its importance from the period when the French concentrated all their energies on the Russian defences opposed to their extreme right attack. In May, however, all their efforts were directed to advancing towards this part of the town, and after they gained the position, and had driven the Russians completely out of the Cemetery, they established themselves on the rising ground to the right, where they immediately constructed a work which they called the Battery No. 50, at a very short distance from the Russian works, but divided from them by a narrow valley.
The old church, which is quite outside the precincts of the town, had some pretensions to architectural beauty, which were marred by the gaudiness of its decorations. There was also a handsome gateway, which, as well as the church itself, and even the tombstones of the Cemetery, did not escape severe damage from the several bombardments.
THE ADMIRALTY.
Of the Admiralty nothing now remains but the tower which served for a gateway, and which is censured by Prince Demi doff as " displaying somewhat too ostentatiously a number of pillars out of proportion with the remainder of the building." The tower contained a clock, and probably a bell: the remainder of the building consists of roofless walls, containing only the refuse which has been rejected by fastidious Zouaves, blue-jackets, and camp-followers.
Two building-sheds which were also visible at the early part of the siege have disappeared; and this scene of utter destruction forms an apt counterpart to the last traces of the Russian navy in these waters, the " final limitation" of the Black Sea fleet — the masts which project above the surface of the harbour, in monumental mockery of the ships which lie at the bottom.
The complete annihilation of a force of whose power of aggression Sinope gave too forcible an illustration, and the compression of which within reasonable bounds was one of the propositions at the abortive Vienna conferences most contemptuously rejected by the Russians, has been in a measure lost sight of in the crowd of melodramatic incidents which marked the catastrophe of Sebastopol; but of all the advantages gained by that memorable event it was perhaps at once the most unparalleled and the most important.
CEIMEA.
Had the Russian fleet perished to the last ship in an engagement on the open sea with the allied navies, its fate would have been attended with a grandeur which would have imposed respect even on the foe, and have left an ineflfaceable tradition of glory, which might not have been without fruit in time to come: but to disappear piecemeal under the waters of the harbour which, by a grand but vain inspiration, half its effective force had been sacrificed to close — to find its grave amidst the crumbling ruins of fortifications which had seemed to compensate the shame of forced inaction by the proffer of an at least inviolate asylum — this was to fall by a blow at once so crushing and so humiliating, that no lapse of years wiU suffice-to wipe away its stain, or restore a prestige for ever destroyed. True it is that the Russian fleet, the exotic offspring of a system of unnatural forcing, manned by soldiers, and destitute of all nautical experience but such as might be acquired from a summer's cruise within the narrow limits of an inland sea, could not have contended with a possibility of success against the proud armadas of France and England, to which indeed it was as inferior in numbers as it was in training, discipline, enterprise, and national spirit: but no reverse at sea, however complete, could have brought home this fact to the conviction of those nations who have long been taught to regard the naval power of Russia as no less formidable than her military resources, with the overwhelming force possessed by the simple narrative of the manner in which that naval power was extinguished, published as it has been from one end of Europe to the other.
Well may the Russians sue for peace in the prudent hope of saving their Baltic fleet from a similar fate, no less clearly foretold in the unconquerable will and limitless resources of the Western Powers, if the strife be only prolonged: half the sibylline leaves are irrevocably lost; it remains for those who would read the future by the light of the past to rescue, while it is time, those which yet remain.
The church visible in this drawing is thus referred to by Mr. Simpson: —
" The large church seems not to have been quite finished: its great distance from our batteries saved it from the effects of the bombardments. Still a few shot-marks are visible, and the Russians themselves, in spite of their devotion, have made a number of holes in it by their fire from the North Side."
Beyond the church is seen the rear of Fort Nicholas.
Subjoined is a list of the ships of the Russian Black Sea fleet before the opening of the War, derived from a trustworthy French source:
THE ADMIRALTY.
SHIPS OF THE LINE
Names. Grand Duke Constantine, three-decker Twelve Apostles Three Saints Paris
Varsovie. Empress Maria Chrabroi Tchesnie Sviatoslaf Rostislaf Yagudil Varna Selafael Uriel names unknown -{