The result of this stupendous operation was absolutely nothing. It is true we occasionally gained a superiority of fire over the Redan, the Mamelon, and the Flagstaff batteries, for the simple and obvious reason that these works partook more or less of the bastion trace, and though they could not be exactly enfiladed, they were opposed to a cross raking fire which was very destructive. The truth is they ought never to have been armed for offence, but used merely for defensive purposes; still we never silenced even these, and at the end of the combat they were repaired and rearmed, and were as efficient as before. On the other hand, we never silenced nor gained any superiority of fire over those works which directly faced ours, and whose guns could only be attacked by direct fire.

It was an experiment on the largest scale, and proved beyond all cavil the proposition for which Mr. Fergusson contended so earnestly in his published works, and at the United Service Institution in 1853,- that when the guns of a fort are equal in number to those of the attack, and are placed behind earthen parapets facing the attack, they cannot be silenced by the besieger; and as he has further shown how every fort can easily be made to mount twice the number of guns that can be brought against it, this part of the problem may be considered as solved. It remains to be seen whether places can be taken without this hitherto indispensable preliminary. During the fire we were not able to seize a single position, to destroy a single work, nor to advance the sap beyond the snail's pace at which it had been creeping for months past; and it now remains to be seen what science can do to restore to the attack its vaunted superiority over the art of defence.

With this great bombardment ends the second, and let us hope the only tragic act, as far as we are concerned, in the siege of Sebastopol. The third opened more brilliantly, though it is somewhat hazardous to predicate on results while the action is still pending. The bombardment of April had so little effect, either in terrifying the Russians or in depriving them of their means of defence, that on the 20th of May they commenced a new work of counter-approach against the extreme left of the French, just above the Cemetery, at the head of the Quarantine Harbour. Had they been allowed to complete this place d'armes as the French despatches call it, they would have been able to take the more advanced parallels of the besiegers in reverse, and to prevent further approach on this side. This was perceived by General Pelissier, and an attack was ordered on the night of the 22nd of May, the intention, of course, being, not only to destroy

the Russian work, but to turn it into an advanced parallel against the town. The defence was, however, conducted with such obstinacy, and by so large a body of the garrison, that although the French remained masters of the field, they were obliged to retire before the day broke to prevent their being exposed to the fire from the ramparts, which they could not have withstood, as they had been able to do nothing during the night towards covering themselves. As soon as it was dark the attack was renewed on the following night, when the garrison, dismayed by the carnage of the preceding night, and finding it impossible to maintain themselves in an unfinished work, gave up the contest, after a very slight resistance, and the French established themselves securely on the contested ground.

From this time till the 6th of June nothing of importance was undertaken by the Allies against the works of the place, but on the afternoon of that day the bombardment recommenced for the third time, but on this occasion from even a more powerful artillery and with greater vigour than before. The English seem to have had 157 guns and mortars in position. The French not very much less than twice that number, and they seem to have fired for twenty-eight hours as rapidly as they could with safety. At six o'clock on the evening of the 7th, large bodies of the French advanced against the Mamelon, and rushing over its ruined parapets a hand-to-hand fight commenced, and was continued with varied success till the larger body of the assailants drove out the garrison, and the fight was transferred to the gorge in front of the Malakoff Tower, where it raged nearly all the night long. At times the French penetrated almost to the Malakoff, but were as often repulsed; by daybreak, however, they had fairly established themselves in the Mamelon and the adjoining works, and had captured sixty-two guns which were found in position there. While this was going on the English attacked the Quarries, which had been occupied by the Russians as an advanced parallel in front of the Redan, and after a most obstinate and sanguinary fight they too maintained their ground, and the morning found them in undisputed possession of the contested works. The redoubts on Mount Sapoune, on the other side of the Careening Bay, were also attacked by the French and evacuated during the night, being in fact untenable after the Mamelon had fallen.

By these two operations of the 23rd of May and 7th of June, the Allies obtained possession of all the works of counter-approach which the Russians had erected outside their original lines after our bombardment of the 17th of October. In front of the eastern quadrant of the town the Allies are now esta

blished within 500 yards of the real defences of the place, and on the western side the French have completed their third parallel everywhere within 200 yards of the place, and on some points much nearer. The French are, in fact, now where they ought to have been within a fortnight or three weeks of opening trenches, and would have been had they been acting against a bastioned fortress. The English are now where they ought to have been on the 17th of October, and probably would have been had they dreamed of such a resistance as has taken place.. In no instance, however, have the original works been attacked by our troops or seriously damaged by our fire; they are, on the contrary, far stronger and more perfect than they were when the first bombardment terminated in November last, and the town is no doubt full of defensive expedients which were not then thought of. Such was the state of the siege when the attack of the 18th June was directed against the Malakhoff Tower and the Redan, and the allied armies underwent the first serious check they have sustained. Our limits forbid us to enter into a detailed examination of the misfortunes and errors of that eventful day; but if any further proof were needed of the principles of fortification for which we are here contending, it will be found in the terrific fire and the unflinching defence of the Russian garrison on that occasion.

Notwithstanding this disappointment, there seems little reason to doubt of the successful termination of this great enterprise. Our forces are four times more numerous than they were when we undertook the siege. Our artillery has increased in even a greater proportion, and the experience of the winter campaign has added immensely to the efficiency of every department of our armies. On the other hand, the Russians must be disspirited by their recent continual defeats, and crippled by our successes in the Sea of Azoff; and mere field-works cannot for ever resist such an overwhelming power as is now brought against them. But whether the place fall to-morrow, or still resist some time longer, the scientific question as far as the art of fortification is concerned, may be considered as settled. For it has been proved beyond a doubt that an abundant supply of guns placed on earth-works may restore the superiority of the defence over the attack. It is true the siege has been conducted under somewhat anomalous circumstances, the town never having been invested; but that advantage was far more than counterbalanced by the fact of its fortifications having been commenced after we established ourselves before the place, and under every disadvantage that could almost have been conceived; had they been carefully prepared on the same principles in time of peace,

we should not even now be cheered by the hope of a successful termination of this great siege.

There is one other point connected with this subject on which it might be desirable to dwell at some length. Our space will not allow us to do more than allude to it. It is the question as to how far we are prepared to avail ourselves of all this knowledge, and to reap the benefits of the experience we have purchased at the expense of so much blood and treasure. Let us hope that something may be done to raise military engineering to the same level which the sister art of civil engineering occupies in this country. The improvement of the art of Fortification must not, however, be considered as a mere question of departmental or of administrative reform. It is, in fact, one of the greatest questions of the day; and, to smaller States at least, certainly the most important.

There does not appear to be any other science from the cultivation of which political results can be obtained either so important or so beneficial to mankind as from this; and if the experience of these sieges has rendered war more difficult and peace more secure, we shall have no cause to regret either the expense or the difficulties of the recent campaigns; but it can only be so if we are prepared to abandon the absurdities of routine, and to learn the wisdom of the age, regardless of the quarter from which the lesson may be forced upon us.

ART. IX. A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, LADY HOLLAND. With Selections from his Letters. Edited by Mrs. AUSTIN. In 2 vols. London: 1855.

THE

HE publication of this book affords us the opportunity for which we have been anxiously watching, and which we must ere long have found or made for ourselves, had it not presented itself. We should be guilty of an unpardonable neglect of duty were we to allow Sydney Smith to be permanently placed amongst the illustrious band of English worthies in the Temple of Fame, at the risk of seeing too low a pedestal assigned to him, without urging on the attention of contemporaries, and recording for the instruction of posterity, his claims to rank as a great public benefactor, as well as his admitted superiority in what we must make bold to call his incidental and subordinate character of a wit.' It was in this Journal that he commenced his brilliant and eminently useful career as a social,

moral, and political reformer. He persevered in that career through good and evil report, with unabated vigour and vivacity, both in writing and conversation, until the greater part of his original objects had been attained; and the simplest recapitulation of these would be sufficient to show that his countrymen have durable benefits and solid services, as well as pleasant thoughts and lively images, to thank him for. With, perhaps, the single exception of Lord Brougham, no one man within living memory has done more to promote the improvement and well-being of mankind, by waging continual war, with pen and tongue, against ignorance and prejudice in all their modifications and varieties; nor should it be forgotten, that although he wielded weapons very like those which had been employed in the immediately preceding age to undermine law, order and religion, his exquisite humour was uniformly exerted on the side of justice, virtue, and rational freedom. Indeed, it would hardly have been possible to pervert or misapply so rare and distinctive a gift, being, as it notoriously was, the intense expression, the flower, the cream, the quintessence, of reason and good sense. We will not say that, like Goldsmith, he adorned everything he touched, but he compelled everything he touched to appear in its natural shape and genuine colours. In his hands the logical process called the reductio ad absurdum operated like the spear of Ithuriel. No form of sophistry or phase of bigotry could help throwing off its disguise at his approach; and the dogma which has been deemed questionable touching ridicule in general, may be confidently predicated of his, namely, that it was literally and emphatically the test of truth.

'Sydney Smith's Life: he who opens this book under the expectation of reading in it curious adventures, important transactions, or public events, had better close the volume, for none of these things will he find therein.'

So stands the first sentence of Lady Holland's preface, and such an announcement at starting must be admitted to be the reverse of a temptation or a lure.

'Nothing,' she proceeds, can be more thoroughly private and eventless than the narrative I am about to give; yet I feel myself, and I have reason to believe there are many who will feel with me, that this Life is not, therefore, uninteresting or unimportant; for, though circumstances over which my father had no control forbade his taking that active share in the affairs of his country, for which his talents and his character so eminently fitted him, yet neither circumstances nor power could suppress these talents, or subdue and enfeeble that character; and I believe I may assert, without danger of contradiction, that by them, and the use he has