The National Register.
London, England, 1812-12-20 00:00:00

pr,C 20.

ississs------
warp destroyed his rear, KU TUSOFF moved in a parallel
direction with the main body, and WITTGENSTEIN and
TCHICIIAGOFF, the former by daring and successful attacks,
and the latter by forced marches, drove in the troops that
forme,' the basis of his operations, and threatened to cut him
stf entirely from Poland. In that state he arrived at Smo-
lessko, where he found about 15,000 men belonging to Vtc-
T 0 leS division. Here he waited several days for the rest of
his army, and finding that the 4th corps, under BEAUH AR-
vots, had lost more than half its numbers and all its artillery,
probably changed its order of march, as Lord CATHCART
mentions in his dispatches that the Italian corps was sent for-
van', with the imperial guards and the sth, or Polish corps.
Being at last apprised of the arrival of Pt incc li uTUSOW in
the nsighbourhood of Smolensko, and learning that unless
he reached Minsk before Tcwc n A GOF r, he should be placed
between two armies without a single passage for retreat, he
dispatched the Bth corps, undee JutiOT, with the reserve of
guards and the part of the 10th left by VICTOR at Smolen-
sko, to join the advanced-guard, and forming a strong rear-
guard of the Ist and Sd under D AVM:ST and NEY, accompa-
nied them himself until he fell in with MIL ARADOVITC II at
Krasnoi, where, preferring his personal safety to their own,
anti conscious that the least delay might prevent his rejoin-
ing the first part and main body of his army, before they had
passed through Minsk (of which Tcmcn A GO/ F might take
possession after them, and thus intercept him personally), the
C real NAnot.Eon fled.bravely from the field of battle, and
sacrificed his whole rear, by commanding them to fight the
Russians in order to arrest their march and secure his retreat.
The total destruction of DAvousT's corps, and the surrender
of NEY'S on the following day," with the escape of those two
Chiefs, wounded and attended by only a few Officers, form
the glorious features of the intelligence communicated in
The Exlraordinaly Gazette last Wednesday, and announced
by the grateful thunder of the Tower and Park guns. The
.
eifect which such discomfiture, unequalled in the annals of
NON A P A RT ifS career; will prodUce on the rest of his armies,
and the fidelity of his Allies, mayAke decisive of the fate of
the long oppresed Continent. Whether, as some French
pipers rescued at the beginning of the week say, he has suc-
ceeded with the remains of his grand army (reduced to
at least one half of what it was when he left Moscow),
in avoiding TCHICHAGOFF, and penetrating to Staroy-
Borisow, where he might soon communicate with the corps
left in Lithuania ; or whether, as numberless reports have
stated, he has perished by the hand of one of his o vn Officers,
the next advises from Gottenburgh will alone enable us to
ascertain..' If his fortune ha's favoured bhp so far as to save
him from captivity, disarmed of half his power and his fame
all he could be ablest° effect, would be to reunite his divided
corps at Mittau, Wilna, Lepel, and on the Bog, and returning
to theNiemen, endeavour to maintain a defensive position on
its banks, until the assistance of his allies should enable him'
to resume offensive operations, •or their far more probable
defection compel him to abandon Poland, and seek a refuge
among the Confederation of the Rhine, if not within the fron-
tiers of France. Lord W A LPOLE has In:en wisely ordered
to repair from St. Petersburgh to Vienna, to take advantage
of the present favourable opportunity, and endeavour to de-
tach the Et4PgliOß FRANCIS from the cause of his defeated
son-in-law. The crisis o'f NAPOLEON'S fortunes is certainly
now come,—but to that oVerruting Providence, at whose
command empires rise' and fall, it can only yet be known.

AMERICAN MESSAGE.
• We give in another part of our paper the Message of the
American Pitr.L; DENT to Congress. It is VAUCtiOnt