The National Register.
London, England, 1822-12-09 00:00:00


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No, 1.397 —VOL. XV.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1622.

TUE IiPERATIONS GLINtitAL JIIINA IN
CATALONIA,
-
[From the Casette of SaragArsa.)
Every body knows the situation of this province in
the month of August, when Gen. Mina received the
commaud. They knew that the Defenders of the
Faith were in possession of every part of it, except
Lerida, Nlaurerat, Cardona, Barcelona, Tarragona,
Tortosa, Gerona, Fi,,ateints, and ltosas ; even these
places were blockadtxt and thiir weak girrLons were
obliged to make frequent sallies to prococe provisions..
The success of the Defenders of the Faith increased,
while they had to contend with forces so inferior
that they were hardly able to oct even on the defbn-
sive. Yet the Constitutional troops, faithful to
their oath to defend ;he gtiod cause, cad despising
the great number of their us.sallants, the continual
marches, distress, famine, and privations of every
kind, never lost their courage, and preserved those
important places with the aid of four weak moveable
columns commantlad by .the brave Torrijos, ltateu,
NI dans, and Mans°, to whom we partly owe the pre-
servation of Catalonia.

arrive on the 18th or Roth. The whole 'district of
Trempe, up to the frontiers of France, was covered
with fugitives wandering in all directions. Tremp;
'Fulani, and several other communes, have been
plundered and burnt by the constitutional troi;ps,
who spread general consternation. Not w ithstand rev
the preparations for defence making at Urgel on the
15th, it is not thought. that it will stand a siege,
especially us the soldiers of the Faith refused to shut
themselves up in it. Meantime it is abandoned by
the Regency, and by all the inhabitants who havai
any thing to lose. The niarm even extended to
Puyeerda ; and if Malang continued his movemaot
towards Campredon, there is no doubt but that piece
will have the same fate as Urgel. The number of
peasants who leave the army to return home, and of
the soldiers of the Faith who offer to surrender to the
Constitutional Government, is considerable. In fact,
mansion and discord now reign in that army which
boasted of re-estabaishing despotism in Spain. Such
was the result of the operations up to the 10th inst.
THE CONGULA

General Mina arrived on the 7th of September at
Lerida, entirely destitute of the necessary means to
combat forces ten times u numerous as those placed
under his command ; not but that the reinforcements

• VERONA, Nov. 21.
(merit. Act lf !WM A PRIVATE LETTEaI
The ,principal, and perhups in reality the only,
object for which the Congress was assembled at Ve-
rona, was the political situation of the Spanish mid
Portuguese Monarchies. The conferences and deli-
berations upon that point arc terminated. With tho
exception of the Sovereigns and Ministers who Piave
taken u share in them, there is nobody who is posi-
tively acquainted with their result. The secret has
been so well kept, that I could give you the names
of several Diplomatists who have arrived here since
their commducem , and are not a whit the wiser
than they were leaving home. All, therefore,
that I can do is inform you of what is entijectured
by the dill; rent classes of society in this city:
There have been four er.fiya sitting 3. of Congress
specially devoted to the affairs of Spain. The Duke
of Wellington has, ou each ozcasion, declared iu u
formal manner, his hostility to every species of
armed interv...ition; mid iu so doing, has Leen sup-
ported by Austria and Prussia. Russia has appeared
to incline to the opposqe side, bat without urging
her opinion with muck weight. The French daplo-
matists were busily employed in pointing out the
danger to which their country would L exposed,
were the royal authority ti be left us feeble us the
constitution of the Cortes hull made it. They ade..:.d,
that the very same danger would undoubtcdly me-
nace, in the long run, the whole of Italy, the Low
Countries, end home of the small stases of Germany,
and at a still later period, perhaps, even the more
considerable states of' the same cumuli-, in which
liberal, principles ancar to have a great number of
partisans in all ela..,es, and priacipally in. those that
arc most. enlightened.
The picture of these possibilities has produced it
very lively impression upon the minds of the mem-
bers of the Coagr4.ss. however, they have contrived-
among them to discover that a mote immediate and
general danger might result from un open aggres-
sion—they have said, that peace, after so long a war
as that 1V.16 finished in 1815, was too preLicms
blessing to be compromised by violent ineasuzes,
against u people which, moreover, has the right to
-ameliotaie its condition, so long as it does not inter-
fere With the &sal' int of other nations, and us it pre-
serves the monerulsied.principle.; that the chances of
war are always oneerlain; that it the Spaniards
were to succeed against a. threign army, the fears
which a propagatioo of the, prine.rles of the Spanish
constitution inspires to-day, would then be much
greater and better tbundcd—in shah, that prudimee
suggested, that every thing should be left in stain
quo, and that we should look for the changes tvmell
tue Sovereigns desired, front the Spuniur.:s them-.
selves.

proirdoed were forwarded, and in fact, he received
about 1.200 at Lerida; and Torrijoa, with a column
of 800 which had escaped from Romanillo's, and

other chiefs of the Army of the Faith, who had sur.
rendered him at
.S!rvera, succeeded in joining Mina
at Lerida on the 10th. -It was with this force that
the General undertook his first movement on the
'12:11 towards Cervera, tic Defenders of the
Faith evacuated at his approach in the night of 'the
3th. On the 16th the Constitutional General re-
. moved his head quarters to Culat, which became the
central point of his farther operations. Baron
d'Eroles, desiring to impede the march of reinforce-
..
merits in Catal'Uliii,''aitisaa "Itte• hears of tleeCinea
to lye invaded by his troops, seriously threatening
Arragon ; and, in tact, he succeeded at least in em-
ploying; thr a month the division of General Zarco
tie, Vulle, consisting of 4,000 men, the greater part
of which was destined to reinforce Mina, with other
bands of the Faith, snore or less numerous were sent
to the. right bank of the Ebro. Queseda was de-
tached into Navarre, in the hope of liirther diverting
we attention of Zarco del.Valle. Nothing could
reduce a change in the general plan of the Consti.
tutiotialists, svhich was in the mesa to attack the
adverse faction Kt its source, and to expel the Re-
gency from ; but yet this object was remote,
ter it wos accessory, first of all, to restore the com-
inutticittion between Saragossa, Lerida, Vich, Man-
resa, &c. ; to reinforce the garrisons, to supsply them
with ammunition .and provisions ; to form a line of
defence ; to revive public; confidence in the country
occupied by the constitutional troops, especially at
Barcelena, flunk which they must derive their chief
resource.* ; and this Mina elks:Led in hid coarse of it
month, aequiring'also a knowledge of the ground,
and of the real situation of the enemy's three.—
Meantlme reinthreemcnts arrived front all (porters,
though not in such numbers as had been hoped,
becaiise the invvsion of the Defender of the Faille
into Arragon. and even into the provin,x of Valencia,
Lad dratvti off. 5 or (1,000 men. he Royalists,
proud of their superiority, and taking for tear an
inactivity winch was mity prudence on the, part of
N:ina; daily groveled hint to battle; but it was not
till the of o.iteher that lie re calved to attack
Cabin:Wolin, and uu the 27th the division of Eroles
a 'tore. Oar readers know the result of these two
days : suffice it to remark, that they greatly con-
tributed to the increasing success of- the General,
who wasutterwards reinforced by :3,000 men from
the division of Z treo del Valle. Eroles then per
evived that he evuld obtain no great advantage on
en the right bank of the Seyne, and retired into the
numnitains of the Conque de Treinp, his native
rountiy, finally persuad:al that he should be .there
able to resist time Constitutionalists ; but the affairs
of the In .11, I 4 cis, I Mh, and 16. h, have prov,sl the
contrary; ti..rtroops hive been ,).ialta !get' front their
yosition, leaten, and dispersed; Erult s hinisellbeing
forced to renew; to Urgel, where :tlitia expected to

The French diplomai;qg have, it is &aid, persisted
in endeavouring to them) uti;wetionit in thJ
Lot sitting.; the}• havu confined their efforts in it to
obtaining. this decision in their fitvettir—that. every
Power having the int:isputrhlc• right to rii..ite war
again,t ally other whoa it (.4!lka ii has jamit. Milt Ira-
vocative re,tailia for MI Caoing, France Trey employ
that right iigninst Spain it Joe

- '74m71

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Out' Litt , eottit.itution, an' itaUff.

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PlucE 9,'D

'that in such ease the other Powers should Le bound
in honour to remain neutral.
Thus, if war were to .tole place; it would be a
struggle hand 'to bland between France and Spain.
Under any otitis circumstances, and for a ditiiment
canse, the resources of Franc, without a doubt ate
superior to the resources of Spain; but if France
had to combat with the nation awl constitutional
armies wer..-ly, the recollection would naturally rest
upon the dint/Nous war which Buonapurte male
against that .coun try, and the extreme bravery of the
old French army would not entirely perhaps restore
confidence. It is probable that the eiliats of France
might at this moment be seconded by a strong party
—Lut had not Iluotiaparte also his party ?
It is added, that after this decision of Congress,
the Emperor of Austria, and even the Emperor of
Russia, us•veell as the majority of the ministers,
ticularly the Duke of Wellington, have, in a
friendly trimmer, advised the French Ministers not
to undertake this war, or at least to reflect un it well
and maturely Lethrehand, us it might place in dan-
ger the repose of Europe—an event of which it is
not difficult to foresee the melancholy consequence_
I repeat to you, that all I have just been to
is simply what is repeated is the diferent circles at
Verona, and that I do not guarantee to you its au-
thenticity; although I give credit to it myself in
common with a great number of persons, among,
whom are likely to be well itArtned in spite ortlre
closeness with which the secret is guarded.
What I can inform you for certain is, that for
some days past there Ins arrived here positive intel-
ligence that many foreign.merchatits have demanded
letters of marque from the Spanish Government, for
the purpose of arming privateers in case war should.
take place between France and Spain, and that a
great quantity of these letters of marque have already
been transtniti.ed to dilli:rent Spanish Consuls, parti-
cularly,to.thuse resident in the ports of Eagiand, is
order that they may be delivered to the privateers ut
the very moment that Choy receive cfficial loos
of the declaration of war.

M. de Moteanorency sets out te-metrew en Li.;
return to Paris. Madame la Vitsentesse de Nitet:e
mummy, who was expected at Verona !for !several
weeks, has not advaiieed farther than Chamber!,
where his Excellency is to rejoin her.
The other French plerileeentiarics will retreiin
here until the departure of the S.ivereig,us. They
will only take, it I may tLe, such an exueeesion, a
secondary part in the stibi..c.s on whiclrtleCongress
is likely to be still engitol. These a übjez;ts are rho
ufiltirs of Greece, awl the over:Lion of Naplesani
Piedmont by Austrian troops ; but we are asset:A
that these points may be tansidt:red ut sleeedy set-
tled. It is said that the coudeet of the Otto:ilea
Porto has been seeerely characterized Ly the Con-
gress, and even by the Dal:e el Wellington himself ;
that the Emperor Alexander he shown great iudh,-
union at it; thitt 11;s Impetial Majesty has nu
longer ahy hope of an accommodation; and that he
tveiy waits fur the arrival of the Cuisnt de- Lutz.v.v,
to deLlare His determina.ien rte,te,eieg
Turkey. The envoys front the Greek Goverinneot
have riot been officially admitted to the presetr.e c.f
the Sovereigns; yet every one of them believes that
one of them has been here incognito thr same kme'
and that :ne notes which he has presented have been
favourably received.
With regard to Naples and Piedmont, the report
is very general that the Sitvereigns of these two
countries and their Ministers have used every exete
tion to get the Austrian troops withdrawn front
them, but that Aas:ria has thrown great ow' taeles

thu way of their iww.:nde, rki • bund on!y a eery
teeth auppart in one, rf the wincinbers of tat.
Congrem. PLlple are in euiLseltieneC::OliVill‘Va
(11V.t.tvu exzr6:-.l.ties of !Idly wid sti:l for a v•.!ry.,lonl
iron be occupied by Germane. It is 6,4-it:vv.:l 11,t

the rcustin urgcd by .2ustriA w. s the•sit'4-
Wien ot tlie Spanish Kina cilftia-
plC:6 ullowcti ho inL:...L;cii o aixi;Lating
Rowe; to tun:time public; al. was thoreti,re renr.nsh:d,-
Iftu.r. tile crown would tn.:ll-ue learn by the DuLe
. .

C.hkbria, hls observation tit up' 'by
autte others, it appt:ars for Tito preesta his
Ni.t;::sty tags rcuJuttceU his deAgii.,••••:, •

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