The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-22 00:00:00

CAMP LIFE.

Deserters will not readily escape as they have done, for
under Captain Baines, our military magistrate, an excellent
corps of " road police" has been formed of picked men, and
they have already proved very useful. They caught a man
the other day, from the simple description that he had "an
inflamed right eye." They have not been organised long
enough to trace out the perpetraters of the several murders
that have occurred within the last two or three months. The
letter seems to have miscarried in which I informed you that
an Armenian was found dead in a ravine behind the English
head-quarters, his skull literally smashed in. The murderer
of the seaman at Kamiesch has not yet been discovered, and
now the body of another sailor has been found within the
same port with marks of violence upon it. It is thought the
latter was killed on shipboard, and thrown into the sea. The
former was stabbed at night in the streets, and his belly
ripped open, presenting one of the most sickening sights that
could be imagined. Footpads still infest some of our routes
by night, but the new passport system and the permis de
sejour are working wonderfully well in the Crimea, and will
gradually root out these ruffians. There is, however, no
persuading people at Constantinople that any difficulty exists
as to settling at Balaklava. Such difficulty, nevertheless,
exists; and this very week a Frenchman, who had arrived at
Balaklava with his wife and family, was refused permission
to live there by the Provost Alarshal. The winter is also
driving away many of the lower orders, who, once again at
Stamboul or Smyrna, will find it almost impossible to obtain
passports for the Crimea. So much the better. A good deal
of telegraphing is still observable along the Mackenzie Heights.
A good deal of festivity has reigned in camp during this
Christmas; and to-night a grand banquet will be given at the
Highland division, to see the old year out and the new year in.
The huts, both of officers and men, are daily becoming more
comfortable, but crockery and articles in tin and iron are still
much wanted. And, to use a mercantile phrase, blankets are
also "inquired for," as are " long boots," and " bullock
trunks." Our roads are improving fast, and on most days
the pedestrian now has the advantage of the equestrian. It
is no joke to ride over ice. The weather is, of course, bear-
able, but at times the cold is indescribably piercing for many
hours in succession. We may well cry out with Hamlet,
" It is a nipping and an eager air."

Another fertile source of interesting consideration among
the gossips of the camp is the progress made in destroying the
docks. Under date of the Ist January, the special correspond.
ent of the Daily News, writing from the camp before Sebas-
topol, says, in reference to

THE FURTHER DESTRUCTION OF DOCKS
AT SEBASTOPOL :

It had been the intention of our engineers to blow in a
portion of the English half of the docks last Saturday ; but,
owing to the prevalence of water, all could not be got ready
for that purpose before yesterday afternoon. It was at six
minutes to one that the drum was beaten by the French
sapper for the 39 French and four English engineers to light
their port fires. At 54 minutes the drum beat two taps for
all to be ready, and at 44 minutes to one the drum beat one
more tap to fire ; in 64 minutes afterwards the charges in the
side and bottom of the French east dock exploded almost
simultaneously. Shortly afterwards the large charges in the
piers of the entrance and behind the steps leading down to the
dock blew up. These three charges shook the ground all
round terribly, and propelled large stones perpendicularly up
in the air to the height of at least 900 feet. In 94- minutes
the English charges exploded, causing a very neat- demolition
of half the side wall of the basin ; but the powder was, I
think, run a little too fine. After the smoke had cleared
away, it was evident that four of the French charges and one
of the English had not gone off, the four French charges being
two in the entrance pier to their west dock, which was not blown
in by them on the 21st, and two in the side wall of the
basin, adjoining our charges. The demolition of the French
east dock—or Steamer Dock," as it is called, for it contains
the remains of the paddle steamer, which was brought from
Sinope and set fire to by the Russians on the 9th September—
was complete. The quantity of powder expended in blowing
up this dock alone was 10,0001b5., with 33 charges in all. The
12 side charges were each 5001bs. Behind the steps leading
down to the bottom of the dock there was one charge of
10001bs, and two of 5001bs. of powder each. The-remaining
charges—l mean those under the docks and the floodgate—
averaged about 1101bs. each. After the Russians had fired a
few badly aimed shells, and the French and English engineers
had examined the debris, the former again fired the four
charges that had not gone off. After the lapse of a few
minutes, these exploded, and thus the west and east docks of
the French half, together with:the left side of the large basin
even to the gates, were completely destroyed. Our three
docks, on account of being about four feet lower than the
two French docks and entrance, have about half a foot of
water in each of them. As a result of this, great difficulties
have had to be contended with, and, owing to the severity of
the weather, the sappers have suffered terribly both by night
and by day. In the bottom of the dock were ten charges,
each of 1621b5. These were connected by electric wires to
two cables, making five wires for each cable, and these two
cables, with an electric wire inside, ran up the hill through
holes in the wall to Mr. Deen's bunk. At 20 minutes past five
o'clock, just before dark, Private Sulley, tinsmith by trade, of
the 10th company of Sappers, was ordered by Major Nicholson
to connect the ten wires to the two cables. In another two
minutes all had cleared away. The moment the word " All
right" was passed up to Mr. Deen, eight of the ten charges blew
up, which were quite sufficient completely to destroy the
bottom of this dock. The latter was 191 feet long on the
stone skids at bottom, 40 feet wide, and 29 feet deep. At top
it is 238 feet long, and 95 feet 4 inches wide. The revetment
at top was 6 feet 8 inches broad. Our centre dock, which in
all probability will have its bottom blown up to-morrow even-
ing, is 236 feet long, and the west dock is 233 feet. There
is every reason to expect that in another fortnight the whole
of the Sebastopol docks will be totally worthless for any pur-
pose whatever. The French appeared to be much pleased at
our engineers being so successful under water.

ACCEPTANCE OF
PEACE PROPOSALS

BY RUSSIA.

TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCHES.
VIENNA, WEDNESDAY, 10 P.M.
Russia has unconditionally accepted the propositions of the
Allies.
This is authentic.

Her Majesty's Government have received the following
telegraphic despatch from Sir Hamilton Seymour :—" The
Russian Government accept the Austrian proposals as a basis
for negotiation."

PARIS, THURSDAY, Jan. 17.
The following telegraphic despatch was received here at
12 30 this morning, and was immediately posted up at the
Bourse by order of his Excellency the Minister of the Interior :

VIENNA, Jan. 16, 11 15 p.m.
THE MINISTER OP FRANCE TO THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN

A SF.LIES.

Count Esterhazy writes to-day from St. Petersburg, that M.
de Nesselrode has just notified to him the unconditional accept-

ante (l'acceptation pure et simple) of the propositions con-
ained in the ultimatum, which propositions are to serve as
preliminaries of peace.

BERLIN, THURSDAY, Jan. 17.
Russia has accepted Austria's proposals.
Official men attribute this to the urgency of Prussia's re-
presentations and remonstrances.

A despatch received from Dresden announces that an ex-
traordinary supplement of the official journal of Dresden has
been published, in which it states, on reliable authority, that
Russia has accepted unconditionally the Austrian proposal?.

The Paris correspondent of the Times reports that at a
reception at the Court of Vienna, on the 9th instant, the
Emperor Francis Joseph declared to a member of the Diplo-
matic Corps, that the moment had at last arrived to get out of
the situation they were in one way or another ; and to the
Swedish Minister he observed that the treaty of his govern-
ment with France and England had produced the greatest
effect at St. Petersburg, and would be powerful in hastening
the termination of the crisis.

The Press, of Saturday, says :—" We are in possession of
some authentic details, not yet placed before the public, con-
nected with the acceptance by Russia of the Austrian pro-
posals. The journey of Baron Seebach, the Minister of Saxony
at the court of Paris, to St. Petersburg, has excited much spe-
culation. On his return to Paris, M. Seebach brought back
from the cabinet of St. Petersburg an unqualified acceptance
of the Allied propositions, on the condition that France and
England would treat directly with Russia, and not through
Austria. This proposition was favourably regarded by the
French Government. The Cabinet Council, on Wednesday
last, was held to deliberate upon it, when, we have reason to
believe, Lords Palmerston and Clarendon insisted, against the
opinions of the majority of the cabinet, on the Seebach pro-
positions being rejected, as, in their opinion, another campaign
was desirable. The astonishment of these statesmen at the
acceptance by Russia of the Austrian propositions, after their
rejection of the Seebach overture, may be imagined.

The Paris press expresses its views on the all-absorbin;

topic of the clay. The De'bats thus pronounces itself :
have arrived at the preliminaries of peace; this is a happy, an
immense fact; we may also say it is the peace; for at this
point we cannot believe otherwise than that the preliminaries
of peace must necessarily lead to peace itself."

We

The Union contains the following :—" If this intelligence is
not peace, it is at least a great step towards a pacific solution."
The Pays offers the following observations :—" If, as we
hope the adhesion of Russia is without second thoughts, if no
difficulty is raised in the application of those principles, peace
will speedily be re-established."

The Sikle is alone incredulous, and thus expresses itself:
—" We shall be considered very incredulous ; it will, perhaps
be repeated that we wish for war at any price, that we repel
even the very hopes of seeing the termination of hostilities,
which cost France so many men and so much treasure. This
in justice will little affect us—it will not prevent us from
saying, as good and loyal patriots, to the Governments of
France and England : ' Do not let yourselves be defrauded : be
on your guard ?' We would also say, not to speculators, who
inspire us with no interest, but to honest and serious mer-
chants, 'Be calm in the midst of feverish• agitations of the
Bourse. Await the result of the negotiations, and think of
the fate of the past negotiations.'"

The IndePendance Belge observes, "Undoubtedly it is not
peace which has been signed at St. Petersburg, but never has
peace been so near. In these conferences that which will
occasion the most delicate discussion will doubtless be the
Fifth Point of the Austrian propositions ; giving the Western
Powers the right to produce special conditions, besides the
four guarantees, in a European interest. `Y,' the Paris cor-
respondent of the same journal, advances as signs of the high
position in Europe attained by France under the Government
of the Emperor Napoleon, the (alleged) facts that it is from
French valour that Russia has suffered most, and that it is
through the influence of France that England consents to re-
commence negotiations for peace."