Their finely-appointed artillery were placed at intervals between the divisions, and necessarily extended the line considerably. General Liiders examined the infantry, who are variously estimated to have numbered from 35,000 to 50,000 bayonets, with great care, and spoke in high terms of their admirable bearing and soldierly ar-pect. Our allies presented a ArPEARANCE OF THE very fine appearance, notwithstandingthat the tr;;ees of their sutierings from iUness during the winter were painfully apparent in the diminished strength of some regiments. I am glad to report that the sickness which caused such ravages has ceased, and that our allies, in comjjarison, now enjoy excellent health. It was in the regiments stationed at Varnutka, Baidar, JMiskomia, and thereabouts, that the gi'eatest moi-tality prevailed, (iencral d'Autemarre's brigade suffered very severely indeed.
The 11th Eegiment lost one-half its number; the 26th, which was the most healthy, buried nevertheless 250 men; and the remaining regiment of the brigade, will leave behind it upwards of 400 rank and file in the Crimea. The French officers do not conceal the amount of their losses during the winter, any more than they now dissemble the disasters which befell the devoted expedition into the Dobrudscha in 1854, the horrors of which have never yet been made public, and the mere sight of which drove Horace Vernet back to Fi-ance with all possible speed. As our national vanity has received a blow which has led to such marked improvement in our organization, it is not improbable but that our gallant allies will be warned by the events of the past winter that their system is not quite so perfect as they imagined and boasted it to be.
Had the war continued, the French, in their present state, would have found themselves almost unable to move a day's march, owing to the exhaustion of their train des equipages and the destruction of their animals. They were wont to laugh good-humouredly at our railroad-making, and to say, " Sebastopol would be taken long before it was finished." They have since had practical proof of its utility, and they see every day how great are its advantages, in enabling us to accumulate stoi-es wherever we desire them, and to send down to Balaklava vast piles of shot and shell, while they are as yet unable to make any efforts to collect mah'.nel for export to Fi'ance. Xor do thoy despise our roads, wherever they can be made available; and the harbour of Balaklava has proved of no small service to our allies — French and Sardinians — as well as to ourselves.
However, tliese questions may stand by for the present, and, indeed, for ever, unless the consideration of them is forced upon us. The Russian General, who praised the French for their mai-tial and intelligent aspect, was pleased to award to our troops the merit of great neatness of appearance, strength, steadiness, and solidity. 4-10 PKACE OXCE MORE IX THE CRIMEA. April L'3. I luivc been over the iiorlh forts, and have carefully examined, as far as a civilian can, the defences of the place, and it must be confessed that they are of a most formidable character. Fort Constantine bears very few marks of the bombardment and cannonade of the 17th of October, 1854. The crown of the arch of one embrasure has been injured, and is supported by wood, and the stone-work is pitted here and there with shot; but the pits have been neatly filled in and plastered over.
The earth forts are scarcely touched. Fort Catherine, or Nachimotf (formerl}' Suwaroff), is iminjured, but St. Michael's, which is badly built, has suffered from the French mortar fire since we got into the town. The citadel is covered on all sides by prodigious earthworks, and the hill-sides are furrowed up by lines of batteries bearing on every landing-place and every approach. The aspect of the harbour is very desolate; the wrecks of the ships and the stumps of masts peering above the waters, give it an aspect of solitude which the boats flitting about cannot destroy. Here is the grave of the Russian Black Sea fleet. In one line from Fort Constantine to the Quarantine and Alexander Forts were sunk before the 17th of October three eighty-fours, then one hundred-and-twentj^ then two eighty-fours, and then one fifty-four.