The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-03 00:00:00

Russian troops that ICertch had fallen, but the account was
contradicted by the Russian officers. One deserter said, also,
that all the guns had been taken out of the ships; and there
seems some probability of this being true, notwithstanding
the threatening attitude these vessels have assumed; for
guns have been observed to be removed out of some of the
forts. Two guns only remain out of the six which were
mounted on the roof of Fort Paul ; the other four have been
taken away lately. The amount of sickness is described as
being very great. Tile tents supposed to be appropriated -to
hospital purposes on•the north side have been in many parts
separated from each other, and made to occupy a greater
space, as if some infectious disease were prevailing among
them. The men-of-war ships remain in the position men-
tioned in my last letter. They are drawn up nearly in line,
as if to sweep with-their guns the Malakoff hill, in ease it
should fall into our hands, and at present are out of range of
our guns. There have been two, if not more, houses in the
town set on fire, apparently by the carcases thrown from the
Greenhill attack. In each instance the fire seemed to be con-
fined to the house in which it commenced, but the houses
were of a larger size than have hitherto been destroyed.
Some of our men have suffered from the explosion of the small
mines which the Russians have buried in various directions.
On the night of the 11th instant one of these exploded as a
party were moving near the Quarry work. One man of the
55th Regiment was blown to pieces, and four or five others
of the same regiment were also wounded. A stretcher carried
by one of the men was thrown a long distance off. A stamp
of the foot on the part of the tube above ground suffices to
cause the explosion. Many of them have been discovered and
dug up. Some seconds-elapse before the explosion takes place,
even after the tube has been trodden upon, and its contents
set free to pass to the chamber containing the combustibles.
To this circumstance General Airey owed his preservation on
the day of the last armistice. His horse trod on one of these
mines, but being in a -canter at-the time was sufficiently ad-
vanced for the general to escape unhurt. The tail of the
horse was singed. In the instance also mentioned above,
when some men of the 55th Regiment were injnred, the sol-
dier who-happened to tread on the tube was in front when
the box exploded, and fortunately was uninjured. Lieutenant-
General Brown returned to camp last evening, but is not yet
in orders to resume command of the Light Division.
- - -

In speaking of the alarm of the preceding night, he
.continues

The attack last night appears to have been of a very deter-
mined character. The Russians advanced against the French
works in front of the Mamelon from both sides of the Malak-
off. Their skirmishers were, however, notwithstanding the
darkness, observed, and the enemy found our allies fully pre-
pared. They were compelled to retire after about ten minutes
fighting, and must have suffered immense loss. Not only the
line of musketry fired from the French advanced parallel, but
also some field pieces which had been brought forward and
were kept ready loaded with canister and grape, poured a
deadly fire into their ranks. The severity of their loss was
best shown by the fact that they fell back after their first fail-
ure, and did not repeat the attempt during the night. The
attack was made just at midnight. The French casualties
were very few. Both the English batteries on the right at-
tack, and the French works on the other side of the Careening
Bay ravine, opened against the enemy as they pushed forward
to the attack, and kept up a fire against them as they were re-
tiring. There is little doubt that this attack was made by the
fresh troops who had been observed to cross from the north
side during the previous afternoon and evening. The en-
counter must have tended to dispirit them considerably.
With much regret we learn that cholera, of a
malignant type, has manifested itself in the English
camp. Concerning it, the correspondent of the Morn-
ing Post, writing on the 15th, makes the following
statement :

The cholera is playing sad havoc amongst the Guards.
Already the deaths have amounted to nearly 100. The
Grenadiers have lost two sergeants and 35 men, the Cold-
streams one sergeant and 18 men, and the Scots Fusilier
Guards two sergeants and 25 men.

THE EXPEDITION TO THE SEA OF AZOFF.
The exploits which have crowned this expedition
with a success whose brilliancy is second only to
the vast importance of its results, have, nevertheless,
been so much by strategical skill, and so little
dependent on the agency of martial prowess, as
to present but few points of observation to the
unprofessional spectator. The correspondent of the
Times, in allusion to this, expresses compunction
at his own weakness in having been allured into
following an enterprise which presented him with so
poor a field for artistic illustration, and regrets that
he did not rather continue at his post in the camp
before Sebastopol. Off Yenikale, on the 11th of June,
he writes
The mode of defence adopted by the Russians has left one
nothing to write about. Corn ricks blazing, batteries and
forts blown up, and stores and magazines gutted and burnt,
offer but little variety of detail. We have inflicted great
ruin on the enemy, but they have emulated our best efforts in
destroying their own settlements. Our haste to attack has
not exceeded their precipitation to retreat. The reduction of
every place in the Sea of Azoff, except Arabat and Temrouk,
without the loss of a single life, has been an extraordinary and
gratifying success ; witnessing the assault and capture of the
Mamelon, and the attack on the Quarry-pit and the Redan,
to seeing any amount of corn and flour on fire, or the ex-
plosion of deserted magazines. The effect of this expedition
on the garrison of Sebastopol will probably be more immediate
and important than the possession of the Mamelon and Quar-
ries, or the spiking of the guns of the Redan. They run the
risk of starvation ; they must know the precarious chance of
supplies of material and provision from this time forward,
and they will feel that our investment, however wide its
circle, is becoming terribly complete. It is understood that
there are difficulties in the way of making a successful demon-
stration against Perekop, but difficulties are not insuperable,
and the Allies have had leaders who knew not the word "im-
possible." Of the road to the west of Perekop we know no-
thing, but it is said to exist, and to be in fine order for military
purposes. However, the approaches to this road from east
and west are not of the easiest or the best. The Crimea is
morally lost to Russia if the Allies determine to carry out
their successes to a legitimate result. Already the Tartars
have, as far as they dared, evinced their hatred of the op-
pressors whose final conquest of the Crimea does not outrun
the memory of men still living. They have seized on Rus-
sians and brought them in as prisoners. The other night a
party of Tartars carried a Russian captain and an officer of
the Commissariat, or a paymaster of a regiment, bound fast,
into the Allied lines at Yenikale. They reported that the
Cossacks, in parties 30 and 40 strong, were ranging through
the villages and driving away all the cattle at the distance of
30 versts from Yenikale.
The intelligence of the destruction of Anapa has had rather
a perplexing effect on the authorities, who do not seem well
ptepared for the enemy anticipating their intentions, and for
such eccentric operations of war as those of the Russians, who
delight to do the work of hostile fleets and armies, and to
burn and blow up their own forts-and settlements. However,
the embarkation of the troops goes on as usual. All the
English forces are now embarked, except the 79th Regiment
who are in garrison in and about the Quarantine station, near
Kerth, and the 93rd Regiment, which still remains at Yeni-
kale. The Turks have been reinfored by 2,000 men, who were
landed yesterday. The French force is all embarked, except
about 2,500 men. lam not aware whether the French will
leave any officers behind them. Sir George Brown has
ordered Lieut. Anderson, Royal Engineers, and Lieut. St.
Clair, 21st Regiment; who has been acting as interpreter, to
remain at Yenikale, where they will be attached to the Turkish
head-quarters. The whole expedition will return to Balaklava
forthwith, with the exception of the 71st Regiment, which has
been ordered to disembark again from the Valorous and Sidon.
Sir George Brown wishes that the two French battalions
should be left behind, but it is not very likely that the French
general will view the proposition with any great favour, for it
is quite certain that General Pelissier sent most positive orders
to General D'Autemarre not to attack Anapa. The embarka-
tion of English and French and the landing of the Turks go
on actively, and the expedition will return to-morrow.
The same gentleman, writing from Kertch, on the
13th of June, says :---
The mission of the fleet and army having been ac-
complished, the force is on its way homewards. Sir
George Brown and his staff are embarked. The Admi-
rals are at Ambalaki. The troops are on board, with the
exception of those who are ordered to remain in garrison.
at Yenikale and Pavlovskaia, and we leave the road-
steads this afternoon for Balaklava and Kamiesh. It has
been decided to occupy Pavlovskaia, because it is in a fine
position to command the entrance to Kertch and Yenikale, at
a place where the channel is narrowed by one of the sand-
banks from Taman to the breadth of a mile and a half. The
Snake and Viper, followed by several other boats, got up to
Yenikale on Thursday evening, and the guns of the
batteries there were nearly all silenced before night set
in. In the morning the forts on the spit began to fire,
and might have proved troublesome had they been well
fought. The Viper, however, found out the channel, and pro-
ceeded to the north, so as to enfilade the entrance to the fort
and to command the road to the mainland. Then, the Rus-
sians, as they ever do when their line of retreat is threatened,
lost heart, and abandoned the work, which ran, indeed, great
risk of being taken in reverse on a blank curtain. The officer
in command came forth in his carriage, which was drawn by
two horses, and several mounted officers followed him. As
they drove along the spit they were within sight and range,
and the Viper plied them. furiously. Every time her shot
struck the earth near the carriage and knocked up the dust
the officers took off their hats and bowed in bravado, but they
quickened their pace nevertheless, nor did they seem much to
care what became of the infantry. It is calculated that the
latter were about 800 strong. They got off without much, if
with any, loss, and probably swelled the troops seen at Tem-
rouk. The Russians fired badly, fought badly, and retreated.
Rarely, if ever, were the agencies of electricity more extensively
adapted to the purposes of war than at Yenikale. One of the
gunboats which lay off the fort—a mere hulk, without masts
or cordage, of 150 tons burden, with embrasures through her
sides on the deck for 9 guns—was found to be filled below with
the most complete series of galvanic apparatus, attached to
vessels full of powder, which would explode on contact with
the keel of a vessel. The shock, no matter how slight, would
create a contact which would have the effect of completing the
electric current, and discharging the submarine battery.
Our attempts to prevent outrage and destruction are of the
feeblest and most contemptible character. If a sailor is found
carrying any articles—books or pictures, or furniture—they
are taken from him at the beach and cast into the sea. The
result is that the men, when they get loose in the town, where
there is no control over them, break to pieces everything that
they can lay their hands on. We do not interfere with French
or Turks, and our measures against our own men are harsh,
ridiculous, and impotent. The Austrian consul was found to
have a large store, which he concealed in magazines painted
and decorated to pass as part of his dwellinghouse. It was
all destroyed. Amid the necessary destruction private plun-
derers found facility for their work. The scene presented by
the town can only be likened to Palmyra or some other type
of desolation. Along the quay there is a long line of walls
which once were the fronts of storehouses,magazines,mansions,
and palaces. They are now empty shells, hollow and roofless,
with fire burning luridly within them by night, and streaks
and clouds of parti-coloured smoke arising from them by day.
The white walls are barred with black bands where the fire
has rushed out of the window frames. These storehouses
belonged to Russians, and were full of corn—these magazines
were the enemy's—these mansions belonged to their nobles
and governors—and these palaces were the residences of
their princes and rulers, and so far we have carried on
war with all the privileges of war, and have used all the con-
sequences of conquest. In the whole lengthened front facing
the sea, and the wide quay which borders it, there is not an