The great rapidity with which he hastened from India to the Crimea laid the seeds of disease and suffering which the anxieties of command out here have developed, and he leaves a stage on which it was expected he would have been no second-rate or inconsiderable actor, amid the regrets of the army. It is probable that Major-General Garrett, fonnerly of the 46th Regiment, will succeed him in the command of the Second Division, and that BrigadierGeneral Windham will not remain in command of the English portion of Sebastopol. September 24. If there is any Intention on the part of the Commandersin-Chief to make any use of the short autumnal season, or second summer, or whatever else the few weeks of fine weather which precede the Crimean winter may be called, it is so close a secret that its execution will cause lively dissatisfaction and great discomfort, especially among the "hutters" and "the great hutting interest." Men have made up their minds not only to rest, but to peace, and a real bon mot of the Duke of Newcastle, to the ejfect that there will be peace before Christmas, is in every one's mouth.
There are rumours in camp to the efiect that a short and simple letter from headquarters in Downingstreet, vid electric telegraph, contained instructions to spare the docks of Sebastopol, and to leave the public buildings untouched. The cannon-ball and shell have flown faster than the lightning, and these stately objects of solicitude are all in ruins. The old sounds of the siege are renewed. There is a gun every minute from the north side or from the south, and fair promise that the duel will last for months to come at the present rate of exchange. 7'30. The heavy beat of the guns has died away, the bugles have sounded, and the whole camp is still. In the briglit moonlight the rows of white tents shine clearl}' and taper away in long perspective to such a distance that they seem to form a screen of snowy canvas, which is illuminated by countless lights.
The French bands are playing in their remote encampments, find there is a strange jargon of English and French music, and through it all the sad strains of Handel's Saul are floating, as the soldiers bear some deceased officer to his long home; then sounds of carousing and drinking choruses are heard; the guns wake up once more, and their heavy voices silence every other noise. Stillness returns again, and so we pass the night until sleep has closed every eye except those of the wakeful sentries on our frontier of defence. The Eussian telegraphic lights are very active on the heights over Inkermann, and have never ceased flitting in and out all over the dark ridge between us and the Belbek for the last three houi-s.