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' Incidents of the War.
Tue Frencu Army.—lt is said that by the month
of March, France will have 600,000 bayonets in the
field, and by the month of June, untess peace be
proclaimed, an army numbering 800,000. °
+ Baron Moncuavsen Reauisep.—On the 24th,
(the eighth day of the siege) we had another explo-
sion on our right attack. The story has an air of
Munchausen about it, and if the facts were not well
known, I should have some scruples in telling it.
An eight-inch gun had just been loaded with a live
shell, and the match was applied to fire it off. At
that moment one of the enemy’s shells entered the
gun, and the two shells exploding burst the ‘gun.
Every man in the battery was more or less hurt.
Some were killed. a
‘Tue Two Russtan Guns taken at Bomarsund have
arrived in Paris. They are of bronze, and of ‘small
calibre, as the diamater of one is only fifteen centi-
metres, and of the other, sixteen centimetres—about
six inches : their length is not quite a metre. e:
have on them the following inscription, in Russian:
‘* St. Petersburg, 1811,” and, “St. Petersburg,
1807.” The carriages present nothing worth notice,
These guns are intended for the Marine Museum.
" We are Recrurtine at the rate of 1000 men a-
week, and have as little fear of wanting the raw
material of soldiers, as if we had a legion of spies
and a whole army of crimps to enforce the utmost
rigours of conscription. - The martial and adventu-
rous spirit of the nation is roused by the stirring
tidings which almost every post brings to our shores ;
and the service -has regained, in the midst of a
bloody and desperate war, that popularity which it
was in some danger of losing in the piping times of
peace. The cavalry regiments at home will not be
sent abroad, but will serve as training schools for
the recruits of the regiments on foreign service. It
is intended to raise each troop to seventy-five men,
and to add two troops to each regiment—which will
give'a total increase of 1500 sabres to the force in
the Crimea; and besides, all deficiency occasioned
by casualities is to be made up.. It is proposed to
purchase, for the use of the cavalry, seasoned horses
instead of three-year-olds, as better able to bear the
fatigues and privations of a campaign, and less lia-
ble to injury by 4 long voyage.
How vo Poaea tue Russians.—A Zouave before
Scbastapol thus writes to his father in Paris: “I
have ‘been leading of late the life of a poacher. I
am every day on the look-out for a Russian, being
attached to a company of frances-tireurs, or riflemen.
Oar duty is'to fire at the Russian artillerymen and
to protect our own, who have no reason to be dissa-
tistied with us as yet. I cannot say the same of the
Russians, who appear to suffer greatly from our ri-
fles! To give you an idea of our mode of acting,
we set out at two in the morning, fully accoutred,
with a supply of ammunition and biscuit. On our
arrival in the trenches we are provided with bags, a
shovel, and a pickaxe. Ata given signal we jump
over the parapets with the agility of stags, and
take refuge in some sheltered spot under the forts,
where we dig a kind of rabbit-hole to hide in. We
place our bags as a protection on the side facing the
enemy, and we then set to work. We remain in
this sort of tomb the entire day ; we leave it at dark,
often exposed to a shower of grape-shot. You will
naturally ask, dear father, what we have to do all
that time. I can assure you that we have plenty to
do... We load and fire in rapid succession, and every
shot tells on a Russian artilleryman. The other
day two officers were standing on a piece of timber
‘placed on the top of atower opposite my station, for
the purpose of having a view of our works. With
two shots I brought down those gentlemen, and at
the same moment the batteries let fly a discharge of
‘balls, shells, and grape-shot, which fortunately pass-
ny. ot we Tt,
~ed over my head.’ 3 eo
Want or Leap anp Sciexur in Russ1a.—The
- Russian government is employing scientific men in
“several provinces of the empire on a search for lead
-mines, tor sulphur and coal. Others are employed
‘in causing old and neglected mines to be worked
again. Lhe Russians know that Finland, when it
~ belonged to Sweden, used to yield lead in abundance.
~The abandonment’of the mines was a consequence
“of the cheapness of the article in the foreign mar-
: ket, rendering competition unprofitable. The Rus-
sian government returns now to its own mines, and
: hopes to extract from them a large produce. . Such
is the scarcity of lead at this moment in Russia, that
its price, formerly 14 rouble per pound, has now
- risen to six silver roubles. : It-is the same thing
’ with suJphur—-that has become quite scarce, on ac-
- count of the blockade, and as this material is pe-
‘ euliarly contraband of war, it can no lounger be con-
veyed into the empire from neutral countries.
FRANK LESLIE’S. NEW YORK: JOURNAL.
Tue Zovaves are natives of the French provinces| Familiar Conversations on Interesting Subjects.
of Algiers, disciplined and exercised by French offi-
cers, and now forming part of the French contingent
employed in the Crimea and the siege of Sebastopol.
They hold exactly the saine: relation to the French
army that the Sepoys in India have to the regular
British troops. «| ~ vbr a
Tae “Orper” or tae Day iv Warsaw.—At
Warsaw, the burghers of the middling classes and
shopkeepers have to board and lodge, at their own
expense, from sixteen to twenty soldiers every day,
and the larger houses. and richer families more in
proportion, <9) 2 8c pe oh tees
. Tue Czar anp tHE Lonpon Press.—It is well
known that. Russian agents. abound in London,
whose duty it is carefully to examine all the public
papers, and immediately to transmit everything im-
portant to St. Petersburg. A telegraphich commu-
nication between London and St. Petersburg occu-
pies eight hours. . The contents of the morning
papers are known by the Czar at three o'clock on
the same day.
Narrow Escares —Colonel Dixon and two engi-
neer officers had a great escape on the 20th, in one
of the batteries before thetown. A shell pitched on
the parapet, and hopped down near a gun. It was
thought tobe around shot ; but, strange to say, Col.
Dixon, the only near-sighted man of the three, call-
ed out: “It is a shell; Iseethe fuse!’ The words
were no sooner said than down went the fine fellows
under the wheels of the gun, and up and about went
the angry iron pieces seeking for victims; but it
sought in vain. There have been many hairbreadth
escapes before Sebastopol—a red nightcap used by
one artilleryman was taken from the head by a round
shot, but the person of the wearer remained un-
touched. A cannon-ball passed between the legs
of an officer's horse while in the act of galloping,
and on another occasion the gabion on which an
officer was seated was carried away, and the aston-
ished gentleman suddenly let down, just as a shil-
ling, in the hat-trick, darts from its support into the
tumbler beneath. - The escape of Captain A. Brown,
44th Regiment, was of the most extraordinary cha-
racter. He was in the act of lighting his cigar,
with his right arm partially elevated, when a can-
non-ball shattered the arm, and in running off, took
away three fingers of the left hand, killing the sol-
ier who was standing next him. .
Woman ann Her Master in Turxey.—A re-
markable scene was acted by the women at the ac-
cession of Sultan Mustapha. His Vizier, Reyab
Muhammad Pasha, who, toward the end of the pre-
ceding reign, had found himself unsettled in his
post, and expected daily to be deposed by the in-
trigues of the Seraglio, neglected to provide the ne-
cessary supply of corn and rice for the yearly con-
sumption of the city. The public granaries were
almost empty, and less rice than usual had been
imported. Bread, mixed up with oats, barley, mil-
let, and sand, was dear and scarce; and rice hardly
was to be bought at any price. In this distress the
men bore their want with passion and sullen dis-
content; but the women, impatient and daring, as-
sembled in a considerable tody, and, armed with
hammers, chisels, and files, attacked the magazines,
where, as they asserted, rice was monopolised in
great quantities. No opposition could stop them;
and while the public officers were perplexed what
course to take, they broke open locks, bars, and
bolts, burst into the magazines, took with them
such quantities as they could carry off, and went
away unmolested. None. of these female rioters
were ever punished, as far as we knew, and if you
spoke to a grave Turk about it, he answered, with
asneer: ‘It is only a meeting of desperate women.”
« Breakinye ty Cayatry Horses 1n-FRaNce, By
Mx. Isazerte.—In consequence of the success ob-
tained by Mme, Isabelle in breaking in horses for
the army, the Minister of War lately authorised her
to proceed before a commission composed of general
and ‘superior officers of cavalry, with General Reg-
nault de St. Jean d'Angeley at their head, to a prac-
tical demonstration’ of her method on a certain
number -of young cavalry horses. After twenty
day's training the horses were so perfectly broken
in that the minister no longer besitated to enter-into
an arrangement with Mme. Isabelle to introduce her
system into al! the Imperial schools of cavalry, be-
inning with that: of Saumur. - The advantages of} th
this system appear to be these :—to train the horses,
without ‘fatiguing them; to diminish greatly the
number of restive horses; to lessen the number of
accidents; to train “any number of horses: at the
same time; and to lessen considerably the expense.
Woman's Intemrenance.—In spite of the exhor-
tations of all their feminine orators, all women are
more or less addicted to their glass.
- Crara! .Clara!”. called Mrs. Wilson at- the
door of her daughter’s room one -bright sunshiny
morning in the latter part of spring, «‘ Clara! come,
it is time you were up.” i . o
earing no answer, she gently opened the door,
and perceived that the little girl had already arisen,
and left her room. As the weather had been unu-
sually fine for seyeral days past, she concluded that.
she had taken a stroll in the fields, as she usually
did in pleasant weather. Breakfast being over, and:
Clara still absent, her mother began to feel a little
uneasy about her, and had just determined to go
out and look for her, when the door opened, and
the little runaway, with a face glowing with ex-
citement, entered. .
. “Why, where in the world have you. been,
Clara?” asked her mother, as she took a handker-
chief from her pocket, and wiped the perspiration.
from her brow. >: Vo
« Why, mother, it was such a lovely morning, I
thought I would take a little walk before .break-
fast; I did not intend, however, to go as far, nor to
stay as long as I have done; but before I was aware
of it, I had reached the brook, and would you be-
lieve it, mother, the opposite bank was coyered
with flowers.” teeta a LEY
* You did not venture to tross, Clara, I hope?”
“Oh! no, mother: I have not forgotten my last
attempt at that.” ee . >
(In trying to cross one day, during the previous
summer, Clara had fallen in; and but for the time-
ly aid of a farmer's lad, who was providentially at
hand, most likely would have been drowned... Since
then her mother had forbidden , her ever to attempt
it again.) . wat .
«How did you get your flowers, then}? >,
“Twas just going to tell you, mother; while L
was standing looking at them, Farmer Holt’s man
came along, and offered to get some-for'me.. It
took him longer than I thought it would; and ‘so
for fear you would be uneasy, -I ran every step of
the way home.” sen nts $ wed
“That you should not have done, Clara; you
know how apt you are to have the headache, after
exercise of that kind; but get-your breakfast, and
then bring your flowers in the sitting-room, and
we will examine them together.” en
Fifteen, perhaps twenty minutes had passed after
Clara had finished her meal, before her mother was
quite ready to attend to her.. This time was spent
by her in arranging and examining her flowers. «
« They are most of them violets,””, she remarked,
as her mother having finished her work, sat down
beside her. : .
**You can tell what class th
pose, Clara >” aa Lo i
“They have all got five stamens, ‘mother, so
they must belong to the fifth-class; that is, the
class Pent-Andria.”” . op te
«You have got a few primroses and cowslips, too,
I see Clara, both of which belong to this class”?
“Oh! mother do you recollect those two verses
you taught me about the primrose? I was trying
to think of them as Icame home; but I could only
recollect the first line, * Mark, in yonder thorny
vale !’”’ vr. Salty
“T don’t know whether I can repeat them or not,
Clara, but I'll try :” . To nty yp ot
- * Mark in yonder thorny vale, “ae
Fearless of the falling snows, ’ : ,
Cheerless of the chilly gale, - . :
Passing sweet the primrose grows.
y belong to, I sup-
Milder gales and warmer. beams
ay the grandier flow’rets Tear,
But to me the primrose seems
Proudest gem that decks the year,”
aS
\ «1 wish you would write them down, mother,
if ‘you/please, for me, when you have time; 1
should like to learn them. But now I have found
out the class of my flowers, how ain I to know the
order, genus, &e?" pa
«One thing ‘at a time, Clara; do you think you
can designate the different classes?” ") 0 '
“Pretty well, [ think, mother; I wrote them
down 2s you told me, and have ‘gone over them
several times since, and I-find, too, that knowing
the meaning of the words from which they are de-
rived, assists mé a great deal in distinguishing
em. I was puzzled at first to know what the
class mon-adelphia was ; but' as soon as I brought
to mind the meaning of adelphia I could tell di-
rectly.” 2 6 0 more ey yt noo
‘«You recollect ‘there was one class .we did not
not speak of f” titre a pt ee I >
“+ -Yes,-ma’am, the 21st.” poet a 7
“This class is named from two Greek ‘words:
‘Crypto and Gamia, which signifies a concealed
—_—}
*
*
—— perenne ean