The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-14 00:00:00

BOMBARDMENT F SWE&BORG

VIENNA, MONDAY.

Accounts received from Warsaw state that the
bombardment of Sweaborg began on the 9th, and
wu still proceeding on the 11th.
The result is ea yet unknown.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
SWEABORO, Au°. 7.

The great affair of the season is expected to come
off to-night. The non-arrival of the Princess Alice
keeps us somewhat in the dark, as sbe has been ex-
pected with the Dentsic mails for the last week.
Considerable excitement has raged through the
portion of the fleet at Nargen,and disagreeable feelings
amongst the crews of ships not to be present. An at-
tempt was made at a start three days ago, but a falling
barometer and scowling weather prevented them
starting. The Dragon accompanied the Hast-
ings and Cornwallis over, and they anchored
off the island Miolo. The Pembroke, with her
gunboat and a French steamer, have taken up a po-
sition off Melko, these two points being the extreme
points that the vessels will be anchored. The Mer-
lin has been busy buoying the channels and erecting
beacons on the rocks. The Dragon returned again to
Nargen, reporting all ready for the arrival of the fleet.
It appears the Grand Duke had been down, or sup-
I posed to have been down, from the Royal standard
being seen, and the Russians evidently are on the qui
vier, and had commenced fortifying Bakholme with
additional guns; indeed the more one looks at the
different little :islands the more guns make their ap-
pearance. Yesterday morning the Duke, Exmouth,
Edinburgh (towing collier), Vulture, Dragon, and
Magicienne, 15 mortar vessels, 15 gunboats, Eurya-
lus, Arrogant, Lightning, Geyser, towing tEoles
with shot and shell, and Belleisle, started under canvas
about nine A.M., and towards evening they
were provisionally anchored for the night, just out-
side Ronskar Island. The Geyser returned and brought
the hospital ship is ; the French Admiral arriving
much about the same time. The signal was made for
an opportunity for letters to England, and the results
of the bombardment, which will come off to-night or
tomorrow, must be deferred till another opportu-
nity. It is, however, suspected a mortar and gun-
boat affair will be all ; and no doubt, from the ex-
cellent practice of the mortars, we may anticipate
a certain amount of destruction, but beyond
the mortars and gunboats, there is nothing but
six liners and four steamers, and whatever
damage is done, there is nothing in the shape
of troops, or numbers of marines, to follow
good results up. The French will have for their
private pigeon the town of Ilelsingfors. As they
wisely suggest, Sweaborg is the more glorious way,
but Helsingfors the most satisfactory result, and a
great deal of truth in it. I don't see the force of
running against their forts, if a valuable town can
be destroyed with bat little sacrifice, and I trust to
see it in flames. The French are ardent with
that idea. The Cronstadt fleet, the Riga cruisers, and
the Gulf of Bothnia ships, are left intact, and no
concentration of the forces has taken place. The
Calcutta is left at Nargen, and after all this will
afford an excellent opportunity of inflicting a blow
upon the enemy, throwing all our shells amongst
them, proving the efficiency of our 13-inch mortars.
The rocket practice will be tested, and the ardent
wishes of the people of England, who fancy
the Baltic fleet is still doing nothing, may be a little
appeased.
Lieut. Seedy, of the Magicienne, has been ap-
pointed by the Commander-in-chief to the first
lieutenancy of the Arrogant, front the vacancy
crested by the promotion of Lieut. Haggard. Sup-
plies still continue from Elsinore in great abundance.

THE CRIMEA.

RUSSIAN DESPATCH.
ST. PETERSBURG, MONDAY.

At the date of the 10th, evening, Prince Oort-
chakoff announces that nothing new had oocurred
before t3ebastopol. The enemy's fire was weak.

THE WAR.

-.-
DEFENCE OF SEBASTOPOL.

We learn from Vienna that in the military circles
of that capital, where the published correspondence
from the French and English camps is compared
with ample private information of Russian origin,
opinion is decidedly favourable to the prospects of
allies on the next assault. The Military Gazette,
which at times ieagtLa is hoping and
predicting for Russia, now gives its voice in favour
of the besiegers. " The French engineers," it says,
" have now got so near to the east fort and the
Karabelnaia fortifications that the first Russian line
of defence can hardly withstand the next assault.
It would of course be possible to hold the second
line, even when the allies had taken the Malakhoff
Tower, but General Osten-Sacken well knows the
danger which at this moment threatens the Marine
suburb and the Admiralty buildings, and has given
orders preparatory to the eventual evacuation of this
part of the town, and a retreat to Fort Nicholas.
General Chruleff directs the defence of the Kara-
belnaia, and has his head-quarters in Fort Paul. It
is inferred from his latest measures that, while pre-
pared for the worst, he is resolved to defend his
ground to the utmost."

The Odessa correspondent of the already quoted
Military Gazette thus wri.cs on the 30th ult. touching
the situation of Sebastopol:

By our most intelligent military men it is universally ad-
mitted that if the allies push forward as energetically as
they have hitherto done, the south side of Sebastopol must
in the end inevitably fall. The garrison's heroic self-
sacrifice and contempt of death delay, but can-
not avert, the steady, if slow, progress of the
besiegers who day by day gain ground upon them. All the
various reports of the French and English journals about
interrupted communication between the north and south
side, terrible epidemics which rage among the besieged,
15,000 sick in Sebastopol, want of provisions and ammuni-
tion, and so on, are nothing but idle inventions. Letters
from the interior of Sebastopol, dated July 22, assure us
that the connexion between north and south is unim-
paired, that food and ammunition are abundant, the
magazines on the north side alone containing
supplies sufficient to serve 300,000 mcn for a
year. The hospitals, in the days of greatest slaughter, have
never contained more than 9,000 men. For sanitary rea-
sons, however, Prince Gortehakoff had just given orders to
remove all the sick from the hospitals in the northern forts
and to take them int) the interior of the Crimea. There
are only about 1,200 sick and wounded who are too ill for re-
moval. The cholera, which is making such ravages among
the allies, has never appeared smong as in an epidemic
form. At the same time it is seen that the position of the
garrison on the left line of defence, from Bastion 1 to
Bastion 5 (from the west of Careening Bay to the Flsg-
stsff inclusive), will n-it long be tenable. But more than one
sanguinary struggle will probably precede its abandonment.
The defenders have resolutely devoted themselves to death,
and trusting in God wait with calm expectation till their
time comes. Hence the indifference, one might almost say
the joviality, with which they play at cards and dice on the
bastion while shot and shell are falling around, so that as
soon as one is struck down be is quietly removed, and the
game without more ado goes on as before. Thus after the
last unsuccenfully attempted storming, Prince Gortchakoff
visited the bastions, asking " Hew goes it, children ?" "As
God wills," answered the soldiers.

The garrison of Sebastopol numbers at this moment
from 60,000 to 65,000 men. At the present moment it is
composed of the following troops :
Of the Third Infantry Corps—
Eighth Division—Eegt. Poltawa, No. 16.
Krementscb, N 0.16.
Ninth Division—Eve- Prince Gortchakoff.No.l7.
„ Prince of Warsaw, No. 18.
Ssesfk, No. IS.
Of the Fourth Infantry Corps—
Division eleven—Rtgt. Ochotsk, No. 21.
„ Kamschatka, No. 22.
„ Selinginsk, No. 21.
„ Jakutak, No. 21
Of the Sixth Infantry Corps—
Division sixteen—Regt. Vladimir, No. 31.
„ Sustlalsk, No. 32.

The following regiments form the reserve :
Of the Second Infantry Corps, 6th Division, the regiment
Moron,, No. 11. Of the Third Infantry Corps, Bth Division,
the regiment Count Diebitsch, No. 15, anil the regiment
Alenspolsk, No. 15. Of the Fourth Infantry Corps, Divi-
sion 10, the regiments Tomsk, No. 19, and Tobolsk, No.
20 ; of the 12th Division, the regiment Ukraine, No. 23.
Of the Fifth Infantry Corps, Division 13, the regiment
Bialystok, No. 26; of the 14th Division, the regiments
Volhinsk, No. 27, Podolsk, No. 27, and Zsistomir, No. 28;
of the 16th Division, the regiment Michael Nicholai ; and
of the 17th Division, the regiment Moskan.

Besides the foregoing, there ars two battalion' of Black
Sea Infantry, four battalions of Rifles, and two sotniu of
Cossacks. The artillery and seamen are not included in
this statement.