The National Register. — London, England, 1814-01-30 00:00:00

3AN. O. THE NATIO o f their common oppressor. But what establishes the fact of the fabrication of this story by Napoleon, is the letter which the pretended Duke del S'an Carlos, is said to have obtained from Ferdinand VII. in which this Prince is made to declare, " That 1w considers the transaction at Bayonne as the only one which could .secure his family against the convulsions which threatened the ruin of Spain ; that he enjoyed perfect liberty at Valency, and the gtatitication of ail his tastes and wishes was carefully attended to byNapo• lean." These tales are propagated in order to create dis union between us and the. Spaniards, and to contaminate the Spanish prisoners in France, whose number is become a source of alarm.to the tottering Usurper in his present des perate situation. The account of an officer having been sent by the Crown Prince to Suchct, and perhaps to 30u1t," on an important mission, though given yesterday in the most serious manner by an eveniog print, is -trot entitled to more credit. Lord Wellington had first been mentioned as the Commander to whom the negotiator was addressed. This was deemed ab surd, and the author of the report unwilling to see his bant hng stilled by public unbelief, endeavoured to revive its credi:, I4y changing the destination and object of this mis sinn. The officer was immediately snatched away from St. Jean de Luz, and transported to the head quarters of Suctiet in Catalonia, from whence a " perhaps" carried him back to Bayonne. Such unskilful fabricati.ms, like the eard-house erected by children, fall at a single touch. FRENCH PAPERS. These Papers, which come down to the 94th inst. are of great importance, as they give us a pretty correct idea of Buonapartte's situation. It is evident to every man, who has attentively followed the course of the revolution, from its origin to the present moment, that the Fiench character has lost its energy, and that the advance of the Allied Armies in the heart of France has not produced the same effect as the invasion of the Duke of Brunswick in 1792. We see con siderab!e towns, such as Dole, Macon, &c. opening their gates to small detachments of 900, and even of 50 men ; and in order to conceal the true reason of the facility with which these places have been occupied, Napoleon lays the blame on their Mayors, who failed to break down the bridgcs. Unable to disguise the fact of General Guilay's arrrival at Langres, he says,—that in consequence of gene ',awl arrangements, Marshal Viortier has quitted that town to take post at Chaumont r—Compelled to acknowledge that the Allies are within thtee leagues of Lyons, he adds, with a striking felicity of invention, that the inhabitants of that city have dicplayed muci ardour and patriotism. Nevertheless, he owns that they have sent goods to the value of a hundred millions of franks 40 the mountainf ; and as this might too elearly show that Lyons is totally unprovided with any means of defence, he hastens to assure his people, that Marshal An gereau approaches to its succour with troops of t/eeline : but he .forgets to state, that this Commander is obliged, for this purpo , e, to abandon Dauphine, whet e, according to the I\lniteur's own account, the inhabitants have not displayed much ardour, as it merely says, " the Departments of the Drone, which had not at first shown much zeal, begins to jeititselfin motion." _ W hen Napoleon flattered himself with the idea that the sin gle word " invasion," would cause the French to rise en7nasse, he allowed that the army of .Prince Schwartze.nberg• might amount to 160,000 men. .though it really consisted of '')0,000. But since he has perceived no signs of popular enthusiasm he has !educed that army to 100,000. To gain credit for this new statement, he continually repeats, that AL REGISTER. I I .1 the plan of the enemy is to send forward weak detachments, which represent themselves as the advanced posts of a who!e division. Yet he cannot deny but these " weak detach mews," have taken possession of such places as Dole, Ma con, Bourg, Sec. Whilst General Blucher's army rapidly advances towards Metz, and compels Marshal Marmort to fall back, Napoleon c , otents himself with hinting, en passant, that the Silesian troo:•)s are before Metz, Thionville, Mentz, and other fat tresses, and yet he only calculates their number at 50,000 It ma? justly be concluded froth this statemeet, that he finds it eel y difficult to collect any force in that quarter. It is universally known that the provinces of, Brittany, Poison, and ;'ormatidy, have 'wen the theatre of the war which the Royalists have waged against the Revolution. It is also nearly ascertained that the last levies have not been comr,leted in tle•se parts, \viler:: the people has probably ere now been informed of the approach of the Bow bon Princes. It was important for Napoleon to conceal from the southern departments, that the provinces- which had so gloriously re sisted the pmgress of the revolution, had displayed no zeal, its the (same of the Emperor to which it has given birth. To reconcile the fact with this object, Buonaparte has therefore artfully caused to be published, that Brittany, Poitou, and Normandy, wets, sending large levies which wo , stifirni part of the reserve. What shall we say of that article relative to Geneva, where he pretends that justice is still administered in his name, though the town is occupied by the Austrians. . Our papers have announced the departure of Lord Cai tlereagh for the head-quarters of the Allies, and in their anxiousness to explain the motives of this mission, have stated that he repaired to the Congress as our Plenipoten tiary. Lord Castlereagh set oil' with a different character from that with which our writers had chosen to invest him; but Napoleon has taken advantage of their imprudence : he has declared that Caulincourt (his Minister for Foreign Af fairs and Plenipotentiary,) was at Chatillon-sur-Seine, ex pecting his passports, which were to be sent to him on the 19th inst. to repair to the .head-quarters of the Allies, which, on the 14th, were at Basle. Yet it appears that he bad.been disappointed in his expectatiow, as on the 23d it was not known at Paris whether his passports had arrived. As to the events which the French Papers wish to make es believe have taken place on the . frontiers of Spain, they are almost too insignificant to deserve. notice, and we are too well informed on the subject in this country, not to ,I know how to appreciate the falsehood of those statements. The extent of the Revolution in Holland can no longer Ij be concealed, Napoleon therefore acknowledges that the ac 'l my NV hich was to defend that portion of his empi're,. has beetr compelled to fall back to Namur, under the orders of Mar. shal Macdonald. After claiming a victory near Breda, a poor matter of boast to be obliged to own that its only. consequence was the bombardment of Antwerp ! Some very important advices from France have been re ceived, of the nature of which, however, prudential motives forbid any the slightest disclosure at present. Suffice it therefore to say, that events deeply interesting not only to France, but to Europe, a-e, to all appearance, on the eve of taking place.— ( Morning Post.) A singular report is in circulation, that Lord Wellington is. in correspondence with both Soult and Suchet.—We know nothing of the fact.—(Sun.) It was reported on 'Change yesterday morning that there was an arrival from Harwich of some French Officers who wore the White Cockade. This rumour, though extremely probab'e, we have not been able to trace to any autheu' Kiurcm—,,Sun,) Y .--.7 itic