The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-02 00:00:00

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)

GRAVESEND, Wednesday, 10.2 a.m.
Wind, N.E. ; tide, two hours' flood ; weather fresh, and
fine. _ _

Arrived, May I—George Robinson, from Ghent ; John
E. Thayer, Boston ; Railway, Sines ; Hercules, Memel ;
Victoria, Singapore.
Arrived, May 2—lno, from Guernsey; Gustave, Bor-
deaux.
Sailed—Royal George, for Constantinople.
DEAL, Wednesday, 9.54 a.m.

Wind, N.E. ; strong.
Passed Dungeness, May I—Vimiera, from Sydney, for
London.
Passed—lndiana (s.s.), from Southampton, for Wool-
wich ; H.M.S. Porcupine, from westward, for eastward ;
Quiver, London, for St. P.Michael's ; Carlton, ship, 1,549
first pendant, from the river, or we
was observed on shore
stward.
At daylight this morning a forqu
on the Goodwin Sand. assistance has been sent off.

It is expected that the City of London Militia will
proceed to Woolwich early in the ensuing week. The
regiment is still far below its number, although within
,the past fortnight a large number of recruits liave been

ARMY BEFORE SEBASTOPOL COM.-

MITTEE.

The committee re-assembled yesterday morning at the
usual hour.
General Sir John Burgoyne was the first witness
called, and was examined by the chairman.
Ile stated that he had the management of the whole
engineering operations before Sebastopol. He arrived
there with the army. When the army arrived he had to
plan the approaches to the town and to direct the for-
mation of the trenches. They could not get one half of
`fie work done which was necessary, in consequence of
the weakness of the army. Before the siege operations
began the communication with Balaklava was verygood.
That continued up to November, when the bad weather
set in, and the road became a mud-hole. It was their
opinion that Sebastopol would yield to the attack of the
Allies in a very short time after the commencement of
the siege. It would have required a very large force
t,) have constructed the road, and the men employed
ought to have been to some extent acquainted with the
nature of the work. A sufficient number of men could
not have been spared from the army—they were all so
heavily engaged in the trenches. In fact the force was
scarcely sufficient to man the trenches with any degree of
efficiency. It was his opinion that it was.at that time
more advantageous to the army that the men should be
employed in the trenches rather than in making the
roads. The discomfort which followed did not arise en-
tirely from the bad road ; it arose equally as much from
tile mortality amongst the baggage animals. They died
~ff fr mt ant of care and proper attention.
Chairmae —lied you any complaints of the want of
t col, sent out ?

Sir J. flur_;oyne—No complaint was made to me on
the .uhjk-ct. I never heard of it until I saw it mentioned
'll the papers. I afterwards, however, made inquiries,
old the Sappers told me that the tools they bad might
ot vainly have been of a better description. I also found
that some of the tools were of the old Peninsular pat-
tern.

Examination continued—ln his opinion the labour of
the men was not impaired by defective or improperly
made tools. He could not understand how the tools
could have been complained of to the extent they had
been. There was certainly some little ground of ohjec•
Lion to part of flea in the respect he had mentioned,
but not to the whole of them.

By Mr. Lavard—He did not recollect that the tools
sent out in 1828 to Portugal were condemned and sent
back. To his knowledge no complaints were made of the
too' by the men. _ _

By General Peel—The siege operations extended over
a space of 3 miles. The covering party consisted of
2,000 men, but the working parties varied in strength
according to circumstances. The covering party was
afterwards reduced in consequence of the weakness of
the army. When the army landed, so far as he knew,
it was in ignorance of the amount of the Russian force
in the Crimea. It was manifest that they must, at all
events. receive large accessions ; and it was therethre
advisable that the siege operations should be commenced
as soon as possible.

By Mr. Layard—He did not make any representation
to head-quarters for a larger supply of men to carry on
the trench operations. He was constantly applying for
men ; but the Adjutant-General informed him that they
could not be afforded, in consequence of the weakness
of the army. He had the command of the corps of
Engineers. llla position in the Crimea was different to

thai he had held in the Pe'hinsula in conducting siege
operations. The siege operations were, however, en-
tirely under his control, and he considered himself the
responsible person for everything connected with them.
The army arrived at Balaklava on the 27th September,
but no ground was broken until the 10th October. The
troops were in the interval employed in conveying up
materials and tents to the camp. At that time there
were no means at the command of the army to make a
road.

By Lord Seymour—lt was not believed on the Bth
November that the troops would have to winter in the
Crimea ; at all events it was not so to his knowledge.
By the Chairman—When the bad weather commenced
he did not think of making good the road, principally
because be had not sufficient labour at his command.
By Lord Seymour—One important provision which
ought to have been made for wintering there was the
construction of a good and available road. No consul-
tation was held at head-quarters relative to preparations
for wintering. If a number of " navvies " had then been
sent out to make the road, they would have been of in-
finite use ; but unfortunately the idea was not thought
of. In his opinion a good road would have been far
more adapted for its purpose than the railway. Lord
Raglan had power to depute officers to inquire into the
best means of providing for the care of the baggage
animals by placing them under cover, and to direct them
to report to him (witness), but it was not done.
By General Peel—The responsibility of constructing a
road devolved upon the Quartermaster-General, but he
rived all the aq.istance he could from the Engineers.

Sir J. Burgoyne examined by Mr. Layard—He made
1111 represetitatiou or remonstrance to the Quartermaster-
General relative to the road. He did not think the
Turkish trot ps could have been advantageously employed
in making the road. They were tried once, but they
taile I o lug to their soon becoming sickly and unable
to work.

By Sir John Pakington—He thought it would not
have been possible to have obtained hired labour for the
purpose from the surrounding countries. It wa,, as he
had before said, quite impossible that men could be
spared from the army, even to perform so important a
duty as that of making the road.
By Colonel Lindsay—After the failure of the first fire
he advised with Lord Raglan as to the next step to be
taken ; and he (witness) recommended that the batteries
should be strengthened, and more ammunition should
be brought up. The increased strength of the batteries
was to be employed as soon as the fresh guns coull be
got into their positions. This was one reason why he
did not at that time think that it would be necessary to
winter in the Crimea. Had it not been for the bad
weather and the state of the road, the batteries could
have been opened sooner than they were. It soldiers
Mad been employed in making ,the road, they must have
been taken from other pressing duties of the siege ope-
rations.

By Lord Seymour--• The whole of the military insti-
tutions connected with the troops in the field were in-
efli,•ient.

Lord Seymour—What do you mean by military
institutions ?

Sir J. Burgoyne—For instance the engineers were de-
ficient, they required more sappers and more officers.
lie thought some alterations in the organisation of the
different departments of the army would be desirable. •
At this stage of the proceedings the room was cleared
on the sufject of a question put to the witness by Colo-
nel Lindsay, relative to the communication of the Com-
niamier-in-Chief with the officers of the army ; and the
doors were c!oscd for about 20 minutes.

On the re-admission of the public,
Lord Seymour called the attention of General Bur-
goyne to the evidence given by General Bentinck, the
Duke of Cambridge, CaptAin Shakspear, and Captain
Wrottesley, as to the defective tools supplied to the army,
particularly the bill-hooks ; and inquired whether this
had come under the knowledge of the witness.
General Burgoyne replied that none of the cases re-
ferred to had come under his personal knowledge. He
did not say that the tools alluded to were not bad ; they
might have been, but he never saw them. The tools
were supplied by the Ordnance ; and it rested entirely
with the storekeeper to whom they were consigned
whether they should be retained, when sent in, or re-
jected. Some of the tools supplied to the Crimean army
came from Malta.

By Sir J. Pakington—After the raising of the siege of
Silistria he was not consulted relative to the attack upon
Sebastopol. At that time he thought the strength of
the Allied Forces was scarcely adequate to such an ope-
ration, whatever might be the resources of Russia.
Sir John Burgoyne afterwards went on to state, in
reply to the chairman, that he approved of the principle
on which the staff appointments were made. The ge-
neral staff was appointed at home ; but the personal
.-tall of tie Commander-in-Chief was selected by the
Commander-iii-Chief himself, and was composed of
officers whose merits or services entitled them to that
position. The staff of the Quartermaster-General and
the Adjutant-General were also appointed by the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and he approved of that principle en-
tirely.

By Mr. Layard—He proceeded to Gallipoli before the
troops arrived ; and preparations were made for their
reception. It was usual to apportion one horse to every
two men in the land transport department ; but this
regulation was not carried out in the Crimea. Ammu-
nition, shot, and shells were brought up to the camp by
means of artillery horses. It was not advisable to de-
pend on that mode of transport.
By Lord Seymour—He went to Gallipoli to examine
the site for the encampment of the troops. He was with
the army throughout the whole of the winter. The
troops suffered very badly from overwork. He did not
think the troops suffered so much from want of food as
from want of fuel. He heard no complaints of a want
of clothing, though he saw numbers of the men very in-
sufficiently clothed.
This concluded the 'examination of General Burgoyne;
and there being no other witness in attendance, the
committee adjourned (about half-past two o'clock) until
to-day.

The sth, or Elthorne Regiment of Middlesex Militia,
quartered at Uxbridge, will not proceed on gapi.sot
duty until after having had field instruction at Alder-
shott camp.
SINKING OF A FERRY-BOAT AND Loss OF SEVEN
LIVES.—BRISTOL, Tuesday.—Yesterday aof.tternoonThae,
painful accident occurred near thisy
and n tle c ain of Aust ferry crosses the river Severn froml i
th.eh Aust•
forms a link i
road to Beechley,
direct communication between Bristol and South
Wales. At present it is worked by a steam-packet and
her
t_ csroe wi t oifs
several ferryboats. Yesterday there was
ta, large cattle
market at Chepstow, near the Monmouthshire slue of the
fcriy, and about 3 o'clock the Despatch, wAhtictihielie:t
an old boat was often used to carrypcia,ett3le,(3.tlelft the 1,101 ng
Seven of the
1111 uth.=hire shore with a lot of live stock,
four hands, and eight or ten pas,enzer,
thosely lost acre Mr.
owesen,duackh,
Pier she struck against one of the
reported), and sank almost immediate
Jones,passen passengers
cattle were
dealer,drowned.
I.A; Among g p
butcher and
dGel;oduecresatterpaisrte,,3r,atnidearMßr.riEti!-1
The names of the m-
u been r to thisTll time only one body
earniicl
mainder are unknown, and_ up
(sctoeutgygeitedidewnittihfiedh)imh recovered. One of the sur-
vivors saved hiraQelt by seizing hold of a cow, which
with the, scene of this
shallow water. In connexion
e
melancholy 1088 some ears accident
may be recollected the
ravvshay, 'Yule years ago, of one of the Messrs.
drowned wh0,,.. in crossing from hi, iron works, was
'W" 65/19/11 944 F Persol4 and the crew of the
'Oclit• 4 • -