recommendations are—first, the abolition of the licence-
fee and the substitution of an export duty of 2s. 6d. per
ounce; second, the enfranchisement of the diggers;
third, the introduction of a system of leasing auriferous
lands; fourth, the introduction of mining partnerships
on the English "cost-book" system; together with
other minor changes. The government have introduced
bills to carry out the recommendations. Chinese
immigration had become a grievance: it was proposed
to put some restriction on the incomings of the flowery
people, and the government had the subject under
consideration. The census of population on the 26th April
1854 set down the males at 155,886, the females at
80,912. It is estimated that up to the middle of April
1855 this number had increased by upwards of 53,000;
but the increase by births is only 2000 in the year.

NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS.

Our last month's narrative of the Siege of Sebastopol
closed with the first accounts of the unsuccessful attack
by the Allies on the Redan and the Malakoff tower,
on the 18th of June. A great quantity of interesting
details, both official and unofficial, have since been
received, which furnish materials for a connected account
of this very serious affair.

It appears that the principal attack fell to the lot of
the French, as opposite to their advanced trenches on
the extreme right lay the strongest positions of the
enemy—the Malakoff tower and the works on its proper
left. It was arranged also that the British should
attack the Redan at the moment which Lord Raglan
should deem most fitting. At first the generals,
suspecting, what proved to be the case, that the enemy
would repair in the night the damage done by the
crushing fire of the 17th, resolved that a two-hours
cannonade should precede the assault: late in the
evening, however, General Pélissier informed Lord
Raglan that he should not wait for the cannon to clear
the way, but assault at three o'clock in the morning.
Three French divisions, numbering about 25,000 men,
were to engage in the direct assault; one posted on the
extreme right, under General Mayran, was to carry the
extreme left of the Russians; the second in the centre,
under General Brunet, was directed to turn the Malakoff
on its proper left; while the third, under General
d'Autemarre, was to manoeuvre on its proper right, so
as to carry the work. The imperial guard formed the
reserve. Two batteries of artillery were ready in the
Mamelon to occupy the enemy's positions if they were
carried. The signal for the assault was to be three
rockets fired from the Lancaster battery by General
Pélissier. But an accident frustrated the whole plan.
General Pélissier's dispatch gives a narrative of the
combat.

"I was still more than 1000 metres from the spot
where I was to give the signal, when a brisk fusillade,
mingled with grape-shot, told me that the action had
been seriously commenced towards the right. In fact,
shortly before three o'clock, General Mayran thought
he saw my signal in a bomb with its flaming fuse that
had been fired off from the Brancion redoubt. He was
informed, but to no purpose, of his mistake. This
brave and unfortunate general gave the order to
commence the attack. The columns of Saurin and De
Failly dashed forwards at once. The first rush was
magnificent; but hardly had these heads of columns
advanced when they were assailed by a shower of balls
and grape. This overwhelming grape came not merely
from the works we wanted to carry, but from the
enemy's steamers also, which arrived with full steam on,
and manoeuvred with equal good fortune and skill. We,
however, must have inflicted some damage on them.
This prodigious fire arrested the effort of our troops.
It became impossible for our soldiers to march forwards,
but not one made a single step in retreat. It was then
that General Mayran, twice hit already, was struck
down by grape-shot, and compelled to give up the
command of his division. All this was the work of a
moment; and General Mayran had been already carried
off the field of battle, when I gave the signal from the
spot I bad reached of the Lancaster battery. The other
troops then engaged in order to support the premature
movement of the division on the right. This valiant
division, disunited for an instant by the loss of its
general, rallied promptly to the voice of General de
Failly. The troops engaged, supported by the second
battalion of the 95th regiment of the line, and one
battalion of the voltigueurs of the guard, under the orders
of the brave Colonel Boudville, kept firm near a ridge,
where the general placed them, and maintained their
ground with intrepidity. In the meantime, being
informed of this situation, which might become critical, I
gave orders to General Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angély
to send four battalions of the voltigueurs of the guard,
taken from the general reserve, to the succour of this
division. Generals Mellinet and Uhrich marched with
this fine troop, rallied what was scattered in the
Careening ravine, and came up with their solid support
to General de Failly, by occupying the bottom of the
ravine. General Mellinet repaired in person to General
de Failly's right with a battalion of grenadiers, which
had been attached the evening before to the guard at
the ravine, and was very useful to him by securing his
right. The central attack had no better success.
General Brunet had not yet been able to complete all
his arrangements, when the cluster of rockets that were
to serve as the signal burst in the air. For twenty or
five-and-twenty minutes all the right had already been
prematurely engaged. Nevertheless, his troops marched
with resolution; but their valour failed under the
steady fire of the Russians, and against unforeseen
obstacles. At the outset, General Brunet was mortally
wounded by a musket-ball in the centre of his chest.
The flag of the 91st was broken by a ball: but it is
needless to add that these glorious fragments were
brought back by this brave regiment. General Lafont
de Villiers took the command of the division, and
confided that of the troops engaged to Colonel Lorencez.
These kept steady while the rest of the division occupied
the trenches, to be prepared against the eventualities of
the combat. On the left, General D'Autemarre had
not been able to engage before Brunet's division: besides,
he could not account for the hurried fire of musketry he
heard in the direction of the Careening Bay. But at
the signal appointed for the assault, he let loose with
impetuosity the 5th Foot Chasseurs and the 1st battalion
of the 19th regiment of the line; who by keeping along
the crest of the Karabelnaia ravine, reached the intrenchment
that connects it with the Malakoff tower, scaled
this intrenchment, and thus entered the enceinte itself.
Already the sappers of the engineers were planting the
ladders for the remainder of the 19th and 26th regiments,
whose general, D'Autemarre, was hurrying on the
movement behind his valiant head of the column. One
instant we could believe in success. Our eagles had
been planted on the Russian works. Unfortunately,
this hope was speedily dissipated. Our allies had
encountered such obstacles in their attack of the great
Redan, and they had met such a fire of grape, that, in
spite of their well-known tenacity, they had been
already compelled to make a movement of retreat.
Such was the spirit of our troops, that despite this
circumstance, they would have pushed on and continued
to charge home the enemy; but the want of simultaneous
action in the attack of our divisions left the Russians
free to overwhelm us with the reserves and the artillery
of the great Redan; and the enemy lost not a moment
to direct against our brave foot chasseurs all the other
reserves of Karabelnaia. Before such imposing forces,
the Commandant Gamier, of the 5th battalion, already
wounded five times with gun-shot, endeavoured, but in
vain, to hold the ground that had been won. Obliged
to retire before numbers, he recrossed the intrenchment.
General Niol rallied his brigade, reinforced by the 39th
of the line: they wished to attempt a fresh offensive
movement, in order to insure the success of this new