The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-23 00:00:00

with the explanations of any one, able as he may
he, of lower rank. Officers and men ride in from
the Allied camp, many miles, and not 'lnfrequently
call on the very day the postmaster is fated to be
required elsewhere. Iu hi" absence, the correct-
ness of answers given from another mouth, if not
~perdy disputed, is, in too many instances, re-
ceivtd with incredulity. The Balaklava post-
office is certainly not too well or too soon provided
with the ever-varying postal regulations of the
Mediterranean, with the many ports of which offi-
cers here so frequently require to communicate by
letter. The points in this particular respect alone
upon which information is sought in Balaklava by
Englishmen as well as by foreigners, might often
puzzle Rowland Hill himself. While waiting for
letters I have often heard this observed. On the
despatch of the mail from Balaklava, one or two
of the hands, instead of " getting a rest," are
obliged immediately to go on to head-quarters to
assist in making up the mail there. This arises
from being short-handed. And still, month by
month, the mails, inward and outward, increase in
bulk. And they would still further increase did
not home correspondents forget to pre-pay is. on
every letter posted to a civilian sojourning at Ba-
laklava. A letter, however, when addressed' to a
soldier, requires but three penny stamps. Many
newspapers miscarry from the same cause. Stamped
journals, for the Crimea, require two stamps, and
unstamped journals three. There may be other
causes for the non-arrival of newspapers, but post-
offices, at home or abroad, can seldom explain what
these causes really are. Newspapers, however, be
the cause what it may, do not reach the Crimea
with anything like regularity or certainty. Ship-
masters especially complain of this, and the letters
addressed to foreigners here give an immensity of
trouble, displaying, as they do, directions in Greek,
Turkish, Russian, Armenian, Italian, French, and
other tongues, and in a style of calligraphy that
even Carstairs, the "Flying Pen" personified, would
certainly fail to discipline into legibility. These
foreign letters are likely to become more nume
rous than ever ; for it seems that if despatched
from Malta, for instance, by English mail or ship,
no postage whatever is charged on them (while, as
I have said, Englishmen at home pre-pay is.);
but, if sent, still let us say for Malta, by French
mail, postage is charged, and, moreover, the aggre-
gate postage is paid in advance by the English
office to the French office in Kamiesh, and after-
wards retaken in driblets at the Euglish post-office,
Balaklava, or that at General Simpson's head-
quarters, on the letters being called for by the
parties to whom they are addressed. And " till
called for " letters sometimes lie months in the
pigeon-boles. Thus, the Maltese get their letters
for nothing, and may also answer them, free, if
they pass not beyond their own " tight little
island."

Not much can be learned hero of the mail regu-
lations touching the lonian Islands. The post-
office at Balaklava is not kept sufficiently instructed
in the lonian charges and changes made from time
to time. And. with Corfu, and the whole group,
military men require much correspondence.
Again, a man often wants to register a money
letter at the Balaklava post-office for England. He
can do this by paying 6d. ; but this does not insure
the safe transmission of the money s•ich letter
contains. If lost or stolen, Government will not
refund the cash. Possibly the clerk into whose
hands it was last traced might, to save himself
from suspicion, pay down the amount. But then
it might be argued that this would not be fair to
the clerks. Balaklava has a polyglot, and, mo-
rally speaking, not over particular population, who
might register a quasi money letter, containing
in reality no money at all, and thus oocasionally
set up and make good false claims for compensa-
tion. Under these and other circumstances, all the
advantages of an office in England cannot yet
safely be also granted to Balaklava. It must never
be forgotten that we are here at war on the enemy's
soil ; that the post-office at Balaklava is really and
truly but an " Army and Navy Post-office," and
that civilians may be almost said to avail themselves
of it by sufferance only. For them or the army
either, it is not a " money-order office." The sol-
dier can send home his spare cash through his own
paymaster. And where the sum amounts to not

less than 501., the civilian can generally arrange
to transmit it to the commissariat at Balaklava. I
repeat there is no regular " money-order office" at
Balaklava, and even postage to England (in money)
cannot be paid at the Balaklava post-office. Stamps
can, however, be attached to cover the postage
home. But stamps are very seldom obtaina-
ble out here, except by buying of the hawkers
through the camp " a sheet of paper and a
stamped envelope for five-pence." The fellow who
originated this trade among the soldiers is making
a little fortune. He gives, of course, three stamps
to each envelope ; but 2d:for an envelope and one
sheet of paper leaves him a comfortable profit.
" One-half of the world does not know how the
other half lives."

The Sardinians have now a sort of post-office at
Balaklava, although the French have not, but they
have not yet entered into any satisfactory arrange-
ment with the English office as to the exchange of
letters. They object to take charge of any letters
for the Sardinian marine, royal or mercantile, thus
the English are delayed inreceiving the postage due;
but they pick out and pay for the military letters,
only leaving all the rest on the hands of the Eng-
lish postmaster. How these Sardinians get letters
first-band for the English I know not, but the
instant they do they are very sharp in applying to
our postmaster for all the postage due to them.
Each packet of letters brought to them is like a
French republic—" one and indivisible ;" and the
poor English post-office must furnish funds for the
" tottle of the whole." But I have now scribbled
enough about post-offices, and may call attention
to a letter just received through that at Balaklava.
It'is signed by several of the Scots Fusilier Guards.
The London mail, due yesterday (Thursday), has
not arrived at the posting of this despatch (Friday
afternoon).
Mr. Matheson, the respected Scotch missionary,
known here as "the Sardinian's friend," has this
week sailed from Balaklava for England. Wishes
for his return hither are heard on every

A great number of invalids embarked at
Balakrava on the 9th of November (Friday) for
Scutari and England.

APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL CODRING-
TON AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN THE
CRIMEA, VICE GENERAL SIMPSON, RE-
SIGNED.

SEBASTOPOL, SATURDAY NOON,
Nov. 10.
I wrote you yesterday. I had scarcely posted
my letter when two "bits of information" reached
' me of much local, if not national, importance.
First of all, destiny had then decided that the
Coldstream Guards should be officially declared in
• the ascendant. Yes, General Codrington is Com-
mander-in-Chief.
The second " bit of information" I have to com-
municate is the bodilyappearance of the "Alliance"
locomotive on the Balaklava line of railway. I
saw it thereon an hour since. It is as pretty a
piece of puffing, snorting, clicking, vapouring ma-
chinery as ever traversed a line of rail. Last
night, and with success, it was tried for the first
time. A second locomotive is already at Balaklava,
but for the present we must not quite expect to
rival the Blackwall or Greenwich Railway. The
Crimean Tartars cannot at all understand these
locomotives 3 • and their extraordinary and almost
obsolete exclamations of wonder strike our sleek
and smiling interpreters perfectly aghast. The
Flying Horse in the " Arabian Nights' Entertain-
ments" is now more firmly believed in than ever
by all Mussulmans who have gazed on our green
and gold-painted engine " Alliance," to which I
shall soon again have occasion to refer.
The expedition to Kaffa looks very much like a
" mare's nest." The rumour this morning is that
it is definitively postponed. So much the worse.
Several attacks on the highway have recently
o ccurred near Balaklava and liadi-Deny. Among
th ose who bravely beat off their assailants were
Dr... Palding and Mr. Compton, the latter of the
42.1 Highlanders.
Major Hunter (71st) died not many days since
at Kertch.
t'he firing from the north side of Sebastopol, and
fro ra new earthworks more to tLe east, and near
the. Spur, has somewhat increased since my last.
I have no close fighting of any sort to report, if
I el :cept a " tournament" between two oxen, in
the hilly road before the camp of the 89th Regi-
Inf int, yesterday afternoon, when one so fiercely.
go 'red the other that the defeated animal had imme-
diately to be slaughtered. The spacious plains
13( ;low these heights—the scene of Lord Cardigan's
cl large—are daily studded with immense herds of
uffalo and droves of oxen, which the timid and
th .e stranger often, "in the mist of the morning,"
im:i•gnifies into Muscovite cavalry formed in battle
arr. ay, and advancing to destroy us. lam afraid,
ho` vever, we old hands are not so easily terrified,
are preparing for a long and comfortable stay.
On e glance at the busy harbour of Balaklava will
pqa we our preparation for a long tenantcy ; and now
A .d mira.l Fremantle, Major Mackenzie, and Captain
'ath are, with others, taking for good " a long
l:" 214 I pur-
a strong pull, and pull altegether,"
:Pl3 %SI 3 soon to devote a paper to the numerous Go-
vernment works, hospitals, and naval and military
tir .d other stores, factories, foundries, saw-mills,
lal akeries, parcel offices, and divers " lions " of
Ralaklava Harbour. Kamiesh cannot equal these.
Put 4, chopped straw, flour bags, coal sacks, hut
a'ae ies, bricks, iron work of all de.criptions,
hors es, mules, and cattle here at Balaklava form '
alto getter such an unprecedented scene for the I