The National Register. — London, England, 1812-11-22 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Curia, Coutitution, anD PUBLISHED AT O. 557, STRAND, CORNER OF EXETER 'CIIANGE• PRICE 9d• N o . 056. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, e. POLITICAL DIS2UISITION. FRENCH PAPERS. Liberality and Sagacity are things very desirable in a public wi iter. At present, there are in this metropolis, a coleiderable number of Journalists who have some preten sions to a large share of each of these estimable qualities. Th;s admission, our contemporaries ought to receive as a very handsome compliment, but we hope they will give us credit for a disposition to spare their blushes, as we can a iore them, that nothing is further from our wishes, than adcsite to put them out of countenance, by any thing like flattery. We repeat it, there arc many public writers of the present die, who merit some consideration for their liberality and utacity. These excellent qualities, however, like most otter good things, are liable under certain circumstances, to lase much of their value. Liberality. when it only exerts kelt' in favour of one of two parties, may be said to change i:s nature; and sagacity, when it only displays its acuteness in discovering that the boastful statements of an enemy are entitled to more credit than the dispatches published by crown Government, is entitled to the same praise as that eloquence which is exerted to mislead, or that courage which makes itself formidable to the peace of society. The liberality which we have seen its the conduct of the writers to whom we allude, uniformly manifests itself in the candid indulgence with which every document is regal ded, provided it be French : the Sagacity; in the facility with which every speck that may enable them to throw a cloud of doubt on our prospects is discovered, and pointed out in a document known to be British. The feelings which prompt this exercise of the two qualities we have named, have very uccessfully exerted themselves for some time past, to pro cure credit for the accounts received from the seat of war 10 the North via France. We wish to chew our readers what degre e of credit they really deseeve. It is our object to prove them infamously false. That they are so, we think al! who read this article will be satisfied. We do not ask the public to rely on our ipsedirit. Assertion is useless, where proof Is at hand, It shall be our business, (an humble but not an usOcss task) to compare the statements lately made in the French papers with each other, and leave the readers of THE NATIONAL REGISTER to judge for themselves. The Paris journal of October the 18th, exulting over the conquest of Moscow, states that city to have been saved from destruction, and proceeds to lay open to the view of em.,lous rivals, the immense resources presented by the cons quered country, and the following description and comment ou the importance of Moscow, are given : " Moscow, which all the efforts of PETER the GREAT could 4 4 r. No. ccxur • • • -•-•—• not strip of its importance, nor even of the tank and characteristics of the true capital of Russia, is situated nearly ha the centre of that vast empire ; the Asiatic" portion being excepted. Its surrounding provinces :uc iocomparably the most fertile of any is those climes. The more northetly districts consist almost uniformly of vast wishes, impene trable forests, and sandy plains. The duration and ex cv,:ciye rigour of the winters condemn this portion of the Russian States to nearly absolute sterility. in the more southern provinces, on the other hand, we find steppes or boundless deserts, whose gravelly soil is bnpregnated with salt, and totally destitute of wood and water. The province of Moscow and its adjoining Governments, situated between these extremes, produce in such abundance all the m:cessaries of life, that from that large city, as a sort of ireneral entrepst, they are spread over all the whole surface of the empire. A single glance at the map will be sufficient to spew, that from Moscow issue all the great roads of Russia. We may distinguish nine principal ones, diverging in all dire' tions ; and their numerous ramifications establish an easy inter ! course between this central point and the extremities, vrhich I hence received nearly all their subsistence and the materials for their industry, in exchange for the partial supplies with which they furnished it. " But to St. Petersburgh, above every other city, is a constant communication with the ancient capital necessary for the supiily of its incessautly returaqg wants. W hat means, then, are left to St. Petersburgh of renewing its supplies of provisions, while, insulated as it now is from Moscow, it has lost all its connections with the provinces which su?plicd it with subsistence ?—By sea ? But is not the Baltic shut by the ice for eight months in the year i The first of these rigorous months has commenced. That proud city, which still re-echoes with empty menaces agiinst our armies, and the chaunting of imaginary victories, must at once, experience a failure of all her resources. She will awake to a terrible certainty ; her lightened inhabihrts will doubtless calculate, that the banks of the Neva are Go lea gues nearer the head-quarters of the conqueror, than the banks of the Niemen frosa Moscow." - - - - M ------- - - All this, let it be remembered, was written a eotvilemble time after the French had entered Moscow, and bearing this in mind, wllat will be thought of the subjoined extract from the Journal de !'Empire, of November 10th : soon as Moscow was reduced to ashu, it was uo more than the advanced post of the French army, the occup,t.wla of which must be subordinate to the general plan of 01 campaign, or what must be, at the end of October, t!;e principal and even the only/ end of a wise Coptairt, - Nlii , himself at the head of an immense army in the midt:!e of ' • •