The National Register.
London, England, 1809-01-29 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

JAN. 29.

ence ought to preside ; should want of system and co-ope-
ration appear, in every department ; should the services of
the army and navy be frustrated by the abuses and delays
ofthe Transport, Victualling, and Ordnance boards ; should
a considerable portion of these diSorders be traced to the in-
capacity of a single individual, to the . fatal protection he
extends to a set of greedy, unprincipled followers ; and
should they be suffered to subsist for no other purpose,
than that of gratifying his private vices and inordinate am-
bition; where would we under such circumstances find words
to execrate the Authors of our distresses, or language
sufficiently severe to reprove our own indifference.
The Expedition to Portugal, the march from Cortinna to
Astorga, the fatal retreat from Sahagnn, and all the pri-
vations and misery our brave soldiers have sustained, prove
the extent of the evil, as well as the imperious necessity of
removing it. The hardships, our troops have been
wantonly and barbarously exposed to, through the negli-
gence or iticompetency of the commissariate, have roused
the indignation as well as sympathy ofAe public and
measures must be proposed and adopted to prevent the re-
currence of so trying an abuse. Whilst the greatest order
and act iVity prevails in the same department among the ene-
my and their armies are abundantly supplied with every re-
quisite, we find notwithstanding the vast resources of the
country, and the immence sums expended for the purpose,
that incessant complaints are made about the insuffici-
ency and irregularity of the supplies for our men.
However, it the late distresses of our army, together with
former disasters, impress the insufficiency of our present
arrangements, we would be inclined to bless the hand
which has afflicted us; and if the amendment be complete,
the battle of Corunna offers us the certainty of stopping
BONAPARTk; in the career of his fortunes. After the event
of that memorable battle, the counterpart of the days of
CRESCY and AtuNcounT, we should explode pusillanimity
for ever from our councils. Shame on tho feelings of the
individual, who would now recommend caution in our fu-
ture operations, or advise us to decline the contest in con-
sequence of the enemy's superiority of numbers. The
last glorious battle has proved that. the old popular adege,
of one Englishman beating three Frenchmen, is neither ex:
travagant nor impracticable. It may be criminal to foster
the vanity of a people; but we know not under what
term of abhorrence to designate the wretch who labours to
raise the character and resources of the enemy at the ex-
pence of his own country. Just Heavens ! what an au-
spicious opportunity is offered us now of gratifying an ho-
nest ambition ! one hundred thousand British soldiers, of
the same metal as those that fought at Corunna, conducted
by a General, like the hero who led our army to victory
on that occasion, or fighting under the guidance of a Wel-
lesley, are capable of snatching from the brows of the
French the trophies they have so insolently worn, 'and so
unjustly acquired. Our young officers are worthy of their
country, and her former military reputation, and have
supported the privations and fatigues of the late harrassing
retreat, with a 'constancy and courage, which excited even
the admiration of the enemy. We have invariably enter-
tamed this opinion of the moral resources of our country-
men; and if our Government is capable of wielding them
to their full extent, we niay reckon on an era of fame and
prosperity, wicqualled in the annals of any modern
peopie.