Southern shield., 1855-05-26
MAILS BY THE ASIA.
Napoleon going to the Crimea! BOMBARDMENT OF SEBASTOPOL.
 HIGHLY INTERESTING DETAILS.

IN LIN From the London News, April 23.
 There appears to be no longer any reason to doubt that the Emperor of the French will proceed forthwith to Crimea. In the Constitutional of Mond 1t is stated that his camp equipage has already been sent of; and the 10th of May is confidently named in Paris as the day on which he will take his de- parture. The abilities of. Napoleon III, are about to be tried in a new field. His victories have hitherto been gained in civil contests; 1t remains to be seen whether he has inherited the military talents of his house. Various considerations concur to recommend the step he is about to take. His presence in the Crimea seems desira- ble, as means of giving unity to the operations of 8 campaign carried on by the armies of at least four independent nations. As victory will tend to con solidate his throne, he has every induce ment to urge on the var with energy, and, at the same time, from all we can learn, the Emperor is too profoundly impressed with the necessity of not overstraining the resources of France, to be led astray by success.
 
 What course the Emperor will pur- sue, remains, perhaps, to be decided by the state in which he will find affairs when he lands in the Crimea. The t+elegraphic- aeess. of the progress or the bombardment of Sebastopal- are necessarily curt andincomplete. Rd- mors are afoat, however, to the effect that no great progress is being made by the assailants; that the advantages they have gained have been purchased by considerable loss of life; and that the defences still in the hands of the Russians are of the most formidable strength. If those statements are well founded, they go far to confirm the opinion we have more than once had occasion to express that the Russians in the Crimea must be beaten in the field before Sebastopol can be taken. It will also be borne in mind that in the reveiw of the operations of the Allies in Turkey and the Crimea, which was published in the Moniteur, of the 11th inst, regret is expressed that the plan of disembarking at Theodosia, advancing by the way of Simeropol, cutting off the Russian communications, and beating them in the field before investing Sebastopol, had been aban- doned. This was the Emperor's orig inal scheme of a Crimean campaign.- The actual position the Allied forces in the Crimea may prevent its being re- sumed to its full extent; but both the natural predilection which Napoleon III must feel for his own plan, and the probable state of affairs before Sebas- topol, seem to render it most likely that some combination will be made with ayiew, first, to defeat the Russian army, and then invest the fortress in due form. Something might assuredly be done by the vessels of lightest draft in the Allied fleets, to cut off the Rus sian communications with the Crimea by way of the sea of Azoff. We con fdently believe that the depth of wa ter in the straits of Yenikale has been systematically understood by the Rus sian authorities. It is well known that vessels of certain draft of wa ter are compelled to unload part of her cargo at Kertch, in order, it is all legged, to enable them to pass through the straits. But we are credibly in formed that, some years ago, a Greek felucca, requiring much deeper water than is said to be found in the straits, passed through with her whole cargo on board, the master having represent ed her as of less draft than she really was. Again, the force under Omar Pasha at Eupatoria, if augmented by the Sardinian contingent, might be able .fI n