Petersburg, or at any rate from friends of our enemies, who desire to prevent us from taking advantage of what little fine weather remains to undertake fre;jh expeditions. If this be the case, how heartily the Russians and their underhand favourers must have laughed when they heard of the trip to Eupatoria having been abandoned! On Wednesday the telegraph brought fresh information, originating from Vienna, to our headquarters, which was to the effect that the Russians were about to abandon the north side. At present there are no visible signs of such approaching evacuation, nor is there any probable reason to assign for it, excepting one, which is, that the Russians find it impossible to supply their army during the winter. On this point opinions differ widely.
Some think that the Russians will experience no difficulty in bringing enough supplies by the road from Perekop; others doubt that road being sufficient, and are also of opinion that the Russian means of transport will run short. It is pretty certain that no large depot of provisions exists near at hand, and also that none ever existed, not even at the commencement of the siege. Last winter the Russians, — who doubtless never contemplated a siege of anything like such duration, nor probably an attack at all by land, and had made sure of speedily beating off" any naval force brought against their great fortress — had a constant stream of supplies pouring into the town. It may be urged that they have taken advantage of the summer to lay in stores; but the drought of that season is as unfavourable to such an operation as the wet and cold and heavy roads of winter; and, miless by camels, which can do but little, transport continues very difficult.
Taking a fair and unprejudiced view of all the chances and probabilities, I do not think they can have done more than make the supply meet the demand; and even that, we have reason to believe, at times but scantily. Their loss of beasts of draught and buiden must have been prodigious, and the wear and tear of their ill-made carts proportionately large. The chief motive for striving to retain their present position probably is that, in the event of negotiations for peace being carried on this winter, these would be conducted more favourably to them whilst they still have a footing in the Crimea than if they had moved out of it, leaving us to garrison Sebastopol and Simphcropol, and, if we chose, to transport our army to the Danube and to Asia.
In Sebastopol itself there is nothing new. The Russians continue firing at the town, with little reply from the French. They tire principally at Sebastopol Proper, but now and then drop a shot or shell into the Karabelnaia, and sometimes take the flagstaff on the Malakhoff for their mark. It is difficult to understand why we spare them so much, unless it be that we expect them soon to walk away, and leave us their north side forts in good order and condition, which would be expecting rather too much. There can be no difficulty in forming batteries of heavy guns, with which to knock some, at least, of their defences about their ears. Outside the town the French are hard at work levelling their siege works, filling up trenches, &c., though why they should take that trouble it is hard to say, unless they contemplate the probability of Sebastopol being garrisoned by the allies, and they, in their turn, besieged by the Russians.
Visitors to the exterior works continue to be occasionally pretty numerous; fewer persons go into the town, the fire, which sometimes is really heavy, rendering a visit unpleasant. A more curious spectacle is assuredly nowhere to be found than in the space comprised between the lines where our batteries once stood and the harbour of Sebastopol. The ground in parts is literally paved with shot sunk in the earth, above which the upper surfiice scarcely rises; there are ditches and trenches in which they lie as thick as apples in a basket; in some places numbers of them have been buried. You see them of ever}' size, from the huge 68-pounder down to the diminutive grape — ^jolly little fellows, of a pleasant vinous appellation, but very nasty to run against as they are passing through the air.