The National Register. — London, England, 1809-07-09 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGI6TER; common cause with the Austrians we entertain no doubt. • ~ • sense of commoe danger and of nmtual suffering has ex- tinguished the ancient rivalry °ribose two nations ; and surely there is nothing woiderftil or surprising in the cir cumstance that external coercion has obliged them to Aght together against their common enemy for existence, when they are no longer in a situation to contend with each other for—superiority. Yesterday dispatches were received from Adm. Bienitc -741r and Sir ARTHUR WELLESLZT, brought by the gr I TTRE• i'REN•NTE cutter, of 10 guns, from Lisbon. When the Messenger who brpught the General's dis patches left the army, fir Annitut was within sight . of VICTOR'S army, and intended to give him battle the follow ing day. VICTOR% retreat was entirely cut oft; and froth the dispositions that were made there was every rational hope that his army would destroyet fir .larnua 81 7 / 4 04iLEY 'had been joined by die 40th Regiment. We wait with impatience the al rival of farther accounts 6S from this army. The Gazette of last night, which will be found in andtbcr part of our Paper, contains the Officiat Dispatches of Cap tain MaKEFLEv, inclosing'others from General MARTIN DE LA Cieittnat,with the particulars of the Battle of St. Payo, and the Evacuation . of kerrOl rind COruana.—lf we are to judge of the Spansards by these accounts, they are very - well disposed to exterminate the I reach satellites frorn the Peninsula. St. liko is also iu possession of the yatriois. The intelligence from Spain Riot' a nature to afford us both pleasure and pain; but we must expect this—every thing in war is necessarily of a chequered nature, and to vise a homely phrase, we must take the bad with the good. The Spaniards have retaken Ferrol Aud Corunna, and the French have evacuated Qijon. On the other hand; we pave advice hy the Favourite sloop of war, that St. An dero is retaken by the French. it appears by this account ' that on the 10th Jime, BALLASTEROS drove the enemy - 4)111 of St. Ander, but on the same night they returned, sago Wong, and surpri . sed . the Spaniard, the greater part of wboni they killed and took prisoners. A General and Co lonel very narrowly escaped, having just time to take a small boat, which- they paddled out - of the harbour with muskets, and then got on board a chaise niaree l out of which they were receivad by the Favourite cutter, which left G;jon the 16th ult. and is arrived at Plymouth. The attack upon St. Andero took place about midnight, at all points of the town, and whoever resisted . was cut down. It is said the 'carnage was dreadful numbers of the Pa !riots were drowned in cukavouring to escape. Accord ing to the French account, the Marquis PE BALLASTERO% is taken prispner, and 110XANb though not captured is a fugitive. We had every reason to anticipate the evaenatiou of Ferrol and Corunna by the French, but we were not pre pared to expect their expuliion by force, as the Paris Papers had already announced the intention, or rather the actual concentration, of all their forces in Gallicia,with the view of proceeding to the north of Portpgal, and 'by that means of effecting a junction between SOtif.T and Marshal Writ, which is said to have taken place. Of this, however, some doubt may be reasonably entertained, as will be evident from a review of their operatiqns, and' the slate in thicb !these operations are known to have left tlieir armies. 'When the corps of NF.v and :•_4)ei.T, amounting to near 40,000 men, pursued Sir Jon MORE with Ihe intention of preventing his army from re-epharking, it is fresh in the recollection of our readers that they were defeated with the toss of more than pOCi men killed and wounded. Im mediately afterwards, SOULT proceeded with about 20,000 Men to occupy Portugal, whilst Nev turned upon the Gal licigs and Asturias for the same purpose. But when SOULT 'arrived at Oporto, lie if said nut to have bad more than • 441 16,000 of his division remaining, of whom' 4000 were wounded, having been excessively harraued by the Spani ards on the whole line of their march. Under these dia• couraging circumstances he was attacked by Sir A. Wacces. LET, and could not have lost less than 3000 men in the action. Indeed it is stated to have been a more considerable num ber. In his retreat to Gallicia he lost the greater part of his cavalry; and we know that every privation which an army •undei such circumstances may be supposed to feel, were aggravated in a ten fold. degree by the exasperated country through which they passed. It is nine weeks since we have had any account of this army ; and as Mr. Boys says, an army cannot very well he hid. We therefore suspect that fatigue, desertion, and death, have thinned the ranks of this corps, and have made the junction, with NET, if it has really taken place, a matter of little importance, as an addition to the effective strength of the latter.. Co cunna, Ferrol, Vigo, St. Jago, &c. were occupied by NUT., but the situation of his army, without adequate supplies, made a system of plunder alinost necessary to its existence. tpis led to acts of the most outrageous t 3 randy, the effects of which recoiling upon the perpetrators, this small corps was destroyed by famine and fatigue, and the complicated duties of an army, in such circumstances, made the-con (petit of the Asturias an attempt of desperation rather than hope. Aosisted by a detachment under K ELLERMAN, N ET. Marched from Ferrol for the purpose; but the Marquis ItosliNA had endeavoured to excite the Asturians; the passes of Montague were defended by BALLESTERO., with great bravery, the French were driven back to St. An dero, and the patriots at St. Jago and Lugo, were rein forced and assisted : In the mean time, the defiles were forced, and Oviedo and Gijon taken possession of by the French, who, in their turn, were surprised at St. Andero, and a number of prisoners taken ; General BALLESTERUS was attacked by a superior force under IteNtiFT, and a few superior officers escaped to Gijon, which was again in possession of the Pa. triots, ROMANA taking the nilvantage of the absence of NET and KELLERMAN, and jolno4 by tile patriots of Gal bele, now appears to have taken ppssession of Ferrol and Corumia. After looking at the detail of this complicated warfare, upon what number of these t t ro divisions can we reasonably calculate to rrmain. livtoiAr,foure must have lost nearly thirty thousand of the nuniber., and we do not conceive it possible for the rest to . escape, if a well-comb bined plan of operations he . pursued during.tlw inactivity of the Emperor on the Banks of the Danube, The French troops in Spain, dispirited by defeat, sickness, and wive. ;ion, and without the means of encreasing their nuuihfirs we think must eventually fall. With regard to the,operations in Spain, we have enter very fully in the preceding columns of our Paper. Som.' was at Monteforte the 12th oft. and I\ ET had fallen back to Lugo, there was nothing to prevent a junction ; but recent accouuis confirm our statement that the French force under theie two Generals is reduced to about 10,000 men. in addition to these other accounts from Lisbon stating par ' titulars of the battle fought in Arragon between Generals BLAKE and SOUCRET, have likewise been reeeived.--From these it appears that the French force was 8000, includibig 500 cavalry, and three pieces; the Spanish 9,600 induct - mg 000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of catioon.—The loss of the French was much greater than was at first stated.—They are supposed to be retreating behind the Ebro. &Asa is said to have encreased his army to 40,0(10 1 and was ex pcctcd to enter Saragossa. Thursday last a General Court was held at the East India House, when Mr. K. Jackson produced•his promised nio. titm for the prevention in future of the abuse of patronage: It appeared, in the course of an animated debate, that the Directors had themselves come to much stronger regula tions and restrictions than were contained in Mr. Jackson's motion ; his proposition was, notwithstanding, carried, vithoni) - one dissent►ng voice. • • • JULY 11.