The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1808-12-12 00:00:00

has obliged him, by this time, to retreat to Nas-

On the .sth instant, the enemy attacked our post
at Sippo pass, in the vicinity of Kalijocki, and
forced :our troops, by a cannonade, kept up salt
great vigour, to fall bac k ; the enemy thereupon
threw a bridge over the river, and formed another
attack ou our advanced position, which he forced
to make a retrograde movement, and join the main
body of our troops, pasted near Kalijocki.
The Russians confirmed their attack the follow-
ing day, without n►cking the least impres►ion on
your Majesty's troops. in the mean time, the ene-
my constructed a bridge across the river, near
Aliceweeska, and crossed it with a strong detach-
ment of foot. As soon as report had been re-

ceived of this movement, orders were given
to attack and repulse the troop* who had
passed the river. Although this attack proved
successful, yet the extreme want of forage corn..
pelted the army to take up another position near
Pvhajoeki, whence it will full back to Puakila ;
and I have strong reason to apprehend, that, con-
sidering the great superiority of the enemy, and
the want of forage, it will not prove potiaible for
your Majesty's army to muiutain that position for
any length of time.
Its addition to the above want of forage, which it
will he hardly peisitile to supply at the present
season, the duanpuess of the weather, and the se-
vere fatigues sustained by your Majesty's troops
under my command, almost continually oliliged tie
iie on their arms, have greatly increased the
number of the sick, who exceed six thousand, and
whose transport and removal increase our diffi-
culties in a very considerable degree. But in spite
of all these difficulties, I shall strenuously endea-
vour to impede and obstruct the enemy's progrei.s,
as far as circurreitaisees shall its any ways permit.
ilead-quarters, Brahastad, Nov. so, 11108.
C.,N. de KLERKF.R,
General-isa-Chief of the Nth thetas Flattish
Arusy.—(Stockhohis Gear tie, Nev. 44.)
STOCICHOLU, SOY. 22.
Major-General Morner, who, iti the absence
of Field Marshal Baron Toll, commands the
Southern Fionish Army, has transmitted to His
Majesty the following report of a naval action,
which took place on the loth instant off lielsing-
burgh :

' 'rills afternoon four sail hove in sight, which,
soon after. were ascertained to be two English cutters
and two merchantmen, which they bad under con-
voy. When the said tour sail had reached the
altitude of Dettarpruf, six Danish gun-bouts and
two armed vessels put off from Elsineur, and at-
tacked the headmost cutter, which had parted com-
pany with the rest, that were standing-in with the
Swedish coast. The English cutter knight most
gallantly, but could hardly have escaped being
taken, had not our batteries opened upon the ene-
ma', arum% which our tire seemed to
o m telt execution. The Danish gun-boats
thereuilon left the cutter, and stood towards
the Defier three sail, which immediately be-
gan to cannonade them, though at some dis-
wive, and three English gun-boats heaving in
sight soon after, the Danish gun-I✓ooto stood
oils, amid retreated with all possible haste under the
guns of the fortress of Crunenbuigh, which com-
menced e heavy canuamaile, most vigorously an-
siieied and kept up by the English, until all the
ships had cleared the Danish coast.

The Mulish giaLwbost was considerably damaged.
and one of the enemy's armed vessels is stated to
have foundered. The loss ou our part, and of the
English is very trifling.
Hel.ioglourgh, Nov. ON ion. G. RLIDERSHOM."
(SluckAoi (.azette, Nev. .22.)

•.• &via, kas beau ken:wised, aisol shall appear to-taecrow.

THE BRITISH PRESS.

LON DON,
MONDAY, DEcEanies 12.

Two Gottenburgh Mails arrived on Saaurday,
with letters. and papers from Stockholm to the
.ruli last. The Swedish army in the north of
Finland is retreating. Oa the auth its head-
quarters were at trishestad, not fir distant from
the head of the Gulf of Bothnia. It has not
only •to contend with a superior enemy, before
wlmin it hai been constantly retreating, but
also with want and disease. The number of sick
is +admitted to exceed sir the:enni ; as it
was impossible to procure forage, there was no ex-
pi ctation that the army would be able to rally,
amid. cossequently, it had no altentative but to eva-
cuate the country or perish entirely. This intel-
ligence, however melancholy and disastrous, will
not, probably, surprise our readers—they must
have long since anticipated the reverses of Sweden.

The public mind has now had several days in
which to reflect on.• and to familiarise itself with
the disastrous intelligence received from Spain,
without our being able to attain any solid infor-
mation relative to its accuracy or certitude. hence
certain incredulous persons have lightly ventured
to call in question its truth. That it was received
at Fislssuance, by Sir JOHN Mooar, on the ittth,
and transmitted by hint to General IlsteD, who
received it on the ev g of the 29th, at Astorga,
is unquestionable. We must presume, and w•e
may safely infer, that the intelligent and gallon;

General comniatiding the Hot ;
lightly or unadvisedly issue eoders to
to cetnueniee his retreat hi I',,t a 4.11
heard very earns and pointed anisnielversaues " 114
carded on General Moieties meekest♦
ill tic, re.
street, as if it were equally hasty, isijudicious,
said
premature. In order that the iiateliigence of Cu.
TANOS. defeat, wherever it hapeened, should hase reached Salamanca by the eetle whether it w
trwasinitted through Madrid, or by any mare dia.:
communication, the action itself mast have take.
place as early as the 45th. Every person eho rig
fleets on the distance between the Ebro and
eseuca, across a large portion of Spain, will admit
the justice of these premises, and of this teaeoein
But, independent of the telegraphic coeveves;;
from Bayonne, such a victory would aesiirell; hese
been kuown at Paris, lay Caurier,, hi the soiirv• be
nine or ten days. If we assume that it teethed the
French capital by the sth of December, Loa is it
that sip to the present slay we slionld he i;ooreat
of it here? It may be intswerell, that thou-iy
Bo st APART 6 took care to acquaint us with till IC*
suit of the battles of Ulm mad of Austerlitz, sea
se
could extend no assistance to Austria, either Jewel!
nr military, yet that in the present case he :me. wiAt
us to remain ns ignorance of his victerie,, as
may impel us to emanate transpoiting trete,.
Spain. A very Ana nine must dispel all doubts
tiptoe this intereeting subject.
AVe have, oureelves, seen and read a letter from
Astor ,a, of the iith two letters, written at &a-
ffiance, on the e7th; and one from an Oft., r un-
der General HOPE'S command, dated Guadarams,
the e.tth. No apprehen-ion of any serious tape.
eliment arising, to prevent the junction teethe three
corps, somewhere towards Zamora. or Bent:mai,
and on or about, as they conceived, the ern of tae
present mouth, seems to have presented itself to
any of the writers of these letters. The corps as.
der 110 PR did not exceed 5000 cavalry, and ahoot
3000 infantry and artillery. They appear to has"
sutirred fewer incouveniencies of every descriptors,
on their march, than the army under Geaeral
Moslem, who had to penetrate through the worst
roads, and least civilized portions of the Spanish
peninsula. But, independent of the humiliating
necessity of retrograding before a victorious enemy,
and of the uncertainty attending re-embarkation or
retreat, conducted under critical circumetasecas, in a
`foreign country ; we fear that there are other more
vital and insurmountable impediments to the lila-
-ratiori of Spain. That the atrocious acts of perfidy
and outrage, perpetrated by Bo NA raster:, in seizing,
and deposing or imprisoning, the Spanish kings,
inflamed the indignation of the country, is wept's.
tionuble. The greater proportion of the Nobility
aria upper orders, who had for many ages been go-
verned by Sovereigns) descended from the House of
Austria, could not bend to a vile Italian arrive°.
tuna, elevated by the French Revolution, and
forred upon them in the moot insulting manner,
by the Tyrant of the French. The middle orders,
among whom, in every society, exists the greatest per-
ion of morals, loyalty, religion, and sense of national
dignity or independence, have proved their abhor-
relive of Neeoesox. The soldiery, we believe,
are brave, and animated by the noblest sentimenb.
But, asouug the lower classes, and the jieasantry,
we have too much reason to believe, that great aps-
thy and indifference preyed. We bare perused,
with concern, many instances of their indisposition
towards our troops, recorded in letters written be
our officers, on their march from Coruna* and
Lisbon. If we consider tho condition of the Spa-
nish peasant, or artificer, or mechanic ; and if se
reflect on the nature of the late Government,
its abuses, iuefficieucy, and oppression, how CU
we wonder that they will not tight for FERDI-
NAND the Vllth, as we fought iu the dark ages lid'
a Pt ANTAGESET of 1 oaa, or of LANCASTER
1101 V Call we be surprised, that revelation mud
change, under any form, are acceptable to them !
How are we otherwise to explain, that a population
of Hine millions, now inured during six months
to war, could not expel the defeated armies
of BONAPARTE, between August and November?
flow do his hussars and cavalry venture, in eery
smell bodies, to overrun the plaims of Castile, at a
vast distance front the main army, without app,-
rent resistance or molestation of any kind ? Co II
our cavalry have done so with impunity io the
Anevicait war ? Certainly not : and why, because
the greater part of At papalotima of America de-
! tasted or; and because they fought fur freedom
from taxation, not fur any particular indivisluel.—
Wily have some provinces of Spain declined, or
withheld any assistance to the common CUM', IT
to the present time? ?Murcia has sent little, and
Grenada, we believe, no military aid. These sue
serious sobjetb of considerutien. We have hi-
therto avoided them, a, pailifully delicate. Even
now we do not say all that we know : but we shell
resume the subject shortly.
The

ii 1161:

Princess Charlotte packet. front Matta and
Gibraltar, is arrived at Falmouth. She made le,r
piimiage from the Litter piaci: in fourtecit days and
bring& an account of the loos of the jurklaraf
packet iu CaJiz Bay. The ere v and wails wcr.
saved. They are come hater io tire Prtneess ('har-
lone. By tbis cooveance (iov...run:cut have re-
ceived dispatches from Mr. I )11. emmos and Sir .)
STUART. in Sleily, and horn Sir A. liA 31al".
We underhand they h.- wiurn to Me:—