The Sun.
London, England, 1823-05-17 00:00:00

[IIItITISII PRESS.]

The French Papers of Wednesday reached us
yesterday by private express, with our correspondent's com-
munications. We had, in fact, anticipated every thing in these
papers, by ou express of the day befoe, which gave us the
Etoik and Pilote of Wednesday. We stated, in a second edi-
tion of our paper yesterday, the arrival of Amirante as a fugi-
tive at Angouleme!s head-quarters, Burgos, where he is said
by the Ministerial French papers to have been rejected by the
Alike. We mentioned alSo the immense drafts, for money made
on the French treasury by Angouleme. This " thrifty" and
'successful warrior has drawn, it seems, in one bill for no less a
sum than eight millions, at the suggestion of his Commis-
saire, Ouvrard, who.it appears informed the Duke that this was
the way in which his Grace of Wellington supplied the im-
mense resources squandered by us in the Spanish campaign,

The faction in France have made our unfortunate conduct a mo.
del and ground for all their vile actions latterly : they justified the
attack on Spain by our early interference with the internal con-
cerns of revolutionary France; and the Duke now exhausts the
French Treasury, because the British Marshal drevi largely in
his day. But to do the latter justice, he gave some value, both
in national glory and Spanish redemption, for the money ;
Angouleme is likely to purchase nothing but disaster and dis-
grace. The Journal des Drbats labours hard for its employers
to prove that Mina's army has been cut in two by the ma-
neruvres of the French Generals. One division of it (that un-
der Milans and Lobera) has, this Paper states, thrown itself in
Hostalrich, where the French cavalry already pushed their
reconnoissances ; the other division, it alleges, under Miba,
was obliged to ascend the Ter, and was pursued by General
Curial, D'Eroles, and Romagosa. Mina, it goes on to say,
has in his rear almost the entire army of Catalonia, for Donna-
dim had entered Vich amid the acclamations of the inhabi-
tants. The Journal des Davis asks, " What will become of
Mina in this hopeless situation ? Will he fight, or disperse
with the remains of his petty band in the mountains ?" Does
this Paper call ten or twelve thousand men apetty force ? The
latest accounts of those who asserted they counted the soldiers of
the Spanish Chief, man by man, stated his force at 14,000
effective men. How can, this Paper have the front to assert
that the army of Mina' was cut in two ? The fact is, that
the Spanish Chief, by a most bold and dexterous manoeuvre,
passed completely both Moncey and Curial, and placed him-
self, with an imposing and increasing force, between the French
Generals anti their own frontiers. The French, in truth, are
placed between the Spanish troops and surrounded by them.
Mina at the last accounts was at V'olfagena, near Campredon,
within nine miles of the French frontier. Curial was at Olot,
more than one day's march in the rear. Campredon lies at the
foot of the Pyrenees, on the river Ter, 45 miles north of Bar-
celona. Ripoll, where Rotnagosa was, is considerably in the
rear of Olot. Viet', which Donnadieu is said to have entered
by acclamation, lies 30 miles north-east of Barcelona; and
Hostalrich, on which the Constitutional Generals 111 dans and
Lobera have retired in considerable strength, is in the rear of
all, and they keep up the important line of communication with
the strongly-fortified city of Barcelona ; they will also be
enabled to act on the flank of any division Dortnadieu may at-
tempt to push forward from Vich. Thus Mina has most art-
fully out-manoeuvred the feeble Moncey and his Lieutenant
Curial, and given them completely the slip. He is now, with
troops inured to fatigue and conversant with the country, be-
tween the French and their own frontier, and may at once carry
the war into France, and both subsist his army anti levy immense
contributions in that country. He may also seize hostages for the
safety of the constitutional Spaniards thrown into dungeons at
Puente la Reyna, at Bilboa, and Vittoria. There is not a single
French soldia between the Spanish Chief and the French terri-
tory, or a force of any amount in French Cerdagne, or any part
of Rooussillon. . The entry of Mina into France with the
French and Italian refugees, bearing the national emblems,
may be productive of the most important results ; at all events
conquest in Catalonia, for the present, is at an end. The
French Generals are retracing their steps again as fast as they
can to defend their own territory from invasion. Accounts
from Aleri, to the 23d, state that the siege tic Valencia was
raised by the factious around it, who were diimayed by the
approach of 8,000 men who had assembled at Venarez, and who
were to act in concert with 2,000 foot and 300 horse who were
in Alcira. This account states, that the inabitants and gar-
rison of Valencia *ere most determined in their resolution not
to surrender. A black flag was hoisted on the walls, and a skull
placed on a pole, intimating the determination of its defenders
to conquer or die. The Guerilla system is at length beginning
to come into full play all through Spain, and to be most harrass-
hig to the Franca. The French Minister's intimation to the
Syndic of the ileens de Change, relative to " Mina's move-
ments," had the effect of raising the French funds somewhat.—
They opened on Wednesday at 87. 70., and doted at 87. 75. .

(,MORNING eosT.l
The French apers received since our last,
contain no further intelligence to satisfy the deep interest ex-
cited by Mina's bold enterprize. It is• not improbable that his
advance, and the positions which he may take within or above
the Pyrenean defiles, may for several days prevent Moncey
from having any Communications with France. The courier
who carried the last Bulletin crossed the frontier before Mina
bad reached it, and theretbre met with no obstructions on his
way ; but if once the Constitutionalists spread themselves into
Guerrillas along the mountains, every passage will be stopped,
and all couriers and convoys will be intercepted, until the return
of the Marshal's army, or at least of some strong divisions of it,
shall effect a temporary opening and enable the boasted in.
vaders to re-enter their own country. In the absence of
official advices, private letters from Madrid, dated the 2d
inst. and received yesterday, throw some light on the military
disptisitions of the Spaniards in the interior of the Peninsula,
anti afford grounds for believing that Mina's advance is not
the result of individual enterprise, but part of a combined plan,
which was to be kept carefully secret until the moment of
its execution, and Which, according to the writer " would, if
succeasful, make the Bourbons tremble on their throne, or.
bury them under its ruins." Snell a threat would seem to in-
dicate that the object was a real invasion of France, in order
to afford the people of that country a military nucleus, round
which they =gilt form without having to dread the acti-
vity of the police or the interference of the Gendarmerie.
The letter states, that Abisbal, who had assembled an army
of 16,000 men, had quitted Madrid, and advanced to Goa-
dalaxara to join Ballasteros, who'had also a considerable
force under his command. These united armies would main-
tain the communications with Catalonia open, and if neces-
sary wot%ld perhaps march into that prow:lce to support the
operations of Nina. The celebrated Empecinado was posted
near Avila with a strong Guerrilla party, organizing other corps
of the same kind to harrass the flanks of the Duke of Angou-
leme as soon as the appointed Aime for acting on the offensive
oii every point throughout the Peninsula should arrive. Bal-
listerosis said to have had repeated skirmishing with the
French during his retreat, in which his troops behaved with the
greatest bravery and resolution, and killed great numbers of
the invaders. Such are the contents of private communications
from the Spanish capital, which remained tranquil notwith-
standing the threats of,the approaching enemy. The Papers
inform us that the head-quarters of the Duke d'Angouleine
were to remain at Burgos until the 13th inst. The Oeneralis-
sinao, it appears, does not want Prudence,' and probably lie
begins to perceive that to penetrate deeper into Spain is only
,to increase the difficulty of afterwards .getting out of it. We
shoUld not be astonished if lie postponed his visit to Madrid
till the result of Mina's enterprise should have been ascertained.

[MORNING itritaLn.]
The meeting in favour of the Greeks (of which
the proceedings were given in our Paper of yesterday) will, we
trust, tend strongly to. rouse the sympathy and exercise the
liberality of the British nation. It would be invidious to insti-
tute a comparison between the present and other occasions in
which appeals have been made to the public feeling but it
may with truth be said, that on occasion has the public heart
been appealed to in favour of a lmore interesting—a more
affecting—a more noble cause. We will not dwell upon the
reminiscences left of Ancient (Treece,—the obligations which
she conferred in arts, in literature, in arms, and in what is per-
haps the very first endowment of a people---freedom upon all
posterity,—or • the claims which those obligations give her
diStressed, and, we will add, heroic children of the present
day ;—yet these are motives which should be, and will be felt;
and they who taunt or scout, or damp them, had better go
back and dispute the food of acorns with their fellow-savages
in the woods—or, like the savages of another class, who extin-
guished " the genius of discovery" in Lavoisier, boldlyproclaiin
that" the Republic does not want philosophers." Who is the
man that will not " find something to attract him in the Greek
cause ? To those who are animated with the devotion of cell,
gion, it is the cause of fellow Christians struggling against the
most abominable system of fanaticism recorded in ' the known
memorials of human error, or human imposture. To those
who can grow warm with thoughts of liberty, it is the
cause of men who have burst their bonds and are bravely
vindicating their freedom. In one comprehensive word, it
is that which claims the sympathy of man, wherever man
is worthy of his nature—the cause of humanity. There
were some obsevations of the Noble person who acted as
Chairman of the Meeting, which merit particular attention,
as they tend to remove or to prevent error respecting
the objects of the Committee. The purpose is not to ex-
cite or extend insurrection in the Turkish provinces, but
only to assist those who are already de facto, free—and to
whom reconquest would be
.the most horrible visitation that
boundless power and brutal fury could invent and inflict.
Policy is a cold principle of action to set in motion upon a theme
like this ; yet there is one view of the Greek cause in which
this country seems to us interested deeply in the present success
of the Greeks. They have often been shamefully betrayed and
abandoned by Russian Cabinets. Still, new promises, conti-
guity, community of religion, distress, which will catch it any
thing, kept up an inclination tolvarfts Russia, until the recent
disavowal and abandonment of their cause by the Emperor
Alexander. If they make the conquest of their independence,
alone, and at present, they are for ever aleniated from the
Russians. Moreover, it is generally and well.understood that
they at present strongly incline
. to England, from motives
both of sentiment and interest.—their maritime genius, their
zeal for liberty—the commercial industry, and the security of
their internal and external independence. We will only add,
that the objects of the Greek Committee are such as would not
compromise the policy or thq councils of this country with and
Foreign Power. ,