The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-27 00:00:00

FORTIFICATIONS OF SEBASTOPOL.

The Journal des Debits gives the following very in-
teresting account of the fortifications of Sebastopol. It
is from the pen of a distinguished officer, Colonel St.
Ange, now one of the redacteurs of the Deka:, but for-
merly the head of the staff to Marshal Suohet, Duke
d'Albifera. He was with the Marshal throughout the
Spanish campaign, and was the first to enter the breach
at the storming of Aragon :
"It is the fortifications at present attacked to the
south of the town which we intend speaking of, and not
the forts of the harbour. It will suffice for us to remind
our readers that these forts, to the number of 11, line
both sides of the harbour, and that six of them, running
along the town itself, belong to the military port and to
the southern shore, the side on which the combined
army is operating. We shall start from the west, the
side of the Quarantine, to follow the profile of the town
and of the port to the river Tchernaya on the east, a
circuit which takes in the double front of attack of the
.English and the French. Let us first give. an idea of
the general aspect of the place. The site of Sebastopol
consists of a series of platforms running up a steep accli-
vity from the sea to the high hills which tower over it
at the, distance of a league and a half, and from the top
of which is unfolded the whole panorama of the town
and harbour. Nearer; that ensemble ceases to be visible,
and even the fops of the masts are no longer seen, So
deeply does the site sink down to the level of the road-
sted and of the port. From this configuration of the
ground, it comes to pass that the town is built one part'
over the other, so as to form an amphitheatre, like Al-
giers, but better built, as its construction is quite modern,
dating from 1790. The transverse streets, parallel to
the roadstead, communicate with each other only by
steep ascents ; but at their extremities there are lines
of communication. of . a less abrupt character for
vehicles. The town contains several monuments, and
amongst others, the churches, and principally all the
buildings of the navy, the arsenal, the barracks, and the
hospitals. The population is about 40,000 in ordinary
times, including 20,000 soldiers eir sailors. The 20,000
civil inhabitants are employes of all kinds, pereong from
the navy and the army on half-pay, a few shop-keepers,
and some workmen and fishermen. The reader must
bear in mind this fact, that not one of the great forts
situated outside the town on the harbour can protect it
against attacks by land, and that the two batteries of
the Quarantine, situated at the lower part of the out-
ward ground, cannot aid in its defence. When the
Russian Government conceived the plan of a great for-
tified place to command the Black Sea, it had all these
ports constructed at an immense expense, and the double
and triple storeys of their casemated batteries give them
such a formidable aspect that they have been even com-
pared to the fortifications at Malta. The roadsted and
port are, in fact, almost unattackable by see, but the
town itself was never fortified ; all that was done being
to draw round it a weak wall, merely intended to pro- /
tect it against a coup de main. The Russian Cabinet
could never have imagined that an Anglo-French army
of 100,000 men would one day land in the Crimea, to lay
siege td Sebastopol. At present that that extraordinary
fact is being realised in the most serious manner, it has
been necessary to think of fortifying the town on the
land-side, and that is what the Russians have been doing
for the last three months. The Quarantine bay on the
west (the extreme left of the attack), is defended by the
double battery of the same name. Near that spot is
Fort Alexander, and by the side of that fort, a battery,
called the battery of Sebastopol, besause it forms part of
the town itself. From this battery runs a crenelated
wall for musketry, about a kilometre (ths of an English
mile) in length, which runs up the steep hill to the
top, where is a large round fort, with twenty guns
on the platform, and surrounded below with a bat-
tery, the rampart of which is 20 feet high. The wall
and the bastion have a ditch in front, but there is
neither covers(' way nor glacis in front of this
ditch. The French being charged with the attack
on the left, will probably have to bombard the fort,
after which they will command the bay as well as the
Quarantine battery, and even the whole of the western
side of the town. But they will have other obstacles to
overcome before arriving there. Under the cannon of
the round fort is situated a large fortified barrack, which
has been lately flanked by several strong works. From
that barrack runs a wall entirely surrounding the town,
the port, the arsenal, to beyond the careening basin, to-
wards the trohernaya' at the extremity of the roadsted,
which gives a development of from 6 to 8 kilometres
(froin 3 to 5 English miles), including the sinuosities.
This wall is three lest thick, is crenelated, and has in
front a ditch, the earth of which has been thrown in front
to form a glacis, covering the mason-work in many
places. This wall is not terraced, that is, does not form
a rampait above oh which artillery can be placed. But
on the points where, in a regular fortification, there
would be ba,tions, the Russians have raised batteries, in
the form of cavaliers, firing abJvc the wall. The dis-
arming of their lino-of-battle ships has furnished them
with the means of providing al their works with artil-
lery of large calibre, and they have without doubt plenty
of sear to serve them, more or less expert. This imper-
fect system of fortification cannot have any value, except
by the tenacity of the besieged, by their great number,'
and by the ability of the engineers. The entrance of the
line is defended by the Fort of Aktiar, raised en a high
point at the top of the town. At a little distance from
this fort commence three ravines descending to the road-
med. One, on the west, terminates by the Quarantine
Bay.; another, in the centre, cute the town into two Un-
equal parts ; and, the third, on the east, descends right
to the north to form the port, which is the prolongation
of that same ravine, into the sea. It is principally at
the lower opening of this ravine, and on the western side
of the port, that are accumulated the defences, for (even
should the ships-of-the-line be burned by the Russians)
it is still important for them to prevent all access to this
port, particularly that ofs the Feubourg of Kerbelnaia,
on the eastern side. If the besiegers on the right, the
English, seize on this faubourg, whilst the French have
made themselves masters of the round fort, the town
would find itself between two fires, and so overwhelmed
with bombs, balls, and shells, that no garrison could
remain there. But it is to be noted that this garrisbn
cannot be forced to capitulate, not being blockaded,
and that the Russians, when at the end of their
efforts in the town, will always be at liberty to cress
the roalsted, and take refuge in the forts of the
northern side. Amongst the works destined to defend
the ravine of the port, two great 'batteries in the form
of towers are mentioned—a recent construction, said to
be built of stone and brick. From want of time to
raise a third tower at the bottom of the fort the Russians
have placed a line-of-battie ship to perform the duty lof
a battery against the mouth of the ravine. Besides, the
works are still going on, night and day; without inter-
ruption. One-half of the garrison' is occupied with
them, and all the able-bodied inhabitants are obliged to
take part in them. Sebastopol is commanded almost
on every side by hills rising one over the other to a
great ieight, as already stated. But the nearest hills
have been for a long time back levelled by works which
lasted 12 years ; and the earth taken from them was
removed to the side of the Quarantine or to certain ll+
lows which might facilitate the approaches. There is
not consequently any height now commanding the town
within 500 or 600 yards of the place. But beyond that
radius, the Russians occupied with strong redoubts seve-
ral elevated positions which have forced the besiegers to
open the trenches at an unusual distance, 1,500 to 1,800
metres from the place, it is said. Although these posi-
tions were only fortified by earthworks where a sudden
a sault might be attempted, the Allied generals have pre-
ferred operating by rule to sacrificing good soldiers,
whose devotedness and bravery will be requirei at a
later period for decisive blows. The redoubts of which
we are speaking were to have been battered in breach
and taken, we cannot say at what date. The besieging
army will then be pushed forward on that ground to make
its trenches against the place itself. However, outside
the wall round the town it will be necessary to batter
down and destroy some works protecting it on the weak-
est points. In fine, all these works and constructions
raised in haste cannot have the stability and resistance
of a real permanent fortification. Although the Russians
are provided with large cannons, such pieces are not
sufficient without good ramparts. It is, besides, proved
by the experience of all sieges that the fire of the be-
sieging party has always an advantage over that of the
very
e
very strong place, because the fire of the attack i !I.ls 0
ways convergent, whereas that of the defence is, _
have
considered divergent. Such is the sketch whichiw .hsce,
considered it right to give of the fortifications of PI
the inevitable fall of which, under the efforts a 6
of the t
bravo armies of England and Fratce, oannot fail to pro-
duce a great sensation in Europe.

___'--r"--"-------- --- ----- ,
ALLEGr.D ILL-TRIZATILINT 01, THE POOR IN I,I3fIIETTI
WORKIIOUSE.—Yesterday Mr. Alfred Austin and Mr.
R. Cane, poor-law inspectors, opened an inquiry in the
board-room of St. Mary's Workhouse, Lambeth, by
order of the Poor-law Board, relative to the alleged ill-
treatment of the inmates by the master and other cfa.
eials. Most of the principal parochial officers were pre-
sent, also several gentlemen representatives of a meeting
of paiishioners held some time ago at the veitry-hall,
and deputed to support the complaints against the work-
house authorities. The witnesses examine.l were Mary
Males, John Meades, and George Arnold, inmates of
the workhouse, and Nathaniel King, the porter, Mary
ts
hlNoleunsdhad wbeeat:n shutli
frightenedu pin the surgery
before at
next to the dead
House, and sher
el thee ,magistratesand
1 3
ioke the win-
dows,
There wfoerrewbsiicxhahewas charged
dead-house,
bodies
in the
John Meades, a
to attend his chapel, nor to
17 years
any time,
Unitarian, was not allowed only a
door between that and the surgery.
jg.Heocoto.huatcHio
frequently
of tdl
Aebee n hour©l
yeGarseorge Arnold complained that
in the tot the
he house, master
withon tnhne
csoumb :
complained
clothes given him plaint against hint.
were filthy and full of
vermin. The inquiry
the pauper
was then adjourned; •

-..../-
The public sense of decornie, which has pronounced
sueli a stern judgment in the case of recent mili-
t or'y scandals, cannot refuse to mete the Maine mea-
sure to offenders in any other profession. An in-
(fuiry of painful interest is now in progress, before
Mr. Whately, Q•C.• acting as arbiter by appoint-
ment of the Court of Exchequer, in a libel suit insti-
tuted by the foreign secretary of the London Mis-
sionary society. England has reason to be proud of its
missionary exertions. The sums which ere raised and
expended annually in support of its foreign missions ex-
ceed the revenues of many second rate states. The per-
sistence in such efforts is a proof of deep-rooted and sin-
cere religious conviction ; and even those who do not
participate in these convictions have been obliged to
admit the valuable services of our missionaries as agents
and heralds of higher civilisation. But the more
important and sacred the character of these mis•
sionary efforts, the more the necessity that those en-
' trusted with the direction of them ehonld themselves be
pure. Our organised missionary societies, with their
.
numerous permanent subscribers, and their u ell- e. ;
discipimed staffs of officials, approach to the charac-
ter of wealthy churches. They are powerful bodies ;
and if self-seekers and impure men can insinuate them-
selves into their management they may do incalculable
mischief. The very statement of the case of the foreign
secretary of the London Missionary Society suggests a
and been
fear that
at havefr r crepto
a
ofamong
worldly
censure.
Into the case of the Rev. Mr. Tidman (the foreignßobert
secretary in question) against the Rev. .
Ainslie, it would be premature to enter while the inves-
tigation is still incomplete. But some features in the con-
troversy out of which the suit has arisen already challenge
comment. Towards the close of 1852 a Rev. Mr. Davies
was expelled from the Board of the London Missionary
Society. Among other charges against him were
one of improper connections with females during the
time he was acting as a missionary in Berbice, and an-
otht r of writing an indecent letter to his own wife. The
story of the letter appears to have been first publicly
brought forward as indirect testimony against him,
when the first-mentioned charge was gone into. The
essential passages of this story are these : —ln October,
1845, Mr. Davies is said to have dropped a letter he had
written to his wife on the floor of the Mission-house is
London. In February, 1646, Mr. Davies sailed for
Berbice, as a missionary in the employment of the Lon-
don Society, and continued there till 1848, when he re-
turned to this country. In 1850 reports of misconduct
towards females on the pert of Mr. Davies, both in
Berbice and England, having gained currency, inquiries
were set on foot by several gentlemen. A Mr. Stacey,
who had been, and possibly still is, one of the clerks of
the mission, now produced what he asserts is the copy
of the letter from Mr. Davies to hie wife, dropped on
the floor of the Alission-house. Mr. Stacey, by his own
story, appears to have read a letter which he knew to
be addressed by another man to that man's own wife ;
to have copied the letter acd kept the copy, and to
have put the letter into an envelope and forwarded it to
its destination. This letter, which is said to be of such
a shameless character as to unfit the writer to discharge
the duties of the ministry, is kept secret from 1845 to
1850. In the interim Mr. Stacey allows the Mission-
ary Soeiety, of which he is a confidential agent, to send
nut the writer of this horrible letter as a missionary.
It does not as yet clearly appear at what time the other
members of the missionary board, or how many of them,
were made cognisant of tho letter. But at least one
agent of the mission, and it may be more, has, accord-
ing to his own account, connived at the employment
of an impure character as a clergyman and missionary,
and only revealed the secret of the man's culpabi-
lity to blacken him when charged with other offences.
In the personal conflict between the 11ev. Dr. Tia-
man and the 11ev. Robert Ainslie the public will
take marvellous little interest ; hut in the character
and conduct of the teenagers of a powerful and wealthy
missionary society the public has muck at stake. It
will insist upon a full explanation of the mysterious and
suspicious story of the Davies' letter, and the clerk to
the missionary society's connexion with it. The influ-
ence of the clergy of all denominations over the female
portion of society is immense ; reel it is of the utmost
consequence that no perversion of that iefluence to im-
moral purposes should be allowed to creep in. And if
colleagues are allowed to cast a veil over the lapses of
offending brethren, for fear of bringing an evil report
upon " the connexion," such abuses will inevitably creep
in. The case of Messrs. Davies, Stacey, and others, re-
quires at least as searching an examination as the case
of the Dauntless.—Daily News.