The National Register.
London, England, 1812-09-06 00:00:00

Sr.PT. 6•

d, and General lYlias*N's Portuguese briade of cavalry,
:lila some deochments of German horse and anillery, ad-
vanced to Majalahorda without any opposition. At that
!lace, however, they encountered a division of French ca
valry, and the Portuguese being otdered to charge, advanced,
but unfortunately turned about before they reached the
enemy," and fled through the village behind the German
dragoons, abandoning several pieces of cannon, all of which,
however, were saved except three, which remained in the
possessmon of the French, but which they also abandoned
when the an ival of reinforcements to our troop compelled
them to retim e. On the 12th of Augu.:t, time PRINCE RE-
GEST's birth-day, Marquis W ELLINGTON entered Mach id,
in the midst of the wildest expressions of joy on the part of
the inhabitants of that capital, JoSEPH having tetired,
the army of the centre, by the way of Toledo and Aranjuez,
probably to endeavour to form a junction with Sou LT and
Seett £T by taking a south-easternly dim ectiou. The garrison
which he had left in the Re' iro,—for what purpose it is not
easy to conceive,-was invested on the evening of the next.
day; and after some active approaches of the Britiih in the
night, surrendered on the 14th, to the number of 2,506 Of-
ficers and privates, with a vast quantity of milit.try stores.
No British Officer of rank fell, and the principal lyss sustain-
ed in these important atiairs was in the retreat of the Portu-

guest cava!ry.
Thus, in less than a month, has JOSEPH lost a whole
army, and his capital, with his best organixed and best fur-
nished arsenal, and is compelled to wander a fugitive, per-
haps soon to become a prisoner ; for Lord W ELLINGTON'S
second. dispatch also communicates the important intelli-
gence, that (;en. MAITLAND, with the expedition • from
Mi.iorca, had landed on the loth ult. at Alicant, where,
joined by Generals ROCHE and O'DONNEL, he would
soon advance to interpose between• SOULT and SUCHET,
and perhaps to capture tis flying MAJESTY, who seems de-
sirous to form the point of communication between those
two Commanders. In vain do the Fiench Papers pretend,
that strong reinforcements are at this moment entering
Spain.' NAPOLEON is too mach in want of troops in the. •
North to spare them to his brother ; but, at all events, we
trust that it' they come they will only have arrived in time
to lean the defeat or the surrender of the now divided
French armies in the East and South of Spain. The follow-
ing are additional particulars contained in private letttei;s :
Jostrn Bonsai.* arc fled with all possible s;teed. No sooner
bad p.. rt of nit: cavali y got through the Guadaratua Pass on the 9th,
than he left lladr d wah 12,000 turn, ls-11 of them J aramentodos.
Lord NV t Ll.l N To N says, be retired by the roads of Tolet!o and Aran'
jaez.—But, it is added. that he halted at Oceana on the 11th, and on
the 13th and Pith continued his march towards Valencia ; not wishing,
perhaps, to procccd hom Toledo towards Talavera, for leer of falling
in with General H'LL, %In/ is supposed to have made a movement in
the Ihreetion ut Talavera.
One thousand men lett in Guadalaxara are said,to have surrendered
to the EMPEelll A DO.
To:edo was evacuated on the 14th ; Lerida was blown ap by acci-
dent, and was occuried by the Spaniards.
Fruto the North of Spain we kart, that the blockade of Astorga con-
tinued Olt th- 13th. Zamora, with a garrison of 1,000 men, was in-
vested by StrYtena ; Toro and Tordesillas by the Liallicians ; the
latter surrenaered on the Wt.
Part of our army, which was left on the Douro to watch the euemv,
is ander General Cr INTosr.
The had h veered off tl.e coast of Catalonia and Valencia
for se ve.al days belOre, making deniOnstrations in different points, an-
te thc marches of the French, and, of course, harassing them.
We ore sure all hearts will rejoice in the information wt' are about
to co.locino ate, that before these last dispatches arrived, his PreishiP
tr,,s in 1" session of the PatNeE REGENT's promise, tinder kis own hand,
to give him oejast Garter -ill lvs poNsssion to bestow, and to recomMend
to PartiAnent the moment it ussembiett, that a prevision be made for his
Lcirdship similar to that matiefor Lard Nst.so:4.

543

ItUsSIAN CAMIIA 16 N
'We are now in possession of the Russian ofEc'al accounts
of most of the battles desesita d in the two last Freach
Bul-
Both sides, as it is not uncommon, claim the vic-
tory, and state the loss of their adversary at nearly the same
amount in killed, wounded, and pi isoners ; so that in the
same engagement in which the Russians tell us they have
taken several thousand prisoners and driven the Ft end'
through woods and across iivulets, the Fredch assure us they
have captured as many Russians and compelled the rest to
fallback a league or two. Both side, are, therefore, evidently
guilty of misrepresentation. They Loth pretend to have
been the assailants, and to have intended to pursue offensive
operations. Yet the Russians, notwithstanding their victo-
ries, have retreated; and the French, notwithstanding their
triumphs, have done little more than maintain their posia
tions. Their respective aim has, therefore, been defeated ;
and whilst, from the obstinate vaiour with which the battles
were fought, the flow of blood must have been considerable,
it must also have been nearly equal. The French may have
lost more men, but Icss ground, as they were able to date
their accounts of the three engagements from the same place,.
Biala, which also pores their incapacity to advance, even
after the last, in which they pretend to have obtained a de-
cided advantage, but of which the Russian Report has not
yet re ached us.
It appears to have been the intention of the Russian Com-
manders to have united and awaited, at Witepsk, the grand •
attack of the enemy. Prince BAG RATION, however, finding
Mohilow in possession of the French, was obliged to take a
circuitous road. which would have prevented him from reach-
ing Witepsk in time to join in a general engagement, as the
main army was too closely followed up to that place by NA-
Pot. eos in person, to avoid fighting an immediate battle,
except by quickly retreating still farther up the country.
tierce, alter having induced the Fiench klmperor to think
:hat his object was attained, and that he had at last compel-
led the Russian army to fight divided, General BARCLAY
DE TOL Li suddenly decamped in the night to form his junc-
tion with BAGRATION at Smolensko.. All the corps On his
right were obliged to follow that movement, in order not to
be cut oil; and Dunaberg was left in the midst of the ene-
my's forces. But why it should not have been deccuded ap-
pears to us difficult to explain. That place had been ren-
dered so strong that it would have occupied a svl,ole division
of the enemy in besieging it. If the Russian army would
have been weakened by the garrison placed in it, the French
would have been still mo:e so by the force they must detach
to undertake the siege mid cover its operations. Ab long a.:
it remained unsubdued, it formed a point of alarm on their
flank which might prevent the further advance (t their
main army ; whilst it now secures their left, affoids a safe
point of communication with their divisions marching
against Riga, and should that city fall, will enable them to
occupy a line of strong positions extending from the Baltic
to Witesisk, equally advantageous as a second basis for of-
fensive operations in Russia Proper, or for defence in case,
as they seem now inclined to do, they await in their turn the
attack of the Russians. Whatever view we take of the
abandonment of l)unaberg in all its strength. we can only
consider it either as a gross error on the part of our allies,
or as a piasof that the gold of 1%; APOttON is not without its
influence in Russia. For who but an idiot or a traitor
Would supply an invading enemy with additional strength
for attack, or security for flight
, On finding Witespk evacuated by the Russians, ,and per-
ceiving that it had become impracticable to prevent the
junction of their armies at SMOICII4O, NAPOLEON place&
his own "in quarters of refreshment." Ile considered, pre.

J