The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-07 00:00:00

ABATFMENT OF INCOME TAX.

Mr. Wn.soN, on Thursday, obtained leave to bring
in a bill to continue the act for extending for a
limited time the provision for abatement of income
tax in respect of insurance on lives.

THE BRITISH FLEET.

Admiral BERKELEY, 011 Thursday, in reply to Sir C.
Napier, declined to furnish certain returns of the
vessels of war put out of commission since the peace,
and of the deficiencies of complement of each ship
in commission.

Sir C. N.PIER gave nonce that on going into com-
mittee he should move for the returns refused.

YR. LONOWORTH'S MISSION TO THE CIRCASSIANS.

Lord PALMERSTON, on llursday, in r ply to Lurd
Claud, Hamilton, declined to lay before the house
any report made by Mr. Longworth of his recent
ssion to the Circassian-, as the relations with the
Russian Government of those persons with whom be
treated might be compromised.

NOTICES OF MOTION.

Mr. HEYWOOD, on Wednesday, gave notice that on
the Ist of July he would move an address to the
Crown for the appointment of a commission to in-
quire into the authorised version of the Bible.

Air. DRUMMOND, on Wednesday, gave nt rice of his
intention to call the attention of the house to the
propriety of devising some means of relieving the
Home Secretary from the importunities to which he
was subjected on behalf of criminals, whereby the
administration of justice was often impeded.

THE PRESS.

THE CAMP IN THE CRIMEA.

THE embarkation of the English army goes on
slowly, though every one else appears to be in a
hurry to get out of the Crimea before the heats of
June set in. The Sardinians have gone, and 55,600
French as well. General Codrington had written a very
flattering after.order on the occasion of General De la
Marmora's departure, and sent a guard of honour to
attend him on embarking. Marshal Pelissier yet
remained with the French army of reserve.
Colonel James, Colonel Stanton, and Captain
Gordon, of the Engineers, had started to survey the
new Bessarabian frontier; while Captain Hammers•
ley and Captain Brook were on the 21st ult. about to
proceed to Perekop to examine the road and bridges
across the Sivash, and the country generally about
Genitchi and Ksffa, with the view of ob,aining more
knowledge of the ground than is at present pos-
sessed. General Codrington and staff were also
about to start on a tour round the south coast.

The Russians, according to the letters of the Tina
correspondent, show their proverbial inquisitiveness,
which they turn to good practical use on most occa-
sions, in all that concerns our camp arrangements,
roads, railways, Sec.:—
The staff officers of the Russian army are busily en•
gaged 'n surveying our camp, and the Commander-in-
Ch.ef of the English army has ordered that every facility
shall be afforded them. They have closely examined the
construction of the railway, and have studied the plans
and sections deposited in Mr. Campbell's office at Bala-
klava. The questions they asked respecting rails,
sleepers, rtc., indicated a limited acquaintance with the
elements of railway engineering. Dr. Monett and another
medical officer have returned from a tour in the Crimea.
during which they have nrinutely inspected the Russian
military hotintals, with a view to prepare a report upon
their medical system. That the Russians will profit by
v hit they see no one who witnesses their avidity for in-
timation and desire of improvement can possibly doubt.
They are deeply persuaded of the necessity which exists
for making good roads ; but I fear they look upon that ne-
cessity as one arising rather out of military and political
than peaceful and commercial considerations. " None of
ns ever dreamed of the Crimea being made the scene of a
great campaign, or we should have had good roads, and
possibly a railroad, to Sebastopol." That is their constant
remark.—Timer cor., 21st.

Some interesting details are now and then gleaned
from them on the subject of the siege :
The strangest, but the most universally asserted, and
best attested, tact we have learned from our late enemies
is this—that, had the fire continued, they would have
blown up their works and evacuated the south side of the
town on the IJih, or at furthest on the 12th of September
—that is, either two or four days arter the assault. The
fire was too tremendous aril all searching to be withstood.
The officer of one regiment, which garrisoned the
Malakoff from the evening of the Pith till the evening of
the 7th, said they marched in 3,4(X) men, with seventy
officers, and when they were relieved 2,t400 men and fifty-
one officers had been killed or wounded by shell and shot.
Sometimes a shell rolled clown into a bomb-proof and blew
up among the dense mass of men inside. Sometimes a
round-shot, striking one of the massive beams of wood
which supported the works, sent a shower of deadly
splinters all round it. and the service of the guns was at-
tended with the certainty that almost every gunner would
be hit by the French riflemen in the course of the day.
The Russians concur in saying that they lost more than
2,000 men every day of the fire. But then, if they hail
waited till the 10th, and no assault had been made, what
would have oc_•nrred? The tire must have slackened on the
9th, for the allies had not the means of continuing it. The
Russians, most likely, wore two. wutild have plucked up
heart of grace, set to work, and been ready for another
bombardment, which could not possibly have taken place
for two months. But then winter would have been upon
us, anti—however, there is no use in supposing.

A private letter from the camp gives some interest-
ing particulars connected with the non-effect of the
bombardme of '54 against the fatuous Wasp
Battery, and the state of the sunken ships :

An officer who served in the fleet at the bombardment of
Sebastopol, in 1145.1, dined, by invitation, with the Governor
of the Wasp Battery last month. He describes the Wasp
Battery as having a ditch some thirty feet wide around it,
with an embankment level with the guns, so that ships'
guns could not hit the fort at all, but only the embank-
ment in front, while the guns at the battery would fire shell
right down upon the deck of a ship. 130 feet below. This
fortifirAtion mounts only eight gulls, en barbette, and those
are very close together. Tnis was the battery to the tire ot
which Albion was exposed, and the Russian officer
expressed his surprise that she was not sunk. According to
his account,the shells thrown by the battery would go corn•
pletely through the whole of a ship's decks in that position.
The only casualty the Russians suffered in the Wasp Battery
was from one shell, which dropped amongst them, render-
ing twenty-eight men hors de combat. The officer himself
had, on the occasion of the bombardment, been in the
front of the engagement, and was anxious to see what
guns the fleets had suffered from. The Vv'te-p Batten-,
which is scarcely perceivable from the sea, he describes as
tile most dangerous, and the Albion as having one of the
hottest berths. The Rusiian commander gave him a good
dinner, plenty of champagne, and a hearty welcome.
From the statements of the same Russian officer it sp.
pears that the outer boom in Sebastopol harbour, owing to
a succession of gales, became in a sinking state during the

535

siege. and was removed to assist in making the bridge o
boats; the inner one shortly afterwards shared the same
late. After the gale of the 14th November, 1K54, the outer
line of ships was so much broken up as to render the har-
bour easy of access to the fleet, upon observing which the
Gabriel and Silistrio were sunk by the Russians as a further
impediment. Five steamers were sunk on the morning
when the Russian troops crossed the bridge of boats to the
north side: nothing of them is vis;ble. The first or outer
line of ships were sunk, with everything on board them,
upon the Russians perceiving the allied fleets weighing
from the Alma, and in the belief that the allied fleets were
about to enter the harbour, the Russian officers and men
losing all their property on board. The Empress Maria and
Grand Prince Comseanline are the only two ships whose
masts are standing; the former on her bilge, the latter per-
fectly upright, lying with her head up the harbour ; the
others are cross ways; the last mentioned was the finest
ship in the Russian fleet. The ships were sunk by heeling
them over and cutting tour scuttles on each side as large
as a pudding plate; they were kept afloat for acme time by
plugging and caulking them in till it was requisite to sink
then, and then it was done by driving the plugs all out to-
gether, after which it required from two to three hours for
them to sink.