The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1809-01-06 00:00:00

THE BRI'

FRID,

P

DON,
JAmvAst 6.

S.

In consequence of the severity of the weather.
and the badness of the roads, the mails did not ar-
rive in town until a late hour yesterday, and the
letters and papers were not delivered from the
Post-oflice until half past one o'clock. Those
from Plymouth excited a considerable sensation,
as they announced the arrival of the Joseph hired
cutter at that port, with an account of the French
having been driven out of Madrid, mid of the total
defeat of n French corps of cavalry by a British
regiment. The hitter is said to have been the 15th
Light Dragoons. The action took place near Rio
Seco.
'llie following are extracts from letters from
Plymouth, containing this intelligence :
JAN. 3.

" Arrived the Joseph cutter, from Bi ; she is
said to bring farther ocpounts which strongly corro-
borate the massacre at Madrid, is v.hich the French
lost 3ti,niro Innis killed, principally with the knives
and stilettos of the Spaniards.
" Privote letters state, that the 13th Regiment of
Light Dragoons had fallen in with a Regiment of
French Dragoons, near Rio Sc(o, and hail charged
through thorn, ant. kalcil and wounded all, except
abodt two !"

ANOTHLR LETTER. SAME DATE.
"I have the pleasure of sonouneing the arrival,
this afternoon, of the Joseph hired cutter, at this
port; and have the most heartfelt satisfaction in
stating, that she brings a CONFIRMATION of
the important news brorght yesterday by the En-
eounter, of the MASSACRE of the FRENCH in
MADIO °My difference in the statement
is respetding the number, of the enemy who fell
%idiots to the just indignation of the enraged Spit.
'thirds. I hare seen two accounts, one of winch
states the ntuDia-r at 3%000 ; ibut thenocanut
ceirtial by those in authority Isere, and on whtelt you
may rely, states, that upwards of Tirefety-sis nod-
send Frenchmen fell by the knivesoA the brave"
Spaniards in the city of Nbulrid ulnae. The ene-
my helve also suffered severely et Saragossa- and
31tibbaredit, where the ittlialtitatits also ruse open
them, and Lined and wounded several thousands of
them."
Our readers Hill perceive that this is merely n
repetition of the report brought by the Eaceastrer.
with which the Joseph sailed at the some time from
N igo, bet separated front her on the isessegee—
The accounts by these two vessels, we may there-
fore prebume, rest upon the nine authority, and
consequently the story retneins precisely as it was.
without deriving that additional credit which
it might have claimed, hail the Joseph sailed at
any other time, or from any other port. There is
something eery extraordinary iu thine reiterated
accounts of disasters sustained by the French at
Madrid, but it would be exembise credulity to con-
sider them, in their present shape, as other than
fUtitilUfS.

We are sorry to say, that the intelligence of the
defeat sustained by the French before Surragostia,
though uffirially annommed by the Supreme Junta
atllo, and by the Portuguese Government
at Lisbon, as coming from PAL MIX, yet does not
Mere qbtain that degree of Lelia which we wish it
were entitled to receive. L► the ca►e of its reality,
Mr. FILERS might he expected to have communi-
cated such grateful and iinportant intelligence to
his Government.

There is a report rnrre ut, of S:>ct.T having teen
defeated by t :titers' Ainoto: ; but as no time nor
particulars are mentioned, it seems to obtain MI
belief. From the posit:. on of the several unities in
SIAM. Sot ur••= is veitainly the corps most likely to
come first mu coil with the Brittsb troops.

It is scarcely possilde fur the most desponding
mind, whets passing under review the situation arid
events of the war now tarrying on m Spain, not to
form a very different estimate, and not to antici-
pate a very ditfereut result of it from that of Bo-
WArAISTS'S preceding cainpuigus or expeditions.
We must, in fact, if we Wow ourselves to reason
fairly, and to speak out houestly—we must admit
that Italy, Austria, and, above all, that Prussia,
were ripe for subversion, when the revolutionary
torrent, converted into au engine of military des-
potism and conquest bitioi4Apattic, alter destroy-
ing the Swiss and Dutch Republics, turned its
course towards the Danube and the Oder. If Aus-
tria did not totally dissolve under the attack, it was
dismembered, humbled, and laid prostrate. The
Prussian Monarchy, retired by FREDLnIes policy,
fell at once, almost on tee first touch, and has
sunk to its position under Farroratc ILLIAM the
First. For though she retains Sitesiu, still's', lost
a great pectin,' of Brandenhurgh, together with
Magdeburg'''. I lalberstadt. Cleves, and the two Mar-
gmviates of A uspacii mid of Bayreuth : thus sinking
from a first-rate Continental Power nearly to a level
with the Otani.' of Saxony and of Bavaria. Even
Rul,sia, it may be presumed, poly escaped revolution
by the policy of IN arot.aosi, by its remote situation
on the cdge of Asia.and by the disgraceful submission
of the Cwt. Seedea is protected wore by its itiac-

• - -,s
susiaincri try Bit fleets of Elleit.el, tiisn
Ly any other circumstance. 'r he Ss. dis are, ii..
deed, brave, loyal, end film, but the nations! 4.1. - a
racier has not manifested itself with that euvro.,
which, in the sixteenth century, IlltAr Once Min-
deed years ago, enabled GLISTA,VCS VASA, emoig-
iug from the mime of Dalectirlit, to wipe' asmo,her
BONAPARTE from Stockholm, in the person of the
tyrant CHRISTIAN 11. Deamai k end Naples Imre
equally ceased to exist as indepeadent power-.
though in the former state, it is permltteti by the
Corsican Baler, to Fite:us:me VI. to retain,
the present time., the external title and insignia of
royalty ; while at Naples, JoAcitist MURAT is
placed on the throne of FERDINAND IV. Portu-
gal, enhdired and rescued, can only be regarded as
an rippeadage to the Spanish Momiarcliy, whose fate
it must ultimately follow. Towards the Turk i-h
empire, on this side of the Bosphorus, NAPOLEON
only wants leisure to direct his blowe, in concert
with Russia. Even the temporal power of time Bre.
ails,' Puutiffs, which, connected with the spiritual
att:lmority and sauctity of the Ilely S:e-, lied subsist-
ed, fur near a thousand years, since C MAR:A.II4AG% I
has been dissolved by a I...:wsieemo Usertcer, who was
himself crowned only a very few feats ago, by the
very Pore. whom he LaS'OOme degraded and depos-
ed. Yet, from the Ba:tie to Calabria, all Imes lain
down, sinee the Peace of Tilsit. Pot a leaf moved
on the Continent of Europe, when this Ruffian
Conqueror, unable to attack England, which di,-
gird his power. while she crippled his navy. in the
wanton plenitude of his despotic and unorincipleti
seised on the ilerSoll of his stir, acid de-
eared Spain to be his own by right cf unt•ontrol-
able force. llistory, shier the full of ancieut
Rome, present* no such instance of perfidy, out-
rage, and lawless violence. For, :%IstfosiEe the
liseasco, who overturned the Greek Empire in
3453, was, like his predecessors. BAJAZET sad
ANIURATH, at cunt and hereditary near With the
feeble successors of CONSTANTINE. amid JUeTtaIAN.
BONAPARTE, 011 the contrary. was the friend am/
piciteetoi of CHARLES the FoultTll. of ID* Family.
and of his dominions.
7lut, will his flagitious esterptiee beyond the
'Pyrenees, be crowned with the satire success, as lAA
attended bins iu Italy, end in Germany ? We
think not; and we Mend oar opinion, nut ou our
wishes, or Our hopes, but on the events which have
tikes Plece,:ami are taking place in Spain. That
thtica is people, and in energy manifested by tha
r people, we have evidentie. There may be. and there
are doubtless among them. traitors, egotists. mid
•)acobios. Some of the provinces may have been
tardy, or slaggiels, or phlegmatic. Almost all linty
have iniscaleulated their own weakness and damper,
no lees than the means of the enemy.. They have
been defeated and dispersed in the field. Several
pratinces are overrun. Even the metropolis Imes
been, and perhaps is at this hour in the invader's
possession. The Throne is vacant, and the Sove-
reign renames in prison lit Valency. The F.leeta-
live Goveniment has fled into Andalusia, end N ro-
LZON may not improbably fultil his threat of
crowning his brother at Madrid. But, great and
lamentable as these reverses are, Spain is ueitkr
lost, nor conquered. We are much mistaken if she
doer not emerge from this abyss, and expel the in-
vaders. Of the consequences of the entry into
Madrid, we are much uninformed : but we may
safely infer, from time subsequent silence of the
" Montour;' that they hare not been brilliaut.
Saragossa hue again exhibited a noble proof of
patriotism, valour, and constancy. Catalonia emu-
lates the example of the Arrugoneee. The English
are in Leon, or iu old Castile. No symptoms of
terror, submission, or debility, are seen anywhere.
Our nest advice. may, we confidently trust,
strengthen these grounds on which we found our
hopes of the final emancipation of Spain. If the
incapacity or vaccination of oar Ministers at home.
do not nip these promising appearances iia the bud ;
and if no such military c :orders are in future
employed, as 'Coped away our national character
at eintra ; we have every reasonable hope sod est
pectation, that Nirotcoa'S return seeress the Py-
renees, will bear no resemblance to his return fres
Vienna, or from, Tilsit. _

1•

It was expected that the Minority .f the Board
of Inquiry having ^ stated their reasons for voting
against the Arrnigiie and the Convention of Cin-
ire. the Majority would be required to state the
grounds upon which they approved these measures.
We understand, however, from the friends of the .
three Generals interested in the Inquiry, and re-
ports In the Ministerial circles, that Ilia 111,0 siTT
acquiesces in the decision of the Board of Inquiry,
which states, that no further military proceeding is
necessary, that the Board is dissolved, and that no
farther questions will be put by order of Ilis3llo EsTT
upon the Report. It isalsorumoured,thatMinisters
mean, on the meeting of Parliament, to propose a
Vote of Thanks to the thr.•e Cintra Generals, for
their'. unquestiooable zeal and firmness exhibited
throughout their campaign;' and indeed, if they do
not mean to tix a stigma trpori the Report of the
Board, we do not see how they can avoid it. Never
were troops and inferior *Seers betti r entitled to a
vote of thanks than those who served under
the triumvirate or Cintra. It woold have been
a hard case to hive pas'scil theirs by because
their Commanding Officers hal' thrown away the