The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-07 00:00:00

asosnalmed fact that the Iberians have offered as mash at
Mast as Muselrms through sickness, the inclemency of the I
mean, and the watt of provisions and forage. In •
climate something like that of France, the winter has sm.
hibited than, ahere, frequent vicissitudes of snow, rale,
frost, and thaw. The **aspens aeries the Crimea have
been almost roe tantly interrupted by the breaking up of
the names in • country that. does not %men • paved
causeway. The wiener in Russia Proper is the season he
sledge transport, because the frost lasts there four come
twenties month. without any intervening thaw. It
is sot the same in Southern Russia, more especially
is the Crimea. We may hence conceive the dig-
%hies the Russian army must have had to contend with
when matching its reinforcements, transporting its peen*
doss and rimaitions, and we may picture to ourselves lb.
imputability even to which it Rust have been redneedl in
this respect, if we remember, that a route of three 1.. g
merely, that from Belaktava to the camp before °obligor''',
became so impassable, that the English army remained he
several days deprived of provision', and that it wee obliged
in order to keep up the fire of the batteries, to have balls
and bombe brought on the backs of mules tad even carried
by men in their arms.
This route from Balaklava now serves es • line
traced out for the rail's/. On the aide of the
French, a paved way connects their camp with the
bay of Kanueosh ; other routes connect the different temps
with one aaothsr, and easy communications were estab-
lished early with the landing points. Bastian' and
Karniesch now witness on their shores the erection of two
towns of huts and tents, where warehouses, field hospitals,
shops of every kind, a host of swim, an entire military or
nomads populatios, full of incessant activity, are installed.
The French commissariat, with its special companies of
soldiers of every profession, has eonstrueted ovens, where
the bread for the army is babel ; the bakers knead botch
after batch; the military butchers, called " romanien," cut
up the meat for distribution • the storekeepers house In
lugs huts the supplies of salted meats, biscuit, sugar, coffee,
rice, and whatever military men call dry provisions ; others,
whose duty it Is to attend to the encampment and clothing,
stow away is good order a quantity of miscellaneous goods.
The regiments, by means of their own men on fatigue duty,
receive from the oommissariat these provisions and goods on
delivering tickets previously given to then' by the military
intendants. The cantioiers (sutlers) set up coffee-shops,
even eatiophouen, or shops where all sorts of commodities
are sold at exorbitant prices, and articles of food, which are
bought by such individuals as desire to add some European
delicacy or another to their military ratios".
In addition to the field hospitals, the bakehouses, ware-
houses, and canteens, you see on the same ground the work-
shops of the artillery, the engineers, and tho navy. Here hun-
dreds of smiths, wheelwrights, carpenter., and armouren,
every one of whom is a soldier, ace at wotk. Nothing can be
asee valuable during war-time, in distant countries without
immoseets, than these companies of workmen in every breech
of industry carried on by our military commissarial, and the
sue scienutie arms, the engineers and the artillery. Our
seßmon foot-soldier even, always a good hand at dining,
b easily converted into an active and ingenious workman,
mow at his wits' ends for supplj lag his wants, and who
as set up his bivonack and his extempore kitchen in the
Mot possible manner. Were be to stop any length of time
ea
the same spot, he would roen have his kitchen-
igardea, as our soldiers actually had at several en-
campments in Algeria, and which have since
grown into villages. We au, then, that a French army
tarries with it all the arts and trades; everywhere it finds
ip resources in itself, and is in itself • complete civilised
body. This administrative, military, and industrial system,
these emnpanies of weakens, all this organisation, in short,
fails in the English army, and its soldiery, so intrepid in the
combat, have nut the aptitude of ours for the various works
of war, especially those of a siege. But Engiand knows
this; it has received the revelation of what is defective
in her military organisation. Enlightened for the time to
come by dear-bought experience, she is about te remedy
that defect with the energy of • great nation, that resolves
not to be behind other nations, especially when her pow%
and butane arc staked in conjunction with France on the
issue of a most serious war.
We have now to speak on the state of the siege-works.
The principal attack (this is the name given to a series et
trenches dug in a given oirection) was undertaken against
the Flag-staff Battery, and, indeed, the centre, but it has
been extended on the left towarus the Quarantine Fort.
The zigzag approaches have carried the third parallel Si
100 metres from the rampart, and the works have been pew
logged to the Cemetery, of wnich we are the mamas%
and as far as the Quarantine Bay, where the I•saretio
has been occupied. This progress is considerable ; the for-
tification is 'serrated so daily, that our miners have already
commenced their subterranean labours. The first mine
haa been ruined by the Russian miners, who have counter-
mined, and by burning powder and resin smoked our men
in their gallery. Other galleries will probably be carried
on with better success.
The great harbour-ravine divides the line of the fortifica-
tions, and also the siege-works, into two sections. The right
part, extending from this ravine to the careening bay, was
allotted at first to the English at my. The left attack, exe-
cuted by the French, played on the city in front,
and kept in check several fronts of ramparts and
batteries extensively developed. But on Gatlin points we
were played uptn obliquely, that is to say, were battered in'
flank by tho guns of the besieged. The difficulties there-
fore were, and still are, very great along that front. What
was wanted was, that the right attack should have been
more vigorously advanced by the English, for it is in that
direction, on the aide of the arsenal, that more decisive pro-
gress might, perhaps, have been made. The Russians, at
this moment, are hard at work in order to perfect their
fortifications, and erect fresh ones on that point.
The English General, Burgoyne, who served in Spain
under the Duke of Wellington, and who is reputed to he a
skilful engineer officer, must have comprehended, bewever,
from the tint all the impor anca of the attack with which
he was charged. Ile cannot have failed to perceive, that if'
an entrance could be effected into this part, called the
arsenal (the seamen's town), Sebastopol, or the city itself,
would then be exposed completely to the havoc of bombs
and balls, and that the military port, in its entire extent,
would lie at the mercy of the besieger. It is vexatious that
the present sad state of the English army, the reduction of
its effective streng.h by sickness, and also the little taste
evinced by its soldiery for the works in the trenches, have'
not yet permitted us both to push on with all the vigour so
desirable an attack, that ought to be the principal one. Now,
two French divisions are charged with them, and are actively
'druids( the works. But, on the other hand, this has
roused the Russians, who on their side have set to work.
They are stow demolishing the ruins of the Malakoff tower,
a easentated structure, which had been almost entirely de-
stroyed by the English battuieson the first opening of their
fire. and with the materials of this tower it seems as if they
would construct a kind of fort or large bastion.
Thus the works of attack and the works of defence are
bong actively carried en on both sides. The allies must
submit with resignation, nutwithateading the impatience
of the soldiers, to the slow progress of a netball's'
siege accordiap to the rules of rut laid down by Vauban, sad
which consist in gaining ground foot by foot, and in redoing
by cannon or mine the defenses of the besieged until the
day when the vault may be made with • lair prospect of
games. The fire was opened at first with pieces inferior
in number and calibre to thaw of the place. The large
Lancaster guns of the English produced great effects at
first, bat afterwards their still greater defects necessarily
caused their discontinuance.
As our batteries had suffered a gust deal from the supe-
riority of the enemy's calibre, we were obliged to give up en
unequalled contest of artillery, and confine ourselves, as
much as the season and the ground permitted, to the dine
lopment of parallels and communications. Fresh batteries
have ben constructed, as is known, and armed with
heavier guns to the number of two or three hundred. All
these batteries remain masked. They will not be unmasked
before they are completely finished, armed and supplied
with several hundred rounds per gun, so that they may all
be brought into play at once. The object is to produce an
overwhelming effect, and which will serve as a prelude to
an immediate assault. ThN is all we are able to say, keep-
lag ourselves within a suitable reserve.

OP VII DAILY IFIIII O.)

HAVANNAH, Fes. 10.
Havaunah has been the scene of political excite- I
went for the last few day., without any one being I
able to assign reasonable cause thereof—save from !
the arrest of many of our moat distinguished citizens,
who have been seized simultaneously in all parts of
the island, and thrust into the loathsome cells of our
prisons. Yesterday, in a proclamation to the people, to
quiet alarm that existed only in his own heart, they
were congratulated on the skill and watchfulness
over them that had saved them from the awful ;
horrors of revolution, which was at the very
moment of action when exposed and de-
feated by the vigilance and energy of their
chief. General Concha alleges in this document that
preparation had been made for revolt in our midst,
which was to justify the invasion of the island by
strangers. The people do not place the confidence in
this document that it possibly deserves. They see
the remarkable fact that their most distinguished
fellow-citizens, those most associated with the enter-
prise and productive industry of the country, are
taken from important official positions and large re-
sponsibilities, and incarcerated, to the jeopardy of
vast property that they had for years been in faithful
administration of—our most refined and elegant
scholars—our oldest and most reputable mer-
chants; and they understand only, if the in-
tention of rebellion was in their minds, that it
is a league of a whole people against oppressive
rulers. And by General Concha, whom they really
love, and yet might give the Brutus blow, they are
quietly invited not to be afraid—of themselves and
their own actions—as the tender solicitude of mater-
nal anxiety and oars would protect
iitbem from them-
selves. The general impression that the action
of General Concha is premature—that thereby he
' has defeated himself. It is very probable that
an attempt may be made to land munitions
aid troops for the Creole service, but as,
yet there is no appearance in the neighbouring