If Odessa is to be destroyed, it can only be done, first, either by great numbers of floating batteries to reduce the forts, and enable the liners to approach within broadside distance; secondly, by a sustained fire, constantly maintained for several days, of a flotilla of gunboats, bomb-ketches, and mortar-vessek, fed by continuous supplies of amnnuiition, and even of new guns and mortars; thirdly, by tlie disembarkation on the coast below the city of a force sutticiently strong to defeat the gan'ison and the outlying army defending the place, in whicli case the city would be open to the conquerors, and all the defences taken in reverse; or, fourthly, by some unlvuown operation of war, locked up by the Admiralty key in Lord Dundonald's bosom.
Of these plans the third alone seems to insure the certainty of destroying Odessa. The Avear and tear of materiel in a protracted bombardment is incredible. Even in our affair at Kinburn numerous guns were disabled — as an example, I may state that both of the " Arrow's" heavy Lancaster guns burst after a few rounds, so that the gunboat was rendered quite useless. (It should be added by parenthesis that these guns were not furnished by Mr. Lancaster, but were ordinary heavy guns bored in conformitj' with his principle.) The mortar-beds also underwent heavy strains on the occasion, although those suspended on Julius Eoberts's principle were found to answer very well, and to give less shock to the vessel than those mounted on the old plan.
Sir Howai'd Dongla.s declares that a 13-inch mortar ought to hit a large object such as a fort at the distance of 4000 yards, but I know that many of our bombs missed Kinburn from a distance ofles& than 3000 and 3G00 yards. The whole of the glacis and of the ground bel'ore the fort for some hundred yaa'ds was burrowed up and pitted by the craters of bombs, which made prodigious holes in the soft sand on which they expended their force. For one shell which would fall through the roof of a house in Odessa, three or four would fall in the public streets, squares, and yards, where they would be comparatively harmless. These large missiles take up great space, and the Heet could not hold enough to lay Odessa iii mins.
Even had the Admirals been provided with aU the appliances for destroying Odessa, the project would not have had the concurrence at present of one Government, at all events; and so the fleets, after approaching the town, lay quietly before it. They might have caused great damage to property and loss of life by firing on the place during theirstay, for, though complete destruction is often difficult where damage and loss may easily be efiected, there can be no doubt that a vigorous fn-e would have occasioned the enemy a considerable amount of both. The French Admiral, indeed, suggested that a cei'taiii number of gun-boats and mortarvessels should go in every night and throw shell into the town; ^14 SEBASTOPOL ONCE MORE. but SiiEdmund Lyons was of opinion probably — and if he was, tliere can be but little question in Englisli minds that he was right — that such a petty measm-e of warfare was unworthy of us; that we ought either to desti'oy Odessa, and assail it with all our strength, or refrain from a partial attack, which, on its cessation, the Russians would say, and not without pretence, had been repulsed.
The soldiers and sailors who are doomed to stay at and otf Kinburn for the winter will have a dreary time of it. The sea on both sides of the spit is frozen to some distance from the shore, but Major-General Ivokonovitch, the late Kussian Governor, who was there for four j^ears, said he had never known the.sea to be frozen right across to OczakofT. By the by, it is believed that General Liiders was in Kinburn just beibre our arrival, and that he only crossed to Oczakoft'in a small boat the night \Ye arrived otf the Spit, leaving behind him assurances of relief to the garrison, and informing the Governor he ought to hold out at least for a fortnight. The " Glatton" is at Kamiescb, and will not, 1 believe, take part in the defence.