The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-18 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

ST. PETERSBURG, June s.—By an order of the
day published in the journals, the Emperor, after
a second minute inspection of the fortifications of
Cronstadt, has declared himself perfectly contented
with the defences of the place, and especially men-
tions the new lunettes, the batteries of Lissy's-Nose,
the " tongue, of land" of Cronstadt, and Fort
Paul, which be considers impregnable.
In consequence of his impaired state of health,
the artillery general Yertnaloff has resigned his
appointment as commander-in-chief of the newly
organised militia of the empire, and the resignation
has been accepted by an order of the day published
to-day. Lieutenant-General Count Stroganow,
hitherto head of the militia of the province of
Nischegorod, is appointed to the vacancy.
General Bevouder, lately commander of the first
division of the Guards at Revel, was received to-
day by the Emperor in a private audience. He
will proceed immediately to Poland to assume the
command of the sec-,nd army corps.
Tho Holy Synod (the highest ecclesiastical col-
lective authority) has just petitioned the Emperor
to turn a more favourable ear to the negotiations
for peace. It is not yet known what answer the
Czar has returned, but the fact is significant.

The Council of Administration of the Kingdom
of Poland has again published the names of a fresh
batch of Poles proscribe] and their property con-
fiscated to the use of the State. They are accused
of having taken part in the troubles of 1848, and
left Poland to assist the Hungarians and help to
organise the democratic clubs.
Every movement of the French and British ships
off Cronstadt is carefully noted down and tele-
graphed to the Emperor. It isstid that a short time
ago Adthirals Dundas and Seymour had a' very
narrow escape of beimg made prisoners. They had
landed on an uninhabited rock near Sweaborg to
reconnoitre. This being perceived from the for-
tress, a steamer and a gun-boat were sent out to
capture them, and might have done so if they had
been more cleverly manoeuvred. As it was, how-
ever, they just cam© too late, and the British corn-
manfTers had re-embarked.

JUNE 6.—The last post has brought us the Lon-
don newspapers, with the speech of Earl Grey in
the House of Lords, which, of course, created a
favourable sensation among the Russians, and is
allowed to circulate both in the original and in
translations in the newspapers of this city..
The new batteries that have lately been erected
on Lissy's Nose—the point of the coast on the
mainland nearest to the island of Cronstadt—are
said to fill up the hiatus in the line of coast de-
fences, and are armed with guns of very heavy
calibre.
A large camp is ordered to be formed on the east
bank of the river Narva, near Ivangorod, and
nearly opposite that fortress. The command is
given to General Sievers.
From the reports of General Wrangel, with re-
ference to the less of Yenikale and Kertch, it ap-
pears that the Russians were completely taken by
surprise. The Emperor was furious the first day,
and has been sulky ever since. It is generally ex-
pected that Wrangel will be removed -from his
command, and share the fate of Menschikoff, Dan-
nenberg, and other Russian commanders forsaken
by fortune, or who may have committed some stra-
tegical blunder ; for luck is an indispensable quali-
fication for the enjoyment of the imperial favour.
BERLIN, June 16.—We have telegraphic infor-
mation here that a fresh ukase has been issued for
the purpose of expediting the levy of recruits
lately ordered in the 17 Western Governments of
Russia to the extent of 12 in every 1,000 registered
" souls ;" the tenour of this new ukase is to sus-
pend al the hitherto existing exemptions from
military services ; as regards the populations of
towns and hamlets, to extend the age at which men
have hitherto been liable to serve up to that of
37 years ; and to empower the military boards en-
trusted with the business of conscription even to set
aside the exemption hitherto existing in favour of
only sons. In the government of Ekaternoslav,
however, the levy of recruits is postponed until
September 15.
The following is the text of the Imperial mani-
festo, settling the question of a Regency in case of
the present Emperor's decease. Two days ago I
was enabled to forward you the pith of it by means
of information I had received from Konigsberg :

" IMPERIAL MANIFESTO.

We, Alesarder the Second, by the Grace of God,
Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russia.% King. of
Poland; &c.
" Ever since we mounted the hereditary throne of the
rulers of Russia our attention has been unremittingly di-
rected to all that can contribute to the preservation and
consolidation of the tranquillity and prosperity of Ole
empire entrultefl to ns by Divine Providence ; and
we have -considered it to be one of oar most sacred

duties to the best of our power to take measures that
may be resorted to in enraadinary canes. Our lives are
all in God's hand, as our dearly beloved ntiVer-
ta -be - forgotten father said in his manifesto of
January 28, 1828. Bearing this in mind, and in con-
,ideration of our successor the C&trowitch and of the
Grand Doke Nicolai Alexandro witch being under ago, it
aas seemed good to us, m conformity with the funda-
mental laws of the empire, and with the approbation and
lileSsing of our dearest mother the E;npres Alexandra
Fendorowna, to ordain arid to mai; e known to all men
1. That in case of our decease previous to our
dearly beloved son and successor's having attained the
full age required by law for the majority of an Emperor,
we have (until ho shall have attained that full age) nomi-
nated our dearly-beloved brother, the Grand Duke Con-
stantine Nicolaijewitch, Regent of the Empire and of
the territories indivieibio from it, the Kingdom of Poland
and the Grand Duchy of Finland.
"2. That, in case it should please God after our fie-
cease also to call to Himself our first-born son, before he
has attained his majority, and consequently, in con-
formity to the law regulating the succession t, the throne
of Russia, our next sbn monists it, the Grand Duke Con-
stantine Nicolaijewitch shall remain Regent of the Em-
pire until this our next son comes of age.
"3. That, in all the contingencies indicated in the
foregoing paragraphs 1 and 2 the guardianship both of our
first-born son and of all our other children until their
coming of age shall in its full power and extent be vested
in our dearest Consort, the Empress Maria Alexan-
drowna.

" Whilst we, in thus early settling and promulgating
these rules, removing every doubt as to our will and our
intentions with reference to the government of the Em-
pire during the minority of the heirs to our throne, we
desire at the very commencement of our reign to give our
beloved faithful subjects a new proof of our reverential
respect for the laws of our common Fatherland. And
may they then always and by all be observed as sacredly,
and may the prosperity, power, and happiness of the
Empire entrusted to us by God ever consolidate them-
selves more and more on this firm basis.

"Given at Zarskoje-Sselo, May 21st (0.5.), in the
year after the birth of ChristlBss, and in the first of our
reign. "ALEXANDER."

The May number of the Russian Marine Magazine,
which appeared only very lately, contains little of
interest beyond the reports of M. Mansuroff, who
was sent as Imperial Commissioner into the Crimea
for the purpose of inquiring, into the state of the
medical arrangements there, and of distributing
the patriotic gifts of his countrymen, a mission
very nearly akin to that of the Times' Commis-
sioner at Scutaria. His reports reveal much that
will offer a corresponding pendant to the pictures
you have already published of the state of things in
our hospitals. The numbers of the seamen, to whom
his mission seems in great measure to have been
confined, are now so reduced that this corps is
as such no longer employed in any action of
importance. At the approach of the warmer
season, which began in Sebastopol in the middle
of April, an endeavour was made to relieve
the hospitals by removing all such, whether sick
or wounded, as could in any way bear the re-
moval. There had, however, been a fearful defi-
ciency of vehicles, and such a lack of hay and straw,
that many of these invalids had had nothing be-
tween them and the bare boards of the carts. A
batch of 236 sick and Rounded (of course only the
less gravely injured would be selected for such a
trip) forwarded from Sebastopol to Simpheropol lost
26 of its number before reaching its destination,
partly by death, and partly by their inability to
bear the jolting of the arabas.
I have been assured that a despatch forwarded
home from one of the foreign missions here, con-
tains the statement that Count Munster, the mili-
tary representative of Prussia at St. Petersburg,

had lately informed his own Court that Prince
Gortschakoff has telegraphed to the Emperor to the
effect that, now that his supplies of provisions are
partly cut off and partly rendered extremely diffi-
cult of attainment, he cannot undertake to hold
Sebastopol for longer than a certain short space of
time mentioned by him; that above all things else,
hay had become scarce, and that he in this despatch
begs for instructions as to whether he may pro-
ceed to give battle to the besiegers in the open
field, for the purpose of relieving the fortress. In
connection with this part of the subject, he draws
attention to the amount of losses the troops hither-
to despatched to the Crimea have suffered ; this
amount is mentioned as 50,000. The whole story

is very plausible and probable, and so natural that
almost anybody might invent it ; the contents of
the supposed despatzh may be true, but I have not
been able to establish the fact that Count Munster
really has telegraphed anything of the kind ; on
the contrary, all that I have learned tends to
strengthen a contrary opinion.