The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS.

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During the stay of the fleet off Kinbnrn, the
Colombo steamer was despatched (on the 19th ult.)
to Odessa for an exchange of prisoners. Upon her
arrival off the town a flag of truce proceeded at once
on shore, and arrangements were made for the em-
barkation of the prisoners next morning :
Accordingly, about 10 a.m. on Sunday, Captain Methuen,.
accompanied as before and bearing with him his prisoners,.
rowed ashore, and was received at the landing-pier in the-
Quarantine by General Krusenstern, Commandant of
Odessa; Lieutenant-Colonel Prince Mestacheveky, Aide-de-
Camp to Count Stroganoff, the Governor-General of Bess-
arabia; and the Chief of Police, with a numerous staff of
attendant officers. As it was necessary that the documents
connected with the exchange should be signed by Count
Stroganoff, an orderly was despatched! to his Excellency,.
who resides in a country-house on the outskirts of the town;
but in the meantime the count himself came in, and war
present during the remainder of the proceedings attending.
the embarkation.—D. News car., October 23.
His Excellency appeared to be inquisitive on many
points connected with the capture of Kinburn, andi
conversed freely with the captain of the Coionlioni—
In the course of the conversation of this intersissr, the'
commandant of Odessa put several incidental question&
about the recent capture of Kinburn, and, amongst others,.
inquired if any of our English (floating) batteries had beeni
present. On receiving an answer in the negative—the.
French being the only ones—he replied, in a tone that
gave additional force to the expression of his uncompli-
mentary estimate of our allies' courage in naval operations,
11 ne fats( pas de grand courage pour un equipage cache—
alluding to the shot-proof construction of the batteries.
He further inquired the names of the two admirals, anfli
was informed that, in consequence of his recent promotion,
M. Bruat, being senior in rank, commanded in chief; on
which the general, turning to one of the others present,.
remarked in German, It es miiglich (Is it possible ! )—lb..
During the proceedings no one was allowed to.
walk beyond certain limits of the Quarantine Quay,
and consequently little information concerning the,
new fortifications of Odessa could be obtained. The
prisoners amounted, in all, to 130 English, and 280'
Turks, the latter captured principally in the Danube
campaign of '54.5. Without exception, they all
spoke well of the treatment they had experienced at
the hands of the Russians. During their stay at.
Voronetz, a town some 300 miles S.E. of Moscow, a
party of English deserters arrived there :
About a month, however, before their departure from
Voronetz for Odessa, a party of about fifty English deserters
arrived at the former town, and at once commenced a
course of annoyance to their countrymen, which led to tl 0
withdrawal from the latter of the liberty they had previously
enjoyed of free movement about the town and its neigh-
bourhood. These deserters were, of course, universally
" cut" by the prisoners; nor did they receive any of the
kindnesses so liberally bestowed upon the latter by the

NOVEMBER 10, 1855.

townspeople ; and to resent this, the scoundrels availed
themselves of every opportunity to abuse and otherwise
annoy the captives. —/b.
Among these men was a colour-sergeant of the
97th, who had deserted from the camp on occasion
of losing or using the regimental money. The man
appeared heartily to regret what he had done, but
feared to come back to his colours :
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 he shot by his coun-
trymen than remain as he was—declined availing them-
selves 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.

g THE EUPATORIAN EXPEDITION.

As " Our Own Correspondents" are by no means
regular in their communications from Eupatoria,
and their presence even in the camp is somewhat
doubtful, the intelligence we receive of the move-
ments of General d'Allonville is extremely scanty,
and mainly derived from Russian sources. How-
ever, the despatch from Marshal Pelissier contains
details of the strong reconnaissance made on the 27th
nit. by General d'Allonville from Eupatoria by Sak as
far as the ravine of Tchobata, where an intrenched
camp of the Russians was discovered, strongly posted
and defended by thirty-six long 32-pounders. The
French general advanced with twenty-four battalions
of infantry, thirty-eight squadrons of cavalry, and
fifty-six guns, but the Russians refused the offer of a
fair fight, and on the 29th, being in want of water
and forage, and having discovered the point at which
the Russians will defend an advance upon Simfero-
pol from Eupatoria, General d'Allonville returned to
the latter town to prepare for a fresh reconnaissance,
upon which he started on the Ist, advancing by
another route on Tchobata, but no intelligence has
yet arrived of the result of this movement.