The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-09 00:00:00

THE WAR.

THE ALLIES IN SEBASTOPOL,

LIE Allies appear now to have formally, if not absolutely,
safely established themselves within the walls of Sebastopol.
The occurrences appear not to be very numerous, and as yet
all seems to be going on well. The fear, so generally enter-
tained, of mines, to be exploded by means of galvanic wires,
or other scientific appliances, seems to have greatly subsided.
The correspondent of the Times, writing from the Fourth
Division Camp, on the 18th ult., says :
Since last Saturday, very little has occurred to meet the
eye, and the news may be briefly stated. The Russians con-
tinue to strengthen their position on the north side, and to
hang on their old points of occupation from there to the ridges
over Aitodor. The Naval Brigade has been broken up and
sent on board ship. The French have moved large masses of
the corps of the left siege army to the rear between Baidar
and Tchourgoun. Our batteries are disarmed. The roads to
the camp are undergoing repair, and the Army Work Corps,
assisted by soldiers, is engaged in the formation of a new
road from Balaklava, which will run parallel with the line of
railway. Everything around us indicates an intention of
putting the army into winter quarters on the site of their
present encampment, but there are signs equally unequivocal
that a blow is to be struck at the enemy before the troops set
themselves passively down to encounter the rigours of the
winter.

The same correspondent says, in reference to the
PREPARATIONS FOR DESTROYING THE
DOCKS :

Our sappers and miners are at work sinking great mines
to blow in and destroy the unrivalled docks, which have cost
Russia so much anxiety, money, and bloodshed, and, if it
were not that they were intended to be, and have been, ac-
cessory to violence and slaughter, one would regret that such
splendid memorials of human skill should be shattered to
atoms; but the fleet of Sinope sailed thence, and were re-
paired there on its return, and they were built, not to foster
peace and commerce, but to smite and destroy them. These
preparations are made under the eyes of the enemy, who have
made no attempt to disturb the working parties by firing
from the north side, although their guns have the range of
the place at tolerable elevations. They are not to be always
trusted, however, for if a knot of officers or horsemen collect
in one place, they unexpectedly send a shell or shot among
them, and now and then do a little mischief to the remains
of their own town. They could sweep some of the chosen
look-out places with grape, but it is believed they are waiting
for a grand collection of generals, staff-officers, and officers, to
astonish us all with a broadside some fine day. The French
have a mortar battery behind Fort Nicholas, with which they
shell the Russian working parties. The latter fort affords
excellent cover, though it is rather avoided, in consequence
of a popular belief that it is extensively mined, and will go
up some fine day with a crowd of distinguished visitors. In
spite of the flames, it is intact, and does not in any way justify
the assertions of those travellers who maintained that the
Russian casemated forts would crumble to pieces, or would
smother the gunners with smoke. The casemates are open,
with fine airy galleries behind, and the whole building is most
admirably and compactly built. In the same way Fort
Alexander is comparatively but little injured, although the
mines underneath exploded with a tremendous crash. The
walls of the fort are still erect. Fort Paul alone is in perfect
ruins.
RESULTS OF THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL.
There was an armistice for a few minutes, on Tuesday, to
effect an interchange of letters for prisoners. The Russian
officer who conducted it, and who is supposed to have been the
commander of the Vladimir, is said to have expressed the same
opinion as the Russian Admiral did on Monday, the 10th
instant :—" With this before us," pointing to the ruins of
Sebastopol, " peace is farther off than ever." The Russians
have a very large park of artillery on the other side of the
harbour. Many of the guns found here were cast at Carron,
as is evident by the words on their trunnion heads and
breeches.
The piles of shot and the number of grins in the arsenals at
the head of Dockyard Creek are wonderfully large, considering
the immense amount of both expended in the siege. It is
suspected the ships were all disarmed lately. The 3rd Buffs
garrison our part of the town. Captain Rowlands, 41st Regi-
ment, has been appointed Town Major to Colonel Windham,
ca, who is English Governor of Sebastopol. The French
cavalry are going to Eupatoria.
BRITISH CAMP, BEFORE SEBASTOPOL, Sept. 22.—Early
this week the army was agitated by the universal report and
belief that they would be sent on some great expedition forth-
with, before they settled down in their winter quarters. The
French made a great demonstration towards Baidar and
Aitodor, which led to no result, except directing the attention
of the enemy to the pass from the latter place to the plateau
of the Belbek. Now all hope of active operations being under-
taken before the winter sets in has been abandoned ; but there
is some reason to hope that the advantage offered by Eupatoria
as a base of operations will no longer be neglected, and that
the allies will act on the Russian rear from that point. It is
said that Simpheropol is quite open, and that no field-works or
redoubts have been erected to protect it.
STATE OF SEBASTOPOL.

In reference to the interior aspect of the town, the Times
correspondent, writing on the 18th Sept., continues :
Every one is going into Sebastopol. The fear of mines has
died out. All day we walk about and watch the Russians.
Now and then the soldiers blow themselves up impromptu in
the magazines, but, generally speaking, few accidents have
occurred. It is not easy to destroy a city, and Titus must
have had wonderful engineers if he really razed Jerusalem to
the ground. Sebastopol, indeed, is in ruins : it has been
shattered in many places to splinters, as it were, by the iron
storm which for many long months has been driven by the
fierce breath of gunpowder against it. The retreating enemy
have V.Mruelliit,waillgiitigitilgeM2fpteeer,gitkitkesiiB4!
houses, barracks, and stately buildings as though they were
built of cards. But still much of Sebastopol remains, in
spite of those terrible visitations, and although there is
scarcely one house in the place which is uninjured, or one
square yard of ground which does not bear the traces of shot
or shell, there is enough left to show that it really was a
Princely city, and that no pains had been spared to make it a
fit mistress of the Euxine.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19.—There has not been any further
indication of an advance towards the Belbek ; on the con-
trary, the French are withdrawing a portion of their force,
and there is apparently a change of councils and of plans
among the allied leaders. The enemy persist in casting up
formidable earthworks on the north side, and we look on, as
we did from September 27 till October 17, 1854, and see them
preparing their defences, with the sure conviction that we
shall be able to carry them, or sap up to them, or take them
in some way or other in a year or two. Meantime, the
weather comes in with a word of its own, and says to our
deliberating generals, " Stop ! as you have waited so long, I
won't let you move now." It began to rain to-day soon after
twelve o'clock, and the camp speedily looked as gloomy,
black, and wretched, as was its wont during the winter. The
wind always accompanies these heavy falls of rain in the
Crimea, with rare exceptions, and so it blew to-day furiously.
The ground was rapidly turned into the well-known Sebasto-
pol paste, famous for its adhesive properties, never to be
shaken or rubbed off by any amount of scrubbing ; washing
is the only operation to which it succumbs. Everyone who is
obliged to walk forth is hobbling about on two lumps of earth,
with large lateral extensions, which form under his feet, fasten
to his shoes, and increase at every step. Now, it is quite im-
possible for field-pieces to be moved under these circumstances,
nor indeed would it :be at all easy to handle cavalry, nor
could infantry make any great progress in marching. A light
cart, drawn by a stout horse, which had only to carry two
empty portmanteaus and a cask of bottled beer, could not eet
up from Balaklava to-day. The march of some French cavalry
and infantry from Baidar towards Kamiesch, is retarded by
the rain. It is reported that in their recent reconnaissance
they ascertained that the position of Aitodor was too strong
to be forced.
Writing on the 20th, he says :

As many of the medals, clasps, and ribbonds as were avail-
able were distributed to-day to the various regiments, and on
an average there were about ten medals for each company ;
that, of course, excited dissatisfaction. This great anniversary
was celebrated enthusiastically throughout the army. There
were many "Alma dinners" among the regiments, both officers
and men, and music and song kept the camp awake till long
after midnight. Many a memory of the dead was revived,
many an old wound re-opened, at these festive meetings. The
French also had their banquets and festivities. They had a
grand ceremony early in the morning—a Missa Solennis for
the repose of the dead. Indeed, they have had some splendid
spectacles lately, but one never hears of them in this vast
camp till his attention is aroused by the echoes of the 101
guns with which they are brought to a close.—General Peli-
sier has been made a Marshal of France, and has received
from her Majesty the Grand Cross of the Bath. Of the latter
order he seems exceedingly proud, and he has on several
occasions signed his name Pelissier, G.C.B."—General
Simpson has not as yet received any decoration or honour
from home, but the Emperor of the French has conferred on
him the rare distinction of the Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honour.
FIRE OF THE ALLIES.—FLAG OF TRUCE.
The French have established four mortars at the western
angle of Fort Nicholas, whence they throw bombs at the ma-
gazines and at the working parties and convoys. Our inde-
fatigable allies have also placed a rocket battery on the Kara-
belnaia, on the slope of the Malakhoff, and these alarming but
uncertain missiles fly far over the magazines, and burst near
the roads among the trains of carts, and kick up a dust in the
graveyard.
FRIDAY MORNING, Sept. 21. The stillness, which is
almost startling after the mighty tumults which have broken
on our ears for a long year, still continues. There is not a
sound to break the silence which prevails a little distance
from the camps, except the boom of an occasional gun from
Fort Constantine or the dull report of the French mortars.
THE RUSSIAN STORES ON THE NORTH SIDE.
They seem prepared to hold this extensive line, and we
appear at present by no means prepared or willing to attack
it. As the Allies can scarcely spare men enough to send to
Eupatoria, and thence to march on Simpheropol, or to force
the Russian position on the Belbek by a corps descending on
them from the north, and as there is no apparent intention of
attacking them
from Inkerman or the Tchernaya, this dead
lock may last longer than we think, and is likely enough
not to be relaxed this winter. The quantity of stores removed
by the Russians from the north side to their new depot shows
that they are not in Want of provisions, unless they take the
trouble to carry dummy sacks and fill their carts with " make-
believes." It may and must be difficult for them to feed their
army, but, somehow or other, they do so. They left con-
siderable quantities of food behind them in the
city; large
flocks and herds (many of which, however, may be araba
oxen) stud the plains near the citadel. The soldiers who fell
into the hands of the Sardinians and French on the 16th of
August carried abundance of bread and spirits, and we hear
they had meat and plenty of everything except water, when
they came down to attack the Allies. If the worst comes to
them, the stomach of the Mujik soldier is as well able to
wrestle with araba ox beef as the stomachs of the hungry High-
landers, who did not despise that very muscular fibre one day
after our landing at Gallipoli; so that, altogether, I am not so
very sanguine as to think the Russians will be forced to
abandon their position on the approach of winter. The
country around them will supply abundance of wood, and they
are skilled in making comfortable and warm underground
lints, so that, comparatively speaking, they will be as well
housed and warm as the Allies, supposing the latter succeed