The National Register. — London, England, 1811-04-21 00:00:00

'flit NATIONAL REGISTER. render a new invasion Of.' rartugai PraeticabLe - The. Moniteur Vainly ,leAsted that he would main tain himself in the 'lnonniiiins of Gnarda. He *ogle : hut a _weak effort to retain that place, and ' continued His retreat - foesafdi'the Spinitkfrontiers, Which, it ib more than probable he has already pas 'sea. 'Meanwhile our army was on the eve of re. surning its former positions, and lining the Portu griese territory with bayonets which the French Marshals and soldiers • will pause long before they venture once more to enconnter. No reason able doubt can therefore exist respecting the issue of - • the campaign. •It has been most honour able to the talents of our Commander, and the courage faf the allied forces, and most decisive in its es nature. • It hes settled an important point on which ss"- the opinion of the world had been long divided.— It haS brought to the test the relative.power of En :" gland and France, at the end of a contest of nearly twenty years' duration, commenced by the latter, for the acknowledged purpose of dissolving the po litical constior.iens of Europe ; in order to restore freedom to mankind ; but for no other object than the establishMent of a gigantic, arid resistless, if not universal empire. How have her vast designs been accomplished ? The independent dynasties of the Continent have been chained : Some have been swept away; States have perished, and nations like conquered tribes, have been added to the list of her • subjects. But in the midst of her proudest triumphs, the fetters which she imposed on her neighbours have been wreathed by the strong hand of ambition •round her own limbs. Enslaved, and in the midst of slaves, - she could not call the spirit of freedom ,Aehich she had quenched to her aid. Oppress ed in lief turn, she'only• became a more relentless oppressor,' and whilst spreading devastation over _ the surface of the earth, in the contemplation of the 'accumulated suirerisigs she created, she forgot her •owu. Her excesses, rather than her victories, armed her name with terrors, which, by withering •the hope•Of a secoessful resistance to her encroach - menu, in every continental heart, rendered every at * •temet to sheke off her pike eugatery. Wars • commenced with the imprudent haste of fear, which •by rushing blindly into dsoger, thinks it will be the in re Freedilq overcome, only served to increase the siumber of hz• -triumphs, enlarge her dominions; and • s.sirengthen The belief that she had becc , rne invinci ble. • Thus her prmer,;although . really weakened by - extension, continued to grow in the popular and deceiVed by the terror which she saw her -name inspired, she fancied she should attain the Treat end she had in view, ,as soon as •she should have removed the only bar to universal dominion thrlt rrrl i1,1,1) , -Ildence and i:ivy rf .Nitain. Hencearoie the bitterness of her eumit* sr,z, .st us. Hence, regardless of her ow-a int r i , hurled her deadliest . bolts against our tr recoiled and destroyed her own. Hence • . voured to pervert in the estimation of the woik.l ~. motives of our conduct, the nature of oitr Mawr; Er, of our resources and our . power, She reproented England with her navy, as . a dwarf arroed with a destructive weapon, too unwieldy for her hand, and which fatigue Inuit soon coMPLI him to drop. She boasted that her forbearance alone allowed 'us to exist unsubdued to her •.will, and that as soon as she should think proper to inflict the blow we must fall helpless at her feet. Overawed or deceived, Con tinental nations gave ear to her tales, and lent her their strength. Her rigorous measures against our trade were enforced with equal severity on the shores of the Baltic, as on the coast of France ; and she began to anticipate, and indeed to announce our downfall, when the sudden burst of the_ Spanish War threw a flash of light across the darkness in which she had involved the Continent. Instead of shrinking into our ships, or tamely awaiting her attack on cnr shores, we had no sooner found a footing for our troops, than we embraced the cause 1 of the Peninsula as our own. Our warriors, panting after glory, not that which is plucked from the wreck of empires, but that which makes triumphs guiltless, and springs from revived freedom and restored order, hastened to meet .fier veterans on the fields of Spain and Portugal. Europe beheld the mighty conflict from afar, and . learnt Pith astonishment that the French eagles: cotdd be brought captive to. the ground. Vimiera,the mourn, and Talavera, dyed with the invaders' blood, ro claimed the .superiority of our arms 4, but foiled at her best weapon, France had recourse*,rnisrepre sentations, and threw a veil over our ariuMphs which concealed their 'magnitude from the eyes of the -world. The late campaign in Portugal, is however, of too decisiv.c, a nature to be obscured by .. all the arts she will not fail to employ. She cannot Pretend that our troops have been driven into the sea, when they arc encamped on the Spanish frontier.: she cannot boast that Lisbi ii has yielded to her army, when her fugitive legions are colkcting round Ciudad Rodrigo. These are facts too i. plain not to be understood.; they ,have a v.rice -vlaich : wili awl must be -heard,,. They prove that tl3e-lpienitnde of her power, with all her means directed-atainSt only one -enemy, FranCe hai been defeata "and. by whom ? By an inferior force of those very.l.4ritons whose ruin, her nod, she told rnartkied, was. ; bye sufficient to effect, and before whose resolute, •eild well d irected valour, her ablest Generalsand hia-lot warriors have been compelled to fly ! 'The'?.;elti'tiltli *rliich she - enslaved nations .is . .dinfilid.- 11 Ille 'Peninsula her power, as well as - ,her..arnties *Di fame, will find a (-tray. .• • ' )(1 ' u— '''' '... • s.) ; :. ' It tr.iiii• C. , ;i y- r ',.~ _ _ ~ • r); , ~_. 1 Ii f Y It d ,t