NEWS OF THE WEEK.
allotted to our Allies ; while a strong portion of their ar od ready to support it, and to repulse any interruption of the work- ing-parties. The siege-parties of the British were directed against the line of forts that has been more recently constructed, while the army took up the extreme right to confront any Russian forces that might be at large and so to protect the besiegers. Balaclava itself was garrisoned hy a body of marines, and the work of land- ing guns continued without intermission. The Russians opened fire upon those portions of the army that lay next it ; but it does not appear that their gnus had any effect except to show the Eng- lish their range. Silently the besiegers continued at their work in the trenches until the 8th; when, as the telegraph informs us, the Russians made a sortie, and were repulsed.
Downcast as the Russians may be, unequal as they may be to the Allies in military science or active spirit, it is evident that they are obstinate, and that the approaches will have to be carried on by sheer obstinate perseverance. Could we take a bird's eye view of the scene, we should see the English at home, as it were in the harbour of Balaclava, while the red. colour ofibur nation would ex- tend from that port a considerable way inland and North towards the fortifications, within whose malls, more or less solid, would be seen the Russian troops. Continuing towards the left would be seen the French army, with the French besiegers confronting the Qua- rantine Fort. The deep and much indented inlet of Sebastopol would show us the nnusual spectacle, not of ships moored across the month, but of topmasts rising above the waves ; eight sunken ships forming the gate of the harbour. Within lies the scattered town, and more Russian forces. But further to the left towards Cape Kherson, we should see the French busy landing their heavy guns and aramunition ; further yet beyond, the floating fortress, the Allied fleet. The besiegers in their trenches silent and sunken, would scarcely challenge the eye ; but in the distance would be observed some movement amongst the extreme division of'our own corps, and a constant movement within the walls, with smoke rising occasionally, as the artillerymen try their range. The loss has been considerable in the dashing part of the cam- paign. We are not to suppose that it will be materially less in the slow work of the siege, Apecially as it will be aided by cholera. If the proceedings of the Ittiasians show their want of a nobler and more active energy, they prove their disposition to rely upon a lower kind of obstinacy and falsehood. The sinking of their ships, instead of using those same vessels for fighting— the announcement in their Government gazette, based on de- spatches of Prince Menschikoff, that the English forces had gone by sea to Balaclava, while the French in joining their alias had avoided a combat by retreating—and the appointment of Prince Gortsehakoff to the chief command of the territory so far Beath as Perekop, enoroaChing upon the command of Prince Men-
schikoff—are signs that Russia, though dogged and false, knoivs her weakness, and cannot conceal her want of effective instruments. Gortschakoff, Menschikoff, and Paskievitch, are set up one after another, and set down again as each disappoints his Imperial master in letting defeat show that Russia cannot match her op- ponents in the field. Osten-Sacken, who has always been "ex- pected "—at one time in the Dabrudscha, now in Bessarabia—en- joys a repute, perhaps because he is comparatively untried. But the Russians are numerous enough, malignant enough, and encased enough in a brutalized ignorance, to cause the Allies severe loss and much hard work in conquering them.
