The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-13 00:00:00

THE WAR.

Otemal Canrobent bee published the following
ceder et the day on the *is of the Russians at
flehasiepol on the Ma
lo the sight of the 19th' the enemy attaeked
our yvallels In two pleas. At the left the attack

was assisted by the 2al battalion et the 2nd nisi-
meat of the Foreign Legion, vigorously commended by I
Chef de &Linea L'lleviller. The impetuosity of the attacks
favoured by the bad weather, failed in presence of the
energy displayed by the Grenadiers, the lst company, the
light company, and the sth company. Ciptains Amour
and Rousseau, Lieutenants Chan and Seamier, Sergeant ,
Bevels, and privates Hogelucht, Seignaud, Rischard, and
Deglis conducted themselves with great bravery ; and
the deg of the 2nd regiment of the Foreign Legion
figured with honour in this brilliant combat. At the
right, it is once mere the 40th which I dad encounter-
iag the enemy with its accustomed energy. On the order of
the eater in command, Capt. Thomas, the 2nd battalion of
the 46th impetuously attacked the assailants and drove them
a long way back. Captain Dufour, Sub-Lieutenant Com-
baud, privates Autezier, Conrail, Braaten, Morinis, Be-
ment, and Boyer, displayed the mod creditable resolution.

Accompanying the preceding order in the Moniteur
is an annotteoentent that Captain Thomas has been
promoted to the rank of Chef de :Bataillon of the
74th; that Lieutenant Sassier, Bnb•Lieutenant
Combeaud, and private Hogelucht have been nomi-
nated members of the Legion of Honour; and that
the military medal has bees conferred on six of the
above-named privates, as well as on a corporal named
Collin, of the 3d Engineers, who, being accidentally
in the trenches, fought bravely with the 46th.

THE ARMY IN THE CRIAIEA.

OFILOIC TIII 1111.30LILL

ISPONDINY OF TB) DAILY
BALAILLAVA., Lot. 29.

No news is sometimes good news! The last few days
have passed in the most tranquil and eventless manner.
Itumours of peace, which were floating about, mono-
polised the attention of the military public, especially
se for some reason or other it was expected that the
lest mail, with ...ondon dates of the 12th inst., would
bring out something decisive on the subject. That
mail came in on the 27th, but the news it contained
as Tou:well know, was not decisive, and anything but
settafactory to those who desire a disgraceful peace.
It is a curious fact that the peace party in the camp
—if ever that expression can apply to soldiers—con-
sisted chiefly of man who had just come out; while
those who have gone through the whole of the cam.
paign could not reconcile their minds to so abrupt
and unsatisfactory a termination of their dangers and
privations. The old hands have, as it were, a stake
io the war: they have now for eleven months given
it their time, attention, and best energies; they have
in it exposed their health and lives, and they most
naturally wish to see some more substantial results
than • peace on the basis of four points, the exact
tenor and bearing of which some env at one time
have known but have long since forgotten.
Since I wrote last the weather has been delightful
Breezy, sunny days, and nights of astounding
validness at this season of the year, have done much
to reconcile the troops to the winter campaign. It is
said that if General February is as harmless as
General Jarivary, the Czar will see small results from
the efforts of his great commanders. Whatever
General February may be like, certain it is he will
find our troops in a better condition to cope with
him. Balaklava is inundated with warm clothing,
from public and private sources, and the men that
have any warmth left in them, are not likely to lose
it in a hurry. Wooden houses, too, are rising up in
every direction, even in the divisions in front,
whither the component parts of each house are
dragged, tied, in the fashion of Perk to the sides of a
horse, or carried up en the backs of soldiers sent down
for that special service. The late arrivals of bit
horses, and mules too, hold out a hope of
full and regular rations to the troops in front.
The men, properly fed, clothed, and housed, must
soon pick up, end dimes, in so far as it is caused by
want and exposure, will claim • lesser number of
victims than has hitherto been the case. But there
is one point which cannot too strongly be pressed
upon the attention of authorities at home and in
camp. Unless energetic measures are taken to cleanse
Balaklava and the entrenched camp from the abomi-
nations which have been allowed to accumulate
during an occupation of four months, early spring,
with its fever season, will do quicker and deadlier
work among our troops than has been done by all the
rigour of winter. We should be free of fresh graves,
old filth; and the rotting carcases of thousands of
horses before the advent of that trying season. Oh for
Toni Taylor and a detachment of BOardof Health men,
to superintend the sanitary police of the camp. Col.
Harding, the new commandant of Balaklava, has up
to the present dons little or nothing to cleanse this
town of muck and mire. It is asserted, though it is
hardly to be believed, that he finds difficulties in the
way of procuring fatigue parties for the work to be
doae.

A cue came under my notice a short time ago
showing how rapidly war is making its own men and
fashioning for itself the instruments to work with.
Mr. Dickson, of the 77th Regiment, has jut gone
home to join the depot company of his regiment on
his promotion to a junior captaincy. Capt. Dickson
was engaged at the Alma and at Inkermann, and in
either battle, I understand, he did good service. He
has just ceased to be an " infant," in law, and it is
but two years since he entered the service. His ir
not a solitary or an exceptional case. War clears the
way for its own. Men who for years would hold oat
in penes quarters die or drop down to Scutari, and
from thence home. Battles play sad havoc with the
army list • A race of new men is rapidly rising and
growing into command—men who hare youth,
energy, and vigour. Whether they have other and
higher qualities of leaders of regiments and divisions
remains to be seen. Much depends on the individual
character of the persons so rising much on their
talents. But the "infusion of young blood into the
service," so long talked of and written abut and
wished for, is becoming reality, and a year or two
of active arfare will give us colonels of, tive.and.
twenty and generals of thirty, at the head of regi-
ments and brigades.
I cannot conclude this letter without a short ques-
tion snent the Post Office. Can any one in England
explain how it happens that letters from Scutari
take six, ten, and even twelve days to go to Bala-
klava ? And that letters sent from Balaklava are
missing even for longer periods P As there is a good
deal of official correspondence between the two
depots, the question is one of considerable impor-
tai.oe. It is true that no postage is charged on letters
sent from one place to another; but is that a good
and sufficient reason for slowness and irregularity P
Let authorities at home look to the grievance. I
pane* for a reply—or a reform.

THE STADE DUES.

(,aox r

N! or TII DAILY mi.)
HAMBURG, FEIBRIARY.

Your correspondent at Copenhagen having lately
exposed the objectionable nuisance of the Sound
dues,• I take the liberty of claiming the benefit of
your impartiality to say a few words about another
of those admirable monuments of the feudal times,
still jealously enforced, and tacitly submitted to by
all maritime countries, though inflicting such severe
injury on commerce and navigation in general, and to
those of Great Britain more especially. I allude to
the so-called Stade dues, levied in the mast arbitrary
manner by the Hanoverian government on all vessels
and their cargoes passing up the Elbe to Hamburg.
I perfectly agree with your Copenhagen corre-
spondent that it is high time that these intolerable
obstructions to commerce should be abolished, and
sincerely hops that the subject will not only be
publicly discussed, but that England will insist on
the free navigation of all the rivers and straits of
Europe, and not confine the negotiations to the
Danube and the Bleak Sea. For the latter it may
be admitted in extenuation that it is a mars claunan,

• No lettan from o•e ow• eortospendoct at Cops Worn
Is D4ttlg awe of Jaa. 13 awl