The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-29 00:00:00

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE BRITISH WORKS.

From the outset of the expedition the British
army has suffered continual disaster from the weak-
ness of its force, and especially from the want of
sufficient reinforcements and reserves. Hence roads
were not made last autumn, and the work of the
trenches languished. Hence, also, this spring and
summer our sap was not sufficiently advanced, awl
our trenches were not roomy enough. Our com-
manders could not afford the loss of men which
would have been required. The following is from a
correspondent of the Daily News :
You are already aware that the French, by incessant
labour, and at great sacrifice of life, had succeeded not
merely in constructing several new batteries directed
against the Malakoff and the shipping, but in pushing
their sap against the former to the very edge of the ditch,
so closely, in fact, that they were able to shovel clay into
it. The English, to whom the same task was assigned
with regard to the Redan, never made much progress,
" because," said the engineers, "if we go on a few yards
further, we shall arrive at an angle which will expose us to
the enfilading fire of the Flagstaff Battery, and we should
suffer great loss." Without offering an opinion upon the
matter myself, I can only say that the French, whose en-
gineers are at least fully as good as ours, and many people
think vastly better, replied to this by stating that it was
true that we should lose a great many men in pushing on,
but it was better to lose them thus in sapping than on the
day of the assault, seeing that the greater the space of open
ground the column would have to traverse in rushing to
the attack the longer it would be exposed to the enemy's
fire, and the greater were its chances of coming to the
scratch weakened and disheartened Remonstrances were
accordingly frequently made by our allies, which invariably
produced the same effect—that is, none whatever. I sup
pose the contumacy of English officials has never been
equalled since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah; the
misfortune is, in this instance, that the fire was rained,
not upon the guilty " parties," but upon their unoffend-
ing victims. Another point remarked by the French was,
that whilst their trenches were wide and roomy, and cape
ble not merely of containing, but, as the event proved, of
masking an enormous force, one corpulent Irishman more
than usual could not be thrust into ours, without his pre-
sence being noted by the Russian staff. The state of
things, then, when the great bombardment commenced
four or five days ago, was simply this: our sap was at
least two hundred and fifty yards distant from the Redan ;
that of the French the breadth of the ditch, and scarce
that, from the Malakoff. We had to traverse in assaulting
nearly a quarter of a mile exposed to showers of every
missile known in warfare, and then meet the garrison in
full readiness for us: the French had simply to step in
and " lay on."

• SATURDAY,

DESTRUCTION OF Tll LAST RUSSIAN VESSELS.

---
Thursday, Sept. 13.
As the Russian steamers were still intact, notwithstand-
ing the efforts of the French battery at the head of the
roads near Inkermann to touch them up, it was resolved
to construct a battery on the ruins of Fort Paul, within
seven hundred yards of the northern shore, under which they
had taken refuge. The steamers lay in three irregular lines
to the eastward of Fort Catherine, where the deep creeks in
the high cliffs gave them some sort of shelter against the
fire of the French. There they were agents of much mill.
chief and injury to the allies from the battle of Inkennann
down to this time. There was the famous IV/adimir,
with her two large funnels and elegant clipper hull; the
Elbeuf, the steamer which made the celebrated dash into
the Black Sea through all our fleet last year and burnt
some Turkish vessels near Heraclea, just as the Wladimir
was seen in Odessa harbour in the month ofJ uly, 1854 ; there
was the Chwmonosset. r, which had caused such annoyance
from the Dockyard Creek; and there were five others with
hard, and to me unknown, names, as calmly floating on the
water as though no eager eyes were watching from every
battery to lay a gun upon them. A number of very capa-
cious dockyard lumps and rowboats were also secured in
these creeks or hung on by the steamers.

On Tuesday evening ( 1 lthl, when Lieutenant Gough,
of the London, who commanded in the Naval Batteries, on the
left attack, came down with his men, he was ordered to
take his relief over to the right attack, and to accompany
Lieutenant Anderson, 8.E., down to the town, in order to
erect a battery for two 95-cwt. guns on the right of St. Paul's
Battery. The site of this battery was about seven hun-
dred yards from Fort Catherine, on the opposite side. The
men, although deprived of the quiet night and undisturbed
repose they anticipated, set to work with a will, and began
throwing up the parapet, and filling gabions, and as it was
possible that some interruption of the work might take
place from the other side, a covering party of one hundred
and twenty men was ordered down from the trenches.
There were French sentries in charge of this portion of
the place, and the little party found that their allies were
on the qui vice, and were keeping a sharp look out on all
sides. The men had been working some time when it was
observed that one of the enemy's steamers had left the north
side, and was slowly and noiselessly dropping down on the
very spot where the sailors and the covering party were at
their laboure. The night was dark, but they could clearly
make out the steamer edging down upon them, and coming
closer and closer. Every moment they expected her guns
to open on them with grape and canister. The men there-
fore lay down on their faces, and kept as near to the ground.
as they could, and the steamer came over gently till she
was within about one hundred yards of the very spot where
they had been working. They heard her anchor splash into
the water, and then the rattle of her cable as it ran through
the hawsehole. Now, certainly, they were " going to catch
it;" but, no, the Russian opened no port and showed no
light, but seemed to be making himself comfortable in his
new quarters. Captain Villiers, of the 47th, who com-
manded the covering party, ordered his men to observe the
utmost silence, and the same injunction was given to the
seamen. About '2.30 in the morning, when she had been
an hour or so in her novel berth, a bright light was per-
ceived in her fore hatchway. The leading steamer on the
opposite side in a second afterwards exhibited gleam+ at
equal brightness, and then one ! two ! three ! tutu.. five !
—as though from signal guns, the remaining steamers, with
one exception, emitted jets of tire from their bows. The
jets soon became columns of flame and smoke—the wind
blew fresh and strong, and the night was dark, so that the firer
spread with rapidity along the vessels, and soon lighted up
the whole of the northern heavens. The masts were speedily
licked and warmed into a fiery glow, and the rigging burst out
into fitful wavering lines of light struggling with the wir,di
for life ; the yards shed lambent showers of sparks and,
burning splinters upon the water. The northern works,
could be readily traced by the light of the conflagration, and
the faces of the Russian soldiers and sailors who were
scattered about on the face of the cliff shone out now and
then and justified Rembrandt. The work of destructif a
spread rapidly. The vessels were soon nothing but huge
arks of blinding light, which hissed and crackled
fiercely, and threw up clouds of sparks and embers ; and
the guns, as they became hot, exploded, and shook the
crazy hulls to atoms. One atter another they went Joan
into the se, thin waters. The cavalry out on the plains
wondered v hat great conflagration had broken out anew in
the town. At daybreak only one steamer remaii.ed. A
boat pushed alongside her In m the shore. They I oarded
her, and after remaining below about ten minutes, returned
to their boat and regained the shore. Very speedily the
vessel began to be seized with a sort of internal convuhion
—first she dipped her bows, then her stern, then gave a
few uneasy shakes, and at length, after a short shiver, went
down bodily, cleverly scuttled. Thus was Sinope avenged.
Of the men who planned, the sailors who executed, and
the ships which were engaged on that memorable expedition
scarcely one trace now remains. Kornileff, Nachimoff,
Istomine, and their crews have disappeared • their vessels
now rest at the bottom of the roadstead of Sebastopol.
The Russians prefer being agents of their own destruction,
and do not give the conqueror a chance of parading the
fruits of his victory. We cannot delight the good people
of Plymouth or Portsmouth by the sight of Russian
liners and steamers. We can only drive the enemy to
the option of destroying or doing the work for him, and
he invariably prefers the former.
The Russians are fortifying themselves on the north
side. The French are gone towards Balder.
Our naval brigade, atter long, brilliant, and ill-requited
services, is to be broken up at once.—Times Cor.

RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR.
Friday, Sept. 14.
It is just one year this day since we landed at halamits
Bay. In that time we have stormed the heights of the
Alma, sustained the glorious disaster of Balaklava, fought

SEPT. 29, 185 i.

the great fight of Inkermann, swept the Sea of Azoff and
its seaboard, wasted Kertch, and seized upon Yenikale—
have witnessed the battle of the Tschernaya—have opened
seven bombardments upon Sebastopol—have held in check
every general and every soldier that Russia could spare ;
and new, after the endurance of every ill that an enemy at
home and abroad could inflict upon us, after passing
through the summer's heat and winter's frost, after being
purged in the tire of sickness and death, repulse and dis-
aster, and above all in the fiery glow of victory, the British
standard floats over Sebastopol. But our army is not the
same. l'hysiologists tell us that we undergo perpetual
change, and that not a bit of the John Smith of 1854 goes
into the composition of the same respected individual in
1884, but we have managed to work up tens of hundreds
of atoms in our British army between 1854 and 1855 ; and
there are very few indeed to be found in the present body
corporate who landed in the Crimea a twelvemonth ago.
Some regiments have been thrice renewed, others have
been changed twice over. The change is not for the better
—the old stuff was better than the new. —lb.