The National Register.
London, England, 1813-09-19 00:00:00

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 11313.

POLITICAL DIS2UISITION.

STATE OF THE WAR.

There are occasions when the pressing crowd of im-
portant events necessarily diverts the mind of the observer
from the causes which produce them ; political speculations
are suspended in the bdstle of the battle, and the considera-
tion of futurity is lost in the anxiety for the present. In
our preceding numbers we have examined the constant, the
terrible effects of the revolutionary spirit in Europe, and
we are far from having exhausted the subject : but the recent
occurrences of a war by which the fate of Europe is to be
scaled for centuries, imperiously calls our attention to the
sanguinary theatre of gigantic warfare.
The natural and avowed object of BUONAPARTE'S first
military operations on the re-opening of the campaign was
the occuphtion of Breslau and Belli') ; and so confident was
be of success, that those events were fondly anticipated by
his most confidential agents. By the occupation of those
two capitals he would have given to his arms a lustre of
which he stands so much in need, in the present circum-
stances, to dazzle his enemies, his reluctant vassals, and his
discontented subjects; by thus possessing himself of the
countries between the Elbe and the Oder, he would have
stripped the Prussian Monarchy, which he has doomed to
destruction, of the provinces, which constitute its principal
strength, and he would have approached his blockaded gar-
risons on the Oder, and on the Vistula, which still threaten
the independence of Prussia and even of Russia itself.
In pursuance of these objects, early after the expiration
of the Armistice, he set out himself from Dresden, towards
Breslau, at the head of his best troops, to attack Gene-
ral Ikuc nen, who commanded the Allies in that quarter,
and who, having anticipated that movement, had traversed
the ground declared neutral by the Armistice, and taken a
position an the Bober, to cover the capital of Silesia. In
the mean time a combined movement of all the troops of
the Lower Elbe was to put him in pOssession of Berlin,
which was covered by the CROWN PftittcE of SWEDEN, at
the head of 110,000 men, in a strong position on the Spree,
and supported by the fortress of Spandau. The French
Generals taking the course of the Elbe as the basis of their
military operations advanced towards Berlin by convergent
marches : GIRARD from Magdebourg, OUDINOT and Vic-
TOR from Bayreuth, and DAVOUST from flamburgh.
In the mean time BUON AP ART E in person arrived on the
Bober, and, according to his own account, forced the pas-
sage of that river in his way to Breslau, and obtained some
trifling advantages. But while thus incautiously advancing
to new conquests, he was unexpectedly recalled by an im-
pending danger which threatened his own personal ruin and
that of the army he had with him in Silesia.
Vol. VI. No. CC.XCIX.

Parcz 9d•

Immediately after the Armistice, sixty thousand Prussians
and Russians joined the army in Bohemia, and, crossing the
Elbe in that country, the combined forces, by rapid marches,
suddenly appeared before Dresden, on the left bank of that
river, and in the rear of Buot4AP ARTE. Had this bold and
masterly manoeuvre bean crowned by the takingof Dresden.
there would have been an end to the war ; for the retreat of
BooK A PART E and his army would have been completely and
irrevocably cut off. He, however, got notice of this move•
ment from some spies, just in time to avert the danger, and,
by a march of one hundred and twenty miles in four days,
threw himself into Dresden with one hundred thousand of his
best troops, the day before the attack, leaving MAC noNA t.D
to defend the passage of the Bober. In the preceding num•
ber we have offered some observations on the unfortunate
failure of that attack, but our object at present is to take a
general view of the state of the campaign of which it forms so
important a feature, and without recurring to the circum-
stances of the sanguinary conflict, we shall notice its princi-
pal consequences.

The movement of. the Allies npon Dresden in such coml.
dei able forces, although ultimately unsuccessfuliss its princi-
pal object, bad still considerably deranged the plans of Be ONA•
PARTE. The corps be had sent early to observe_ the defiles
of Bohemia were no longer adequate to that object ; a new
dislocation of troops became necessary to make head against
• a formidable enemy on that vulnerable side, and accordingly
the 2d corps and the Ist, under VANDAMME, were with.
drawn from the army on the Lower Elbe, which was to ac-
against Berlin, whilst the greatest part of the troops Buos A-
PARTE bad withdrawn from the army on the Bober were di-
verted from the attack on Breslau to he employed on the
same service. We shall see in the sequel the effect produced
on the operations of those armies by that diversion horn
Bohemia, but we shall, for the present, limit our observations
-to the movements in that quarter.
BUONAPARTE, in Lis Bulletin of the Both of August, an-
nounced that on the 28th, 29t!i, and -Both, his army had fol-
lowed up their success against the enemy retreating into Eo.
hemia; that 66 VANDAMME bad, on the 29th, taken a posi4*
tion on the mountains of that country, established himself
there, and had sent several corps of light troops to scour the
country, obtain intelligence of the enemy, and seize his ma•
•gazines." In the Bulletin of the Ist September, which we
insert, we find that the very. same Vaxp AM nr e, on the very
same dav, was attacked, beaten, and killed by the Allies, with
-the avowed loss of six thousand men and thirty pieces of can-
non ! so much fur the veracity of the Bulletins and Inc de-
pendance that can be placed on them. But this is not all ;
and we strongly suspect from the expressions of that Bulletin
itself, notwithstanding its studied obscurity, that ti e
corps, commanded by VANDA.MME, is not the on:y one

►1 ruin and itself, notwithstanding its studied obscurity, that ti e Ist
coips, commanded by VANDA.II:',IE, is not tile 911:y 01IC
w