The National Register. — London, England, 1811-04-14 00:00:00

. : THE NA ant (including•the-20th Portuguese, of 1000) of 8500 men in your pay, who were actually engaged." . Lartter—". Lieut.-General Graham, with the troops under his conunald, hau crossed St. Petrie river, 4114 re-entered the Isle of Leon." . • ./tforriterar.—" General Graham, you embarked at 'Cadiz on the -25th of February, and, on the 7.64.11, you disembarked at .Afgesiras, with your division, and the Spaniards. Tell us, then, why yr,u Undertook this military promenade, and incurred so ;urge an expense ? Voti intended to turn the lines of the Duke of ficiluno—have you claire it? Your design vas to raise the .siege of Cadiz—have you done it ? If you carried every thing before you, wiry did you stop half way ? It was not in the Isle of Leon, but at Chiclana, which is but a very short distance 'from it, that. the field of battle was, where you expected to take up your quarters on the night of the sth. You would have taken 100 pieces of cannon, 60 gun-boats, and immense magazines, baggage, hospitals, &c. ace. This was the object of your expe dition—have you attained it.? You were beaten--you lost half your troops—and you were very near being taken. Your nom ' btrs, and the steadiness of your troops, saved you from entire ruin. Was it, then, merely for the purpose of returning to Ca diz that you left it ten days before? Would it not have been „better that you had remained there ? You would have had un 'der your command 4000 more Lnglish or Spaniards. CON SI A NTlNoptr, Fea. 10.—Several Deputies have arrived within the last fortnight front Georgia, to implore, on behalf of their Prince, some assistance from the Porte against the Rus sitios. The Grand Seignior has just issued an order to the Ad miralty, to send several Corn n rissiuoers to the Morea, to inquire into the conduct of the English in that territory, and to ascertain .whether they continue to raise recruits there, contrary to the repeated injunctions of the Porte. The Order is dated the Stall ult. and directs the Admiralty to expedite the departure of the Commissionenb and to make their report with the least possible delay. The Admiralty has made a report to the Government, untavlourable to the dernaird of the English Ambassador, for restitution,of several vessels taken, whilst engaged in an illicit trade. to Malta and Sicily, with cargoes of Turkish coin. They arc of course declared good prizes. PORI UGAL. . The Portuguese Papers contain a dispatch from Lord Wel iington to Seig nor M. P. Forjas, dated the Hth of March, con taming precisely the same details us those in the Ga:xtie Extlytor ' dinary, to which, howester, are added, the following particu lars respecting 13a:ktfor; rind his own intentions, had his rein forcements from England arrived at the time lie expected them. I am much concerned, however, to have to inform your P.v.:eihncy that the town of Padajoz surrendered on the 11th itstaut to the events. Though I have not yet learned all the cit CUMAIIIICCS of.this event, I can have no doubt with respect to the fart. Fronitthe moment when the enemy entered Estrema - dura, and employed his forces against that place, my attention was c.illed and directed to the means of saving it. " Antecedent to the unfortunate battle of the 19th of Febru ary, i determined to reinforce the Spanish army, in order to ehlige the enemy to raise the siege of that place, and I should kave carried into effect this my determination, had I been joined by the teitiforeements which I expected to arrive in the Tagus about the end of the month of January. " The battle of the 19th Fe.bruary destroyed the Spanish troops on whose aid and co-operation I had di pended. It was, ,in consequence, imp-esible to detach a suffi c i e nt number o f • troops to 01(11 the object I had in view. 1 detertutued, how - ever, after the arrival of the reinforcements, though the enemy should not have retired from his po.sition on the Tagus, to attack him, should the state of the roads permit.—The reinforcements arrived in the Itegi:ining of March, but had lint then joined the army, and in the night of the sth the enemy retired from the position he occupied. Ott the Cth ipst. I desired General Leite l the Governor of Elvas, to communicate to the Governor of Badajoz, by means of signals, or in any. other manner which might best ';tat Massena had begun to retreat, and that he might be at.sured that 1 would succour hint as scroll as possible; in the meatt time I trusted that he would defend the place to the last tnitretnity. A • " I had in consequence made every arrangement to detan;t a body of troops %%lien the enemy should leave the Tagus and the • Zezere, and, accordingly, with this view, troops marched tram Thomar on the 9th, as they did also from other points; that part of the corps of Marshal Deresford which had taken post on the other side of the Tagus, and the vanguard of which had advanced to within three marches of the fortress of Flvas. " On the inol-ning 'of the 9th, I received at "l'homar intelligeneT - - , orable kind from Badajo7., by which I was in that the place was not in any actu a l made ()lithe enemy was much superior . vet from hint; ati4 that, with the tx- of the most favourable king clurrti tt only ' t th ' tire mao C r i th4Z,CeiVI 4 406 •.• • . 1 ; • 1144 'ION AL REG STEII. ception of the loss sustained in the deatk-of Gerteral-Metzacho, it had suffered very little ; that there was no want of provisions or ammunition, and that it was, in fact, in so good a condition, that it was probable it might hold out a month. " General Imaz, a person of equal reputation with the lase Governor, succeeded to the command, and the greatest confi dence was repos d in him ; but he surrendered to the enemy on the day following that on which he received my'assurancks of succour; at the same time that I urged him to defeud it to the last extremity. " It is useless to make any reflection on the facts here stated. The Spanish nation has lost, in the course of two months, the fortresses of Tortosa Olivenza, and Badajoz, without any suifi tient cause—and at Ale same time Marshall Soult, With a corps of troops, which never was supposed to exceed 20,000 men, be sides the capture of the two last places, had made prisoners anti destroyed above 22,000 Spanish troops." etcro, MARCH 26.—0 n the 20th instant, near Folhaccozs, we made 1000 prisoners ; a great deal of baggage fell into our hands. On the 21st, we also took a considerable number. The enemy has only 2500 cavalry left. It is said, that in the whole upwards of 6000 prisoners have been taken. A soldier of the 6th en-adores says they had a severe skirmish at the Puerte de Falhir, in which an English Major was killed. LISBON, MARcH 25.—Letters from Arganel, where the head-quarters of Lord Wellington then were, are the most satisfactory. On the 13th he made 100 prisoners in Pom• beiro, and on the 19th 1000, without losing a single man. He likewise took from - them n:ore than two thousand heads of cattle ; on the roads were found more than one thousat:d muskets, great spoils, and ornaments of churches, &c. The enemy has lost the greater part of his artillery of six and nitre pounders. They murder all the peasants they meet, and have burned the greater part of the houses, although we pursue them very closely. A pitched battle would not have caused tern such loss. From the Lisbon Gazette of the 27th of March :—On the 25th we received from •Elvas the following telegraphic dispatch t— " Elvas, half-past three in the afternoon. gg Campo Mayor is evacuated. Our - army entered it at no,:n. The enemy's cavalry made a shew of resistance, but retired to Badajoz." 4 LISBON MARCH 29.—We have no further information 70- specting die progress of our army, but we know that on the 25th instant, the head-quarters of Lord Wellington were in Celerice, and that his cavalry and light troops, who continued to mane nn prisoners, were still further advanced. LissoN, rvL sell 31.—Letters received last night from cur army, state, that the head-quarters were about four leagues cri this side Celerico. It would appear Massena had made a stand there. It i 3 also reported, that the enemy on the Alenn jo shit have 'nada a similar stand at Badajoz, with about 12,003 men. Our army in that quarter is 22,000 men. The cruelty, wanton havoc and destruction, committed by the army of Massena in its retreat, exceeds all former examples. They nut only burned and destroyed all houses and towns near their route, but also murdered the inhabitants with circumstances of such atrocious barbarity as would have disgraced Vandals: their avidity for plunder was such, that in one place the Royal Dragoons sex prised a party of them digging the dead out of their graves in a church in search of plunder. General Slade, who commands our cavalry, has greatly dis tinguished himself; he did not for three days during the pursuit quit his horse, and was almost always close upon the enemy.— The Royals and 16. h Light Dragoons have acquired great repu tation and honour by their gallant behaviour oo all occasions. The loss of the enemy must have been immense, as the roads were literally strewed with dead, and parties or from .e,O to lOCO each are daily brought in as prisoners. We still hope to hear of a much greater destruction of the enemy. General Castanos arrived in the Tagus on the 4tit inst. on hoard of an English frigate. He is appointed by the Regency, Commander of the Spanish army of Estremadura. Lord ‘Vtllington, we understand, has written to Ministers, that he shall send home his prisoners in the tianSf)Orts,. Which are now no hnger necessary, in order that Ministers may make such economical arrange ments as they may thiuk fit, there being no apprehensions of a second attack on Portugal fur some time. The Toss sirt.:ined by the army under Massena, from itS'en. trance int() Portugal, is supposed to have fallen little "shOrt of 40,000 1114.11. There will be four Admirals employed in the Baltic this sea son, namely, Vice-Admiral Saumarez, in the Victory; Rear- Admiral kul,ltolds, in the St. George; Rear-Admiral Manly Dixon, in the Vigo; and Rear-Admiral Durham, in the Han nibal. The fleet is expected to sdl in a very short time for that destination: s , • •