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

OCF 2I ga ;chi c ' t dire c " )f e Dial° 0 ego ' tear'. r A' ,eriv 5 iq ue Lo di ' l. w it 11 Do err 4 y-On ° ; ras '. Lerie rench : ►need inter rapet itarl plen* there of , . _ Pared ree i s t eeee wee elect' le: 48 theei halt been ex tad The enemy had evidently been taken by surprise, and after a feeble stand wane by the supports within the re doubt when the French entered, the place was vacated by its former hol,3ers, who kept up a running fire as the retired ; reserves, however; were speedily brought up. but as the French continued to pour In at all points in mere then an equal ratio, these t o o were soon overpowered, and in less than half an hour after the first Z iueve scaled the parapet, the Malakhoff was woe. The deafening roll of musketry, however, in no degree diminished, but swept on to the right towards the Little Redan, whose guns flanked the tower ; here, and in the adjoining works, the struggle Was continued for nearly a couple of hours, till the last Muscovite was driven from his cover, and the grind occupied by our allies. In the tneanriine, however, our own assault had begun. But it must first be mentioned that instead of having before them a work whose e mbrasures had been bunged• I , I P and its guns silenced, like the Malakhoff, cur men had to rush upon a line of battery nearly every piece in 'which was ready to receive them with grape and cauie ter. The French, too, started from a line of trench only Some forty yards from the point to be attacked, whilst our own troops were compelled to cross an open space of full six times the extent, and that, tee), under a direct and flanking fire from nearly a score of guns. It is need less to dilate upon the comparative difficulties of the two attacks ; hut, whilst awarding to the French a full weed of praise for their brilient gallantry on the occa s 'non, I cannot be betrayed by any mawkish generosity into a concealment of the infinitely greater dancers in volved in that portion of the day's achievements which fell to the lot of the British. On the day following the assault I crossed over the space between our fifth parallel and the Redan, and was then able an some degree to realize the difficulty of making a run over such a distance and such ground under the desolating fire of some 20 6 8 pounders loaded with grape and canister.- Let all this be borne in mind before any of your readers jump to the false conclusion that the French d splayed a greater heroism than ourselves ; for, raw and inexperi enced as were many of our troops engaged, with some few exceptions they fought as became the conquerors of ttS Alma and Inkertnann. As soon a.; the French had tirade good their footing in tile Melakheff a tricolour was run up to announce tire triumph, and immediately after a small white flag—the signal appointed for the advance of our own men—was waved from the, parapet of the Mamelon. At the first glance cf it 'the order was passed at from General Codriugton fur the stermers to leave Cover, and a half a minute after Major Web-ford and his Party, carying the scaling ladders, bounded over the Parapet of the buyeau. A volley if grape struck down nearly a third of them, poor Welsford included, but the remainder rushed gallantly or. In the meantime the Rifles, under Captain Fyers, kept up a yigerous and deadly fire on the embrasures; but the thick-matted lOantlets with which these were curtained in a great measure counteracted this, and the grape continued to fly thick and fast over the death-space to he crossed. The second body of stortnere followed quickly on the hills of those who were already placing the ladders, and, being well supported by those behind, were soon inside he Redan. 11,re a murderous but brief struggle ensued, and before many minutes had elapsed since the first of our men gained the parapet, none of the enemy, but the dead and dying remained within it. The Redan, like the Malokboff, was won. And here I might have Chanted a 'mean in honour of our unqualified triu mp h, too, had not the blundering mismaneement Which has so often borne fruit in the sacrifice of our troops again turned up to deprive us of our full share of the glory of this memorable day. In stead of pouring in supports to the aid of those in pos session of the redoubt, General Cotirington —I believe I am only justly attributing the blame to him—for some Inysterious strategic reasons known only to himself, kept back the troops who crowded the trenches in the rear till the enemy had time to bring up his overpewer ing reserves and clear the Redan of our men. The latter bravely, but vainly, attempted to make a stand, anxiously expecting every minute the arrival of supports, brit no supports came, and they were swept hack into th e open to retreat under fresh st lens of grape—ter by another marvellous piece of neglect no attempt at spiking the guns of the place had been made by those who hid gained a foetieg inside. Orders for the withheld sup- Ports were then given but in harmony with the blunder Which had gene before, the ihelligent aide—de-camp who carried the cemmande, being about as ignorant of the topography of the trenches as of the interior of Sehasto• Poi, stumbled on the wrong regiinents, and ordered up the first brierele of the Light Division, which had been told off as the proper reserve. Evident, heweeer, a-• Was the blunder, the gallant " fighting 7th," led on by Majo r Turner, and the 231, under Carl. Lysons, advanced to the renewed attack. The °thee-regiment - re who should have preceded, followed in a state of beautiful poll. mell, and tinder a fire of grape nod canister before which the bravest Columns of the Old Guard would have staggered, our Young levies—for such were three-fourths of the troops engaged—were led on to regain the ground which had been lost through mismanagement before. It was not, however, in human nature to make headway under such an iron storm ; the men turned, and fled back under Cover of the parapet, leeving very many of their own tumber, and teore in proportion of their officers, dead or dying on this field of death. Two young lieutenants, `Wright and Colt, of the 7th, were amongst the kiiled, and three of the seine rank of the 23d. Major Turner received a ball through his scalp—one of the narrowest. escapes of the day— whilst Lieuteeant Alma Jones, of fighting fame, was keocked over by a fragment of a shell. Colonel Lysons carried away a rifle bullet in his leg, and only three of all the remaininsf officers of these two crack regiments escaped untouched. From the failure of this sec eel attempt, the attack became one of rnusketry-fire over the parapet, aided by the guns of the Quarry and other batteries which bore upon the Redan. Brigadier Straubenzee, commanding the let Brigade of the Light Division, tried to induce his chief to storm again, o ffering to lean the assault with the still eater though shattered regiments of his own command ; but Sir William declined repeating the attempt at that time. rbence on till dusk, we waged a fuile war of mu and artillery fire, which .w is vi e orous'y replied to by the enemy, and night closed upon our men, disc mraged and bumbled that, through mismanagement on tie part of those with ahem lay the direction of the assault, they had failecliwhile the French had triumphed. It seemed as if we Were again to reap the bitter experience entailed on us by similar causes on the 18th of June, after having lost, in the killed and wounded, nearly half the number of men, and much more than that proportion of officers, of the whole force engaged. The Russian apothegm of "an army or lions led on by donkies," had once more been illustrated ; awl whilst our allies were jubilant With well-earned success, we were humbled by the con sciousness of undeserved defeat. Up till midnight, such was pretty much the state of feeling prevalent throughout the camp, as also amongst the men who romeined in the trenches keeping up the distant attack on the work which they had won and lost. It was known that with dawn another assault would be made, and continued at whatever cost till the redeui t had been finally gained ; but this hope was, after all, but a feeble consolation after the signal and costly re pulse we had sustained before the eyes of the triumphant French, However, there was nothing else for it ; and so everyone anxiously awaited daylight on Sunday morning, when our slaughtered hundreds were to he avenged, and the tarnish cast upon our unitary honour wiped away. About an hour after midnight, however, the enemy forestalled all this by blowing up their maga zine, and abandoning the redoubt. Such, it is presumed, was the fact, though it is not improbable that the explo sion may have been ceustd by one of our own shells. Be this as it may, the re•ult was the same ; aed on a party of our men being soon after sent out to recon noitre, it was discovered that the Russians bad given up the game. Our troops were, accordingly marched in, and the first grey streaks of daylight saw the British ensign waving over a surrender which had already been a prize. Long before darkness had set in on the previous evening, the French had swept the chain of works on the proper left of the Ma lakhoff; and thus the whole line, from the Quarantine Fort Ao the mouth of time Tchernaya, was in the hands of the Allies—the Russian batteries opposed to the French Left having been simultaneously evacuated. Dawn showed the last stragglers of the retiring enemy hurrying ever the bridge of boats, which was promptly destroyed when they bad crossed ; and as the entire shipping—one frigate and a couple of small steamers alone excepted—hadbeen sunk during the night, the sun rose upon as desolate a scene as if Sebastopol had never been inhabited, nor its splendid harbour covered with ships of war. Even before the blow-up of the Redan several mines had been fired by the enemy along and within their line of works, and during the night they consummated the sacrifice of their stronghold by blowing up Fort Paul, and firing nearly all the principal 'buildings which had not already been in flames. And thus ended the attack and capture of Sebastopol. By early daylight, as soon as it was evident that the enemy had indeed cleared out of the town, the French crowded in, like crows to a carrion, to eorge their plun dering appetites with what spoil had been left behind. As on the whole of the previous day, during the pro gress of the attack, double lines of cavalry sentries were posted along the whole front of our camp ; and through this impassible barrier no one not on duty, or not belonging to the omnipotent staff, was allowed to go. About noon, however, armed with a pass, courteously given me by General Simpson, I crossed the line, and proceeded down to the scene of the preceding day's carnage. By the time I reached the fatal open in front of our fifth parallel, however, the dead had been gathered off the ground—the officers having been taken to the camp, and the men thrown into the deep and broad ditch f , f the Redan. And there was a sight harrowing enough to affect nerves of iron and a heart of stone ; piled up, row upon row, lay the bodies of the brave fellows whose blood had gained our triumph, nearly filling the huge dike—a ghastly and mangled multitude. Those who hal died within the Redan bad also beet, ga•hered into the ditch ; so that I looked upon nearly all the British who had fallen in this last scene* of an eleven months.' tragedy. The first fact which struck an observer was, that nearly all who lay there were old soldiers, men who had borne the heat and burthen of the day—hardly a beardless face was to be seen ; the second, the calmness which appeared on almost every countenance, even where the death-wounds had been the most severe. Some, whose death must have been instantaneous, lay with unclosed eyes "gazing on the sky," and but for the glazed pupils and ghastly countenance, might have been supposed basking for pleasure in the sun ; whilst others again were stretched out in all the seeming composure of a calm sleep. Amongst them lay a few Russians, hideous in their rays and dirt, but displaying like wise but few of the hair roving traces of acute or prolonged deatiethroes. As I passed over this bridge of corpses into the interior of the Redan, a fatigue parte was already beginning to shovel in the pa tapet upon the bodies, many of whom thus fond a grave : 1 "., I 1€ that t e 6 to i e or' d t" d yer r 03. b,adi ` tv' del. ; r ove► i 0 the were of 0r bl si 7° 3T , for to• 0 38 he of the ;over , the mv , sx'a Q . ed i.o nuk e ov" , • THE SUN; LONDON, WEDNE'SDAY EVENINT, SEPTEMBER, 26, 1855. ere O,E T nervy had elrried .}ff neatly ad their dead a i i wouineeel, which accounted fir the fe'snesse of the former mooed inside the redoubt. Terrible were the traces of our fire which here met the eye—to say nothing of dismounted guns, shattered plat forms, and broken carriages, nearly every square yard of the place was torn up by round shot and exploded shell. How any human beings could have existed in such a pandeineailim r f explesiee horrors it pilule.' every Dee who looked on the so it to conceive. The place sae for merly been a vieeyarl, R ed was censequeetty honey combed originally; but these small hollows had been knocked into every possible shape, and scarcely a foot of space left which had not been ploughed up by the fire of .our own and the Frerch guns. Leaving, however, a more detailed description of the interior of this formid able work fer a future letter, I pass on to the portion of the town at the base of the slope which it crowns, and here, for the first time, I trot a glimpse of the utterly unknown extsnt of the inj try which had been done to the town itself by our fire. As viewed even with the aid of a good glass from our moet advanced parallel, not a tithe of the mischief was visible, except amongst the houses oppo ite the French left attack. But even here, in a portion of the place which everybody supposed to be comparatively uninjured, nothing but ruins met the eye. Shot and shell had smashed in roofs, penetrated and knocked down walls; and, in fact, left nearly every building one cline to crue bling and shapeless masses of battered masonry. My exploration in this direc tion, h-wever, was soon brought te a dead halt, for as I was crossing what had been a small vineyard behind one of the main buildings which led down to the Admiralty and Fort Nicholas, a rascally French sentry ordered me to stop, and, before I had time to ask why, the scoun drel deliberately levelled his piece and fired, sending a bullet within a few inches of nay heal. As there was no replying to such arguments as this, I thought it best to prosecute my researches elsewhere, awl so turned away to explore the main body of the town on the opposite side of the Admiralty Creek. But at every point I found Frenchmen poking into every nook and erennie, over hauling everything and appropr Ming whatever apt eared worth carrying away. A. few of our own men had ma naged to dodge the sentries, and were eimilarly em ployed ; but, besides being numerically only as one to a hundred of the Gaul, they went about the business with a clunisieese and evident inexperience which contrasted strikingly with the practised tact and professional ability of the red-breeched enfants around. In descending the slope which leads down to the head of the Creek, I came in sight of piles of new cannon and shot, ranged as one may see them alinig the river front of Woolwich Ar senal, on both sides of the Creek. Certainly this was a contradiction of the generally-believed reports of the enemy's shortness of guns and ammunition ; and similar evidence met my eye at every battery I passed—shot, shell, grape, canister, powder, and musket cartridge seemed everywhere abundant. On gaining the summit of the opposite slope, on and beyond which the main body of the town is situated, French, nothing but French, were to be met with, the rnejority of them drunk, and all laden with every conceivable kind of plunder. Chairs, tables, looking-glasses,church ornaments, poultry kegs i if brandy, mattres- es, bed clothes, cooking utensils—c' ery de mestic moveable, in fact, that ever figured in a catalogue at the city auction mart, w,s being cart ied or dragged along by eur iight-fingered allies, whilst only at long in tervals was an Englishman to be seen with a single article, and in three is stances I found Frenchmen dis puting their right even to these Mere than one lament on our tai ure beetre the Rotate was also uttered, and in one case , n wh ch reproach was thrown into the teeth of a brawny Irish Greeadier by a diminutive Uhasteur with more impudence that discretion I take to myself the credit of having saved a subject of the Emperor from summary annihilation. Pat hall laid hands on a bundle of crnckeryware, and was preceeding c enfortably along under the iefluenee of a double allowance of ruin, when the Frenehman, still were off for liquor, came reeling by with a lookieg-glass under ..i.e aria and a coupe of ducks under the other. " RH, Redan, no, Maaitheff yes ; Ingelese no bone spirited out the son of France, tee eine the Irisemari vii h impudent familiarity on the elbow. The " whirroo !" that followed was worthy of Donnybrook, aed in an instant, dashing his crockery to the ground, Paddy grasped the Frenchman by the most capacious portion of lie' pantaloolis, sent the looking glass to shivers, and would have mode work for the doctor out of it., owner if I earl not at that moment come up to the rescue, Seeing Frenchmen hurrying to the ec me of this tiugi c onedy from ail points, I deemed it best, for my countryman's own sake, to prevent his ad ministering a chastisement which, however amply de served, might have endangered the safety of its bestower, and so liberated the frightened impudent, and endea voured te calm deem the wrath of the infuriated Kerry man. This, however, was no easy task ; but by en dorsing his declaration of being able to beat ten French men any day I finally reduced the storm, and sent him on his way to the outskirts of the town. I cannot refrain from adding one sentence on a sub ject to which I shall again recur—the prohibition which has been issued aeainst our own troops sharing in the spoil, whilst carte blanche has been allowed to the French. Our catnip is swarming with these last offering for sale, every conceivable description of plunder, and getting high prices for their goods too—whilst our own men, who have equally shared in all the danger and toil of .he siege, are prevented frien fingering as much as an empty bottle. The discontent which has risen amongst them in consequence is not deeper , han it is juse atal ;effects credit peithehon the jed e rnent nor the regard f r lair play of those from whom the prevention proceeds. But with i it is always so ; at Kertch, where there was a colouring fur the prolobitien the French plundered all before thorn —to their own indelible diSgrace ; but why a similar bar should be here again placed on the exercise of what is a right of every soldier who has taken part in the siege puzzles many more than myself to understand. SEPT. 15. My last letter, though written on the third day after the enemy's abandonment ,trorighuld, was. ne c,:ssarily confined to a narrative of the incidents of our own and the French attack. With a view of giving yeti the latest news, I had deferred waling it till the last hour allowed me by tne post, and was consequently un able to do more than refer to the fact that the Own. was already being rifled, Kerteh like, by our allies, whilst our men were virtually deprived of the very smallest benefits in the shape of plunder. The same necessity compelled me to postpone till now any detailee description of the state of the town itself, and of the works by means of which it has been so lung and so bravely defended. 'ln the present letter I shall attempt to give your readers some rough ideveof both. Before entering on anything in the shape of a de scriptien, either of the defending redoubts, or of Sebas topol itself, however, I wish to add to my former brief account of the operations of the Bth a further re inask or two in defence of the part enacted by our own men, ae,d to correction of an error which I there committed, in stating tha , the French had stormed the Little Redan and its .etjeinieg works in Careening Bay. should be meet sorry t n pen a line which would bear the ieterpretation of jealousy or towards our gal lant allies, whose bravery and helotnitable energy I have so often had occasion to admire ; but, whilst extending a full 'n eed o f p r aise f tr all teey have both endured aid accomplished, I would permit no squeamish getornsity towards them to dull my recollection, to.. quality my euloey, of what our own troops have in like manner suf. fered and achieved. That in the two combined attacks, however, which have terminated the siege of Sebastopol, our allies succeoled in that undertaken by them, whilst we failed in the other allotted to us, may at first sight seem humiliating to our military pride ; but when the relative difficuitiee of the two operations are consi dered, I venture to think that we shall suffer little either in our own estimation or in that of Europe generally. Mainly owing to the fire of our Eng lish batteries during the three previous days of the bombardment—for the Marnelon had remained all but silent throughout that period—the French on the forenoon of the 8 h found every gun but one in the Malakh ff silenced. Their advanced sap, too, had brought them to within some forty yards of their point of attack, and during their rapid dash in column, over this narrow space, they were ex pesed only to the grape-shot of this one gun. Once Un the face of the parapet, they were safe from a second discharge, and had then only to contend against the faint and brief resistance of a body of trench guards, who had evidently been taken unawares. A rapid and well-sustained fire of musketry soon expelled these, and the reserves who were hurried up by the enemy had equally little chance a g ainst the swarming columns of our allies, whom good generalship kept pouting in to the support of the first stormers as fast as human legs ceuld scramble up the broad parapet and jump inside the redoubt. Such a contest was merely a question of numbers ; and; having made excellent arrangements to secure theireown superiority in this respect. the French commencers had no can eto doubt the result. Widely different, however, was the case on our side. Differently construc:eci—as I shall presently describe—and stretch ing over a long line, in hardly any point exposed to so close and direct a fire as that which bore upon the Ma lakheff, the Redan had replied to our batteries with c ,n -siderable vigour throughout the entire bombardment ; and at noon of the Bth still continued to show fight with a dozen or so of uninjured guns. Instead, too, of forty yards of open space, the nearest point from our most advanced parallel to the diech of the Redan mea sured 220, and this, also, everywhere exposed to the fire of twelve or fourteen 68-pounders. I have several times crossed this fatal spot since the capture of the place, and each time with increa-ed wonder how a single man of our whole stortners could have escaped the tornado of grape and canister which such an armament c rind, and did, send forth. Scarcely afoot of surface is there'eyllich a gun did not sweep ; and when I add that theAikemy had time to fire three eounde from every piece, from the • first issue of our men from the shelter of our own para pet till their arrival at the broad ditch where so many have since found a grave, I ain disposed to think that your readers will share in ray cu, prise. Inevit 0-Ay re pulsed, then, as they were, our shattered companies were compelled to fall hack on the trench which they had left ; and to regain this they hail to pass through the same storm of fire as before. H a d th e y, indeed, been property supported, this second ordeal would have been spared them ; and, in spite of all its grape and canister, the Redan would, without doubt, have been our own. To every attempt at repeating the attack the same for midable front was shown, and cut up as they had been in their filet essay, it was not to be wondered at that our young troops, many of whom were under direct fire for the first time, shrank from a second exposure to the desolating storm. Such, then, is a brief statement of the relative diffi culties of the two attacks on the Redan and Malakhoff ; and, bearing in mind these facts, few, I am inclined to believe, will consider that the Fiench have much ground for boasting, as compared with ourselves. !hat they fought and conquered bravely I would be the last to deny ; but that they would have succeeded, with the mine numerical strength as our own, against the Redan, I no impar ial and intelligent man could believe. In proof of this, and rather more, I may add mention of their 1 iteceep the ,Nlaseastiolf. The ix or debt gnus of this work had continued effective throughout the bombardment ; and when our a'fies, after their dashing capture of the larger redoabt, 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 speedily checked their impetuous and confident advance. Three several times did they repeat the attempt, but they were as often driven back with heavy loss, and finally abandoned the effut.. During the night, when the Re• clan itself was blown up, the works in Careening Bay shared a smilax fate, and were entered, without a blow, in the moraine. When I last wrote, my impression 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 Malakhoff, but a few hours later I learned my error, and therefore add this sentence in correction of what I then stated. 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 appearance of the Redan externally. Let even those of your readers who may not have seen the topo graphical sketch to wh,ch 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 bidstliog with the black muzzles itf 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 a portion of the parapet above. The ghastly piles nearly filled the vast trench to a level with the outer surface, and the thin covering of earth which now conceals them from view barely falls below the summit of the low bank in front. What first struck one in passing up the cut made by our seppers through the broad parapet was the unusual solidity and strength of this last—averaging 30 or 35 feet along its entire front. On such a soli t mass of gabions, fascines, sandbags, and earth, I need hardly say that artillery of even the heaviest calibre could have no sensible effect : 68 or 98-peund shot might enter, but they could not penetrate. Compared with this massive structure of nand and wickerwork, the thickest of our own or the French works is as paper to a deal board. Then within, besides the great superiority of their mantlets—strong ripen curtains hung across the embrasure, to shelter the gunners frora the besiegers' riflemen. You admire the cover provided tir their ar tillerymen when not actually working the guns, in little retreats proof against any but the very heaviest splinters of shell. But these, again, are nothing when compared with the shot and shell proof chambers for the shelter of larger bodies of troops, which abound throughout the work. I dived into several of these half subterranean waiting-rooms, and found many of them fitted up with fire-places, cooking cenveniences, 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 seine even handsomely glazed cupboards, containing empty wine bottles, and other traces of their occupants' regard fir creature c enforts. On a shelf in one of them I lighted on a cheap Farringdoustreet reprint of " Paul Clifford," an I an old copy of the Illustrated News—the later with sundry engravings of scene-- from 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 irregioar 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 independent sopports similarly armed and of nearly equal strength in construction to the front line of tne redoubt, which •tends to them, in faet, in the relation of a screen. Their guns, ton, so thoroughly command the whole inferior of the Redan that any assailing force which mieht have succeeded in forcMg the outer battery would have been expossd to an inner fire as galling as and mwe concentrated than the first. The whole struc ture and arrangement of these inner defences, indeed, are such as to justify the belief that, had the redoubt been strenuously defended, no body of attacking troops that could have been brought against it would have hail a chance of success. And the same system of rear de fences extended down along nearly the whole curtain leading towards the Malekhoff. The open behind the Redan, a, I have already mentioned, presents a broken surface, literal , y ploughed up into narrow trenches by round shot, and 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 missiles has not fanen. 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 had 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—new 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 pre=eut covered with the ruins of Fort Paul. C 'needled as they are from view from our trenches by the Redan hill, I , as one ,f many who, till within the past five days, were utte ly ig ior-nt of the extent of the mischief which had been done to these buildings by our fire. Shattered end riddled to all points, they seem the very type of architecture' ruin. Only a degree better i-' the condition of the next range of buildings beyond ; the terrible effects of shot and shell everywhere meet the eye, in shattered colu us, level ed side-walls, anti fallen roofs. Even in this extreme of i'es dation, however, enough remains to suggest how fine—almost grand--must have been the structures thus ruthlessly destroyed. Tue general character of these piles of buildings resembled in some degree that of the quadrangle of the Admiralty and other adjecent offices in Sonierset-house. As the distance from 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 dammcge is con iderable. Crossing one of the interven ng esplanades, I rode through a wide gap made in the wall separat lig it from the buildings of the dock 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 friun much of the injury which hes falleii so destructively everywhere else, as only here and there are the marks of a shot or shell to be seen. The masonry of these spier] did basins equalled, if not surpassed, bi th in filch and solidity, anything to be seen either in Pur:swouth or Woolwich. In one of the latgest of the locks lay the tall smoking remains of a large war steamer, with the machinery, paddles, and other olhl iron fi tugs 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 reinahie of the huge shears at which I had so often gazed from Cathceree and the Picket-house Hills. Then came ruins (4f burnt acid 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 atone quay, flanked on one 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 loathsome duty of removing some 400 Russian dead, some of whom bad been found laid outside along the quay, and the remainder within the buildings. Of these last a large num ber had been discovered in a vault under the building, piled up in rows, one on top of the ofier, and judgneg from their state they must have been dead at least 9 or 10 days. The officer in command of the party cle•cibed the condition of these belies as loanlasoineita tne extreme. Of those found laid eut on the greun I floor of the budd ing two still breathed when tees , were first discovered, and a man who bad accidentally strolled into the place a day sooner than " the authorities," affirmed that he had counted 12 of them alive. Besides these, in ant ther vault, some 20 or 30 bodies were found coffined, some with the coffin-lids firmly screwed down, and others with them lying by the side of the dead ; these were doubtless officers. The Transport Corps men were piling up the last load of corpses an I rodeup, and certainly the sight and the smell were offensive to the last degree. From this point, some hundreds of yarils down the quay, the bloodstained and noiseeerne rage of those who had be- n already borne away still remained ; but they were to be forthwith pied up and burned. From the disci,- 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 having received no a'tention whatever. Tower Is the extremity of the quay is a new, half finished building of cut stone, of similar arohitec tural character to the line of edifices along the front of which I had already passed. Even it, far removed as it is trom 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 bad mounted a mortar, and were then throwing shells at a working party employed in the construction of a fort on the north side. They made very pretty practice ; sending nearly every other shell withinnsor close upon, the new parape , and inflicting evident de triment on those at work. Tile Russians replied with a few round shot, but without effect ; and when I turned from viewing the pile of broken stories 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 stnall buildings in this neighbourhood, and the fallen-in roofs of these were still smouldering as 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 Conetantine to its ter mination at the embouchure of the Tchernaya. Close under Fort Paul, in about twenty feet of water, lay the remains of the burned ship whose destruction I reported some ten days ago ; out further, about the middle of the harbour, appeared the mast-beads 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, had been burned a few days before— the day after I last wrote. This final sacrifice of the last remains of their once proud Black Sea fleet was occasioned by our having, on Tuesday last, brought down a couple of guns from our advanced batteries to a point near the harbour, which commanded these few re maining vessels ; our gunners put four shots into the bull of one of the steamers, which were replied to liy a f e w s h e ns, i-eeieg that further defence was us, le the enemy consummated the destruction of their vessels 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 war, is the present aspect of this once crowded and navy-lalen har bour 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 the north side, beyond the forts on the shore and seine wooden huts scattered over the face of the slope, there is au extensive gathering of tents, and signs of great activity all over the enemy's new set tlement. The width of the harbour is so inconsiderable, 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 unburnt 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 dead 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. Inside, 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 storm over this quarter too, the consum mating touch of French fingers had not been wanting to perfect the desolation—and 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. Little 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, ann the like, met the eye and foot at every point along the street on which this little floral nook had abutted ; as if sheer love of ruin had been as strong an impelling motive with the destroyers as their unsparing itch for plunder 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 foreially in 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, iu 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 commander. Altegether, amity in fact and amity in print, are here ,hown to be distinctions with a dif ference. Talk as credulous apostles of French nod English ueity may, the British Lion and Gallic Eagle will 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, hut still retain a smouldering vitality under all the surface of factitious harmony which mere political contingencie , i may create for tl e time. In o .nstructien and general appearance the Maiakh. ff differs little firms its neighbour the IVlanaelon ; the same massive parapet of earthwork, gabions, and sandbags, with similar underground sirdabs to those in the Redao, but wi.hout the formidable rear defences to be seen within that redoubt, so that the outer line of battery on ie gained, the mastery of the interior became merely an affair of ruesketry and the bayonet. As in the case of the Red-in, so here again nearly every inch of ground behind the breastwork was cut up by our own and the French fire. The embrasures still remain closed, as on the morning of the Bth, and will, of course, never be re-op ned in the same direction. As in all the other baitelies belonging to the enemy which I have visited. there has appeared no scarcity of ammunition—round shot, shell, grape, canister, and every other missile known to artillerists, everywhere abounded. I noticed that at the moment of the enemy's flight vary many of their mortars had been left loaded, and wanti. g only the application of a match to send their deadly contents into our own or the French lines. Before passing from this subject of the enemy's field deferces, however, I may just mention that in the Redan, and, I believe, some of the other batteries, large maieezines full of Russian powder still remain, the daily explosion of which, strange to say, we await—passing in crowds ever those hidden mines the while. The quail ti ty 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 Mon la regle, instead of permitting it to take its own time under the sae iuldering gahions and other woodwork on the surface of the ground, puzzles 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 Own, 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 Rifles a few days ago within the town ; he was riding quietly along when a shell tnrown from the north side of the harbour struck the ground imme diately under his horse's body, and exploding at the mo ment killed the animal without seriously injuring his rider. Were an incident of this kind meationed in a work of fiction, one would be more disposed to place it to the account of the author's imagination and ignorance of what shells are than to believe in its possibility. The fact, however, occurred as I have stated it, and is con sidered 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 as days roll on. In the centre of a small knot of commercial Zouaves, outside the French bazaar on the Woronzoff road, I noticed, a few days ago, no less distinguished a purchaser than the Duke of Newcastle, who was bargaining forsome Russian trophies with a close- Nees that would have done credit to the economic instinct of Lord Aberdeen. The Gauls chaffed his grace with a freedom which Flowed how little they suspected that their customer was no less a personage than the British ancien ministre de la guerre, frequently display ing their sympathy with the duke's linguistic difficulties by assuring him that he was a bono Ingleez notwithstane jag. The Marquis of Sligo is also at present in the camp, on a visit to his brother, Captain Lord Richard Browne, of the 7th Fusiliers. During the late attack, and for some time preceding it, Colonel Powell Thomas, of the Contingent, was present as a volunteer with the 44th Regiment—the only one of the force to which he belongs who bas as yet, I believe, taken a part in any of our operations. By next post I hope to be 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 afloat on the breeze of camp rumour ; and I need, therefore, hazard no personal • surmises. Another visit to the French part of the town, as yet undescribed, will also furnish me with some ma ) terials of interest for the same mail. MARSHAL PELISSIER'S DESPATCH. HEAD-QUARTERS AT SEBASTOPOL, SEPT. 11. M. le Marechal,—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. partition 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 reads, in order to permit our engineers to establish defences close t) the place, from which the troops might be able instantly to throw themselves upon the enceinte. Our engineers besides prepared materials foe escalade, and on the sth of September all our batteries of the left opened a very violent fire against the town. The English on their side kept up a hot cannonade against the Great Redan and its redoubt, which they were to attack. All being ready, I resolved, in concert with General Simpson, to give the assault on the Bth of Sept., at the hour of noon. General M‘Mahon's Division was to carry the works of the Malakhoff_; General Dulac's Division was to attack the Little Redan ; and in the centre the Division of General La Motterouge was to march against the curtain connecting these two extreme points. Besi.lee these troops, I had given to General Bosquet Germs Mellinet's division of the Guards, to support the first 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 division, -was to penetrate into the interior of the town by the Central Bastion, and afterwards turn the Flagstaff Bastion in order to establish a lodgment there likewise. General de Sallee had instructions not to pursue his attack further than circumstances might render it ad visable. Further, the fleets of Admirals Lyons and Bruat 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 Motto 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`Mahon's division succeeded in effecting a lodgment iii the anterior part of the Mala khoff. The enemy showered down a storm of projectiles of all kinds upon our brave troops. The Redan of the Careenage, espeoially battered by the maison en croix an I the steamers, it teas neees.ary to evaceate aft: r irri occup &on ; but the division of Gen , ral La Metterouge made its ground good on one part of the curtain, and that of General WAlation gained ground in the Mala khoff, where General Bosquet sent continually the re serves which I sent forward to him. The other attacks were subordinated to that of the Malalthoff, that being the capital point of the defences of the whole place. Standing in the Brancion Redoubt (on the Mamelon) I considered that the Ala,lakhoff was safely in our power, and I gave the signal which had been agreed upon with General 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 Sallee had directed an attack against the Central Bastion. The i evaillant Division had begun to establi-1 itself in it, as well as in the Right Lunette ; a tremendous fire of grape was suc ceeded by the arrival of Russian reinforcements, so con siderable in number that our troops already decimated by the fire of the enemy, and whose chiefs ha I 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 hoetile army to remain on all points, had already attained their main object. I then directed my sole attention to the retaining possession of the Malakhoff, which General WMahon 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 Malakhoff exploded at this moment, from which contingency I anticipated the most serious results. The Russians, hoping to profit by this accident, im 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 compelled 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 for 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 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 making a complete evacua , ion ; 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. On the morning of the 9th the whoie 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 ; and I shall have, great as the number is, to name to you those who have dis tinguished themselves a song s many valiant soldiers. I cannot yet do so, but I shall fulfil this duty in one of my next despatches Deign to accept, Monsieur Is Mar4chal, the expression of my respectful devotion.—The Geuer.►i-in-Chief, PELISSIE R. GENERAL NIEL'S DESPATCH. SEBASTOPOL, SEPT. 11. Monsieur le Mardchal,—The place of Sebastopol was stormed on the Bth of September. That assault has rendered us masters of the Maiakhoff 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 evaeute 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 tilesteamers ; 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 pints our at tacks were repulsed ; but the chief attack, that which insured our success, was not doubtful for an instant. The Ist division of the Ist corps, commanded at present by General M`Mahon, carried at the first onset the Ma lakhoff work, and Vitro maintained itself herlically, understanding that it held in its hands the keys of the place. I am going to give you an account of the di positions that had been taken for diminiAlvng as much as possible the numerous difficulties attending - this terrible made, not on a place invested, on a limited garrison, but on a vast 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 di,- twice of the Little Redan of the Careenage. This im- portant result was duo to the incontestable superiority of our artillery over that of the enemy. The generals-in-chief of the- allied armies had 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 bad husbanded their fire, were to resume it with great erif-r , ..g. Such a cannonade wa ,- ; never 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. Ours, 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 oiir infantry; fatigue parties were principally employed in enlarging the most advanced place d'armes and the defiles, and in carrying to the spot the means of crossing the ditches. The aim of all our efforts was the capture of the work constructed behind the Malakhoff Tower. This work (called the Kornlloff Redoubt by the Russians), which is an immense redoubt, a kind of citadel of earth, occupies a mamelon which commands all the interior of the Ka rabelnaia suburb, takes the Redan attacked by the Eng lish de revers, and is only 1,200 metres from the south port, on which the Russians had constructed a bridge of rafts, now their only communication between the suburb and the town. The Malakhoff Fort is 350 metres by 150 metres in dimensions. The parapets have more than 6 metres of relief above the soil, and in front of them is a ditch which before our attacks was 6 metres in depth and 7 in width. It was armed with 62 guns of various calibres. In the front part, enclosed by the parapet, is the Malakhoff Tower, of which the Russians have only preserved the rez de chausee, which is crenellated. In the interior of the work the Russians bad 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 Little described in order that you may judge of the difficulties which our soldiers had to surmount, consisted of not less thousand metres or i k n , than 2,500 men. The Malakhoff b y t front,e hi le ch Redan. is a hou This last length, is bounded on our left by F or t M a l a kh o ff, an d on our e right which, at the commencement of th e si ege , was only a simple redan, was transformed littl e by little i n to a re doubt, closed at the gorge and heavily armed. The ex terior fronts of the two redoubts of Malakhoff and the Care, age were connected by a curtain armed with 16 cannons ; and behind the enceinte the Russians bad raised a second, which connected the fronts of the gorges of the two redoubts. This second enceinte, armed in part, had not, however, a ditch presenting a serious obstacle. The rocky nature of the soil bad hindered the enemy from excavating everywhere equally the ditch of the first curtain and of the Little Redan, and on several points the troops were able to pass it without very much difficulty. For passing the ditches, which bad a consi derable depth, we had contrived a system of bridges which could be thrown in less than a minute by an in genious manceuvrs, to which our sappers and soldiers d'elite had been trained. The French artillery was so superior to that of the Russians that it bad extinguished the fire of nearly all the guns pointed directly at our attacks. Th e filled up embrasures relieved us from the fear that our columns might be assailed 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 hsd been assailed by so large a number of shells, thrown from our batteries and those of the English, that the guns which did not look directly upon our attacks had their embra cures also filled up, and everywhere the terrassements had lost their original form. But, behind the de fences situated in the first line the Russians had preserved a large number of pieces, which we could not contre-battre completely, and 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 even since my arrival before Se bastopol I was decidedly of opinion that the true po i nt of attack was the tower or mamelon of Malakhoff, and that this opinion having been adopted by General Canrobert, those attacks of the right were undertaken, which were executed by the 2d corps. From the side of the town we had been content to extend towards the left the approaches executed by the Ist corps. Taking things at the point where they stood, when the a,saurt was resolved on, there was no doubt that Lhe possession of the Malakhoff fort would lead to a decisive result ; and on the other hand it was to be presumed that if a failure took place on this point succes' obtained else where could not lead to great results. However, it was not proper to attack a place so extended upon one single point. It was 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 where-by he might make his retreat. It was to satisfy these vario Is considerations, it was to insure success, while economising as much as possible the blood of our soldiers in the terrible stru g gle then preparing, that the General-is-Chi e f decided that the assault should first be made on the fro at of the Mala khoff; 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 all his efforts against the troops that should have already taken possession of the Malakhoff Fort. The front of the Malakhoff was to be attacked by three columns ; the one on the left, commanded by General de M'Mahon, moving in a straight line on the Malakhoff Fort by the front that faced us, and in turn ing it slightly on the right hand, had for its task the taking and keeping of it, cost what it might ; the right column, Dulac's division, was to march against the Re dan of the Careening Bay, 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 'anger extent of ground to pass over, and arriving a little later, was to carry the curtain, to proceed then a g ainst the second enclosure, and send one of its brigades to the assistance of the first column, if this latter 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 wore given as a reserve to the 2d Corps. The chief of the Engineer Battalion Ragon, having under his orders several brigades of Rappels, marching with the first column, had to throw bridges across the ditches, see after the mines, open everywhere a passage to the columns, 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 Renoux, attached to the right column, and Captain Schoennagel, attached to the central column, having also brigades of sappers under their orders, had to fulfil an analogous mission. All the arrangements concerning the duty of the engi neers in the attacks to be made on the Malakhoff had been made by the General of Brigade Frossard, com manding the engineers of the 2d corps. 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 assault should be given at the Central Bastion, between its salient and the lunette on the left ; that the assaulting 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 Sardinian Brigade, which bad come to take part in the operations of the First Corps. General Deleßme, commanding the Engineers of the First Corps, bad made arrangements for attacking the town similar to those which I have just explained with reference to the attacks of the Karabelnaia faubourg. On the Bth of September, at 8 o'clock in the morning, we threw on the Central Bastion two mines of projec• tion, each charged with 10 kilogrammes of plwder. The explosion took place near the middle of the Bastion and app ?aced to cau,e great disorder. At the same hour we exnloded, in front of our approaches to the Mala khofl 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 soil wag mined. At noon precisely our soldiers rushed from the ad vanced places darmcs 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'Emprreur !" At the Malakhoff Fort, the inte rior slope having a great height, those who arrived first halted an instant to form. Then they mounted ou the parapet and jumped into the work. TLe combat, which bad 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 hands of the Russian gunners, but everywhere the Russians were killed, taken pri soners, or made to fly ; and in less than a quarter of au hour after the stack had taken plane the French flag waved on the conquered redoubt. The Careenage Redan bad also been carried after a very hot struggle. The centre column had advanced as far as the second enceinte. Everywhere we had taken possession of the works attacked. The General in• Chief gave the concerted signal for the attack of the Great Re dan, 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, but 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 bodies of the enemy were piled up in front of the gorge, but the Ist Divison remained immovea!de, and in the evenime we were maters of this citadel, without which the Rus sians could not continue their defence for more than a few days. T:lus terminated this memorable siege, in which the means of defence and of attack attained colossal dimen sions. The Russian , had 800 cannon in battery, the be sieging army about 700. In finishing this report, I ought to tell you, Mon sieur le Mai Lhal, that the ;realest harmony has never ceased to prevail between the artillery and the engineers. Whenever one of these two services could come to the as-istance of the other, he did it with eagerness, and this community of views and action has given us the means of overcoming many difficulties. I have alsc had to congra!ulate myself in every in stance on my relations with General Harry Jones, com manding the engineers of the Enielish 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 Bomareund, 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, Monsier le Mar4chal, 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 East ; 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 np his formidable defences, set fire to the town, the storehouses, 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 reso:ution. The taking of Sebastopol will be your eternal honour. This immense success, while ;t augments the importance of our pceitinn in the Critrea,, makes the maintenance of it less onerous. It wilt now be permissible to send hcme to their hearths and families such of you as, having served their full time, have yet remained with us from necessity. I thank those soldiers in the Emperor's name for the devotedness of which they have never ceased to give proofs, and I will take care that they shall very soon return to their native land. &defiers ! the Bth of September, the day on which the English, Piedmontese, and French flags were unfurled together, will ever be a memorable day. Yon 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. PRLISSIER. " Head-quarters, Malakhoff Redoubt, Sept. 9, 1855." It will be remembered that one of Marshal Pe- . lissier's despatches spoke of General Gortschako f l having asked for au armistice, and nothing more has been heard about the matter since. The Con stantinople Journal gives the following details of the circumstances : "At half-past 9 o'clock on the 9th a shell, the only one that the Russians fired that daf, was shot forth from the Quarantine Fort. At the same moment a boat with a white flag put out from the shore, and sp o k e with a boat from the French admiral's ship, and after- wards had a similar meeting with an Engli.h boat. As soon as these conferences were over Admiral Lyons went to head-quarters, where he remained a long time, and on his return to the Banshee received orders to put to sea with a despatch for Lord de Radcliffe. All this while the Russians, who h a d comp l etely evace ated the southern side of the port, Were drawn up in order of battle behind Fort C onstant i ne, on a plateau forming a charming promenade, surrounded by trees. The flag of truce continued to float all day, and the Russians remained motionless Contemplating the flames which devoured the town. At 10 in the evening the Banshee started for Constantinople, where she bad orders to take on board Captain Drummond, of the Albion (anchored at Beicos). This officer left Constantinople for the Crimea in the Banshee on the 11th." The Pr•esse d'Orient says that Prince Gortscha koff wets a very old acquaintance of Captain Drum• mend's, that be had great confidence in his cm city ana discretion, and that he particularly wished to make use cf his ministry to confer with the Allies. During the assault General clo Safes was struck by a ball on the right thigh. He had in his trou sers pocket a number of the Cortstitutionnel and another newspAper, and these so broke the force of the bail that his wound is only described as a con tusion. The Constitutionnel says the grand result was obtained at the cost to the French army of 8,000 men, among whom were about 15 general officers. Of course it must be intended to include the wounded as well as the killed in this estimate. The staff suffered severely. Four staff officers— Lieutenant-Colonel Cassaigne (General Pelissier's aide-de-camp), Commandant Lefebvre, and Cap tains Ducos de Lahitte and de Laboissiere-- were all buried in one day at the Commander-in- Chief's head-quarters. At their funeral, which was attended by very many cfficers and met, General Pelissier, standing on the brink of the four graves, pronounced the following discourse : Gentlemen,—However great may be a triumph, how ever splendid a success, they are always painful when bought by such great sacrifices. The staff to which it is my pride to have belonged has just suffered very cruel losses which we cannot too much deplore. Captain Laboissiere, Captain de Lahitte, Commandant Lefebvre, and the brave Colonel Cassaigne, all four young officers full of promise, have fallen in the face of the enemy, victims to their devotion to duty. We lament them all, gentlemen ; but permit me to deplore more especially Colonel Cassaigne, who was my aide-de-camp—Cassaigne, who was with me ever since I was a general officer, and who would have continued to follow me throughout my military career ; Cassaigne, whom I loved like a son, and who should one day have closed my eyes, and who, alas t I now come here to bury. The death of Colonel Cassaigne is not only a heavy blow to my heart, it is a great loss to the country, and a great calamity for the army, in which his eminent qualities must have raised him to high command, and enabled him to render im portant services. Here the general, stifled by emo ti on, cou ld on ly add, " Let us all weep for him, gen tl emen ; we must now separate." On the same day General de Sailes pronounced a funeral oration over the 'bodies of Generals Rivet and Breton. LETTER FROM A FRENCH SOLDIER PRE SENT AT THE TAKING OF SEBASTOPOL. Dear Parents,—Since I write, you see I am not killed. I have been slightly mauled, for when my re giment mounted to the assault I was in one of the three companies that blaied away for upwards of two hours on a gang o Russians who obstinately defended a mortar battery. We were all the while over a mine and did not know it. At last the deVile set fire to the mine, and blew us up. Several of us, and I among them, went up 8 feet into the air, and when we came down again some '2OO 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 bad merely a contusion on the left shoulder and another 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 of my services in the regimental books. Well, at last we have taken this Sebastopol, so much desired. It has cost us dear, but 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 tour men, 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 171, se been down into the town. It is Landsome. We have seen the theatre, the cafd, and al► the storehouses, and 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 an other letter. Thank God for having preserved and pro tected me. I embrace you with all my heart.—Your son, THE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND THE Or THE FRENCH. 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 Arts 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 deputation consisted of Earl Grey, Vis count EbrirNton, M.P., General Buckley, M.P., J. Brady, M.P., E. Ball, M.P., W. E wart, M.P., R. Ste phenson, M.P., Sir Charles Fox, Edwin Chadwick, 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, jou., T. Sopwith, F.R.S., the Rev. M. Mitchell, C. Wren Ho , kins, Dr. J. Forbes Royle, F.R.S., A. Redgrave, E. C. Tulnell, J. Jobson Smith, R. L. Chance, J. G. Appold, F.R.S., G. Cruce, Dr. Farr, F. S. Cary, I. Scott Smith, with the follow ing representatives :—E. Heath (Liverpool Chamber of Commerce), E. Baines (Leeds), T. Wosicombe (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 Cowley introducad the members of the deputa tion present to the Emperor, namely, Lord Ebrirtgton, Sir Cuas. Fox, Mr. Chadwick, C. 8., Mr. Cole, C. 8., Dr. Royle, Mr. F. Bennoch, Mr. Chance, Mr. F. Chance, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Lucy, Mr. Hollins, with 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 : 7 _ " Sire, —May it please your Imperial Majesty, wo the council and members of the society instituted at L Anion 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 seutimente (f the sliest profound respect. In accordance with the recommenda tions of his Royal Highness the Prince Albert, oar illus trious president, who founded the Exhibition of 1851, iu whose success our society took a deep interest, tve have visited this magnificent city to judge for ourselves of the effects of such displays of industry in accelerating the pro gress of arts, manutactures, and commerce, as also carefully to inspect those splendid public works which adorn the capital of France, and reflect 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 con vincing evidence of the marked and rapid progress which has take' place in arts and manufactures during the last four years. The sublime conception of inviting all na 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 result:, of: genius and industry assures us that the waste of w ar w ill 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 cultivation of the arts of peace has multiplied the rela tions and strengthened the bond of union between France t h e ir political alliance, consecrated by the and blood Boufg England, bravest and noblest of their sons, has ripened into the cordial sympathy of national friendship. That blood has not been shed in vain, for we hold it as our deepest conviction that the solidarity of France and England is the one sure guarantee for the conservation and advancement of the civilisation of the world. And we further believe that they may best promote their mutual prosperity by a freer interchange of the pro ducts of industry, and consolidate their alliance by uniting.their exertions to give a wider development to arts, manufactures, and commerce, whose progress it, is the spe cial object of our society to advance. As the faithful and unswerving upholder of that alliance and the conservator of civilisation, your Majesty receives from us and from our fel low-countrymen of every class and grade the spontaneous homage of an uuquest ioning confidence. We pray your Im perial Majesty graciously to accept this our humble tribute f profound respect and unfeigned admiration.—Given under our common seal this Bth icy of September, 1855 . JAMES BOOTH, Chairman of the Council. " P. LE NEVE FOSTER, 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 hands with the chairman and other members of the deputation, the Emp eror withdrew. The interview lasted nearly balf-an-hour. MARKET NEWS.-(TLTIS DAY.) CORN EXCHANGE. The quantity of English wheat;eoeived fresh up to our ay d market to-day was limited ; b u t we had a large supply on offer left over f rom M on ay For most kinds the de mand 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 the market were readily disposed of at very full prices, and the malt trade was firm, There was only a moderate inquiry for oats, ors f ormer terms, Beans, peas, quotations. and flour changed hands steadily, at full Wheat. 4,350 English .. fnah •• •• e a Foreign i 1 4,330 _ ARRIVALS THIS WERE. Barley. Malt. Coats. 9rle , pr. 480 2,570 O9O -- 1,050 -- 1310 sks 8,750 1636 bra BOROUGH HOP. There is a steady demand for most kinds of new bops, at from 4/. to 61. 6s per cwt. Duty, :300,000/. WHITECHAPEL. The general demand ruled inactive to-day, as follows: Beef, 3s 4d to 4s 4d ; mutton, 3s 4d to 4s 4d ; veal, Ss 8d to 4s Bd.; pork, 3s G;l1 to 'ls 8d per Slbs. by the carcase. A RAILWAY STATION DESTROYED BY FIRB.—The Bull° Pilll Railway station, on the South Wales Rail way, about 12 miles from Gloucester, has been totally destroyed by fire. r lei t, till zt off er to LO. is 111 rho 3eVe. teal from spell itieg rhie b 3 are IaYSI are c ity s ' the .3f. ed 10 op. 45. once ina° I R