The National Register. — London, England, 1812-07-19 00:00:00

: • THE NATIONAL REGISTER. conduct, until the Eagles of France shall have repassed the Rhine, leaving, by such a movement, our allies at her mercy. Russia is dragged along by a fatality ! Her destinies niust be accomplished. Should she then consider us degenerated ? Are we no longer to be l o oked upon as the soldiers of Austerlitz ? She offers us the alternative of dishonour or war. The choice cannot admit of hesitation—Let us march forward ! Let us pass the Niemen ! Let us carrry the war into her territory. Tie second war of Poland will be as glorious to the French arms as the first ; but the peace which we shall conclude will be its own guarantee, and will put an end to that proud and haughty influence which Russia has for fifty years exercised in the affairs of Europe. At our Head-quarters, nt Wilkowiski, June 2?, 1R12." THIRD BULLETIN OF THE GRAND ARMY. Kowno, June 1812. _ _ On the 23d of June, the King of Naples, who commands the cavalry, Iransterred his head-quarters to within two leagues of the Niemen, upon its left bank. l his Prince has under his immediate orders the corps 4 cavalry, commanded by Generals Count Nansouty and M..iltbrun : the one composed of the divisions under the command of Generals Count l3ru}•eres, St. Germain, and Valence ; the other consisting of the divi sion. under the orders of General Baron Fattier, and Generals Count Sehastiani and Defrance. Ithirslial Prince d'Eckmuld, commanding the tirra corps, nwved his head-quarters to the skirts of the great forest of Pilwisky. The second corps, and the Imperial Guards, followed the lit eof march of the first corps. The third corps took the direction of Marieopol ; the Viceroy, with tie fourth and sixth corps, which re m:lined in the rear, marched upon Kalwarrv. The King of Westphalia proceeded to Novogrod with the filth, seventh, and eighth corps. The first Austrian corps, c•on u nandetl by the Prince Schwart2enberg, quitted Lemberg on the —; made a movement on its left, and drew nearer to !Arlin. The Pontoon train, under the (tide's of General Eble, :an% ed on the 23d within two leagues of the Niemen. On the 2;3d, at two in the morning. the Emperor arrived at the ad vanced posts near Kowno, took a Palish cloak and cap from one of the light cavalry, and inspected the banks of the Niemen, accompanied by (;cneral Haxo, of the engineers, alone. At eight in the evening, the army was again in motion. At ten, Count Morand. General of nivi• sion, pushed over three companies of voltigeurs, and at the same time three bridges were thrown across the Niemen. At eleven, three co lumns debouched over the three bridges. At a quarter past one, day began to appear. At noon. General Baron Pajel drove before him a cloud of cossacks, and took possession of Kowno, with a single bat talion. Ou the 24th, the Emperor proceeded to Kowno. Marshal the Prince of Echmuhl pushed forward his head-quarters to Rounichicklii, and the King of Naples to Eketanoul. During the whole of the 24th and of the 25th, the army was defiling by the three bridges. In the even tat of the 21th, the Emperor caused a new bridge to be thrown over the Villa, opposite Kowno, and directed Marshal the Duke of Reggio to pa , s it with the second corps. The Polish light horse of the guards crossed the river by swimming ; two men were drowning, when they were picked up by two swimmers of the 26th light iolantry. Colonel Gusheneuc having imprudently exposed himself to afford them assist ance, had nearly fallen a sacrifice himself—a - swimmer of his regiment saved him. On the Vsth, the Duke of Elchingen pushed on to Kormelon ; the Bing of Naples advanced to Rzmoroni. The ellellly'S light troops were driven in and pursued on every side. On the 2Gth, Marshal the Duke of Elchinuen arrived at Skoroule. The light divisions of cavalry covered the whole plain to within ten leagues of Wilna. Marshal the Duke of Tarentum, who commands the Pull corps composed in part of the Prussians, passed the Niemen on the 14th, at Tilsit, and moved upon Rossiena,in order to clear the right bank of that river, and to pro tect the navigation. Marshal the Duke of Belluno, commanding the 9 th corpq, and having under his ordcis the divisions of lieudelet, La grange, Durutte, and Partonneaux, occupies the country between the Elbe and the Oder. The General of Division Count Rapp, Governor of Dant zic, has under his orders the Di. ision of l)aendels. The General of Division Count Iligendorf is Governor of Konina-berg. The Eiliperoz of Russia is at %Vilna with his guard, and one part of him ;Italy occupies Runikontoni and Neretrouki. The Russian General Bagawort, commanding the see, lid corps, and a part of the Russian army, having been cut off from Wilua, had no oilier means of safety than by proceedng towards the Dwina. The Nienien is navigable fig vessels of two or three hundred tons ev, far as Kovno. The commoni c'di'ms by water are also secured a, far as Dantzie, and with the Vis t"td, the Oder, and the I Hie. An immense supply of brandy, flour, "d biiiseu:t, is passing (Mitt Dantzic and Konig-berv, towards Kowno. 14 Villa, which flows by W.lna, is navigable for veiv small boats from ".. 0 to %Vilna. Willi+, the capital of Litliu.ntia, it also tire chief 437 town of all Polish Russia. The Emperor of Russia has been for several months in this city with a part of his Client. The possession of this place %sill be the first fruit of victory. See eral Cossack Officers. and Officers charged with dispatches, have been captured by the light ca valry. l'U fiK EY. BuctrAutsr, BLitt 29.—The attend Vizier haying authorised The Ph nipotentiaries to sign the Treaty of Peace, it was concluded ye,ter day. Nothing respecting it has transpired, but it is certain that the Pruth will serve us a boundary of the two Etnpires. It remair sto be known if the Grand Seignii,v will ratify this Treaty, a copy of which has been forwarded him to Constantinople. The few troops that are in the principality diminish daily. Preparations are making at Bucha rest and Jassy, w hi c h nave reason for presuming that vary shortly these provinces will pass uNder the dominion of the Ottoman. STATE PAPERS. RUSSIA AND FRANCE. NOTE ADDRESSED BY THE FRENCH MINISTER OF FOREIGN RELATIONS TO COUNT ROMANZOW, CHANCELLOR OF RUSSIA. Paris, April 25, 1812. COUNT—His Majesty the Emperor r f Russia had acknowledged, at Tilsit, the principle, that the present generation should not have looked to the enjoyment of happiness, but on the ground that the nations in the full enjoyment of their sights, might give themselves up freely to the exercise of their industty : that the independence of their flag should be invi, table; that the independence of their flag was a right belonging to each of them, and its protection a reciprocal duty of the one towards the other : that they were not less bound to protect the inviolability of their flag, than that of their territory ; that if a Power cannot, without ceasing to be neuter, allosir its territory to be taken away by one of the Belligerent Powers, so neither can it remain neuter, in permitting to be taken away from under the protections of its nag, by one of the Belligerent Powers, the property which the other has placed there; that all Powers consequently have the right of exacting, that nations pretending to neutrality, should cause their flag to he respected, in the same manner as they enforce respect to their territory ; that so long as England, per:istng in its system of war, should disavow the independence of any flag upon the seas, no Power which is possessed of coast, can be neuter with respect to Eng land. With that penetration and elevation of sentiment by which lie is distinguished, the Emperor Alexander also perceived teat there could not be any prosperity for the Continental States, but in the establishment of their rights by a maritime peace. This great interest was predominant in the Treaty of Tilsit, and every thing else was the immediate result of it. The Emperor Alexander offered his mediation to the English Go vernment, and engaged, if this Government would not consent to conclude peace upon the principle of acknowledging that the flags of all Powers should enjoy an equal and perfect ini!ependence upon the seas, to make common cause with France, to summon, in concert with her, the three Courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Lisbon, to close their ports against the English, to declare war age'. st England, and to insist upon the adoption ct the same measure by tha various Powers. The Emperor Napoleon accepted of the mediation of Russia, but the answer of England was a violation of the rights of nations, till then unexampled in history. She, in tbe midst of peace, and without any preliminary declaration of war, atta,ked Denmark, surprised her capital, burned her arsenals, and took possession of her fleet, which was dismantled and lying secure in her ports. Rtissi in conformity with the stipulations and principles ot the Tie ity of T ilsit, declared war against England ; proclaimed anew the principles of the armed neutrality; and engaged never to swerve trem this system. Here the British Cabinet threw al' the mask, by issuing, M the month of November, 1807, those Or 'ers in Council, by virtue f which England levied a toll of from tour to five millions upon the :eminent ; and she compelled the flag of every Power to submit to the regulations which were the result of her principles of legislation on the one side, she made war upon at Europe • and, Cu the other, sl•e secured to herself the means of perpetuating the duration ct thst war, by found ing het financial system upon the tributes which she arrogated to her self—a right of imposing upon all people. Already in 1806, and while France was at wsk with Prussia and Russi I, she had proclaimed a blockade which had laced under an interdict the entire coast of an empire. When his Majesty entered Berlin, he answered this monstrous presumption by a decree of blockade against the British Isles. But to meet the Orders in Coun cil of 1507, more direct and specific measures were ne:essary, and his Majesty, by the Decree of Milan, of the l'ith of December of the same year, declared all those flags denationalized, which should permit their neutrality to be violated, by submitting to those OrOers. The attempt on Copenhagen had been sudden and public. El, K land had prepared in Spain new attempts, hatched with reflection 414 in the dark. Not having been able to shake the determination et Char e• IV. she formed a pa:ty against that Prince, who would not sacrifice to hot JULY 19. -„ _ . _ a"".~ ~. __~ I