The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-03 00:00:00

i
G,.-----, ~~

tines, and every precaution against cold. What
we shall do in tents I know not. We are obliged
to grub about for roots for fuel. In the cold,
damp tents without fires it Ivia be terrible. There
is a rumour that iron houses are coming out from
England, but I am afraid they will be too late for
any good. The return, a few days ago, of men fit
for duty in the whole British army was 17,060, of
' whom 9,000 were on duty, leaving 8,060 to relieve
them. We are undertaking the siege of a town
with a garrison of 45,000 men, our rear and flank
menaced with a force of 40,000 more. They are
superior in guns, position, and everything else, are
living in houses, well supplied with food, and
everything necessary for the preservation of health,
while we are obliged to keep our men, who were
until the last week nearly naked, without a shirt on
their backs, a shoe or sock on their feet, exposed to
the wet and cold for 12 hours at a time in the
trenches, anclo deep in the slush, and, when in the
advanced works, unable to move or stand upright
from the constant fire of the Russians. Can it be
wondered that these men should say that they
would rather die than go back to the miserable
camp ! The tents all leak, and the mei are lying
15 together in a place where no English gentlemen
would put their pigs. The only rations are salt
meat, and of that for some time they have only
had half quantities. The pitiful gill of rum even
can be seldom issued regularly. The Commissariat
do all they can, I believe, but the wear and tear of
animal power dragging up those dreadful arabas
is so great, with the roads as they have been,—two
feet deep in the heaviest clay,—that without a con-
stant importation we shall be brought to a stand-
still ; forage, too, is very sclree, and the wretched
animals are dying all
over the country ; the Tur-
kish drivers are dying
fast. I see no end to mat-
ters till we send an army of 70,000 men to Pere-
kep, for supplies of every description are con-
tinually coming in. Yesterday an immense con-
voy came in to Sebastopol.
Two 13-inch mortars have been brought up, and
I hope we shall la ble to - -t a nit,— -
able appeara,
please God
Now tho-

large ones
ter fortune
shell would ..__ grog.
is literally covered with it, which shows what im-
mense preparatioes the Czar has made. Theyhave
a great advantage over us, for the diameter of our
guns of the same nominal calibre is smaller than
theirs, so that our shot will fit their guns, but
theirs, with the exception of 241 b., are too large
for us. We are about 500 yards from the town in
our advance, and our men pick off the people in
the streets ; their sharpshooters fire from the
houses, and are very troublesome.
I think I have given you a pretty long yarn
about our very exhilarating prospects here. One
thing is certain—we have put our foot into it, and
can't go back. If it Were not for the French, we
should be all on our way to Moscow ; but they are
magnificent soldiers, and show us an example in
every arrangement.

(FROM A. FIELD OFFICER MENTIONED FOR DISTIN-
GUISHED CONDUCT IN LORD RAGLAN'S DESPATCH.)
Camp before Sebastopol, Dec. 12.
We are going on much as usual, receiving rein-
forcements, sometimes by a regiment or two, some-
times by draught, but in both cases burying them
or sending them to hospital quite as fast as they
arrive. A ship comes in to Balaklava with men on
board, it is raining in torrents, but a staff officer in
snug quarters shows his zeal and his smart manner
of doing his work by sending an order for their
immediate disembarkation and joining the camp.
It is promptly obeyed. A hundred or,,a thousand
men, as th© case may be, wet through and through,
and up to the tips of their shakos in mud, some-
times without blankets, often without tents, take
up their ground at a late hour, and there they lie.
If they have something to eat, they are lucky ; if
they have not, they go without. They grumble
and swear violently, and that is all they have for
it. They thus begin to learn to be reckless at
starting. Their frightful exposure brings on cer-
tain disease, and in a few days the dying and the
sick are the exclamation of every one. Lord Rag-
lan (if Lord Raglan be really here, and not in Lon-
don) is never seen. Whether be knows anything
of how things are going on or not I do not know ;
lam sure he ought to do so. I have drawn any-
thing but an exaggerated picture of what happens
over and over again. The 9th Regiment marched
up without a medical officer'at all ; they had several
cases of serious illness the next day, and when a
medical officer came there was no medicine. The
medicine chest had not accompanied the regiment,
because they had no draught animals or means
of carrying it. This is precisely the way in
which everything is conducted, and yet Lord
Raglan has been made a Field-Marshal. The
blood of his officers and men has won it for him,
and net his own abilities. lam told Sir De Lacy
Evans will speak out, and I most earnestly hope
he may. Ho can make great exposures, and do
much good, if he will. It is generally understood
that be has gone home in the greatest disgust with
every thing. It will hardly be credited that, al-
though the exposed state of our right flank before
the Inkerman battle was the subject of frequent
comment, Lord Raglan never once rode over the
ground, or knew anything of it, until the Russians
attacked us.
Everything about the French contrasts with us
most strongly. Their sick are not numerous ; their
men are always clean and uniformly dressed. They
seem to have good rations, cook well, and seem a
happy set. Our men are a mass of dirt, rags, and
misery. They seem sunk in despondency and in-
difference ; nothing moves them but an alarm, for
they have no hope but to fight it out and get it
ever. They think, poor fellows, that another good
fight must decide it. Our sick yesterday under
canvass, exclusive of .the shiploads at Balaklava
and in the hospitals of the Bosphorus, were 3,181.
The French, with their largo army, take charge of
1,000 of them for us to-day. The 46th Regiment
disembarked on the 10th of November 706
strong. They hate lost 114 men up to to-day,
and they have at this moment 257 sick. This
regiment has never yet been engaged with the
enemy further than in the trenches. They lost
12 men in one day from sickness alone. I saw six
dead bodies lying in their camp this morning. If
things go on as they are doing—and as the winter
advances there is every chance of their being worse
rather than better—we shall have no army left.
The 34th and 90th Regiments have arrived, but,
owing to the want of transport, they are unable to
get beyond Balaklava. The French have batteries
with 147 guns ready to open on the place at front
200 to 600 yards. They only wait for us to get up
some guns to draw off a portion of the enemy's fire.
If the fine weather we have just now holds for but
a few days, you will soon hear of the assault being
given. The Russians have certainly shown a great
want of enterprise in leaving us so long unmolested,
situated as we are. We aro most careless and court
ruin over and over again. The indomitable courage
of men and officers alone saves us. I have never
heard of any one getting an order yet in any action
I have been in. We all do as we like. We have
had two alarms lately—the one last night, the gusts
of wind preceding the storm. We shall have a de-
cisive affair before long. It is, however, a very
dreary prospect before us. It is said that the Em-
b(luol,esudr
eiresntolic
fae Nicholasmh spring.ms esnengages
one
tnt to
flat:: saisbsnesugntl odef
thereigl Ilreta-1 graves
n-ts boaaarntoetdffl eeednf
sia offensive
ship.of
smell. There is a portion of the Russian army
strongly entrenched still in our rear ; but they are
on the right of the rreliernaya, and their works
command the bridge that gives us the only means
by which they could be attacked.

It is rumoured in Berlin that the Cabinet has been
taken somewhat aback by the Russian Envoy at Vienna
having assisted at tho conference without even expressing
a regret at the absence of that of Prussia. But the
party here console themselves with the old illusion
of infallibility and inevitability ; and further, with
that of Austria not being disposed to advance an inch
further in her demands upon Russia than is specified in
the body of the December treaty. Profound silence is
maintained meantime by the Government organs rela-
tive to the results of Baron Usedom's stillborn mission,
and to the negative effects produced by the Prussian note
of the 19th.

_
GALLANT EXPLOIT OF ADMIRAL BRUAT.—The
Journal clu Loiret contains a letter from the Crimea,
which says :—" Admiral Bruat's daring is proverbial in
the fleet. In spite of the fits of gout with which this
officer is so frequently attacked, or perhaps on account
of that affliction, ho sometimes has the idea of such
audacious attempts as are more to be expected from a
young lieutenant who has his promotion to gain then
from an admiral. Lately, after a severe attack of gout,
the admiral called some of his officers into his cabin, and
said, `Gentlemen, a good idea has just occurred to me
—it is, to go quietly in, and ourselves visit the channel
of Sebastopol. We shall so be able to judge for oar.
selves what its situation really is.' The proposition
was joyfully accepted, and in the middle of the night
n every
of eput off and
enteredseveral
he ehf the
abnonanits.
Part of it, and the admiral touched with his own hand
The
the
boats Ch r e
wentnla g
through
the chain which closes the entrance of the military port.
Everything 'cal managed so cleverly on the part of the
admiral's party that not a single Russian sentinel was
aware of their approach. But day began to break while
the boats were still far down in the harbour, and the
alarm was Immediately given. A terrible fire was then
opened all along the fortifications of the channel, and it
was under a fearful shower of projectiles of every de-
scription thit the boats snide their way out. Fortu-
nately, not a maa was wounded, though the longboat
of the Charlemagne was somewhat damaged by the
enemy's shot. This bold attempt, so successfully exe.
cuted, has since been the principal object of converda-
tion and praise in the fleet."

shall be able to present a more res'pect:
arance in our batteries next week, if it
,d that the dry weather may continue. „heostika."*„.,
are very few guns servieesble ; all the
are disabled.. I would not desire a bet-
e than the money that their shot and
d fetch as old iron. For acres the ground