The National Register. — London, England, 1809-03-19 00:00:00

.1 THE N 10NAL REt IsTE It. themselves in other homes. Thus we proceeded to the Cosso (a peat street in Saragmsa) where we made our selves masters of the buildings of the Public Schools and Univerety. The enemy endeavoured to oppose miners to riiners; hilt less used to this sort of operation, their millers svere every day discovered and suilbeated. This mode of besiegin retnLred its progress slow, but sure, and less destructive to the army. While three companies of miners and et ;'.ht companies of sappers carried on this suliterrane ous war, the consequences of which were so dreadful, the fire en the town was kept up by mortars. Ten days after the ati.ack bad begun, the surrender of the town was anti cipated. The army had possessed itself of one third of the houses, and fortified itself in them. The Church which contained the image of Our Lady of Pilar, which by so many miracles had promised to defend the town, was bat tered down by bombs, and no longer habitable. The Duke of Montebello deemed it necessary to take possession of the loft hank of the river, in order that his tire might reach ti:c middle of the town. Th e G enera l o f Division, Gaza'', made himself master of the bridge by a sudden and itnpe tuous attack, *n the morning of the 17th February. A battery of fifty pieces was played oft' at three o'clock in the afternoon. A. battalion of the 91h regiment attacked and took possession of a very large monastery, the walls of which were of brick, and from three to four feet thick. General Gazon then repaired with rapidity to the bridge, over which the insurgents made their retreat to the town ; he killed a vast number, made 4000 prisoners, amongst whom were two Generals, twelve Colonels, nineteen Colonels, and 230 Officers. He took thirty pieces of' artil lery. Nearly alt the troops of the line in the town had be set this important part, which had been threatened since the 10:h. At the smite moment the Duke of Abrantes en tered thc Cos - so throu:rb several covered ways, and by means of No small mines, blew up the buildings of the Schools. ACer these esents, terror was spread throughout the t4yru. The Junta, in order to procure delay, and obtain time to abate the terror of the inhabitants, sought a por ky ; but their had faith was known, and thi4 artifice was tiselets. Thirty other houses were possessed by undermin ing, or by mines. At length, on the 21st of February, the whole town was possessed by our troops ; 15,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry laid down their arms at the gate of Tor tilla, and 40 flags and 150 pieces of cannon were delivered up. The insurgents lost 20,000 men during the siege ; 13,000 were found in the hospitals; 500 died daily. The Duke of Montebello would allow no capitulation to the 10 - ,var of Saragossa. He only published the following pro vision, : I Z , Tlie warrison shall at noon, on the 21st, lay d own th e i r L • arms at the gate of Portilla, where they shall remain pri soners of war. Those of the troops of the line who arc willing to take the oath to King Joseph, may he allowed to enter into his service. In cage this entrance shall not be permitted the Minister of War to the King of Spain, they shall prisoners of war and sent to France. Th e worship a G.t shall be reverenced. All the artillery and ammunition of every kind shall be delivered lip. All the arms shall be &posited at the doors of the dillerent houses, aild collected by the respective Alcades]. The mg . ezines of corn, rice, and fruit, which have been found in town, are very considerable. The Duke of liontcheila has nominated General Laval Governor of 4a raqos4n. A Deput.qion of the Priesthood, and different inhal)ifants, bus set out for :tiadrid. Palafox is danger -4/11.4iv ill. lk wai the object of the contempt of the whole hostile, army, who accused him or arrogance and meanness. lie 'as never seen where there was any danger. The Count de Fneules, Grandee of Spain, who had been arrest ed by the ii.surgunts t 0 months ago on his estateF, was t'oontl in a e‘ , :n t reon of eight feet square, and rel ease d : no idea can lo formed of the miseries ha has imdcrione. MARCH 19. IMPERIAL. PARLIAMENT. POUSF. OF LORDS. Varch 13. The !loyal Asseot was given by ComtniFsion to Fig - Meer, Public and Private Bilis. Aran, the former were the Briti-h :Uhl Irish Militia Transfer Bill! ; the Iri,h Distilleries; the Spirit Import and Export Regulation Lill; the Flax Seed Bounty Pill; and to Campbell':, Bassett's, and Cregson's Di vorce Bilk. do busiiies9 of irrportaw.e durinz the remainder of The week. HOUSE OF OMMONS. Monda.:,, March 13. CITATIGnS kGIINST Tur ovicc or YORK. The SecauTa toe at W.t a should lend his attention more particularly to Airs. Clarke ; and as to her testimony, he he. lieved the majority of the Pause would go with hiin in declar iug that no reliance whatever could be placed on it.—( Cr.:Ls of No! /10 ! no! and 11::ar! hear ! )--If the essential part of her evidence ought not to be credited, they ()tight cer tainly to throw it out of their corsideratioo. The only point in which they could lay blame to his Royal Highness, rya-, the supposition that she possessed a deerve of iniblenee, and that the Duke was in the practice of complying with her requests. In either of these cases, the House must he satisfied that she ought not to haye had that influence at all. ni first, as to the case of Brook and Knight, in which lie pointed out a ma terial contradiction between the evidence of Mr. Robert K night, and Mrs. Clarke, with respect to t he slip of paper. The next point was the consideration of French's Levy. .A;111 here he noticed a material difference in the evidence of Miss Taylor and Mrs. Clarke. He then referred to the ease of Major Tony n, end par ticularly that part which involved the authenticity of the note. —Every Gentleman, he observed, had given his opinion upon this question, but no one in reading it could inform himself of what it meant. To he sure, it chewed that some intercourse must have taken place between his Royal Highness and Mrs. Clarke, but there was not the least reason to suppose from the , contents of that note, that any corrupt practices were to he im puted to his Royal Highness the Duke of York. The next case was that of Colonel Shaw, but it would be recollected that this Gentleman owed his promotion to the good offices or Sir if. Burrard, who had known him and his father from a very early period. With respect to the case of Major Turner, he was sur prised and astonished when he bad heard it argued, that it ktee , not the bounden duty of the Commander in Chief to stop the resignation of that officer notil proper inquiry had been made as to the truth of the charges which were alleged against The Right Hon. Baronet then noticed the case of Hoyt ler, which, lie observed, depended entirely upon the I .esteno 13 S , of himself and Airb. Clarke. It is not likely that a person tt ho bad beer, proved to he in the habits of such close intimacy with Mrs. Clarke, should have advanced 10W. In every instance of corruption the House should be perfectly satisfied that a successful termination had been put to the alleged acts. Could the House come to any such conclusion front the evidence they had head! The Hottse was in possessioa or the evidence—they had, as it were, got behind the scene of corruption, and they had reason to believe that it was unknown to his Royal High ness the Commander in Chief—( !Lear ! hear ! hear !) Sir FR A NCI% Br ttnuTT said, a more difficult task than that which was now imposed on him, in the execution of a pain ful duty, he could not recollect. It was extraordinary to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Attorney Ge neral, and a whole Phalanx of Crown Lawyers, tv lin, in all criminal arraignments, usually stood forward in support of the public cause, in this, step out of thelteaten course, and become the advocates of the accused; and not merely adopt the part of defenders, but even, before the case comes under their fair consideration, making up their minds to a perfect conviction of the innocence of the party they were about to defend ( Order ! orrice! re-cchoeal front the Ministerialsidc of the llGu.se). The Rt. Hon. Gentleman, instead of , Ltionlii:;r. up with the itepartiality of a judge, (to the contrary bvcatne the A :Iv ()cote for the crimi nal, and in the absence of ealidinir kept catching at pitiful tritlet to support his case, and after all made a most injudicious defence. The Chancellor of the Lieberettr had said, that .111 the cvideucc 17,