The National Register. — London, England, 1813-01-03 00:00:00

i 4 i "4 THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 4 , vary to shed the blood of men who are always brave, since your armies arc marching on all sides." " I again repeat to you," replied the PR !NM " you of course will ad Ipt such measures as you can, in order to get oft—and we, to pre vent you For the rest, the time will come perhaps, when we ma y arrange in fitters for your departure, should that be the only subject of diacussion." l/ R 9 rON still tittered complaints with re gard to the bitterness and, fury which had been excited in the people, in h orde conflagration r to banish all hope of accomintidatin, by attributing the Frenc the and rum of Moscow, while the inhabitants themselves we..e .the authors of that calamity. The PRINCE replied, that it was the first time he had e v er he ard ti of complaints being made artiost the enthusiasm, and to their country, of a whole people who defended thur homes against on enemy by Ivhom they were attacked, and who, by so doing, had excited that animosity and fury now complained of, but which. on the contrary, could not be too highly appreciated and extolled. " With regard to the burning of Moscow," said the Prince, " I am too gild--I have had too much experience in war, and to possesse ily and tod o much of the confidence of the Russian people, not be da hoorly intermcd of what was passing in Mrocow. the ar rivall ysel of the f or dered tl:e destruction of some magazines from French at Moscow, the Russians deatroyed nothing hut the stores of the cartwrights, I .V hen you adopted the resolution of seizing them, by distributing the carriages at your pleasure : the inhabit a nts caused v;:ry few conllagrarions. You proceeded systematically m in the de struction of that capital, fining file particular days, and arking out the goartcrs which were to be bet on fire at fixed periods. I have iutd in exact io:contit of the whole ; it lras been followed with pre cision ; aid one proof that it was not the inhabitants who route.: Moscow is. that you &stayed with cannon-shot the houses, and other ectfice, built with too much s,dolity, hulling balls against them amid,t the. flames. Undoubtedly eve shall endeavour to revenge our selves. Our confererence is closed." Certainly LeUR:c to N had no re%:SOll to be satisfied with its issue. - r he French hail ht.:en long accuslcmed to arrange matter; m of this t.ort in a tetc-a-tete, or by an aancab;e i n terview ; but he mole than thirty p=eso t; w.:re .v..tnesset, oh the one hand, of the dignity of. the Rto:slan Marshal, and on the other, of the crioging meanness of a k fcltow, commissioned by a Brigand. Sr r.Trn of th Concersatirn ? , :tirrin Murat awl General Miloradiniitch, which tool: pla..e nt t advance , ' posts if the Russian and French Arrniz.s, apt th , ! 11th t!i - October, 181'2. After the usual compliments, ?1 - tit A T.—A re you informed, General, of the excesses committed by your Cossacks They tire upon the foragers who I t hem send out in r hilerent thioetions--even your p easa,its, supported by , mas s,2cre our insulated hussars. :ttTt oaanov la cu.—l am delighted that the Cossacks strictly obey the orders given them. I: is also most satisfactory for me to learn, from your Majesty's mouth, that our peasants slim themselves worthy of the name of RuiSianS. M oRAT.—It is CJiltrii:y to all the hitherto received rules of war : and !loin this harsh state of things. I shall be compelled to send out columns to the r;glit and left, to protect the foragers. MiLt - taan.—So nacch tlie better, Sire: my Officers complain of baring been three weeks in inaction. They burn with impatience to take cannon, colours— MeRA T—But why seek to embitter two nations, formed to esteem each other in so many respects' AI troika O.—M y Officers and myself arc ready to give y u o all possi ble marks of our esteem; but, Sire, your forage rs are always taken, and the columns which you may scud to the right and lett, to protect the:n, shAll be beaten. NI cR ar.—You are passionate in words, General, but words do not beat an memy. Cast your eye on the map ; you w i ll there se e t he country we have conquered, and how far we have penetrated. rhlttostAD.—Charles XII. penetrated still farther; lee reached Pultowa. AI eft AT.—The French army has been constantly victorious. Al tuna AD —l3l.lit we have never fought except at Borudinow. Al ( 7 R ha- —That victory opened to us the gates of Moscow. ill I 1.01 AD.-1 beg your pardon, Sire, Moscow was itbandoned to you. MuRAT.—At any rate, we are masters of your ancient and immense capital. Al LoR AD. —Yes, Sire, and it is an afflicting thought to every Rus sian, to myself in particular; I did every thing for the salvation of Jvloscow. Rus , ia has made to you an inhanense sacrifice; but she al reidy begins to reap the advantages attached to it. uR AT. —How ? NIILoR perceive that N/ipoleon has sent Lauriston to our General in Chief, to treat of peace. I know twhith at what so,diers are re duced to satisfy themselves for sixty hours , is scarcely suf ticirot to support a man s,r twenty-four. hl cif A r. —The passports that we asked were a farce. MI Col< . (COn nutlig)—l see that the King of Naples has come to Gr.,. NlitoradJvitch to he quarter) tor hisioragetst alul ta set on foot a sort of negociation to calm tlas soldiets. JAN. 3. •MURAT (oiqued)—My visit was purely accidental; and I meant only to inform you of the abuses committed by your troops. Want of discipline is a great misfortune to an army ; it has often been its ruin. - NI ti.oitAn.—But in that cue you ought rather to enccurage it. —Precious want of discipline, which makes us shoot the French foragers ? NI u R AT.—You greatly deceive yourself with regard to our position. Moscow is abundantly supplied with every thing : we cxvect immense reinforcements, which are already on the road. Mr LOR AD. (laughiny).—Do you, then, think us far.lier removed from our reinforcements than p.m are front yours ? MunaT.—l have a!so to cciapFin Oki a very e-sential point : 1 ap peal, General, to y Our justice, and year sense of eqtrty —you have tired twice on our flags of truce. lUzt.oß A D.—Sim, we want not to hear of parleys : We want to fi e ht, and nut to neeotiate. Take your measures accoruingly. . Illunar.-lAliat ! a! that late I ant not safe even here. 1111LortAD.—Y,u would run a great risk, Sire, 1 1 coming a second time; but to-day I >itali have the honour of accompanying you myself as far as your vita ties. The G : neral 11 , re c.. ll ed f, : r his horse ; and Murat. struck with what pinged, observed, that he had never heard of st.vh a made of snaking war. The Geoer:A replied, he must have h eard of it in Spain ; and Ithis unexpected re ,, Art induced Murat to chant; , die conveisation, and Ipolitely ask the General, where he had fast se: yeti in '.i . A capacity. Mi LORA D.--!-.urcly France must still recollrct the camp Up' of Su. %yarrow, in Italy. 1 had the honour there often to connuand the ad,- Ilvall‘7l;dri-tgtturdurtil otfl'ietii(ltieteteurea'laitilsist;tittn°;eparated, after shortly conversing about the death of Prince Bagrathion. . ----- TUESDAY'S LONDON GAZETTE. ADMIRALTY-OFFICE, DEC. 29, Copy of a Letter from Captain join Surman Carden, ::ite Commander of Ifis Majesty's ship the Macedonian, to John Wilson Croker, Efq. dated on board the American ship United States, at Sea, the Ott Oct. 18t2. Sir,—lt is with the deepest regret I have to acquaint you, for the infotnation of my Lords Commissioners of the Admi ralty, that his Majesty's late ship Macedonian was captured on the 25th inst. by the United States' ship United Sates, Commodore Decatur, Commander ; the detail is as follows A short time after daylight, steering N. W. by W. with the wind from the southward, in latitude 29 (leg. N. and longitude 29 deg. 30 min. W. in the execution of their Lordships' or ders, a sail was seen on the lee beam, which I immediately stood for, and made her out to he a large frigate under Ame rican colours : at nine o'clock I closed with her, and she cool .menced the action, which we returned ; but from the enemy keeping two points off the wind, 1 was not enabled to get as close to her as I could have wished. After an hour's action, the enemy backed and came to the wind, and I was then ena bled to ht ing her to close battle; in this situation I soon . found the enemy's force too superior to expect success, ualess some very for..unate chance occurred in our favour; and with this hope I continued the battle to two hours and ten minutes, when, havingthe mizen-mast shot away by the board, top-blast shot away by the caps, main-yard shot in pieces, lower masts badly Wounded, lower rigging all cut to pieces, a small pro portion only of the foresail left to the fore yard, all the guns on thesivarter-deck and forecastle disbled but two, and filled with wreck, two also on the main-deck disabled, and several shot between wind and water, a very great proportion of the crew killed and wounded, and the enemy comparatively in g ood order, who had now shot a-head, and was about to place himself in a raking position, without being enabled to retina the fire, being a perfect wreck, and unmanageable log; I deemed it prudent, though a painful extremity, to surrender his Majesty's ship ; nor was this dreadful alternative re sorted to till every hope of success was removed even be yond the reach of chance, nor till, I trust, their Lortishipt will he aware, every effort had been made against the eneury by ulyseg , my Wave officers and men; nor should she have • i • .+ „ . - %% (4' $ • ' \) 1 , . 4, " 21 ) 1 r 1 2. 4 4 , , • .:)i I, K. ... „ I I; # i I I I