The Sun.
London, England, 1807-01-15 00:00:00

the
unthreshed corn thrawa before teen norms.. ,a,
Prussian General,- who is nOw dead. of his WbiihdSa
had, indeed, made it a, maxim to per-Mit. the tiea-.
santa' horses,, cows, sheep, „and proviSitinS; to he
earlled-off, and-The-country striiiped to an extent of
three or four-leagues, that the enemy, might find•nb-
thing left. • . . ,
The third and moat detisive, error lay ila the
false calculations that
,were made reapeding the
movements of the enemy, and the untbrumate
choice of positions. The Prussian army lost title
al Erfurth ; and when the French first began to
surround the Thuringer Wood, the Prtissians busily
employed themselves at the head-quarters at Er-
turth, with the extravagant project of falling. upon
the French army in the rear, at Frankfort, urtz-
burgh,-and Bamberg. The position of the Prussian
army on the Left Bank of the Saal was in 'every re-
speCt disadvantageous. Thereby the road to the
capital, and to the chief fortresses* (the' protection
of which ought to have, been the, first objeal), as
well as the whole Eleoorate of Saanny, was•thrown
open. By this position the ainry•was also cut off
from their retreat to Magdeburgh, ' after the battle,
and they were forced to march in a crooked line by
Erfurth towards the Elbe, while the French follow-
, ed themin a dire& line, and anticipated every ad--
vantageous position. The re-serve, under the Corra7
mand of theyrince of Wirtemburgh, was posted,
without any objett, at Halle, in place of its keeping
the corps of Marshal Ney' from fiilling upon the
rear of the main army. . .
Those btflwarks of the Prussian Monarchy, the
most important fortresses, whi. 11 would hare greatly
obstrueled the progress of the ia-eoeh Army, were
in an untenable condition and with :t provisions;
and in the event that the battle was to have been
lost there was no place of asseMbling made known—
no rallying point fixed upon. The discomfited corps
therefore retired in quite difl'erent- direEtions, and
were almost all made prisoners,.
,
On the_ decisive day, the 14th of 06tober, the left
wing was not formed in the same line, nor united
with the centre. This want of unity had this ef-
fed—that two separate,and distinct battles were
fought at one and the same moment, and upon
ground not very extensive. • After the Duke of
Brunswick was wounded there was no•CoMmander
in Chief; to direst the Prussian Army. The carps
fought singly, without plan, and without- concert,.
and many regiments did not engage 'at altr.very,
little of the strength or position of the Enemy was
known. _The Saxons, whofatight On the left wing,
generally assertaa hat on the day of the battle they
either received no orders at all from the OffiCers nil,-
der whose command they were,
,or that the orders
they did receive were such as could not have been
executed. They were goOn obliged to deliver up
their remaining ammunition to the Prussians, and
they lost their cannon when the retreat began, in
consequence of having no cavalry 'to cover them.
Lastly, the Prussian Army was detained and hin-
dered in its flight by the' crowd of waggons and'
horses, and their unusually great quantity of bag-
gage. , This complete overthrow and destruffion was
not owing, however, to any want of bravery. That
the Prussians, under-all these difficulties, fought with
courage and perseverance, is testified by the French
themselves. ~
The vitiorious Emperor Napoleon conduEted the 1
events of the lath of October with steadiness and
the keenest prudence. He lodged the tight before
thiS eventful day in the Castle of :ena, diad, on the 1
following morning, as is asserted at Jena, he re-
connoitred from the top of the old " observatdry
(commonly called the Fox Tower), the opposite
heights on the road to Weimar, and witnessed the
bloody battle that took place between the. French
that were marching through the Mublenthal and the
Saxons 'and • Prussians posted on ,the Sneckenberg.
Not far from this spot is the chain of sandy hillocks;
which present, as it were, ,a Steep wall on the
heights of the Saal. There is here a:coppice, known
through the whole neighbourhood by the name of
the Rauhthales, a place ,celebrated in the annals of
the Jena Muses, on account of the :combats that
.used formerly to take place between the Students at
that spot. :This is the pass which the'Enaperor Na-
poleon fortified so strongly, and in such a *Masterly
mannerawith heavy cannon,, and Which is spoken
so highly of in all the official accounts of the Wig'
tie. It is incomprehensible to the slightest observer •
how this place was not occupied by the Prussians'
and yet it was strongly 'recommended to them by
the Saxon Officer of Engineers, Lehman, who
knew the ground well. So far was, this care-
lessness carried, that the out-posts, consisting of
Prussians and Saaons, which were drivenin- by the
French from Jena to Carnburgh, in consequence
, of the above pass being ,left open, had no know-
ledge whatever of what was going on within a league
of them. ..
The Journal de Paris informs us, that a young
Prussian Adjutant,, who was taken prisoner in the
battle of Jena,. ascribes the unfortunate issue of that
battle to the neglect of the superior Officers among
the Prussians, in net occupying in good time the
narrow passes of Kosen. Marshal Davoust anti-.
cipated , them,'-and eleven successive attacks after-
wards made against him could not drive him out
of these passes. • Besides this, the rapidity of the
evolutions of the French Army astonished the *Prus-
sian Generals. In every manoeuvre attempted by
the latter they were anticipated. What,- hOwever,
most surprised this Officer was, the French Artil-
lery., The most courageous soldiers could not ap-
proach the showers of balls which preceded the
march of the columns without trembling. . The re-
giment of Larisch, for example, was above two
thousand men strong, and in a few minutes only
one hundred and fifty_ men were left. standing,
having been stationed opposite to a battery of eight
field-pieces.

Yesterday morning a young man of the name of
Porter, lately from Bath, undertook for live guineaS
to go on foot from Moorgate Cotfee7house to the
sign of the Blue-Coat-Boy, and back again in 25
minutes, the distance being three miles. He started
at seven o'clock ; arrived at the Blue-Coat-Boy at
ten minutes past seven, and returned to Moorgate
Coffee-house at. 22 minutes past seven, so that he
won by three' minutes, .
Singular instance y'Speed.,--Phendmenon, which
started on MOnday last o❑ the Huntingdon road;
against the famous Manchester mare, trotted ten
miles within 41 minutes, a month since.