The National Register. — London, England, 1808-07-31 00:00:00

JULY 31. the sophistry mat artifices of the common enemy can not dis i ;oise them. They are like the sun, which a transient cloud may obscure, but which bursts through the thin vapour with brighter splendour. But where arc these facts ? they are to be seen in the very Bul letins of the French army, in the o' fficial and semi-dicial papers of the Tyrant. Oa witnessing the rhodomantades, and contradictioas of Sir John Falstaff, have we any doubt that the blustering bully is a most shameless egregious liar. Is it necessary to have been before acquainted with the circumstance of Harry taking away front him his ill-ac quired boo v, to be convinced that the Knight is telling a most flagrant untruth. His very tone, his manner, con vey conviction. Read the diary of Madrid—read the letter from the Elbe—and read all their other diaries and bite.% and remark their contradictions and blusternors, and every man of common experience and judgment itll pronounce i sosispAaTE as notorious and infamous a liar. Oh ! wnat pleasure must it afford to every man of integrity and ieelia - 4, whether Briton, Spaniard, or German, to see that iusoient, imperious upstart reduced to that last state of degradation and infamy, to lose his prey, and afterwards to neap one falsehood upon another, in order to cover his ignominy. " trick, what device, what starting hole " cans! thou now find out, to hide thee from this open and " apparent shame ?" Such is then the issue of all his crimes and atrocities. With the superior abilities he possess ed, with the influence he could easily have acquired over the public opinion of Europe, he might have done more good to mankind than any man we have ever read of in history. But now the career is closed ; and though he may at the extremity of it, shed torrents of blood, and inundate Spain with slau r ,whter and devastation, he is however reduced to the diabolical predicament, that the gate of reformation and mercy is shut to him for ever. The army he can employ against Spain, as we have repeatedly observed, is entirely incompetent for that purpose. We have also ob served, that he would be compelled to divide his army for want of provisions : these divisions will not receive a mo ment's respite from the Patriotic Generals. His foraging parties will be harrassed by the armed peasants. If he draws supplies from France, he must have armies to protect them; or they fall into the hands of the Patriots. This scarcity of provisions will compel him to divide his army into still smaller divisions, and it will crumble to pieces without even the honour of a general engagement. He may raise the conscripts of the years 1809 and 1810, they will never he able to supply . the loss of his veteran aro)), and they are inferior, even in point of discipline, to the Spanisa Patriots. If he has not been able as yet even to resist successfully the isolated efforts of the Spaniards, what means will he be able to oppose to the Spanish insurrec tion, when it is better organized, and aided by our nume rous expeditions. On account of our superiority at sea, and the good wishes of the natives, we shall not meet with the same difficulty of subsisting our army. This wit' enable them to act occasionally M a body, when their num ber, bravery, and discipline, will overwhelm any corps the french NV be able to oppose to them. However the highest policy would suggest the expediency of compelling him to employ a considerable part of his army and recruits along the 1: reach coasts: we should have, as was already observed in this Paper, flying squadrons from Calais to Bayonne, with about ten thousand of our best soldiers on boar's', and make partial descents on every part of the French coast : these squadrons may unite or act separately. as the service may require. It is said that Lord Nelson highly approved of this mode of annoying the French. We know it from experience, that the French, during the Prussian and ustrian war, did not retain a single soldier in France, ex cept such as were necessary for drilling the conscripts. anti for defending Brest and Boulogne" and even a part of this service was confided to the new raised national guards. lle cannot rely even on this resource at present. There were never twenty thousand organized at any period. The Yiench papers, it is true, asserted the contrary ; but that THE NATIONAL REGISTER. was an absolute ruse de guerre. He is too much afraid of entrusting. arms to the people at the present crisis, when their detestation and the ruinous war be carries on in Spain, may induce the inhabitants to turn these arms against himself. The commanders of our squa drons should also receive orders to circulate all along the coast from the Elbe to Trieste, papers in in the French, German, Italian, and Dutch languages, containing the Spanish Proclamations, and a faithful nar rative of the events in that peninsula. This could be very easily effected; and did they produce no other effect than to keep alive his jealousy and apprehension, as he knows, and as every tyrant believes, that the people have a ri,ght to abhor him, he will be compelled to keep a cousiderable force in the interior and along, the coast. No means of annoyance should be neglect:xi—one blow should succeed another. The present crisis is decisive of his fate and that of Europe. This favourable moment may never more re lora ; and if we neglect, we deserve to lose the advantages it otters. Every means of attack we can employ against him are lawful. lie is a bandit, an outlaw, who has trampled on laws, institutions, and customs. The war is between him and civilized society; and it would be inhu manity towards the millions who inhabit Europe, to re commend that our attack against that lawless villain should be conducted on the principles of the laws of nations. In particular, we should turn our attention to Brabant and Holland. We have - traversed the two countries in every direction, in the beginniug of the Austrian and Prussian wars; and their abhorrence of BoNarAwrc at that time was so great, that had the late or preceding Ministry effected a landing of thirty thousand men, they would have • been joined by the greater part of the male population of the two countries. We recur again to the necessity of suggesting, as we did in our last number, the expediency of collecting our whole disposeable force remaining in Great Britain, opposite the coast of Flanders. Austria is at the same time on the alert. We received subsequent information to the letter we exclusively communicated on Sunday last, from our correspondent in Haniburgh, which puts it beyond every doubt, that if Austria hos not already declared war against France, a war is unavoidable. It is true our subsequent information shews that our corres pondent was premature in his account of the departure of Arsearossv, but it confirms the other circumstances men tioned in that letter. We have also received, through the same channel, the positive account, that the troops station ed in Callicia and Hung ary were to form two camps, one, near Schoenbrun, and the other at Egra, to which the regiments in Bohemia were likewise to be joined. The last French accounts set the authenticity of this id formation beyond a doubt. Their forming a camp near Berlin, and collecting so large a force in Silesia, prove it irrefragably. That our Government has foreseen this event, may be concluded from the commission of Mr. who, we entertain no doubt, goes to Vienna, and not to Constantinople, as is generally stated. The accounts from the North of Germany confirm this opinion, as it was confidently reported there, that he had already arrived at Trieste. Denmark begins at last to feel the disastrrous effects of her alliance with the common tyrant. The marks of her sovereignty have been torn down in every part of Holstein, and those of her perfidious ally substituted in their place. We congratulate the Danes on account of this signal per fidy. If Hid.flagrant experience of the . past could not instruct them, it is to be supposed that this insult will rouse them to a sense of their danger. Very little entreaty, very little diplomatic skill will be now necessary to make them recoil with horror from the gulph in which they were going to ; and we expect that our Ministers will neglect nothin: , in order to save that deluded goverpluent and people. 10 important news have been receiv Sweden m the course of the week, which renifer it, " 11 7.,,,,' than probable that Finland will soon cease to be tbekliea of the horrors of war between that county n14:44108114 • I i