The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-24 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 24, 1855.

and the French regulars whenever temptation end
opportunity moor. I am not wlthcat stale expo:knee
as to the general morale of troops on active service;
and I an confident that, were three or four Nil&
or French regiments encamped on the coned now
occupied by these kW-bazooka, their oondoet would
be as bad, or worse. While the licentious Vandalimn
perpetrated at Rest& stands on record, in all
conscience let nothing be said of odd esti
of violence or dishonesty committed by the
bashi-basouks at the Dardanelles. Without this
faros of an investigation the commander had quite
means enough of suppressing any great insubor-
dination and of punishing notable offenders; nor do
I think that this red-taps interference with his proper
functions will have a salutary effect.

Further to inform myself as to the temper and
conduct of the men in camp, I have ridden three
dines through the lines of tents, awe happening to
be when General Bastion was making his ermine
etr sit ; and I as bound to say that the result was
a very high opinion of their good order and tractabi-
lity. As the general came in sight of each regiment
the men hurried out of their tents, and, ranged in
line along his worse, selated, a la Tierces, with as
hearty a good-will and deferential a manner as any
troops who ever wore a uniform. He stopped
from time to time and inquired of the na-
tive officers as to the wants and behaviour
et their men, evidently much to the satie-
action and conciliation of those interrogated, as
well as of the listening groups who clustered round.
By way of incidental disproof to that part of the
general rumours which bore upon the alleged vio-
lento to the Dardanelles ladies, I may just remark
that on this occasion I counted as many as five fair
horsewomen, who rode about at will in the vacant
spaces between the various regiments, with as little
seeming fear of rough gallantry as any long-robed
beauty that ever cantered down Rotten-row. In
feet, the savages grinned visible pleasure at the
sight I and I should not like to have been the man
who would have offered them Hellespontine Houris
an insult in their presence. Bo much for the whole-
sale violation of domestic hearths and husbandly pri-
vileges which had supplied all the scandal-mongers
is Pere with a rich fund of capital for the last three
weeks. The scribes of the /carnal de Condentimple
and the Press' cr Orient had hero gone beyond the
mere province of exaggeration, and thrown in a
moremis of racy, but gross, invention.
So much, briefly, in contradiction of the jealous
fictions which have taken shape in print: rapine and
bloodshed have not been emitted on the helpless
townspeople of the Dardanelles, nor has the town
itself been in "a state of siege," so far as I know,
since the days of Maltomet IL
As to the destination of this force, nothing, I un-
derstand, has as yet been decided on. In the absence
of field operations in the Crimea, they can be of no
present use there, and, considering the lateens of
the season, the snows would have set in before they
could reach Kam lam disposed to think that the
best course would have been to send them to the
Crimea at first, where the presence of a regular army
would have effectually repressed any tendency to
disorder, and have rendered them as tractable under
drill as could be desired. When the full num-
ber has arrived this would be the most poli-
tic course still : for beshi-basonk human nature
mit change its elements, before delicate morality,
er practically clear notions of the rights of property,
can be expected from men who are in no way mese
civilized than the savage hordes who swept the
plains of Asia and Eastern Europe five centuries ago.
In spring, however, when opportunity arises for their
empleresat, if properly officered and broken in the
annall■t- they will form not the least useful mai
Admit mean at our command ; not only by relievbg
regale, cavalry of much harassing and troublemme
duty, but by doing good service against any kneeler
Russian force that can be brought into the Isl
Whether Asia or tie Crimea be the scene of their
exploits, I am very hopeful that you will his. et
their rendering a perfectly satisfactory accoentef
equal force of the best Cossack troops in the earths
of the Czar.

round Bars, in face of the 'strongest combination
which the enemy's tzens-Canosiian umy can bring

spinet them ? We shall NMI.

Whilst on this point of military probabilities, I may
report the fixed departure of 10,000 men of our own
Turkish contingent for Shang& on the loth of next
month. This force is now rapidly approaching the
completion of its strength, and in another month
will be well on in readiness for any servioe it may be
called on to take part in. Already its discipline
has been brought to a very high point of improve-
ment, and there is every reason to hope that it will
form cam of the best component parts of the British
army in the East. Within the last few weeks a
very judicious weeding out of inexperienced or
otherwise unqualified officers has taken place ; and
from all I can glean, those now confirmed with the
force are such as will raise it to a degree of efficiency
which will leave little to be desired. In
the very essential qualiffeaVon of a know-
ledge of Turkish, great prqrrese has been
made by most of the officers; soma of them have made
such vary remarkable advancement as to be able to
drill the men with perfect ease and awreotness in the
vernacular. Attention to the study of the 'soap
his been most properly made compulsory ; and it is
much to be desired that this injunction had been as
strongly enforced on the medical staff of the force as
on the regimental allows. Nothing an be a greater
drawback on the usefulness and efficiency of medical
men so employed, than the utter and deplorable igno-
rance of the language, habits, and other peculiarities
of these native troops which is displayed—necessarily,
of course, at first—by the surgeons, dressers, and other
medical employes attached to the Turkish troops in
our pay. Instinct, I fancy, is not so strong in the
gentlemen to whose care the health of these forces is
entrusted, as to enable them to make weenie
diagnoses of their patients' ailments without some
verbal information from the sick themselves ; and as
yet—l think lam correct in saying—not one of the
medical staff, either of those with the Contingent or
Beatson's Horse, could ask a True Believer what
ails him In his mother-tongue, much less understand
his reply. The form I may just add, at present
consists of five batteries of horse artillery, of one
hundred and fifty men each; of two regiments of
cavalry, with a strength of seven hundred and fifty
each; and of two divisions of infantry, each six
thousand bayonets strong. The greater portion of
the Arsenal on the Golden Horn was taken possession
of lest week for the engineer one to be attached to
the form, and is at present being prepared foe their
reception by Captain Guernsey, the very active and
efficient Assistant-Quartermaster-General in Con-
stantinople.