The National Register.
London, England, 1809-06-11 00:00:00

Pntcr Jul.

the claim the victory, but iieene.'
have aey substantial fact to ascertain tie claim. both ar-
mies retained their positiiMs. '1 tie mference is, that ilaa
~a,.”4.riatis had attacked die enemy w t h tie• greatest
brave:3', and with mach' effect, and that the attack was
only iaterrupted by 111...: night. 'Both :!ccoaais a;;:ree that
beth armies retained their positions, from hall it must
be neces3arily iaferrcal that nether of them wors:ed.
In the existing circumstances of the Austrians, this equality
of fortune and ell'ort in aach
.a dreadful cacou:Aer, is of
itself a most encouraaing circumstance. Let tale Austrian
soldiers once.. look the t rench• in the face ; or, iii the lan-
guage of the sportsman, let them have the taste of blood,
and know that their. enemy is -Irainan and vimcilile like
themselves, and thefortane of the war will soon change.
There is, however, one circumstance in this part of the
A teitrian dispatches, •which merits a few wor(is.—li is
stated, that the Archduke Cuauens, DESIGNEDLY, that is to
say as a part of his plan, suffered them to ,pass • the riser,
anti would not attack then) till they • had safely efteeted
their p.issage. This is•an absurdity which the clerks at
home have itifased into the dispatches. 11 an army can
ever be attacked with 2(lyantag,e, it is when they are in
the act of crossing a river, and wore riv a river
like,thal of the Danube. If the Archduke, theiefere, tLrl
not attack them in their passairs, it was for seine bettta•
reason than is here assigned. .this circtin.stance, iroa.
ever, is oily worthy of being mentioned as u p,culiUr
stance of an ass kward garbling of dispatches.
We come now to the alledged occurrences of the 22d.
On this day, according to the Freech accooets. the French
had recommenced the attack, when the Emperor was sud-
denly ieformed, that the bridges over the il:n a..jre
broken down by the floods, and that his rear and ammu-
nition were in consequence separated from his front. Froni
this unexpected accident, continues the 13:1!ictin, it was
fouud necessa rt. to retreat, which the Austrians perceived,
by playing upon the t•rench
and availed themselves of it,
armies with 200 pieces or cannon and 'Orly thousand nuts-
quetrv. The French, however, according to their own
statement, effected their retreat to an island in the Da-
nube, where they have since remained, and re-established
their bridges.

The Austrian dispatches give a totally difrorent account
of the events of this day. The" state that the bridges we, e
nut broken down by the aloud, but were set on fve by the
Austrians ; that the enernic were, in consequence, defeatcd
in all quarters; and that they VIVe tr-cro,rd the
anbe. Upon comr,arison, therefore, of the two accentiti
of the eNCIO4 of the :ad, the main point of Sitrerence is,
that the French Attribute the removalol the brizirt!s to the
ris.ng of the raver, whilst tho Aust.fiat; dispatches asert
thew to have been destroyed by fire. As we have. hc...e
Iwo contrary aAertions without any coucon.litznt
circums!ancts, it is not %WV CZlgy to determlne to which
account the preference is due. For our own r., 1.,0;1-
e‘er, tee are compelled to acknowledge, that the kr:_mdi
v.count is not only more cir:Lunsi,:tiAti-411 but is

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