The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-06 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 6, 1855.

thelnksemann mountain over the Tchernaya valley
round to the 12-Run battery opposite to Careening
Bay, ea well as the usual bees round the Hershel-
nate suburb. The French a A English batteries
actively responded. It was not an evening on which
• sortie might have been looked for. The moon,
which was in its first quarter, was shining brightly
' and clearly, and the sky, entirely free from clouds,
was brilliant with stars. However, the fire
was continued so obstinately for nearly half
an hour, that it began to be suspected
something more serious than a mere sortie
might be intended, and IMO of the French and
English regiments in front were held in readiness to
move forward. The musketry then soddenly °eased
without any such aid being called into requisition,
and the cannonading gradually subsided into the usual
tire from the batteries connected with the siege ope-
ration in actual progress. It appears that on this
occasion the sortie wits made against some embus-
elides thrown up by our allies in fro■t of their la-
mmed works en the right of the Mamas Verb.
These ambuscades were chiefly intended to carry a
fire against the Russian artillerymen in the Roden
near the point on the west side of Careesiog Bay.
the enemy was driven back without gaining posses-
sion of the ambuscades. It is said that the Russians
suffered severely as they were retiring, while the
casualties among the French were very few. We
had five men wounded in the right attack from
fragments of shells, two only being wounded very
severely.
For the last ten days it has been currently men•
tinned in the camp, that General Simpson's appoint-
ment was only temporary, and various new com-
manders-in-chief were named. This point was de-
cided by the publication of the following order of
the day:

I _
OVNIZAS AFTER ORDER&
Head Quarters before Sebastopol, July 21, 1855.
Lieateaaat•fleaeral Simpson snowiness to the army that
he has had the honour to receive from her Majesty the
Qnoen the appointment of Commander-in• Chief of the army
la the Orbits.

ins seuttesat-geasral, though deeply impressed with
the respoonbilities of the position in which be is placed,
most proud of the high awl distinguished Latour, and of
the confidence thus reposed is hies by hie sovereign.
It will he the lieutenant-general's duty to endeavour to
follow in the steps of his peat predecessor ; and he feels
oxfident of the support of the general., and of the officers
and soldiers, in maintaining unimpaind the honour and
discipline of this noble army.
Jars fintreow, Lleuteamitaeneral Commanding.
The general orders have also announoed several
minor changes and appointments. Captain Lushing-
ton, who throughout the greater part of the siege
has commanded the Naval Brigade with so much
credit and distinction, has retired from this service,
on being promoted to the rank of rear•admiral. He
is succeeded by Captain the Him. H. Keppel, of her
Majesty's ship Bt. Jean d'Aore, to whom Lieutenant
his Serene Highness Prince Victor of Hohenlohe has
been appointed aide-de-camp. Commissary-General
Filder has been succeeded by Commissary-General Sir
George Maclean, not Constomeary-Gmeral Ramsay, as
was stated in my last letter. It is a matter of surprise
that Ceionel Dickson, of the Royal Artillery, whose
services have been so valuable during the whole cam-
paign, and whose intimate knowledge of the Turkish
language procured him the appointment of Interpreter
at Head-quarters, should have been removed from
active service in the field, to superintend the govern-
ment powder mills at Waltham.
The temperature ha. been exceedingly high during
the last three days, the thermometer averaging from
83 deg. F. to 92 deg. F., in the shade of a tent.
during the greater part of the day while the sun
was in the ascendant. About 10 o'clock each morn-
ing a breeze has sprung up from the sea, which has
moderated the oppressive state of the atmosphere.
The troops, however, are generally healthy, although
eases of fever and bowel complaints stilt prevail in
certain parts of the camp..
Lieutenant the Hoe. Edward Fittolarence, of the
7th Fusiliers, who was so severely wounded
on the 18th of June that he had to suffer
amputation of the thigh, died yesterday, the
22nd instant. Until a few days since he was re-
ported to be progressing most favourably, and pit
partitions were made and the day fixed for his return
to England. Some bad symptoms then appeared
which he had no rawer to resist—induced, it is said
by fretting at leaving a brother behind—and he gra-
dually sank. He is described as a youth naturaily of
high spirit and courage, and, though very young, to
have borne the loss of his limb with exemplary
patience and fortitude.

Im.y 24.
A heal: fire wsa kept up from the batteries nearly
the whole night. Another burning hot day.

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT LATE ON THE
DANUBE.)
TURKISH CAMP, Jvz 2.5.

There is still a total lack of news—the weather in-
tensely hot; everybody in the camp passes the day on
his back, slumbering uneasily, languidly sipping
water or lemonade, and taking languid puffs of his
chibouk, and never rising into full consciousness and
active exertion till the sun has got low, aid the
evening breeze begins to make itself felt through the
heavy folds of the tent. The musicians form the
only exception to the general indolence; but certainly
their energy and application make full amends for
the somnulence of their comrades.
Still no news of Omer Paoha : rumour talks of his
settling quietly down in Constantinople as Seraskier,
but "nobody don't know nothiog 'boot it," as the
juvenile offender remarked, when interrogated by the
magistrate as to his ideas of a future state. The
probabilities, in my opinion, are still in favour of our
going off to Asia, and getting there just in time to
take up winter quarters, and be very miserable. The
army in that quarter, if the last accounts be tree,
have been thrashed in a signal meaner, and have, so
runs the tale, totally 'bandaged Lan. In the acan-
thus nothing whatever is being done here, as I have
already so often informed you ; but I may now add
that since the Turks have been just a year in a state
of total inactivity, the sooner the allies set them to
work again in some part of the globe or other the
better. Before this great heat set in, for want of
anything better to do we occupied ourselves—l speak
exclusively of the press—in roaming about the adjacent
country, which is full of picturesque and beautiful
scenery. Nothing can be much more striking in this
respect than the situation of the various Tartar vil-
lages. Those in the valley in which we were for-
merly encamped are again receiving their inhabitants.
who are returning from Baidar—at least such of
them as have not been carried off by the Russians.
In passing through Moskomina the other day, I
found a great many carts, containing the household
goods of the owners, mainly consisting of bedding
and cushions, and earthenware pitchers standing at
the data The majority of the men and women
looked sad and almost heart broken. All must have
found a terrible change in their humble abodes. The
fences and gates are all broken down, a great number
of the houses have been unroofed for the sake of the
timber by the Piedmontess, nearly all have had the
windows torn out, and the doors torn off, and a great
many are little better than a heap of ruins. The women
were endeavouring to secure privacy by hanging
pieces of carpet across the openings where the lattices
once were, though this is but poor protection against
the prying eyes of roving giaours, English and
French, who hourly pour along the valley, while the
hordes of men cleared away rubbish and tall grass
from the door-steps. deserted villages are
one of the saddest sights one sees in time of war—
worse to my mind by fez than the slaughtered bodies
of scores of fighting men—the ruined houses, the
ruined fences, the tall grass in the yards, the snug
chimney-corner., silent and deserted, round which Do
many jokes were cracked, so many stories told—the
Dom of so much humble enjoyment—and so much

quiet happiness which drew half its sweetness from
the obscurity of those it blessed. You walk
from house to house amidst a silence which
oppresses you. No dog bays defiance from be-
hind the palisades—no child gives squalling evidence
of the conjugal bliss of its parents—no maidens at
the fountain, dirty or clean, or ugly —I do not
want to overdraw the pictuprrettill the evening air
with the sound of gossip or of laughter ; their place
is most likely occupied by half-a-dozen French dra-
eons, swearing at their hones, and giving utterance,
in prolate language, to their loccinp for absinthe;
and the mosque—that primitive old mosque—
with its tile roof, its boarded floor, polished
so smoothly by the knees of many generations of
worshippers, its rude wooden candlesticks, in which
a little ail and a bit of tow shed light upon the Ko-
ran, and enabled the Mullah to fan the Jinn of faith
in the evil days of Islam, no longer re-echoes its
voice of prayer. The Muezzin no longer climbs
the ladder of its dear old wooden minaret, for all
maid Ins an aerie/ dog kesuaal, to announce to
the true believers the hours of prayer—everywhere
silence and desolation—the laves and the penates
bad fled at the sound of the drum, and were
followed by their protlgh, who, I am bound to say,
left little behind them beyond old slippers and old rags.
I know, close to one of these ruined villages, an old
Tartar burial ground, in which the" rude forefathers
of the hamlet" for many generations back doubtless
repose, in which I have often longed to lie down and
make my keph in the shade of the elms during the
long hours of noon, but was prevented by fear of ages,
which is sue of the least sentimental of diseases.
It linen the foot of the hill, is shaded by lofty oaks
and elms, and surrounded by a rude palisade ; the
grass in it is rich and green, and grows tall and rank
on the graves, and out of it peep here and there grey
headstones, standing in all manner of ways, except
perpendicularly—some in all their native ruggedness,
and others surmounted by a rudely-carved turban,
showing that he who slept beneath had lived and
died in the faith of the prophet. I shall never forget
how the golden light played on those humb'n
mounds, through the thick foliage, and how sweetly
the nightingale sang in the boughs overhead. No
mortal could desire a calmer or more secluded resting
place; but when I last passed that way the Turkish
packhorses were browsing in the enclosure, a ragged
soldier was lying under a tree watching them, and
beguiling the time by ridding his person of a host of
supernumeraries who seemed to have been attracted
by his charms. How many were sleeping there,
who lived and died in daily expectation of a revival
in /Islam, of the coming back of the hosts of
the Sultan to chastise the giaoun, and restore
the khans to the deserted balls of the Garden
Palace! How many longed to see the day, which the
sons have seen, when the soldiers of the Padischah
would defile along the Beide? valley ; but what a
pang they would have felt had they known that
wain that day came, the great Padischah, the king of
kings and lord of lords, would be tottering on his
throne, and that not a single infidel monarch would
care a straw about either him or his army.
A great part of the English cavalry is now down
near Baidar. The French, under General d'Agon-
ville, are still further in advance. Osman Pacha
commands the Turks in Omer Pachei absence. Eu-
patoria remains perfectly quiet.