stones; biit, if the Governruent obtains a gviarantee or a promise from the llussian Governnii'nt that they will take means to prevent the Tartars or the peasantry destroyincr any enclosures on their retm-ii, it would be well to make the walls permanent, hij^jh, and strong, as I have suggested. Most of the plateau was, I believe. Crown property — at all events, it was uncultivated— there were only two or three I'arms on the whole of it, and the ground around them will have been well enriched ere we leave it. The head-quarters was one of these farms, and the plain in which the house stands reeks with animal matter, to which the French, from their adjacent hospital, have unfortunately been forced to make large additions verj' recently.
At Balaklava the news was known by eight o'clock, and the "Leander," Captain Rice, bearing the flag of Admiral Fremantle, was " dressed " with the flags of the allies about that hour, and the merchant shipping by order followed her example, so that the harbour presented a gayer scene probably than human eye ever witnessed there since it was first discovered by some most investigating, shore-hugging, and fissure-pursuing navigator. It was a fine day, — at least it appeared so, by contrast with its niEPARATIONS FOIl recent predecessors, — and the effect of the firing from so many points, all of which were visible from the heights of the plateau near the Woronzoff-road, was very fine. The enemy saw the smoke and heard the roar of our guns, but they maintained a stern and gloomy silence.
One would have thought that they, above all, would have shown some signs of satisfaction at the peace which they sought, and which they had made such sacrifices to obtain, while no one would have much wondered if the batteries of the English and Sardinians expressed no opinion on the subject. However, there was not a Russian shot fired or flag hoisted from Fort Constantine to Mackenzie, nor has any increase in our intimac)^ taken place, although we have ceased to be enemies. The Tchernaya is the boundary of our wanderings, and the Commander-in-Chief in General Orders reminds the army that the limits originally assigned to them will be strictly maintained. April 11. The preparations for the speedy evacuation of the Crimea arc pressed on with rapidity and energy.
Each division collects about 4,000 shot a-day, and they are carried to Balaklava as fast as the means at our disposal — railway and land transport — will permit. It is stated that 6000 Sardinians will be the fi^s^ to leave, and the Guards will probably be the first EnglisL troops to quit the scene of their suttering, of their endurance, and of their glory. Alas! how many will lie here till the judgment-day! Wlio can tell how many have perished whose lives might have been spared — how many an unknown grave might have been untenanted, how many a life wasted which ought to have been saved to the country, to ft'iends, to an honoured old age! These questions may never be answered, least of all are they likely to be answered at Chelsea Hospital, where the very banners would fall with leaden weight upon the heads of those who should speak the truth that is in them.
Heaven lets loose all its plagues on those who delight in war, and on those who shed men's blood, even in the holiest causes. The pestilence by day and night, the deadly fever, the cholera, dysenteiy; the incompetence, and stupidity, and apathy of chieftains; the strategical errors of great captains; culpable inactivity and fatal audacity, — all these follow in the train of victorious armies, and kill many more than the bullet or the sword. But war has its rules. The bloody profession by which liberty is achieved or crushed — by which States are saved or annilulatecl, has certain fixed principles for its guidance, and the homcBopathic practitioner in the art, or the quack, the charlatan, or the noble amateur, will soon be detected and overwhelmed in the horrors of ruin and defeat.
I'erhaps on no occasion has the neglect of the course of regular practice been so severelypunished, even although in the end the object has been gained, as in the siege of Sebastopol. It is the fii'st instance on record in which such a place has been taken by the mere fire of artillery; for it is admitted by the Russians that even if the assault on the Malakhotf had been repelled, they must have abandoned a place exposed at everj' nook and chink and ci-anny to such a fire that the very heavens seemed to rain shot and shell upon them. We lost an army in establishing that fire, and we have not (notwithstanding the honeyed words of Lord Palrnerston, every soldier here feels what I say is the truth) — we have not added to our reputation — nay, we have not sustained it — in the attacks of the 18th of June and the 8th of September.