The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-06-12 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.--LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY.

facture of such arms without a license shall be
punished with the third degree of imprisonment
and a fine. The same punishment is prescribed
for those having prohibited arms in their posses-
sion. In all cases such arms are to be confiscated.

THE ARMY IN THE CRIMEA.
SEBASToPOL, May 27.—The proces of disintegra-
tion is going on rapidly with our army. More
than 1,000 horses and about 20,000 men have already
embarked, and each day witnesses the departure
of a regiment. The health of the army continues
to be excellent ; indeed it would be somewhat
surprising if there was any unusual amount of
sickness among the men, considering that they
are placed under conditions most favourable to
health, with the sole exception of their being
soldiers. They have fresh and good meat five
times a week, good bread _ every day, plenty of
exercise, fresh air, and proper clothing.
SATURDAY, May 24.—The anniversary of Her
Majesty's birthday was observed with great cere-
mony to-day, and was further rendered remarkable
by the distribution of the French war medals to
the English army. At 2.30 all the idlers in camp
set off for the plains of Balaklava, where the
troops had already taken up ground in a line
upwards of two miles in length, from the scene
of the heavy cavalry charge on the right to
the rising ground near Cauroberes-hill on the
left. The Commander-in-Chief and the French
Chief arrived with tolerable punctuality.
Mar:dial Pelissier, in the full uniform of a Marshal
of France, his breast glittering with orders, rode a
large and showy jet black charger, richly capari-
soned, and his appearance suggested a comparison
with that of Sir William drington, who was
attired in the undress of a general officer, and was
mounted on a small grey horse, scarcely to be
distinguished from a pony. The Marshal seemed
tired ere the march past was finished, which is by
no means to bec wondered at, considering the
frequency of sights of the kind at which he has
attended for the last three months. His Excel-
lency's Staff was not large, but he had his usual
escort of Hussars and Chasseurs d'Afrique.
Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh Rose was present
with the French Head Quarter Staff. General
Codrington was attended by the small detach-
ment of the 11th Hussars. who act as his escort
on such occasions, and by a few Staff officers.

An unusual number of travelling gentlemen were
present ; and now that the siege is over, and that
there is little to be seen, visitors begin to flock
into the camp from England and the overland
route, to the great horror and misery of the
baggagers and ponies. The line was formed of
contiguous columns, at quarter distance. At the
first gun, which was fired at about 2.40, the divi-
sional Generals proceeded to distribute the medals
to the select few, the mode of doing so being
left to each, so that some distributed the medals
by the division and others by the regiments. The
divisions were formed in a square, inside which
were the Generals and staff officers of eaeh, dis-
mounted and attended by the regimental staff
officers. Marshal Pelissier, and the French Staff,
and Sir W. Codrington, entered the square of the
Guards and assisted at the ceremony, and the
Marshal said a few words on the occasion to the
officers around him. Lord W. Paulet, in
distributing the medals to the Light Division,
made a little speech which did not please some
of his officers, for he was supposed to have said
the men ought to prize the war medal more
than that which they had received from
their country. Lord Rokeby and General
Barnard distributed the medals in like
manner to their men, the reason for the
bestowal of the decorations being read out as each
man stepped up to receive it, and the presenta-
tion being generally accompanied by two or three
kind words or some brief eulogy. The 50th Regi-
ment received the medal for valour and discipline
in the trenches, from the 29th August to Bth
September. The 82nd did not receive the medal,
as they came after the siege was over. The High-
landers had anticipated the ceremony, for they had
balloted for their share of their medals, and they
had been presented with them by their Brigadier
at Kamera the previous Saturday. It is a very
pretty decoration of blue enamel and silver, the
medal hanging from an eagle's claws, and the eagle
itself being attached to the breast riband. On the
front of the medal there is a well struck effigy of the
Emperor; and on the reverse are inscribed, within
a wreath of laurel, the words " Pour valeur et
discipline." The proportion in which it was given to
the men is about one per cent., or seven to each
regiment, and the officers here had great difficulty
in deciding on the merits of the many candidates.
The ceremony of presentation lasted about twenty
minutes. and at three o'clock two gnus were fired
from the signal station, This was to announce
that divisions were to re-form line, and get into
urteinal position. The movement of the heavy
squares, as they unfolded and extended into line
over the plain, was exceedingly grand and pic-
turesque. As soon as they had formed in a line
of contiguous colums, the guns on each flank of
the line fired a Royal salute, and as soon as the
eke had cleared off, and the echoes had died
weer in the valleys of the Tchernaya, the third
signal—a single gull—was heard, and Marshal
Pelissier and General Codrington, with their staff,
proceeded to move down the line in front, from
right to left, and at the same time the troops
presented arms, the bands played " God
save the Queen," and the colours of the regiments
were let fly out in the gentle breeze. The effect of
this sudden flash and glitter of 25,000 bayonets,
and of the bright-coloured banners at marked
intervals along the line, was very fine, but the
display was somewhat marred for mere spectators
by the distance they were kept from the troops by
the line of the 11th Hussars on the ground. As the
staff returned towards the right to take up their
position for the march past, the fourth signal (two
guns) was fired. This was "to take off hats, and
give three cheers for the Queen." No doubt there
was a surprising volume of sound from those
25,000 throats, opened all tegether, but the wind
was adverse, and carried the acclamations away
from us towards Mackenzie. where perhaps it
put the Russians in mind of something they had
heard once or twice before. The men did not
shout all at once, and their cheering, however
vigorous, was rather straggling. All the spectators
took off their hats and cheered also. The Gene-
rals returned to the right of the line, and took up
their ground for the march past, which began from
the right in the order of their formation in lino.
As the divisions marched past they proceed home-
wards, and the vast plain of Balaklava was covered
with patches of steel and red, as the regiments in
picturesque disorder of march proceeded on their
different routes to camp. In the evening General
Codrington entertained all the generals, brigadiers,
and heads of departments, Medical Commissariat,
and Land Transport, to dinner, and Sir Houston
Stewart had an entertainment on board the flag
ship at Kamiesch.
TUESDAY.--It began to rain soon after midnight,
and it is now a deluge. The sky black and over-
cast, and the camp is already muddy and sticky.
The four companies of the gallant 21st Fusiliers
have just passed on their way to take ship at
Balaklava. The 47th will embark in the Irnpe7
ratrix, for Malta, in the course of the daY, under
the command of Colonel O'Grady Hely, and
thus the old Brigade of " the Fours" as it was
called, or Adams' Brigade of the Second Divison, is
broken up, after meritorious and trying services.
just before they left, a corporal naniect Howland,
who was bn duty in Sebastopol, distinguished him-
self by plungiug into the sea, all accoutred as he
was, and saving the life of a soldier of the 28th
regiment, named Townson, who had accidentally
fallen over the dock wall ; and the letter of the
Commandant of Sebastopol, detailing the circum-
stance, was put in regimented orders by the Colonel
—but this was all that could be done to signify the
sense entertained by the authorities of conduct
which the time and locality rendered very prase-
worthy. The Royal Humane Society could not
better bestow one of its medals; and, indeed, in
addition to that claim upon them, there are the
cases of Major Robertson, who saved a man from
drowning at the races, and of Mr. Donald Campbell,
.
the engineer of the railroad, v:ho with great din
culty saved a Sardinian soldier who had dis-
appeared when bathing in one of the deep pools of
the Tchernaya.
12 o'Ceocx.—The 47th regiment are just march-
ing from their deserted camping ground amid
tremendous cheering from their old comrades of
the brigade and the strains of Auld Lang.Syne.
They will have their reminiscences of Crimean
mud. revived ere they reach Balaklava,—Times
Correspondent.