The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-21 00:00:00

584

THE CAMP IN THE CRIMEA.

LORD Gouon has at length arrived in the Crimea,
and distributed the insignia of the Bath to the
French and English generals and other officers upon
whom the honour was conferred by her Majesty the
Queen.
The 34th and 79th Regiments, with strong bodies
of the Artillery and Army Works Corps, passed
through the Bosphorus on the 14th and 17th inst.
The staff of the Turkish Contingent has arrived at
Constantinople with the main body of that force.
Her Majesty's ship Leopard, with some 1,500 on
board, on rounding the Golden Horn, ran into several
ves,els, and was much injured.
The Argc steam transport, en route home, had been
run down in the Bosphorus by a French liner, and so
severely damaged that she was compelled to tranship
the troops on board and lay up for repair.
The Grenadiers, Rifle Brigade, and light division
have all embarked by this time, and in a few days
possibly the entire British army will have left the
Crimea, the line-of-battle ships and steam frigates
being ordered up from Malta to embark the army at
once. This sudden change of intention on the part
of the Government is attributable to Sir William
Codrington having telegraphed home to hasten the
embarkation of the army, in consequence of the heat
and the likelihood of cholera and typhus fever break-
ing out. The following vessels are placed at the dis-
posal of the commander-in-chief for transport pur-
poses. The numbers attached to each ship show the
total number of troops that each is to carry :
Belleisle, 900; Apollo, 800 ; London, 1,200 ; Rodney,
1,200; King Philip, 800; Terrible, 1,000; Resistance,
800; Queen, 1,500; Agamemnon, 1,000; St. Jean
d'Acre, 1,000; Sidon, 700; Princess Royal, 1,000;
Leopard, 800 ; Odin, 700; Furious, 500; Valorous,
500; Firebrand, 200; total, 14,600.
The intelligence (writes the Times correspondent) that
the eleven ships of war are corning out—some, indeed,
have actually arrived--to convey part of the army to Eng-
land, was received with a sensible pleasure, and gives us
hope of escaping the heat of the middle August. If it
could have been at all managed, the embarkation and
transport of this army in large masses would have pro-
duced a greater effect in many high places than might be
imagined. England has, as it were, dribbled out her
strength and her resources as apothecaries pour out strong
potions—drop by drop. It would have been a grand and
significant eight—a greater proof of power and might than
even the Spithead review—to behold Great Britain col-
lecting her army and sailing off with it in two or three
great armadas. But we have lost the opportunity now—if
ever we could have grasped it.—Times eorr , June 3.
The French appear to have been beforehand with
us in perpetuating the scenes of all their glories and
sufferings by a munificent Government commission to
artists of eminence :
Our painters have lost opportunities they never can
again enjoy, and the British artist has certainly shown but
little " pluck " this war. One or two gentlemen have come
out as correspondents and artists for the illustrated jour-
nals; but, as a general rule, the remark I have made as to
the want of enterprise among the painters is more than
justified. The French have taken care to perpetuate as
far as possible the glories and the scenes of the campaign
by engaging painters of eminence to execute historical pic-
tures fur the nation, in which the. English will be repre-
sented as one melodramatic Highlander helped out of
by a Zouave ; but, of course, we are such an
eminently practical and economical people we could not
afford such luxuries, and after some time we shall be con-
tent, perhaps, with a portfolio full of water-colour sketches,
which may be found, after energetic researches, in some
quaint corner of the British Museum—lb.

What the country will not possess may be obtained,
however, by private individuals. Mr. Robertson,
Superintendent of thu Mint at Constantinople, is
taking a series of carelul views, and ho would
appear to he the last likely to get a view of the old
blood-stained Relds and trenches:—

The Russian sentries even now will not permit any one
to sketch the northern forts. If one is to judge by what
one hears, Sebsstopnl will be erected, not perhaps into an
arsenal maritime militaire, but into the centre of a series of
most formid tble fortresses The greatest abuse is
lavished on Prince Woronzoff by some Russians for ne-
glecting the formation of a military road between Sebas-
topol and the south of Russia. That defect will be
speedily remedied. The allied fleet must soon leave the
Black Sea, and it will be strange indeed if the Russians
do not manage to keep strangers, whether in Turkish
men of•war or not, out of the roads of Sebastopol for the
next two years.—M.

Some valuable experiments have been conducted
by the field and horse artillery on the effect of dif-
ferent charges in ricochet and direct firing, and on
the relative merits of 61b. and 91b. guns:—
The most curious, if not the most satisfactory, of all
were made last Saturday, on which occasion a party of the
4th Regiment and a number of guns were pitted minis
against cannon, to ascertain the relative rapidity of fire
and execution done on targets at distances varying from
1100 to 1,M)0 yards. The results satisfies infantrymen that
they can " shut up " guns with smart riflemen. The ar-
tillerymen are equally assured that they wild sweep away
any number of skirmishers with ewe and *lmpel, par-