The National Register. — London, England, 1812-09-06 00:00:00

Sr.PT. 6• d, and General lYlias*N's Portuguese briade of cavalry, :l i l a s ome deochments of German horse and anillery, ad vanced to Majalahorda without any opposition. At that !lace, however, they encountered a division of French ca v alry, and the Portuguese being otdered to charge, advanced, but u nfortunately turned about before they reached the enemy," and fled through the village behind the German dragoons, abandoning several pieces of cannon, all of which, however, were saved except three, which remained in the possessmon of the French, but which they also abandoned when the an ival of reinforcements to our troop compelled them to retim e. On the 12th of Augu.:t, time PRINCE RE GEST's birth-day, Marquis W ELLINGTON entered Mach id, in the midst of the wildest expressions of joy on the part of the inhabitants of that capital, JoSEPH having tetired, the army of the centre, by the way of Toledo and Aranjuez, probably to endeavour to form a junction with Sou LT and Seett £T by taking a south-easternly dim ectiou. The garrison which he had left in the Re' iro,—for what purpose it is not easy to conceive,-was invested on the evening of the next. day; and after some active approaches of the Britiih in the night, surrendered on the 14th, to the number of 2,506 Of ficers and privates, with a vast quantity of milit.try stores. No British Officer of rank fell, and the principal lyss sustain ed in these important atiairs was in the retreat of the Portu- guest cava!ry. Thus, in less than a month, has JOSEPH lost a whole army, and his capital, with his best organixed and best fur nished arsenal, and is compelled to wander a fugitive, per haps soon to become a prisoner ; for Lord W ELLINGTON'S second. dispatch also communicates the important intelli gence, that (;en. MAITLAND, with the expedition • from Mi.iorca, had landed on the loth ult. at Alicant, where, joined by Generals ROCHE and O'DONNEL, he would soon advance to interpose between• SOULT and SUCHET, and perhaps to capture tis flying MAJESTY, who seems de sirous to form the point of communication between those two Commanders. In vain do the Fiench Papers pretend, that strong reinforcements are at this moment entering Spain.' NAPOLEON is too mach in want of troops in the. • North to spare them to his brother ; but, at all events, we trust that it' they come they will only have arrived in time to lean the defeat or the surrender of the now divided French armies in the East and South of Spain. The follow ing are additional particulars contained in private letttei;s : Jostrn Bonsai.* arc fled with all possible s;teed. No sooner bad p.. rt of nit: cavali y g ot through the Guadaratua Pass on the 9th, than he left lladr d wah 12,000 turn, ls-11 of them J aramentodos. Lord NV t Ll.l N To N says, be retired by the roads of Tolet!o and Aran' jaez.—But, it is added. that he halted at Oceana on the 11th, and on the 13th and Pith continued his march towards Valencia ; not wishing, perhaps, to procccd hom Toledo towards Talavera, for leer of falling in with General H'LL, %In/ is supposed to have made a movement in the Ihreetion ut Talavera. One thousand men lett in Guadalaxara are said,to have surrendered to the EMPEelll A DO. To:edo was evacuated on the 14th ; Lerida was blown ap by acci dent, and was occu r ied by the Spaniards. Fruto the North of Spain we kart, that the blockade of Astorga con tinued Olt th- 13th. Zamora, with a garrison of 1,000 men, was in- vested by StrYtena ; Toro and Tordesillas by the Liallicians ; the latter surrenaered on the Wt. Part of our army, which was left on the Douro to watch the euemv, is ander General Cr INTosr. The had h veered off tl.e coast of Catalonia and Valencia for se ve.al days belOre, making deniOnstrations in different points, an te thc marches of the French, and, of course, harassing them. We ore sure all hearts will rejoice in the information wt' are about to co.locino ate, that before these last dispatches arrived, his PreishiP tr ,, s in 1 " session of the PatNeE REGENT's promise, tinder kis o w n hand, to give hi m o ejast G a rter - ill lvs poNsssion to bestow, and to recomMend to PartiAnent the moment it ussembiett, that a prevision be made for his Lcirdship similar to that matiefor Lard Nst.so:4. 5 4 3 ItUsSIAN CAMIIA 16 N 'We are now in possession of the Russian ofEc'al accounts of most of the battles desesita d in the two last Freach Bul- Both sides, as it is not uncommon, claim the vic tory, and state the loss of their adversary at nearly the same amount in killed, wounded, and pi isoners ; so that in the same engagement in which the Russians tell us they have taken several thousand prisoners and driven the Ft end' through woods and across iivulets, the Fredch assure us they have captured as many Russians and compelled the rest to fallback a league or two. Both side, are, therefore, evidently guilty of misrepresentation. They Loth pretend to have been the assailants, and to have intended to pursue offensive operations. Yet the Russians, notwithstanding their victo ries, have retreated; and the French, notwithstanding their triumphs, have done little more than maintain their posia tions. Their respective aim has, therefore, been defeated ; and whilst, from the obstinate vaiour with which the battles were fought, the flow of blood must have been considerable, it must also have been nearly equal. The French may have lost more men, but Icss ground, as they were able to date their accounts of the three engagements from the same place,. Biala, which also pores their incapacity to advance, even after the last, in which they pretend to have obtained a de cided advantage, but of which the Russian Report has not yet re ached us. It appears to have been the intention of the Russian Com manders to have united and awaited, at Witepsk, the grand • attack of the enemy. Prince BAG RATION, however, finding Mohilow in possession of the French, was obliged to take a circuitous road. which would have prevented him from reach ing Witepsk in time to join in a general engagement, as the main army was too closely followed up to that place by NA- Pot. eos in person, to avoid fighting an immediate battle, except by quickly retreating still farther up the country. tierce, alter having induced the Fiench klmperor to think :hat his object was attained, and that he had at last compel led the Russian army to fight divided, General BARCLAY DE TOL Li suddenly decamped in the night to form his junc tion with BAGRATION at Smolensko.. All the corps On his right were obliged to follow that movement, in order not to be cut oil; and Dunaberg was left in the midst of the ene my's forces. But why it should not have been deccuded ap pears to us difficult to explain. That place had been ren dered so strong that it would have occupied a svl,ole division of the enemy in besieging it. If the Russian army would have been weakened by the garrison placed in it, the French would have been still mo:e so by the force they must detach to undertake the siege mid cover its operations. Ab long a.: it remained unsubdued, it formed a point of alarm on their flank which might prevent the further advance (t their main army ; whilst it now secures their left, affoids a safe point of communication with their divisions marching against Riga, and should that city fall, will enable them to occupy a line of strong positions extending from the Baltic to Witesisk, equally advantageous as a second basis for of fensive operations in Russia Proper, or for defence in case, as they seem now inclined to do, they await in their turn the attack of the Russians. Whatever view we take of the abandonment of l)unaberg in all its strength. we can only consider it either as a gross error on the part of our allies, or as a piasof that the gold of 1%; APOttON is not without its influence in Russia. For who but an idiot or a traitor Would supply an invading enemy with additional strength for attack, or security for flight , On finding Witespk evacuated by the Russians, , and per ceiving that it had become impracticable to prevent the junction of their armies at SMOICII4O, NAPOLEON place& his own "in quarters of refreshment." Ile considered, pre. TIIE NATIONAL REGISTER.