THE DEFENCES OF SEBASTOPOL.

Southland Times, Issue 1607, 19 July 1872, Page 3

THE DEFENCES OF SEBASTOPOL.

.*» . The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Eastern Budget, writing on the 18th April, says : — " Some important resolutions with regard to the re-equipment of Sebastopol were taken the other day, at a sitting of the Committee of Ministers, under the presidency of the Emperor. Tbe plan prepared for the above purpose, by a special commission, was approved it) all points by the committee, and a local commission, sitting at Sebastopol, is to make further inquiries as to tae best mode of carrying out tbe details. In order to avoid possible alarms in Western Europe, it was decided tbat the commercial advantages of restoring Sebastopol should be brought as much as possible into prominence. The Press has, consequently, been instructed to explain that the real object of the measure is to convert Sebastopol into an emporium for Kussian trade, and that the new I fortifications are to be made subsidiary to that object. The proposed system of fortification is quite new, being based ou the experiences obtained during the Crimean war and on the advantages afforded by the construction of railways. It is not confined to the defence of Sebastopol alone ; the wbole of tbe Chersonese peninsula is to be so protected by a circle of exposed forts and coast batteries as to make tbe landing of hostile troops at any point on the coast a matter of considerable difficulty. Sebastopol would thus form only the last line of defence ; and its harbor is to be made large enough to give a secure shelter to the whole of the Bussian navy and mercantile marine in case of need. Other changes are being made in the army department ; the present military districts are to be abolished, and the whole army will in future be divided into twelve corps — one of the Guard, one of the Grenadiers, and eleven corps d'armee. The artillery brigades, too, are to be strengthened by the addition of fifth batteries. " All these preparations — especially those relating to Sebastopol — doubtless show great activity, but there is nothing menacing in them afc present, for a long time must elapse before fchey can be carried oufc. The Bussian Ghauvinistes are of course only too ready to discount such projects, though as yet they exist on paper only. Thus the Exchange Gazette of this city (the organ of General Fadieyeff) threatens Hungary wilh the anger of Bussia if she will not behave better to some Buthenians in the Carpathians, whom the Gazette claims as ' Hungarian Bussians,' and ' a part of the Bussian nation.' Bussia, it says, has played the part of looker-on long enough ; she now has ber hands free to act abroad as she pleases. And all this about a few Buthenian villagers that nobody ever heard of before, and who have not even been unearthed by the Slavonic papers in Austro-Hungary, which are usually quick enough to hunt , up a gri«vance against the Government."