, lay with unclosed eyes for the first time, shrank from a seoond exposure to the a gazing on the sky," an d b ut f or t h e glazed des ola ting storm. an p d ghastly countena nce , m i ght . have been supposed ulrms Suc h, t h en, is a brief statement of the relative diffi basking for pleasure in the sun i - whilst others again cu lti es o f t h e two attacks on the Redan and Malakhoff ; W ere stretched out in all the seeining composure of and, bearing in mind these facts, few, lam inclined to a t. Cahn sleep. A mongs t th em lay a few Russian . ; believe, will consider that the French have much ground 441 eous in their mew and dirt, but displaying like- for boasting, a s compare d w i th ourselves. That they W ise but few - of tee lour owi ras traces of acute or fought and conquered bravely I would he the last to '•%' ranged death-throes. As I passed fiver this j deny; brit that they would have Succeeded, with the e s , .ete of corpses into the interior of the Redan, a 1 eatee-numerics stren th as our own. age' P ali Ue g party was already beginning to shovel in the pee tho impartial and intelligent man could bellies-ate:hel Redan,proo p7t 77 the bodies, many of Whom thus found !, gray! ?f this, and rather more, I may add mentio n o f th e i r . _ Sulky f# ,,, zietoivq WEDN VSDAYPT tz.Nl f t4 el PTFM,BRP ‘'6 1866._ -it t tx. k ,-- A t failure before the Little Redan, after the occupation of the Malakhoft The -is or eight guns of this work had continued effective throughout the bombardment ; and when our a lies, after their dmhing capture of the larger redouht, passed on to attempt the seizure of the minor batteries on its proper left, they were received with close and well-directed discharges of grape, which speelily checked their impetuous and confident advance:* — Thre 7 ..4 - several times did they repeat the attempt, hut they were as often driven back with heavy loss, and finally abandoned the effort. During the night, when the Re dan itself was blown np, the works in Careening Bay shared a similar fate, and were entered, without a blow, in the morninz. When I last wrote, my impr ‘ssion was that the French had stormed this line of minor works with the same successful bravery as had been previously displayed in 'their seizure of the Malakheff, but a few hours later I learned my error, and . therefore add this sentence in correction of what I then state,l. , As a sufficiently detailed and accurate description of the Russian works, as seen from our own trenches, has already appeared in these columns, I need say nothing as to the appeahtnce of the Redan externally. Let even . those of your rea,fers who may not have seen the Olio. graphical sketch to wh.cb I refer, fancy a huge grey bank of earth running angularly over the summit of a broken slope, and fronted by a vast ditch some 18 feet wide by more than half that number deep. Let them pierce this with gabioned embrasures at intervals of some three yards, and mentally picture these bristling with the black muzzles ef 68 pounders, and their idea of the outside front of this celebrated work will be sufficiently complete. My first entry into the interior, on the morn ing .after its abandonment, was made by a bridge of broken fascines and gabions, laid hastily over the dead bodies that had just been gathered into the ditch for burial, which has since been done by levelling over them fl portion of the parapet above. The ghastly plies nearly filled the vast trench to a level with the outer surface, end the thin covering of earth which now cnuceah them from view bi.re'y fa!ls below the summit of the low bank in front. What first struck one in passing up the scut made by oursappers through the broad parapet was the unusual solidity and strength of this last—averaging 30 or 35 feet along its entire trout. On such a soli l mass of gabions, fascines, sandbags, and earth, I n•-ed hardly say that artillery of even the heaviest calibre could have no sen , iole effect : 68 or 08-pound shot might enter, but they could not penetrate. Coamared with this massive structure of mud and wickerwork, the thickest of our own or the F:encla works is as' paper to a deal board. Then within, besides the great superiority of their mantlets—strong ropen curtains bung across the embraseres to shelter the gunnere fr ire the besiegers' riflemen. You admire the cover provided for their ar tillerymen when not actually forking the guns, in tittle retreats proof against any but the very heaviest eplintere of shell:. But these, again, are nothing when compared with the shot and s hell pro o f ch a mbers for the shelter of larger bodies of troops, which abound throughout the .work. I (Hied into several of these half subterranean waiting-rooms, and found many of them fitted up with fire-places, cooking c 'nveniences, benches, and other suitable furniture ; whilst in others of smaller dimensions, and which had evidently been occupied by the officers, there were in addition bedsteads, chairs, tables, and in some even handsomely glazed cupboards, centaining empty wine bottles, and other traces of their occupants' regard for creature c enforts. Oa a shelf in one of them I lighted on a cheap Farringdon-street reprint of "Paul Clifford," and an old copy of the Illustrated News—the tat.thr with sundry engravings of scene. froin the siege. Even more interesting than all these, however, were the inner abutting defences of the redoubt, of which we had previously heard and imagined so much. From the irregtfar order in which these occur, it is difficult to describe them in any way that will convey an accu rate idea of their exact appearance and relation to the main work; but they may be generally mentioned a , independent sapports similarly armed and of nearly equal strength in construction to the front line of the redoubt, which stands to them, in fact, in the relation of a screen. Their guns, too, so thoroughly command the whole interior of the Redan that any assailing - force which might have succeeded in forcing the enter battery would have been exposed to an inner fire as galling as and more concentrated than the first. The whole etruc-. ture and arrangement of these inner defences, indeed, . are such as to justify the belief that, had the re'doubt been strenuously defended, no body of attacking troops that could have bean brought against it would have had a chalice cf success. And the ease system of rear de. fences extended down along nearly the whole curtain leading towards the Malakhoff. The open behind the Redan, as I have already mentioned, presents a broken surface, literally ploughed up into narrow trenches by round shot, aA. honeycombed into small pits by ex ploded shell ; I doubt if there be half a foot of square . space within the whole enclosure on which one or other of these mi,siles has not &len. The huge pits occa sioned by the exploded mines complete the wrecked appearance of the spot, and give it in the last degree an aspect of ruin and desolation. Although four days had elapsed since the closing contest I stumbled on no less than five dead Russians in different parts of the redoubt; why they bad been passed over in the general burial I am unable to explain. Passing down from the rear of the Redan, the path which lies along what was once a handsome wall of chi selled stone—now knocked into a line of shattered masonry, leads to the first of the great series of govern ment buildings which terminate down on a harbour, at the point at present covered with the ruins of Fort Paul. Cuncesled as they are from view from our trenches by the Redan hill, I .as one of many who, till within the past five days, were utterly ig nt of the extent of the mischief whicl had been done to these buildings by our fire. Shattered and riddled at all points, they seem the very type of architectural ruin, Only a degree better is the condition of the next range of buildings beyond ; the terrible effects of shot and shell everywhere meet the eye, in shattered coluois, leveled side-walls, and &lien roofs. Even in this extreme of desolation, however, enough remains to suggest how fine—almost grand--must have been the structures thus ruthlessly destroyed. The general character of these piles of buildings resembled in some degree that of the qua'lrangle of the Admiralty and other adjacent offices in Somerset-house. As the distance front the Redan increases, the injury done to the buildings becomes less in proportion, though, down to the very last of the series, opposite to where stood Fort Paul, the damage is con iderable. Crossing one of the intervening esplanades, I rode through a wide gap .. made in the wall separating It from the - I:Mildir.gs of the duck yard, and entered the road leading down to the series of basins and locks, of which, with the workshops, this great establishment is composed. Its low situation appears to have saved this extensive naval quarter from much of the injury which hss fallen so destructively everywhere else, as only hire and there are the marks of a. shot or shell to be seen. The inesonry of these nplen did basin s equa l led, if not surpassed, b-th in fieish and enlidity, anything t o b e seen e ither in Por t ia-math or Wool w i c h In ose of the largest of the locks lay the -till smoking remains of a large war steamer, with the machinery, paddles, and other t o;id ken fi tings standing all complete, though, of cour e, much damaged by the fire. Outside all these, and on the bank of the channel which opens into the creek, stood the charred remains of the huge shears at which I had so often gaged from Cathcart's and the Picket-house hills. Then came ruins of burnt and sunken boats of all sizes, from a captain's gig to a 50 -ton lighter ; and farther out in the creek till the mast-heads of a sunken brig. The road then passes down the stone quay, flanked on cfl side by the waters of the creek, on the other by a continuous pile of lofty two-storeyed buildings, used apparently for all three purposes of public offices, naval stores, and hospi tals. Here I found a party of the Land Transport Corps engaged in the loath-semi duty of removing some 400 Russian dead, some Of . whom bad been found, laid outside along the quay s and the remsieder within the b u ildi ngs. Of these last a large num ber had been discovered in a vault under the buiiding. oiled up in rows, one on top of the other, sod judging from their state. they must have been dead at least 9 or 10 days. The officer in command of the party doss ibed the condition of these bodies as loathsoinein the extreme, Of those found laid nut or the grk.un I floor of the buil,l mg two still breathed when t eev were first discovered, and a man who had accidentally strolled into the place a day sooner than t‘ the authorities," affirmed that he had counted 12 of them alive. Besides these, in anther vault, some 20 or 30 bodies were found ceffined, some with the coffin-lids firmly screwed down, a, , d others with them lying by the side of the dead ; the :e . were doubtless officers. The f t ansport Corps men were piling up the last load of corpses as I rodeup, and certainly the sight and the smell were offari,ive to the last degree. From this point, some hundreds of yards down the quay, the bloodstained and noisesame rags of those who had be-n already borne away still remained ; but they were to be forthwith piled up and burned. From the disco very of the longer dea 1, it is inferred that the wounded during the three days of the bombardment were carried hither and here left to die, as every sign appeared of their wounds baying received no attention whatever. Townris the extremity of the quay is a new, half finished building of cut atone, of &denier arethitec tural character to the line of edifices along the front of which I had already passed. Even it, far removed as it is from the scene of action above, bore not a few traces of cannon shot ; many a handsomely chiselled cornice and well-fitted joining having been shattered and displaced by a stray long ranger. Nearly opposite this point, on the other side of the creek, and within some hundred yards of the rear of Fort Nicholas, the French had mounted a mortar, and were then throwing shells at a working party employed in the construction of a fort on the north side. Tney made very pretty practice; sending nearly every other shell within,eor close upon, the new parapet, and inflicting evident de triment on those at work. The Russians replied with a few round shot, but without effect ; and when I turned from viewing the pile of broken stones and mortar, which is all that remains to tell where stood the once handsome structure of Fort Paul, our allies were still pounding away. Besides blowing up the Fort, the Russians had likewise burned several rows of small buildings in this neighbourhood, and the fallen•in roofs of these were still snaoulderingas I rode along. Through the openings between these, as well as from the top of the ruins of Fort Paul, I had an unbroken view of the harbour, from its mouth at Fort Constantine to its ter mination at the embouchure of the Tchernaya. Close tinder Fort Paul, in about twenty feet of water, lay the remains of the bur ne d s hip w h ose destruction I reported some ten days ago ; out further, about the middle of the harbour, appeared the mast-heads of the last sunk liners, and away beyond, under the oppo. site shore, was the burnt wreck of the long-fancied \Vladimir steamer, which, with the other steamers and remaining vessels, bad been burned a few days before— the day after I last wrote. This final sacrifice of the last remains of their once proud Blank Sea fleet was occasion e d by our having, on Tuesday last, brougnt down a couple of guns-from our advanced batteries to a point near the harbour, which commanded these few re maining vowels ; our. gunners put four shots into the - • hull of one of the steamers, which were replied to by a few shell% when, teeing that further defence was useless, the enemy consummated the destruction of their vetsel, by burning or sinking everything that remained, except a few insignificant barges, which are not worth a shot. Not less wreckful and desolate, in its own way, is the present aspect of this once crowded and navy-laden bar -hour than the most ruined quarter of the town itself. View the entire scene 'from whatever point you may, it seems_ as if,. a destroying curse had fallen upon and blasted the whole. Though nothing is to be seen in the - shape - of buildings on tile north side, beyond the forts on the shore and some wooden huts scattered over the face of the slope, there is an extensive gathering of tents, and signs of great activity all over the enemy's new set dement The width of the harbour is so.inconsiderafde, that all - their movements can be seen readily with the naked eye. I returned to our lines by the quarter behind the Malakhoff, and through that redoubt itself. With a few exceptions, all the houses in this locality are much inferior to those in the main body of the town behind Fort Nicholas ; being_ mostly of only one storey, and, many of them built of unhurnt bricks. The streets here, too, partake more largely of the character of those of an E= 'stern town ; many of them being simply a couple of parallel' deed walls, broken at intervals by doors or low gateways .leading_ to open courtyards in , side, round one 'or two sides of which I found similar 'galleries •running to those which one meets with in Asiatic towns. Iwide, however, I saw no -traces of the universal divans to be seen in all the rooms of an Asiatic dwelling ; but, externally, the streets, with the exception of being wider, might have passed for those of Erzeroum, Diarbekir, or Antioch. Although ruin had swept like a Ntorrn over this quarter too, the consum mating touch of Frauch fingers hal not been wanting to perfect the deSolation—an it had not been withheld ; benches, doors, windows, and every internal article of furniture worth carriage to their camp, had been borne 'away, and what would not have ,repaid, this trouble Was ,all smashed to pieces. Littie enclosures of flowers and ornamental trees fronted many of the houses ; but even these had not escaped the gratuitous wrecking which had been everywhere perpetrated; up-torn rose bushes, roots of deal tulips, camellias, daisies, and the like, • met the eye and foot at every point along the street on which this little floral nook had ahutted ; as if sheer love of ruin had been as strong an impelling motive with the destroyers as their unsparing itch for piunder itself. I may here mention that all this quarter of the town, as well as the great body of it on the opposite side of the Creek, is at present fur rally iu the occupation of our allies, the only portion of the place which is in our hands being - the government buildings and dockyard, which I have already noticed. This small moiety of the city lies be hind our right attack, the reason, I suppose, why we are allowed to hold even it. In this, as in a thousand other things connected with the whole affair, English interests, are most unblushingly overridden by those of the French, who, in fact, seem by their effrontery and unconcealed air of ownership, rather to tolerate our presence in the place than to recognise an equal right to a share in it and what it contains. I would again disclaim any ungene rous feeling towards our.allies ; but really, in view of their general bearing since the fall of Sebastopol, one's British " monkey" is often disposed to rise and show it self. Their sentries are posted over quite three-fourths of the entire town, and into these quarters admission is forbidden us, unless armed with a pass from the French esmrnander. Alt , tgether, amity in fact aid amity in print, are here shown to be distinctions with a dif t,rence. Talk as credulous apostles of French and English unity may, the British Lion and Gallic Eagle vial cherish antipathies, and occasionally show them to the end of the chapter : the traditional feelings of more than three centuries are not so easily extinguished, but Mill . retain a smouldering vitality under all the surface of factitious harmony which mere palitical contingencies may create fur the time. In *oonstruction and general appearance the Malakhoff differs liiee frOm its neighbour the Mamelon ; the same massive parapet. of earthwork, gabions, and sandbags, with similar underground strdabs to those in the Redan, but without the 'formidable rear defences to be seen within that redoubt,. so.that. the outer line of battery .on7e. gained, the mastery, of the interior became merely an affair of tunsketry and the bayonet. As in the case of the Red in, so here again near'y every inch of g•nund behind the breastwork was cut up by our own and the French fire. The embrasures still remain closed, .nv on. the . morning of..the eth, and will, of course, never be re.-cp -nod in the same direction. As in all the other baiteties belonging to the enemy which I have visited. there has appeared no scarcity of ammunition—round shot, shot, grape, canister, and every. other. missile known to artillerists, everywhere abounded. I noticed that at the moment of the enemy's flight v ry many of their mortars had been left loaded, and wanti g only the application of a m atch to send their deadly e - ititents into our own or the French lines. Before passing from this subject of the enemy's fill l clefeilis, however, I may jest mention that in the Redan, and, I believe , some of the oth er b a tt er i es , l arg e mazazines full of Russian powder still remain, the daily explosion of which, strange to say, we await—passing in crowds over those hidden mines the while. The quan tity of the powder is alleged as a bar to its removal; but, if so, why our authorities do not take measures to blow it up selon la regle, instead of permitting it to take its Own timo un ler dim ern .uklering gabions and other woodwork on the surface of the ground, puzz!es my civilian under standing. A sentry, for example, will cooly warn you not to come near him, as he is over a magazine, " which .may at any minute blow up." In the body of the town, also, it is suspected that unexploded mines yet exist; but of this there can be no certain knowledge. Apropos of explosions, I may mention a marvellous escape of a paymaster of the Miles a few days ago within the town ; be was riding quietly along when a ahell tnrown from the north side of the harbour struck the ground imam- diately under his horse's body, and exploding at the mo ment killed the animal without seriously injuring hie rider. Were an incident of this kind mentioned in a work of fiction, one would he more disposed to place it to the account of the author's imagination and ignorance of what shells are than to believe re its possibility. The fact, however, occurred as I have stated it, and is con- .idered of the narrowest shaves known in the whole course of the siege. The French trade in the proceeds of their plunder continues to flourish, higher prices for everything being demanded a►s days r ill on. In the centre of a small knot of commercial Z . ivaves, outside the trench baaaar on the Woronzoff road, I noticed, a few days ago, no less distinguished a purchaser than the nuke of Newcastle, who vas bargaining f, iraorne Russian trophies with a close ne4R that would have done credit t , ) the economic instinct of Lord Aberdeen, The Gauls chaffed hie grace with a freedom which showed how little they siispeCted that their customer was no less a personage than the British ancien ministre de la guerre, frequently displ►y• ing their sympathy with the duke's linguis.tic difficulties by assuring him that he way a bono Ingle= notwithstane ing. The Marquis of Sli4o is also at present in the camp, on a visit to his brother, Captain Lord Richard Browrie, of the ?th nsiliers, . During the late attack, and for some time preceding it, Colonel Powall Thomas, of the Contingent, was present as a volunteer with the 44th Regiment—the only one of the force to which be belongs who has as yet, I believe, taken a part in any of our operatiotin, By ilt'kt post I hope to hs able to give you some in formation as to what is likely to be our next move—if any is to take place before spring. In the meantime there is nothing tangible even afl iat on the breeze of „lamp rumour ; and I need, therefore, hazard no personal surmises. Another visit to the French part of the town, as yet undescrihed, will also furnish me with some ma terials of interest for the same mail. MARSHAL PELISSIER'S DESPATCH. TIEAD.QUARTSB3 At SELls'rePot,, SttT. 114 M. la Marectial,—l shall have the honour to send you by the next courier a detailed report on the attack which has placed Sebastopol in our power. To-day I can only give you a rapid sketch of the principal achievement of this great event of the war. Since the 16th of August, the day of the battle of the Tchernaya, and notwithstanding repeated warnings of a new and more formidable attack by the enemy against the positions which we occupy on this river, every pre. , paration was made to deliver a decisive assault against Sebastopol itself, The artillery of the right attack com menced on the 17th August a well-sustained fire against the Malakhoff, the Little Redan, the neighbouring de fences, and the rcads, in order to permit our engineers to establish defences close to the place, front which the troops might be able instantly to upon the enceinte. Our engineers besides prepared materials for escalade, and on the 6th of September all our batteries or the lea opened a very violent fire against the town, Whe English on their side kept up a hot cannonade against the Great Radon and its redoubt, which they were to attack. All being ready, I resolved, in coneert with General Simpson, to give the assault on the gth of Sept. ) at the hour of noon. General M'Mahon's Division Was td EaltrY the works of the Malakhoff; General tlalac's Division was to attack the Little Redan . ; and in the ce n t re t h e Di v i sion ~f Generd La Motterouge was t o marc h against the support t et t G he ene frra i t curtain connecting these two extrem e po i nts. R esides t m he e s u e in t e r t o: rd s iv l isio h n ad of gi t v h e e n GtouaGrds, t a o l ener three divisions. Thus far for t e right. In the centre the English were to attack the Great Redan, escalading it at its salient. On the left the Ist corps, to which General de la Mar morn had wished to join a Sardinian brigade, having at its head General Levaillant's divisio n , was to penetrate into the interior of the town by the Central Bastion, and afterwards t urn the Flagstaff Bastion i n or d er t o , establish a lodgment there likewise. General de Sallee had instz nations not to pursue his attack further than circumstances might render it ad visable. Further, the fleets of Admirals Lyons and Druid were to operate a powerful diversion by firing against the Quarantine, the Roadstead, and the sea front of the for- tress ; but the state of the sea, agitated by a violent north-west wind, was such that neither the line-of-battle ships nor the frigates were able to quit their anchorage. The English and French mortar boats, however, were able to go into action. Their fire was of remarkable ex• cellence, and they rendered us great assistance. At noon exactly the divisions of Generals M•Mahon, La Mate rouge, and Dulac, electrified by their chiefs, sprang to the Malakhoff, the Curtain, and the Little Redan of the Ca reenage. After unexampled difficulties, and a most exciting foot-to-foot combat, Gen. M‘Mabon's division succeeded in etfectiog a i.donent in the anterior part of the Mala, khoff. The en:Jloy showered down a htorm of projetiles of all kinds upon our brave troops. The Redan of the ------ - " • • • - - • and the steamer; it was necessary to evacuate after its occupation ; but the division of General La Motterouge made its ground good on one part of 'the curtain, an,i that of General M‘Mahon ga'ned ground in the'Mula khoff, where General Bosquet sent continually_ the re serves which I sent forward to him. The (Wier attacks were suborditiAted to th .t 'of the Ma!akhoff, that being the capital point of the defences of the whole place. Standing in the Brancion Redoubt (on the Mainelon) I considered that the Malakhoff was safely in our power, and I gave the signal which had been agreed upon with Gener.rl Simpson. The English immediately 'advanced bravely against the salient of the Great Redan. •• They were able to effect a lodgment in it, and struggled a considerable time to maintain their position, but, crushed by the Rus- sian reserves, which advanced incessantly, and by a vio lent fire of artillery, they were forced to return into their parallel. At the same moment General de Sailes had directed an attack against the Central Bastion. The I evaillant Division had begun to establi-h itself in it, RS well as in the Right Lunette ; a tremendous tire of grape was suc ceeded by the arrival of Russian reinforcements, en con siderable in number that our troops already decimated by the fire of the enemy, and'whose chiefs bad been dis abled, were compelled to fall back on the place whence they had sallied. Convinced that the taking of the Malakhoff would be decisive of success, I prevented the renewal of any at tacks on other points, which, by compelling the hostile army to remain on all paints, had already attained their main object. I then directed my solo attention to the retaining posses.,ion of the Malakhoff, which General Mthlahon had been previously enabled completely to obtain. Besides, a great and critical moment was im pending. General Bosquet had just been struck by the bursting of a shell, and his command I gave to General Dulac. A powder magazine near the Malakboff exploded at this moment, from which contingency I anticipated the most serious results. The Russians, hoping to profit by this accident, ink .mediately advanced in dense masses, and, disposed in three columns, simultaneously attacked the centre, the left, and the right of the Malakhoff. But measures of defence had already been taken in the interior of the fortress; for which purpose General M'Mahon opposed to the enemy bodies of undaunted troops, whom nothing could intimidate ; and after the most desperate efforts the Russians were oompelled to make a precipitate re treat. From that moment the discomfited enemy ap pears to have renounced all idea of further attack. The Malakhoff was ours, and no effort of the enemy could wrest it from us. It was half-past four o'clock. Measures were immediately taken fer 'enabling us to repulse the enemy, in case he should attempt against us a nocturnal attack. But we were soon released from our uncertainty. As soon as it became night, fires burst forth on every side, mines exploded, magazines of gun powder exploded in the air. The sight of c Sebastopol in flames, which the whole army contemplated, was one of the most awe-inspiring and sinister pictures that the his tory of wars can have presented. The enemy was makinr a complete evacuati m ; it was effected during the night by means of a bridge constructed between the two shores of the roadstead, and under cover of the successive ex plosions that prevented me from approaching and harassing him. Oa the morning of the 9th the whole southern side of the town was freed, and in our power. I have no need of enhancing in the eyes of your Ex cellency the importance of so great a success. Neither will it be necessary for me to speak of this brave army, whose warlike virtues and devotion are so thoroughly appreciated by our Emperor ; aed I shall have, great as the number is, to name to you those who have dis tinguished themselves aiiong s ) many valiant soldiers. I cannot yet do so, but I shall fulfil this duty in one of my next de-patches. Deign to accept, Monsieur le Mar4chal, the expression of my respectful devotion.—The General-in-Chief, Pzusion. GENERAL NIEL'S DESPATCH. SEBASTOPOL, SEPT. 11. Monsieur le Mmeichal,—The place of Sebastopol was stormed on the Bth of September. That assault has rendered us masters of the Malakhoff work, the occupa tion of which renders the defence of the suburb almost impossible, and enables us to cut off the communications of the town with the north part of the roadstead. After rallying several times, and resuming the offensive with a courage to which we are bound to do homage, seeing that his uttermost efforts remained fruitless, he began in the evening to evacute the town ; during the night he set it on fire, and he employed his powder in destroying with his own hands the defen sive works and the great establishments which Russia had been accumulating for so many years in this for tress. He has sunk all his ships, frigates, and other sailing vessels, preserving only the steamers ; lastly, he - broke up and pulled after him the bridge of boats by which he communicated with the forts of the north side, abandoning to us in this way the town, suburb, and everything else on the south side of the roadstead. The defence was energetic ; on several points our at tacks were repulsed ; but the chief attack, that which insured our succe.s, was not doubtful for an instant. The let division of the Ist corps, commanded at present by General M'Arahon ' carried at the fi rst onset the Ma lakhoff work, and there maintained itself heroically, understanding that it held in its hands the keys of the place. I am going to give you an account of the dispositions that bad been taken for diminishing as nduch as possible the numerous difficulties attending this terrible assault, made, not on a place invested, on a limited garrison, but on a va.t fortress, defended by an army equally numerous, perhaps, as that which attacked it. In the attacks directed against the town our ap proaches had been carried to within 40 metres of the Central Bastion and 30 metres of the Flagstaff Bastion. At the attacks of the Karabelnaia suburb the English, impeded by the difficulties of the ground and by the fire of the enemy's artillery, had only been able to advance their approaches to about 200 metres from the salient of the Great Redan. Before t le front of the Malakhoff we had arrived to within 25 metres of the enceinte which surrounds the tower, and had carried our approaches to the same dis tance of the Little Redan of the Careenage. This im portant result was due to the incontestable superiority of our artillery over that of the enemy. The generals-in- , chief of the allied armies hal made the following arrangements • The general attack of the place was fixed for the Bth September at noon. On the morning of the sth the ar tillery of the attacks against the town and that of the English attacks, Who until then had husbanded their fire, were to resume it with great enerev. Such a cannonade wasnever heard.' We had mounted in our two attacks more than 500 cannons. The English had about 200, and the Russians more than we. The fire of the enemy damaged our trenches, but did us little harm. (luta, notwithstanding the great extent of the place, converged on it, and must have caused immense loss to the Russian army. During the last days which preceded the assault our infantry fatigue parties were principally employed in enlarging the most advanced plaee d'ctrmes and the defiles, and in carrying to the spot the means of crossing thteditchee, c o n T s h t e r u a c i t m e d o b f (called the Korniloff Redoubt by the Russians), whic h is e a k ll i n o d e r th e e ffo m rtz a w k a k s off aiS T c o a w yt e u f r , e fi t i h s e wwoorrkk an immense redoubt, a kind of citadel of earth, occupies a mamelon which commands all the interior of the Ka rabelnaia suburb, takes the &dart attacked by the Eng lish de revers, and is only 1,200 metres from the south port, on which the Russians bad constructed a bridge of rafts, now their only communication between the suburb and the town, The Malakhoff Fort is 350 metres by 150 metres its dimensions. The parapets have more than 6 metres of relief above the soil, and in front of them is a ditA which before our attacks was 6 metres in depth and 7in width. It was armed with 82 guns of various calibres. In the front part, enclosed by the parapet, is the Malakboff Tower, of which the Russians have only preserved the rez de chausee, which is crenellated. In the interior of the work the Russians lad raised a vast number of traverses under which were excellent blindages where the garrison found shelter, and beds arranged on each side in two rows, one above the other. A Russian officer of engineers, who was made prisoner, states that the gar rison of this part of the Malakhoff, which I have just described in order that you may judge of the difficulties which our soldiers had to surmount, consisted of not less than 2,500 men. The Malakhoff front, which is a thousand metres in length, is bounded on our left by Fort Malakhoff, and on our right by the Little . Redan. This last work, which, at the commencement of the siege, was only a simple tedan, was transformed little by little into a re doubt, closed fit the gorge and heavily armed. The ex tei jar fronts of the two redoubts of Malakhoff and till Caret. age were connected by a curtain aimed with 16 Cautions; and behind the enceinte the Russians bad raised a second, which connected the fronts of the gorges ~f the two redoubts. This second enceinte, armed in part, had not, however, a ditch presenting a serio us obstat'ilt". The rocky nature of the soil had hindered the enemy from excavating everywhere wally the ditch of the first curtain and 11(344t1e Redan, and on several 't without very much points the troops were able to pas . ,; - - 2 - nonsi. difficulty, For passing the ditches, which hau d,rable depth, we had contrived a system of br;dges which could be thrown in less than a minute by an in genious manceukre, to which our sappers and soldiers d'el ite had been trained. The French artilleio so superior to that of the Russlans that it had extinguished the fire of nearly all the guns pointed directly at our attacks. The filled up embrasures relieved its from the fear that our columns might be asssiled by grape as they issued from the trenches. The parapets were destroyed and a part of the earth had rolled into the ditch. Fi nally the Malakoff fort had been assailed by so large a number of shells, thrown from out' battetiog those of the English, that the guns which did not look directly upon our attacks had their embra sures also filled up, and everywhere tho terrassentente had lost their original form, nut, behind the de'- , fences situated in the first line the Russians bad preserved a large number of pieces, which we could not contre-battre compl e t e l y, an d the columns which proceeded to attack the Malakhoff were exposed to the fire of numerous batteries which the Russians had raised to the north of the roadstead, and which, though fired from a great distance, were nevertheless dangerous. You are aware that ever since my arrival before Se bastopol I was decidedly of opinion that the true point of attack was the tower or manielon of Malakhoff, and that this opinion having been adopted by General Ca , ,robert, those attacks of the right were undertaken, which were executed by the 9,1 left the approaches executed by the Ist cerps. Taking things at the point where they stood when the assault was resolved on, there was no doubt that he possession of the fort would lead to a decisive reeplt ; and on the ether hand it was to be presumed that if a failure took place on this pint success obtained else- where could not lead to great results. However, it Was not proper to attack a place so extended upon one single P,,int. It Wass, necessary to obtain that division of the enemy's forces which resulted from the great develop ment of the enciente that he had to : defend, and especi- ally to make him uneasy about the town, to which the bridge led whereby he might make hi,; retreat. It was to satisfy these various considerations, it vete to insure succns, while economising, as much as possible the blond of our soldiers in the terrible strugele then preparing, that the General-in-Chief decided t!lat the assault should first be made on the front of the Male klioff ; that if this attack, Which would be made under his personal inspection, should succeed, then at his signal the English should attack the Redan and the first por tion of the town, so as to prevent the enemy's concen trating ell his efforts against the troops that should have already taken possession of the Malakhoff 'Fort. The frost of the Malakholf was to be attacked by three columns ; the one on the left, cernmanded by General de Mel`.tlalion, moving in a straight hue on the! Melakhoff Fort by the front that faced us, and in tures ing it slightly on the right haL d, bad for its task the taking and keeping of it, cast what it might ; the right column, Dulae's division, was to march against the Re. dan of the Careening Bey, to occupy it, and detach a brigade on its left, in order to turn the second enclosure ; lastly, the central column, being the division of La Mot ' terouge, issuing from the sixth parallel, having a longer extent of ground to pass over, and arriving a little later, was to carry the curtain, to proceed then against the second enele-eire, and send one of its brigades to the assistance of the first column, if this ;atter should have not yet gained possession of the Malakhoff Fort. Such was the importance of these positions that we could not doubt that the enemy, if he lost them, would make great efforts to retake them. In consequence, the troops of the Imperial Guard were given as a reserve . to the 2d Corps. The chief of the Engineer Battalion Ragan, having under his ()Hers several brigades of eappers, marching with the first column, had to throw bridges across the ditches, see after the mines, open everywhere a passage to the co'umns, and as soon as these should be masters of the fort, to close it at the gorge ; and in order to oppose any rallying attack in return, to open in the rear large passages for the arrival of the troops and the artillery. The chief of the engineer battalion Rennin-, attached to the right column, and Captain Schnennagel, attached to the central column, having; also brigades of sap ;nerd under their orders, had to fulfil an analogous missou. All the arrangements concerning the duty of the engi neers in the attacks to be made on the Malakhoff bad been made by the General of Brigade Frossard, com manding the engineers of the 2d corp. In attacking the town, in order to avoid the obstacles accumulated by the enemy at the salient of the Flagstaff Bastion, it had been decided that the principal assa-sit should be given at the Central Bastion, between its salient and the lunette on the left ; that the assautting column, as soon as it should be established within the Central Bastion should detach a part of its forces towards the gorge of the Flagstaff Battery, whose right face should then be assailed by a Sirdinian Brigade, which bad come to take part in the operations of the First Corps. denerallesine, commanding the Engineers of the First Corps, had made arrangements for attacking the town similar t o th o s e w hi ch I have j ust explained with reference to the attacks of the Karabelnaia faubourg. On the Bth o f S eptem b er. at 8 o ' clock in the morning, we threw on the Central Bastion two mines of projee• tion, each charged with IE/0 kilogrammes of powder. Tue explosion took place near the middle of the Bastion and appeared to cause great disorder. At the same hour we exploded, in front of our approaches to the Mats khoff Fort, three mining chambers, charged in all with 1,500 kilogrammes of powder, in order to destroy the lower galleries of the Russian miners, and to give secu rity to our soldiers, who had to crowd within the 'trenches under which deserters announced that the sod was mined. At noon precisely our soldiers rushed from the ad vanced places d'armca in front of the Malakhoff. They crossed the ditches with surprising agility, and, jump ing on the parapets, attacked the enemy to the cry of " Vive l'Emprour !" At the Malakhoff Fort, the inte rior slope having a great height, those who arrived first halted an instant to form. Then they mounted on the parapet and jumped into the work. The combat, which had commenced with discharges of fire-arms, was carried on with the bayonets with stones, and with butt-ends of muskets. The rammers became weapons in the bands of the Russian gunners, but everywhere the Russians were killed, taken pri soners, or made to fly and in less than a quarter of an hour after the attack had taken place the French flag waved on the conquered redoubt. The Careenage Redan had also been carried after a very hot struggle. The centre column had advanced as fir as the seco..d enceinte. Everywhere we had taken possession of the werks attacked. The General in-Chi gave the concerted signal for the attack of the Great Re- Jan, and soon after for the attack of the town. The English had 200 metres of ground to go over under a terrible fire of grape. This space was presently covered with dead, bat these losses could not stop the march of the at , acking column, which advanced to the capital of the work. It descended into the ditch, which was about five metres in depth, and, notwithstanding all the efforts of the Russians, it escaladed the scarp and took from them the salient of the Redan ; but after the first strug gle, which cost the Russians dear, the English soldiers found before them a vast open space crossed in all direc tions by the balls of the enemy, who themselves were sheltered behind distant traverses. Those who came up were scarcely sufficient to replace those who were placed hors de combat. It was not until they had sustained, during nearly two hours, this unequal combat, that the English resolved to evacuate the Redan. The attack upon the Central Bastion presentee the same result. In front of the Malakhoff the Russians made great efforts to reconquer the works. Repeated attacks were made, but in vain. The dead bodie+ of the enemy were piled up in front of the gorge, but the Lt Divis:on remained Immoveahle, and in the evening. we were masters of this citadel, without which the Rus- glans could not continue their defence for more than a few days. Thus terminated this memorable siege, in which the means of defence and of attack attained colossal dimen ,.ious. The Ras , ians had 800 cannon in battery, the be sieging army about 700. In finishing this report, I ought to tell you, Mon sieur le Mat &hal. that the greatest harmony has never c:'.a.s?d to prevail 13 ,, tween the artillery and the engineers. Whenever one of these two services could come to the assistance of the other, he did it with eagerness, and this community of views and action hal given us the means of overcoming many difficulties. I have also had to congratulate myself in every in stance on my relations with General Harry Jones, com manding the engineers of the English army. Our object was the same, and we have never differed in opinion on the means to be employed for attaining it. Already, at the siege of Bornarsund, I had the opportunity of appre ciating the loyalty and the noble character of this gene ral officer. I have been happy at finding myself again in relations with him at the siege of Sebastopol. Accept, Mousier le alarOchal, the homage of my most respectful devotion. The General of Division, A.D.C. of the Emperor, Commanding the Engineers of the Army in the EaA, NIEL. MARSHAL PELISSIER'S GENERAL ORDER. The following is the text of Marshal Pelissier's general order announcing the taking of Sebastopol to the army : " Soldiers !—Sebastopol has fallen ! The taking of the Malakhoff decided its fate. With his own hand the enemy has blown up his formidable defences, set fire to the town, the etor ehonses, and military establishments, and sunk the rest of his vessels in the port. The boule vard of Russian power in the Black Sea exists no longer. You owe these results, not alone to your brilliant cour age. but to your indomitable energy and perseverance during a long siege of 11 months' duration. Never before did land or marine artillery, engineers, or infantry, have to overcome such obstacles as in this siege ; and never did the three services display more valour, more science, or more resmution. The taking of Sebastopol will be your eternal honour. This immense success, while it augments the importance of our position in the Crimea, makes the maintenance of it less onerous. It will now be permissible to Rend home to their hearths and families such of you a., having served their full time, have rot remaieed with is from necessity. I thank those soldiers in the Emperor's name for the devotedness of which tht y have never ceased to give proofs, and I will take sere that they shall very soon return to their native land. ldiers ! the Bth of Septetnber, the day on which the English, Piedmontese, and French flags were unfurled together, will ever be a memorable day. Yea have in vested your eagles with a new and imperishable glory. Soldiers ! you have well deserved of France and the Emperor.—The General-in-Chief, " A. PELISSIEIL "Ilead-quarterg, Malakhoff Redoubt, Sept. D, 1855." "'hued that one of Marshal Pe lt will be reinen- ,o.ke of General Gortschakoff ' ''-e. and nothing more lissier's despatches ±.... hating naiad for au armist,-_, •., ce . The Con has been hbatd about the matter 8., details of stantinople Journal gitiel tho following . the circumstances : "At half-paFt 9 o'clock on the 9th a shell, the o n ly ' one that the Russians fired that day, was shot forth from the Quarantine Fort. At the Fame moment a boat with a white flag put out from the shore, And spoke with a boat from the French admiral's ship, anti after- Wards bad a similar meeting with an E ng li s h b oa t. As soon as these conferences were o ver Ad m i ra l Lyons went to bead-quarters, when; Ye remained a long tiluof and on his return to the Banshee received orders to put to sea with a despateh for Lord de Reßliffe!. All this while the Russians, vrho bad completely evacu ated the southern side of the port, were drawn u p in order of battle behind Fort Constantine, on a plgat The flag of truce continued to float all day, and the Russians remained motionless contemplating the flameswhich devoured the town. At 10 in the ev enin g the Banshee started for Constantinople, where she bad orders to take on board Captain Drummond, of the Albion (anchored at Beicos,\.. This officer left Consta ntino p le for the Crimea in the Banshee on the nth.' - L sass that Prince Gortscha that he liad great confidence in Ids elpa city and dlscretion, aid that he particularly w: hed to make use .of his , ministry to confer, with the Allies. • • During tlifi assault General de Salies IVAA struck by a Lail on the right thigh. Flo had trou sers pocket a number of the Constihttionirct and another newspaper, and these so broke th© force Of the bill that his wound is only described its a csm tusion. The Constitutionne/ says the 'g,rancl 'result was S obtained at the cost to the French army of 8,000 men, among whom were about 1.5 _general officers. Of course it ' must be intended to i nc l u d e the wounded as well as"' the killed in this estimate. i The staff suffered s evere l y . Four staff officers ! Lieutenant-Colonel. Citssa4ne (General Pelissier's ! aide-do-camp), ,Commandant Lefobvre, and Cap tains Ducos de . Labia() sad de Laboissiere— were all burielin one clay at the Cominander-in- Chief s head-quarters. At their funeral, which was I attended by very many cfficiers and men, General Ifelisaier, standing on the brink o f th e f our graves, Iprouounced the following discourse Gmtletnen,—liowever great. may be a triatilph, how. ever splendid a success, they are always painful when 5! , ...11 great sacrifices. The staff to which it i s 1 bonaht by my pride to have belonged Las just suffered very cruel losses which we cannot too much deplore. Captain Laboissiere, Captain de Llititte, Commandant Lefehvrp, 1 and th e b rave Col one l Cassaigne, all four young officers full of promise, have-faiieu in the flea of the enemy, victims to their devotion to duty. W lament them ail, g,.".,tlemen but . permit me to deplore more espe c i a lly t...ioionel Ca ssa i - Ile , g who was my aide-de-camp —Cassaigne, who was with me ever since I was a general °facer, and who would have continued to follow me throughout my n'll'tarY career, Csesaigne, whom 1 loved like a s„n, and who should one day have closed my eyes, and who, alas! I now come here to bury. The death of Co lonel Cassai. , ' ne is not only a h eavy blow to my heart, it is a great loss to the country, • an d a great calamity for the army, in which his eminent qualities m u st have rai se d him to high command, and enabled hint to render im portant services. Here the general, stifled by emotion, could only add, "Let us all weep for him, gentlemen ; we must now separate. On the Bailie day General do Sales pronounced a funeral oration over the I.Wies of Generals Rivet and Breton. LETTER FROM A FRENCH SOLDIER PRE. SEN.!: AT THE TAKING OF SEBASTOPOL. Dear Parents,—Since I mite you see I am no t k:lled. I have been slightly mauled, for when my re giment mounted to the assault I was in one ache three companies that blazed away for upwards of two hours on a gang of Russians who obstinately defended a mortar battery. We were all the while over a mine arid did not know it. At last the devils set fire to the mine, and blew us up. Several of us, anti I among them, went up 8 feet into the air, and when we came down again some 200 men found themselves up to their middle in the earth. I found myself buried under some eight or ten men, who fortunately were not hurt, otherwise I should not have been able to get out. But I forced my way to the upper air, and found that I had inerely a contusion on the left shoulder and at:tether on the right arm. You see it is nothing, since I can do my duty and write; but it will be carried to the account cf my set vices in the regimental books. Well, at last we have taken this Sebastopol, so much desired. It has cost us dear, hnt I promise you we have - paid off the Russians well. We did as we liked with them, and if any one amongst us has not killed at least his four met), it is because he did not choose to do so. You should have seen how they ran away in closely Packed masses, and did not dare to look behind them. We knocked them about with our butts, our bayonets, and kicked them besides till we were so tired that we did not know which way to have them. We tare been down into the town. It is handsome. We have seen the theatre, the cafts, and all the s t ore h ouses , an d we have bought some fowls and cabbages wonderfully cheap. The shops were all open, and there were no shopkeepers, so you may guess how cheap we bought our poultry. This is enough for to-day ; I will tell you more in au other letter. Thank God for having preserved and pro tected me. I embrace you with all my heart.---Your son, TILE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND THE EMPEROR OF TEE On the 23d inst. the Emperor of the French received, at the Palace of St. Cloud, the deputation to present the address from the Society of Arta of London and its as sociated institutions. The exciting news of the taking of Sebastopol, and the pressure of state business thence arising, had unavoidably delayed its reception. The original deputaticn consisted of Earl Grey, Vis count Ebrinetou, M.P., General Buckley, M.P., J. Brady, M.P., E. Ball, M.P., W. E wart, M.P., IL Ste phenson, M.P., Sir Charles Fox, Edwin Cnadwiele C. 8., Henry Cole, C. 8., Dr. Booth, F.R.S., J. Glynn,F.R.S , P. Graham, J. C. Macdonald, J. Scott Russell, F. R,S., T. Twining, jun., T. Sopwith, F.R.S., the Rev. M. Mitchell, C. Wren Hoskins, Dr. J. Forbes Hoyle, F.R.S., A. Redgrave, E. C. Tufnell, J. Jobson Smith, R. L. Chance, J. G. Appold, F.R.S., G. Cruce, Dr. Farr, F. S. Cary, J. Scott S m i t h , w i th the follow ing representatives :—E. Heath (Liverpool Chamber of Commerce), E. Baines (Leeds), T. Woelcomhe (Devonport), W. L. Joynt (Limerick), R. J. Spiers (Oxford), with representatives from Manchester, Hull, Halifax, Durham, Darlington, Chelmsford, Cirencester, Lynn, Nottingham, Glasgow, Coventry, Lincoln, New castle, Oldham, Dover, Swansea, Brighton, Salisbury, Ely, Gateshead, Sheffield, Stoke-upon-Trent, Warring. ton, Windsor, &c. Lord Cowiey introduced the members of the deputa tion present to the Emperor, namely, Lord Ehrington, S,r Cane. Fox, Mr. Chadwick, C. 8., Mr. Cole, C. 8., Dr. Royle, Mr. F. Bennoch, Mr. Ceauce, Mr. F. Chance, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Lucy, Mr. Hollins, wits Mr. Le Neve Foster, the secretary, and Dr. Booth, the chairman of the council, who placed the following ad dress in the hands of the Emperor : " Sire,—May it please your Imperial Majesty, wo the council and members of the society instituted at Landon in 1754, for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce, together with the representatives of the literary, scientific, and mechanics' institutions throughout Great Britain and Ireland associated with us, beg leave to ap proach your Imperial Majesty with sentiments of the most profound respect. In accordance with the recommenda tions of his Royal Highness the Prince Albert, our illus trious president, who founded the Exhibition of 1851, in whose success our society took a deep interest, we have visited this magnificent city to judge for ourselves of the effects of such displays of industry in accelerating the pro gress of arta manufactures, and commerce, as also carefully to inspect those splendid public works which adorn the capital of France, and refleot a lustre on your Majesty's name that will be as lasting as themselves. Since our ar rival we have regarded with feelings of admiration and de light the manifold features of this great exhibition. We re joice to be enabled to express our decided opinion that the contents of its several compartments afford the most COD viuciug evidence of the marked and rapid progress which has taken place in arts and manufactures during the last four years. The sublime conception of inviting all us' tions to contend in friendly rivalry with each other for the promotion of the material welfare of mankind is fully developed and once more realised in the French Universal Exhibition. This grand display of the vast and varied results of genius and industry assures us that the waste of war will be in some measure compensated, and that beneath the peaceful banners of an onward civilisation. the nations of the west will achieve victories not less glo rious than those which, under Providence, the justice of their cause and their own enduring bravery have . won for their united arms. While the impulse thus given to the That cultivation of the arts of peace has multiplied the rela tions and strengthened the bond of union between France and England, their political alliance, consecratedhas by the blood of the bravest and noblest of their sons, ripened anee and intob lood the has cordial sympathy as our nati . f o o n r a . l we fri h en o d ld shi • p t . England is the one sure guarantee been shed deepest conviction that the zohdafriortythoef conservationFr bestpromote we further believe that they may _ their and advancement of the civilisation of the world. And a d freer interchange of the pro ductsnsolidate their alliance by mutualofproinspdeursittryy industry. whose it th progresse spe. uniting their exertions to give a wider development to arts, manufactures, and comme rce , Mal object of our sat iet y to advance. As the fa ithful and unswerv i ng upholder of that alliance and the conservat or o f your Majesty receives from us and f rom our fel low-coun t r ymen of every class and grade the sp on t aneous civilisation, homage of an unquestioning confidence. W e pray your raccitouasnlydtouancfceeigpntetd admiration.—Gives humble tribute iration._Givett Im perial profound under our common seal this B th day of Septemb er 1855. Majesty r respect " JAMES BOOTH, Chairman of the &Linen. " P. LE NEvE PeeTEE, Secretary." His Majesty received the deputation most graciously, expressed his regret at having been unavoidably com pelled to delay the reception of the address, and con versed in excellent English With the members of the de. putation. After shaking bands with the chairman and other members of the deputation, the Emperor withdrew. The interview lasted nearly half-an-hour. L'KET fvs._-(THIS DAY.) CORN EXCHANGE. The quantity of English wheat r eceived fresh u p to our but we had a large supply market to-day was limited ; ou oiler loft over from Monday. For most kiuds the de. nand was far from active, bat no change took place in the quotations. Foreign wheat —the show of which was moderate—sold slowly at last week's currency. All floating cargoes sup. ported previous rates. , The few samples of barley .in the market were readily I disposed of at very fall prices, and the malt trade was -e was only a moderato inquiry for oats, on former - Ths terro'• 'rid flour changed hands steadily, at fall Beans, poas, quotations. ARU - \L9 'MIS '.!sitsit.. N.. laar4ri. ( 2,870 t t' I it I Vhott. engllsh .. 4,350 irWa •••• rorelgti I 1 4,30 Oie.S. FlOLr. 590 1,053 I 1310 ska £ , M O f 1630 bra BORCRJGH HOP. There is a steady demand for most kinds of new topa, at from 4L to 6/. Gs par cwt. Duty, 300,000 WISITECSAYEL. The general demard ruled inactive today, LB ;follows: Beef, 3s 4d to 45 4d ; mutton, 3s 4a to 4s 4d veal, 30 &I to 45 8d; pork, 3s 63 to 4s 8d per 8113 s. by the carcase. A RAILWAY STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE.—The Bulb Pilll Railway station, or. the South Wales Rail way, about _l2 miles from Gloucester, ha been totally it I,e' )t t . ! r t ,at o r rer 1° ea JO u p. 15. 0 )10v mass 1I " s ba P rr b ' oil., 0 6 , 1 N• I I ble t he the a al' %nd A.c. rlf 1 1. ng