The National Register. — London, England, 1814-01-02 00:00:00

NATIONAL REWSTER: • . . • lir .` ~'. t ~ • ..., Our Mug, Conatitutiou, aim tabs. N 0.30. POLITICAL DISWISITION. RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. How rich a field will the year that- has just elapsed present to the researches of future historians ! How great the action, bow vast its theatre, huw varied the characters engaged in its devel..peinent ! Nations appear in it, like individuals, moving with a single will and the same spirit. All separate interest seems to be forgotten among them, and the general advantage to give the sole impulse and form the sole end of -their mighty and unrelaxed exertions. On the side of the opponent, we see a Commander bred to war and victory from his youth ; covered with the laurels of an hundred battles ; hitherto followed by his soldiers and encountered by his enemies u invincible and superior to all human changes. We see him making his first acquaintance with disaster, and preserving in the midst of uilamities the same unbenfling obstinacy and sava cnergy which marked his career at the hour of triumph, when his will bad become the law el the continent and nations trembled at his name. We view him PUBLISHED AT NO. 11 # NEWCASTLE-STREET, STRAND. SUNDA V, JANUARY 2,1814. Pfzrem invaded Russia. * The defection. of Prussia ha(i supplied him f,r a pretence to demand freiii conscriptions, and three hun dred victims to their Ruler's ambition. besides detachments from Spain, and the national guards, had been collected between the Mayne and the Rhine, and reinfOrced by the troops of the Confederation, had begun their march-far the Elbe. Napoleon was once more at their head, and the hostile armies, each under the eyes of their Sovereigiv, 'encountered in the plains of Lut4en, where the hopes or Europe were once more for a time confouncial, and vic tory hung an ensanguined wreath on her favourite's brow Austria beheld his proves% .with alarm, hut was not yet in a condition to oppose it. Unchecked in his advance, he re-en tcred Dresden, and regained at once the suspended co opera tion of the Saxons and the countenance of tl;eir monarch. Thus strengshened, his hopes of universal empire revive;', and the double t rattily!) which awaited him on the io'rencli«i heights of Bautzen and Wurtschen, seeme4 in his opinion to have' closed the war; for, trusting, that his opponents had been too much weakened to he able or willing to extrir: t themselves in any other manner than by negotiation and submission, lie granted them an armistice, which left him deed, in possession of one half of Silesia and all Lusatia, of liamburgh, and the whole course of the Elbe, and which re lieved the fortresses he still held on the Vistula and the 0d , ..r, from the immediate pressure of a siege and of want, but nl - deprived him of the fruits of his late triumphq, by giving a hi eathing time to his enemies, and enabling them to seek and to urocure new allies. The jea!ousy of Austtia had increased with the successes of France. Site did not wish the downfal of the latter but the reduction of her power, too formidable so be resisted by a sin gle continental power, but which the union of a few might repress, Had Napoleon pursued his victories, and, gt the time Le was able, entirely destroyed the P.ussio-Prussian Grand Army, which, after the battle of Wurtschen, did not amount to Ce,ooo men, Austria would have been too much overawed to continue bar hostile preparations, and the conti nent would have once more received the law from the con queror. But the armistice gave time to the allies to rreruit their farce. The Swedish army, whose co-opermixna hail been purchased by the cession of the island of d .....tia_a,ettpe on : our part, landed in Pomerania and advanced to Bet tits, w'• joined Gen. Ipucber's corr., and remained stationed , f the ezplt^!. The 4U5511111 reserves arrived ..y Itere it for the iD Elle- . • 4 the sport of vicissitudes, to whiril he was deemed inaccessi file, deriving consolation, if not pride, from the very nature of his reverses, as though more than man, had been required to contend with his ambition, and the might of Providence itself had been marshalled to wrench his prey from his grasp. his veterans have perished under the lash of winter and the spear of the Cossack, or are locked up in fyrtresces; yet he drags the population of half a world to battle, not to tight fur long lost liberty, but fur confirmed servitude. Sti!l dreaded, though its " dim eclipse," when compared with his former state, still surrounded with able officers, devoted vassals, an 4 brave though unexpeiienced soldiers, he more than divides t4e attention of mankind, at.d to dare to resist bim, is deemed courage approaching to audacity. Such were the chief features of the contest, when about t 3 .)g middle of April. 1813. the Allies, who had employed tit.° preceding months, in bringing up their reservei, raising - awl arming the Landstrum, crossed the Elbe, and endeL voured to meet the French Army half way to the Rhine. .44ut the enemy had be e n equally forward in his preparations. Compelled at the opening of the year to abandon the Niemen, he had 'since recrossed the Vistula, the Oiler, the Spree, and the .Elbr, and behind the latter, covered by Magde burg its front, and by the Seale on his right, bad re-organ ized tite wrecks , tif the powerful armies with wh Vol. CC'a.rlir. %I. :ii , .r - rirt i •. ;11 re ul ' , .1--:••• . .4' . 4 c. ..:4 74 :041 2 :‘ . 1 • i ~.. , • - (t 4l:'t. V , '• - 41 4 • ' •_ ._ , ......„5„..:. .___ 1 1 .1 1 • t Z: 4 51 1' . 1 a I Ifr