The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

The Times correspondent of the 25th writes :

There is no sign of any present intention on the part of
the enemy to abandon their position on the north side.
The celerity with which they throw up and finish the most
formidable•looking redoubts on the land and sea sides is
astonishing. They are admirable diggers, and Marshal
Turenne, I believe, it was who was wont to say that as
many battles were won by the spade as by the musket.
The fire across the roads increases in frequency and
severity every day.

Upon the 29th ult. he remarks that the "contrast
between the anticipations of the home public on the
one hand, and the actual facts on the other, is as
painful as striking," and continues
The Russians, so far from flying in discomfort over
boundless wastes, are calmly strengthening their position
on the north side. The face of the country bristles with,
their cannon and their batteries. As I write the roar of
their guns is sounding through our camp, and occasionally
equals the noise of the old cannonades, which we fondly
hoped had died into silence for ever. There is no trace of
any intention on their part to abandon a position on which
they have lavished so much care and labour. They retired
from the south side when it became untenable, shaken to
pieces by a bombardment which it is impracticable for us
to renew. They have now between themselves and us a
deep arm of the sea, a river, and the sides of a plateau as
steep as a wall; and they have erected such batteries as to
shut up the harbour to our present navy, and to render any
attempt to cross it as rash as it would be undesirable.
Yesterday they finished a new line of batteries, to-day we
begin to make some in reply.

Under these circumstances it cannot be said that wa
are in undisputed possession of Sebastopol.
The correspondent of the Morning Herald, under
date of the 29th, states that a strong corps of
Russians have been sent off to the interior:—

Thirty thousand Russians have just retreated from this
neighbourhood, whither bound we know not ; and the
troops about Fort Constantine can be plainly seen removing
stores in great quantities from that place to the heights
nearer the Belbeck. Are they about to run? We are told
there is an insurrection in St. Petersburg. The truth of
the latter you will learn sooner than we can; but it is be-
lieved here first. The report was current on Tharsda7.
Some say the retreating Muscovites are bound to Georgia
and Armenia.

The northern batteries appear to be extreme/1
strong at present, without any of those further addi-
tions which the Russian troops are daily employed
in throwing up. The Times correspondent of the
29th writes :

On the north side there are few houses, but •here are
very large magazines. First, on the western extseurity
of
the northern shore stands Fort Constantine. Tie roof is
covered in to a great depth with sandbags, and there are
large guns mounted on it en barbette, but many of the em-
brasures are empty, and do not show guns, A very heavy

OCTOBER 13, 1855.

parapet with traverses—in fact, a line of batteries—strikes
out from the north side of the fort, and crests the seaward
face of the cliff, communicating with the Wasp Fort, Star
Fort, and the works of the sea defences towards the
mouth of the ectbecic. Next to Constantine, on the her.
bour, there is a large earthwork, with heavy guns, behind
which is the citadel, which has recently been much
strengthened, and is in a commanding position on a
hillside. Next come more earthworks, a large stone store.
house, and the casemated walls of Fort Catherine, with
two tiers of guns ; then more earthworks, till the line of
defence merges into the works at Inkermann. In fact,
Fort Constantine, Sievernaia, Fort Michael, and Fort
Catherine, with their connecting works, and the citadel
and forts in their rear, form one great battery, too far to
injure us seriously behind Sebastopol, but quite able to
withstand any infantry attack from the south side.

The fire of these forts against the south was daily
increasing, according to the letters of the 29th.
Under that date the Daily News correspondent
writes :

There is scarcely anything to record beyond the con•
tinned bombardment of the north side, and the increasing
fire of the enemy against the town and Karabelnia on the
south side. The fire against the latter suburb has so much
increased that, although little mischief has been done
beyond the further destruction of houses already in ruins,
it has been thought prudent to abandon it for the present.
It does not prevent, however, the fatigue parties going for
timber, firewood, roofing, and numberless articles of
building materials and furniture, to be employed in hutting
and making snug against the inclemency of the ensuing
winter.

One thing is evident, writes the correspondent of
the Morning Post,
that if the Russians do not clear away themselves, or are
not driven from the north side, the occupation of any por-
tion of Sebastopol will be not only disagreeable, but ex-
tremely dangerous, no man calling his life his own for the
shortest space.
- -

The accuracy of the fire of the northern batteries
is borne out by the fact that one shell on the 22nd
suddenly fell into the room occupied by the Anglo•
French commission engaged in their labours of ap-
portioning the spoils of the town, and another came
through the roof of the temporary hospital :
The Anglo-French commission sits daily, and their
labours were interrupted the other day by a Russian shell,
which scarcely gave them time to adjudicate on the pro-
prietorship of its splinters, as it burst as soon as it fell
through the roof of the building in which they were
sitting. If the Russians are spiteful, they will open fire
some fine day on the town and make it too hot to hold us ;
indeed, the Buffs are to be withdrawn for the present, and
the strength of the French in the town has become
diminished, as a useless display of force only drew the fire
of the enemy's batteries.—Times Cor., Sept. 25.
An extraordinary escape occurred on Sunday morning,
shortly after the hour for divine service. The Russians
appear to have seen the regiment parading, as the men
fell in on the terrace in front of one of the large white
buildings which they occupied as their barrack. Some
shells were thrown, and one, penetrating the roof, lodged
in the room converted into a surgery. Assistant• Surgeon
Teevan and an orderly were in the apartment, and had just
time to make their escape before the shell exploded.
Neither was injured. As no good purpose was effected by
exposing the troops to this fire, the 3rd Buffs marched back
to their old position near the second division to-day. The
French have kept up a harassing fire, day and night,
against the Russians on the north side. In addition to a
large pile of buildings, supposed to be storehouses, another
detached shed, also seeming to be connected with the
commissariat, has been set on fire.—D. News Cor., Sept. 25.

The vast quantity of stores accumulated on the
north side appears to have been removed successfully
to a depot out of range ;

The convoys of waggons are not observed moving as
they used to do, in the daytime, towards the depots of
stores below the Star Fort; and the working parties and
troops on the march keep much higher towards the crest
of the line of mountains terming the north side, instead of
moving along the lower road near the cliffs. The tents,
moreover, seem diminished in number, but the camp on
the Inkermann heights remain as extensive as ever.—
lb., Sept. 24th.
The retreat from the south side on the 6th, from
intelligence through spies, appears to have been
arranged with singular precision and forethought,
and the " disgraced " and "flying enemy " to have
walked out of the town in unbroken order :

Spies have, however, informed the authorities in the
most positive manner that the Russians were prepared to
retreat, and had all in readiness to cover a retrograde
movement, in ease the fleet succeeded in forcing a passage,
and the allies evinced a determination of throwing their
whole force against the north side. Their field guns and
guns of position were all in readiness, and were strength-
ened by a very large corps of cavalry, which would hold our
infantry in check, and our cavalry could not, of course, get
over the water in less than several days, nor could it gain
the heights of Mackenzie unless the infantry had pre-
viously established themselves there. Everything was
foreseen and calculated, and the Russians were in hopes
that they might catch us at a disadvantage amid some of
their fortified positions in a difficult country, and retrieve
their past disasters, or, at all events, make a masterly re-
treat. Bat when they saw that all was hesitation, if not
Confusion, in the army of the allies, they recovered their
courage, stared the situation in the false for one moment,
ind the nut were busily emylo7ed in making the beet of
ihubriwiso Cris nth Sept

THE PRESS.

In the rooont cruises of the fleet to and from
Eupatoria no traces of an encampment north of the
Alma or anywhere along the coast could be dis-
covered. The Russians appear to have closely con-
centrated their army round the Belbeck and
Mackenzie Heights, and to avoid using the direct
Perekop road, preferring the more eastern route by
Tchongar.

It would seem, indeed, as if the Russians did not use
the Perekop road to any great extent, or that their convoys
made a detour towards the east in order to avoid any
flying column from Eupatoria. Possibly they send most
of their supplies down by the Tchongar road, and there is
every reason to believe that the Russians have established
another route between Perekop and Tchongar for the pur-
pose of advance or retreat. 1 have heard that some time
back Captain Sherard Osborne with one man in a punt
passed up the Straits of Genitchi, and pushed along through
the rushes in the pestilential salt marshes up to Tchongar-
bridge, which he observed minutely, and that he saw
enough to satisfy him that an immense proportion of the
Russian supplies were carried into the Crimea by that
route.—lb.

About Perekop the depth of the water he asserts is
very shallow :
Perekop is quite safe from the sea side. The SpiVire
was not able to get very near to the land, but, to make
assurance doubly sure, the enemy take the road south
between the Staroe and Crasnoe lakes, instead of going
between the seacoast and Staroe. The route becomes,
however, matter of indifference if we are not to make any
offensive movement, and, although some people hug the
hope that the Czar will not be able to feed his army during
the winter, the quantity of stores piled up on the north
aide is, to my mind, a guarantee for their disappointment'
—lb.