The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-13 00:00:00

which operation Captain Methuen and his par'„y returned on
board their ship, pleased with the courtesy taey had received,
all the prisoners—who seem to belong to every grade and rank
—speak in terms of high eulogy of tte liberality and general
kindness with which they were everywhere treated. Even the
Turks, who, of course, fared worse, admit they were well lodged,
fed, and clothed. After having been variously scattered
about, the whole were collected into one depot at Voronetz, a
considerable town about -300 miles S.E. of Moscow. More
than one Voronetz " Miss Nightingale" ministered with all
woman's assiduity and tenderness to those who needed more
than common care. About a month before their departure for
Odessa, a party of about fifty English deserters arrived at the
former town. These deserters were, of course, universally
" cut" by the prisoners ; nor did they receive any of the kind-
ness so liberally bestowed upon the latter by the townspeople;
and to resent this, the scoundrels availed themselves of every
opportunity to abuse and otherwise annoy the captives.
There was, however, amongst them one remarkable exception,
whose case excited the merited pity of the prisoners, and which
deserves mention in print. The poor fellow had been a
colour-sergeant in the 79th Regiment, and had been led to '
commit the rash act of desertion by having lost the regiment's
money,during a fit of drunkenness,at Balaklava,whither be had
been sent by his colonel to receive it from the commissariat.
Dreading the consequences of his misconduct, and fearing that
he would be charged with stealing the lost cash, and punished
accordingly, the poor man deserted under cover of the dark-
ness to Sebastopol, whence, after a short stay, he was sent on
into the interior. His wife and children are in London, and
the unfortunate fellow was pining away in broken-hearted-
ness for the rash act which he had committed, separating him
for ever from them as it did, and consigning him to deeply-
felt disgrace and wretchedness. In pity for the unhappy
man's contrition and misery, the prisoners invited him to
share in their games and other amusements ; but no effort
could induce him to mix with any of them, or abate his self-re-
proaches. Shortly before the prisoners left Voronetz, the
Russian authorities offered to the whole of the deserters
liberty to return, if they chose, but all—with one exception,
who declared he would rather go and be shot by his country-
men than remain as he was—declined availing themselves of
the permission. The poor sergeant was strongly urged by the
prisoners to accompany them, encouraging him to hope that
his case would be mercifully considered ; but the wretched
man's sense of the deep disgrace he had brought upon himself
would not let him yield to their urgent advice.

THE ENGLISH CAVALRY.
Writing on the 27th, the correspondent of the Times says :
The day before yesterday the anniversary of the battle of
Balaklava was celebrated by the English cavalry by a grand
parade and manoeuvre on the very spot where the heavy ca-
valry charge took place. The display was, like the battle last
year, favoured by the most beautiful weather, of which we
have now had a run of nearly a week. Numbers of English,
not a few French, and some Sardinian officers, were present.
After having witnessed the reduced state in which the cavalry
was last winter, when the horses had sunk to the rank of
half-starved cab-horses, it was satisfactory to see the regiments
finer than ever. Notwithstanding the numerous recruits and
remounts, the evolutions were excellent. Although the whole
Light Brigade is away in Eupatoria, the two remaining ones,
the Hussar and Heavy Brigade, present a most imposing
array. As, however, there remains nothing to do for them
this year, measures ought to be speedily taken to keep them
in condition for the next. Lieutenant-Colonel Clarke, of the
Scots Greys, was sent down some time ago to provide for stables
and barracks in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, and
Mr. Lee, C.E., is actually busy providing both. In the be-
ginning there seems to have been an idea of sending down the
Horse Artillery as well as the cavalry, but this seems to be
given up, as stables are being constructed for the former here.
The place chosen for the main part of the stables is at Hayder
Pasha, behind Scutari ; but several other places on the coast,
as Ismid and others, have been inspected for the purpose.
The palace of Hayder Pasha will be appropriated as a barrack
for the men, and the harem as quarters for the officers. The
order has already come out for the horses of absent officers
to be sent down by the Himalaya, which will likewise take all
the sick horses. She has brought in the Sardinian drafts, and
will now be appropriated for the transport of cavalry horses.

STATE OF THE TOWN OF SEBASTOPOL.
Upon the present state of the south side of Sebastopol, the
correspondent of the Daily News, writing on the 26th ult.,

says :
The working parties on the north side of the roadstead,
immediately opposite the town and suburbs of Sebastopol,
have continued to be actively employed in strengthening the
defences, and the number of guns mounted in the cliff earth-
work batteries and shore forts would appear to be increased,
if we may judge from the greater frequency and weight of
fire directed against the south side during the last few days.
The enemy have added rockets to the list of projectiles with
which they have favoured us; they have fallen chiefly in the
neigbourhood of the white buildings in the Karabelnaia, and
have been sent with the object of burning those portions
which have escaped fire hitherto. The design has not suc-
ceeded. The shot and shell—howitzer shells for the most
part, though on Fort Constantine two mortars have been
lately added to the large solitary mortar which was previously
used—have been discharged in greatest number into the town
proper, on the west side of the south harbour. On the 23rd
instant a couple of houses were set on fire in rear of Fort
Nicholas, near its east ends, not far from the old landing-
place, by shell, which was directed against the French mortar
battery in this situation. They had escaped, as well as a con-
siderable group of out-houses, stores, and stables iu their
neighbourhood attached to Fort Nicholas, the general confla-
gration when the Russians gave up the town to destruction
on the 9th of September ; and strange enough the fire which
raged along the vaulted corridors of Fort Nicholas itself, and
utterly consumed everything combustible for upwards of two-
thirds of its distance, commencing from: the west end, had
also suddenly stopped, and spared the interiorof the east end of the
building. Had it not done so it would have reached a chgm-
ber in which a large quantity of gunpowder, fusees, and in-
flammable materials have been heaped together, and this end
of the fort and the neighbouring buildings would in all proba-
bility have been levelled to the ground. As seen from a dis-
tance, even a comparatively short distance, such as the Redan,
or Malakhoff hills for example, the appearance of the town of
Sebastopol by no means indicates its utter state of ruin. The
stone walls remain upright, and many of the larger and more
solidly-constructed buildings retain their entire form and outline.
The roofs of many houses stillexist, and the roofless condition of
many others is not visible, as street rises above street up the
sloping declivities of the hilly ground. The general white
surface of the limestone prevents the smashes and displace-
ments in the fronts and sides of the houses from being
noticed; and thus a stranger, limiting his observation to
these points of view, would depart with a very erroneous
notion of the real state of the town. The Russians seem
determined that even this deceptive appearance shall not be
suffered to remain, They scatter shells at random in various
parts, and now, at all hours of the day and night, may
be heard, quickly following the loud report of the gun on the
north side and the " whish" of 'the missile across the road-
stead, not merely the sharp explosive bang of the bursting
shell as heretofore among the earthworks, but also, as ac-
companiments, the crash of falling rafters and tumbling stone
walls. Never was town so belaboured : after eleven months
of battering by its enemies, and the subsequent ordeal of fire
and explosion, to be thus in turn battered by its former
friends. The fire of the north side has not been limited to
the west side of the south harbour, although that has had its
chief share. It has also been rather heavy about the dock-
yard buildings near Fort Paul, where the Russians appear to
think we have some works, and also towards Careening Bay,
in which direction the French have a battery erected. The
casualties have been remarkably limited iu number, but the
escapes in some instances have been close enough to point
out the necessity of constant caution not to attract the notice
of the enemy. On the 24th instant the arrangements of a
French picket were abruptly disturbed by a shell falling
through the roof of the house in which they had taken up
their temporary abode, not far from the aqueduct as it ap-
proaches the dockyard ; and as another shell quickly followed,
and fell near the same spot, it is not unlikely that this was a
hint that the party had been observed. The few men who
were in the house at the time the shell penetrated the roof
had time to escape before its explosion, and no one was hurt.
Parties sent from the camp to collect wood are invariably
kept out of sight as mach as possible. Some rifle balls have
been sent across against our men on duty along the shore,
and keeping watch against an approach of the enemy ; but
they have generally fallen short, and been seen to splash
harmlessly the water of the roadstead. We are again com-
mencing a battery, but it may be prudent not to indicate too
particularly its situation, as the work is but very little ad-
vaned as yet.
RUSSIAN OPERATIONS ON THE NORTH