The corps at present here does not exceed 540 men, and they are principally employed in trenching and repairing the railway, which is a vital and all-important work. Sir H. Jones made an application to Mr. Doyne to send a portion of his men into the trenches to assist in the siege approaches, but the latter very prudently m-ged on the General the necessity of getting the railway into proper order, and the bad economy of placing skilled labourers in a position which would certainly not conduce to the satisfactory development of their capabilities, as no untrained and undisciplined men without arms or military habits and experience could be expected to pursue their work calmly and energetically with round shot and grape tearing through them, and shell bursting amid their ranks.
At the same time, Mr. Doyne and the gentlemen employed as officers of the corps expressed their readiness to lead their men into the trenches, if the General of Engineers required them to do so. The reasons urged against such a mode of emploj^ing the corps prevailed, and they are now engaged in the more safe and peaceful works for which they are peculiarly fitted. Locomotives and stationary engines have been applied for, and will speedjly be sent out to prepare the railway more adequately for its herculean task in the winter, and Mr. Dojnie expects an augmentation of 500 men to the corps under his command. The sickness which harassed the first comers is now of a milder type, and diminishes daily in virulence.
Many of the men have suffered from theiiown recklessness in eating and drinking; but it is also a fact that some of the steadiest and most sober men in the corps shared the fate of their imprudent and thoughtless comrades. In the hour of their illness, these men, in common with many others, have found a kind and successful physician. Close to the railway, half-way between the Col de Balaklava and Kadikoi, Mrs. Seacole, formerly of Kingston and of several other parts of the world, such as Panama and Chagres, has pitched her abode — an u-on storehouse, with wooden sheds and outlying tributaries, and here she doctors and cures all manner of men witb extraordinary success. She is always in