The Sun.
London, England, 1810-09-12 00:00:00

130610,1214177 E a SEIRCI-1 CT 9 19in

A letter, from Petetiburgh .posit affirms, that
so far back as October 1808, curing the irk(eryiew
with Alexander, at :Erfurt!), Buonaparte asked, and
was promised in marriage, a Russian Grand Duchess:
It was not until entreaties, as well as ;Menaces, .had
failed to obtain the assent of this Princess, that he
turned his disgusting and insulting views toward the
House of Austria. Several letters have pasSed 'be:
tween the Imperial Brother and Sister on this sub-.
jed. Of one of these (we believe the last) we have
been favoured with a copy, which we now lay be-
fore our Readers, in the language, verbatim, in which
it has been transmitted to us

• THE GETTER.
SIR Er—l implore the generosity, the humanity
of the most just of Princes; of the most beloved of
brothers, and (permit me 'to add) of the deafest of
friends. These epithets- are sincere; they are due.
to your Majesty, whose will shall always be a ready,
law to me in- every thing where my conscience does
not reproach my -submission, and where dishonour,
(pardon, Sire, if I err) would not be the, conse-
quence of obedience. I remember too well the
lustre.of my descent, ever to give posterity a cause
-of judging me unworthy of my ancestry. As the.
intended wife of a Napoleon, I repeat, Sire,' try
trembling heart would break before I reached the.
limits of his usurped dominions. His wounded
pride vk;ould then seize wit ti avidity such a catas-
trophe to embeoil. France viitt Russia, -in accusing
your',Majes'.y as the_ author of the natural weakness
or a sis-er. Yet, however,, Sire, his vanity is in-
`teresied- to conceal' a ren:al, which he wilt neither
forget:or forgive; but. your Majesty may gain time
to prepare sufficietit means of resistance to tae future
vengeance of his violence. and disappointment.
" Sire, to shew that my determination isuot the
rash at of a fickle and thoughtless girl, lam under
the -necessity of trespassing on your Majesty's. good-
ness a little longer,.
Although the blood-stained annals of modern
Europe form the private 11;stoly of Napoleon Bun-
napatte, .1 have tried to become more intimately scr
qualified' with the personal character of the man
destined fur my new SoifereiBn—formy future Lord
and—ruffster..' • •

. " Alas ! Sire, in the long catatogue of Buona-
parte's exploits, not a single virtue is discovered that ,
can even extenuate' his very numerous atrocities:—
Alas ! Sire, he was already an assassin, when.l was
only a child ; and every year of my advancement
towards worvianhood records his fresh and shocking '
perpetrations. Has bent)! publicly boaited, in 1793,
of having waded in the gore of the by him .butchel"-
eti Toulonesers? and do not his official reports of
t 795 exist, in which he gloried in the massacre of
thousands of men, women, and 'children, in the .
streets of Paris ? Did he not, during 1796 and
1797, according to his own Bulletins, destroy by
fire and sword, Many thousand peaceable Italians of
all ages and both sexes, merely.becanse they would
not listen to his bypocritipl% cant of liberty and
equality, and renounce their faith and their allegi-
ance,? Were no', in 1798, the shores of the-Me-
diterranean and the banks of the Nile inundattd by
him, perfidiously:, with the innocent blood of trusty'
? Who can be igivrant that in 1799 he both
poisoned his own wounded soldiers in Syria, an
slaughtered some -thousand disarmed prisoners 'near
Jaffa ? Having:by fraud e'surped the Supreme power
in P;.ance, did he' not, during 1800 and 1801„afier.
artfully alluring,
.treacherunsly imprison aud,cruetly
dispatch numbers of the loyal inhabitants cf La
Vela:ice ? Did lie not,. &ring 802•. and 'lBO3,
treat'l.% ith simiiar .barhardy his tortner acco;!aiti(e,
the Jae,-bins and Republicans ? Was it nut in 1804
that :tie stabb, d strangled a Bcitego,
and recompensed .with the -guillotine the heroic loy-
alty of George,: murders, which I have heard
your Majesty yourself, so often reprobate with,
words, and 'lament with tears of pity and indigna-
tion ?' Was nor, in 1805, humble aod-obscure
Palm shot by his orders ? Did he nor, in 180(4 in.
humanly deny a D:.ke of Brunswick a gave, and
sacrilegiously violate the tomb, of a Frederick the
Great-=thus 'equally insulting the dying' and the
dead ? Was it not during 1807 -that oundreds of
German' and Swiss. patriots, captured on the banks
of .the Elbe, the Rhine, and tree Danube, bled by
his orders on the banks or tlie Seine,. or perished
miserably in pestilential Madagaacar ? Did he not,
in' 1808,'debase, seduce, betray, and arrest; the
Royal Botirbons of Spain ? •
• While he thus, in a public capacity, has vio-
laied all laws human and divine., has he ever ceased
to be a most: tinkitid doine,tic tyrant ? Have not the
mother who gave him birth, and the. wife. to whom
he owes his 'advancement, been equally subject to
•the most indelicate and -brutal ill treatment ? Not-
"withstanding the vic,.s-of the wife (with which'he
'was well.acquiainted before mmiage),,ought he not
to'have respected the favours of his benetattress ?
As he can never hope .to reap the same benefit from
an' union with a Rus.;an Princess, can site expect to
mnderate his rage, to alter Ins perversity, or to
escape the fury of his-unmanly passions ? -Would i!,
besides, be no disgrace to the House of HolStem,
were she to succeed the profligate mistress of a re-
gicide in the embraces of a low sans culotte-ter-
rorist ? Can any faith be placed in the promises of
him whose whole' life is a told defiance to a SU-
preme Being, and evinces-a sovereign contempt of
mural man ? Can any dependence, be had on the
words of an unprincipled despot; who has by turns
' thus professed himself a, demagogue, a leveller, a
Jacobin, a republican, an Atheist; a Deist, a Mus-
selman, and a Christian ? Will he, who mocks a
divinity, hesitate to tiamisle upon the most joist
claims of a woman ?

" But excuse, Sire, the warm effusions of a. pro,.
yoked innocent mind, that has not yet learned to
diQguise what it feels. Though :not superatitious,
I am inclined to consider as
.ornmous, the. very offer
of an Imperial assassin to marry the daughter and.
grand7datighter of assassinated Emperors. If wrong,
condescend, Sire, to ascribe my conduct to its real
cause--town alarMed virtue, that. never any
consideration, prostrate itself before.. any guilty fa
vourite of an unjust fortune.
(Signed) - " CATHERINE."
" St., Petersburgh, lan. 25, 109,"

The spirited letter of this amiable Princess does

":

. .
. .
equal honour to her head and heart. tad her '..rrn•
periat -13rOther felt and,disiAayed sitOilar_senti.-erus-,-,
the House of Auitria.7wonla not. 13qe, bce,n fuzed:to diahononr itself, and i3,lo',.aparte wa_qid Mill 'have
been in search of a wiftE. - As this Prince.s Yaitly"
remarks, her refusal will, neither belorgOtteu nor
.forgiven by 'NapOleonj who, sooner or la.ter, ‘k ill
try to 'overwhelm Alekander lor.the virtue of h.s
sister. - -•--- • .. • - .

Mankind, in general, are 'apt to :overlook the
crimes 'of sticcrsstul ;.to bow. to .t heir for,,,
tune in losing sigh: of their enormities;, and to sa
lute as illustr4oUs heroes, the most Witked.hd abn;
min-able - wretches.', Buonatiafte knows "{}roots
by such a disposition.
rarres to judge his capacity by his audacity, And.lo
believe h;s licentious policy and Political. Machi.,-
velism,. the consequence- of profoui,dly 'Meditated.
plans, While they are, onlythe impalses-and resolves
of his vile-and base passions, ,
• -
At,the first lumotir'`of Buonaparte's 'views on a.
Saxon Princess, her'patnt hastened with great P.e-
culliarys sacrifices, to avoid the blow of 'infamy,. un
der pretence of'.thus palliating- the rooted bigotry- of
his child, mtliose incurable aversion fOr ,Bonaparte
and Frenchmen: was represented as a kiiid of reli-
gious *madness., • During the winter, 'lBOB, it rW,as
.publicly said in the cotitt .circics in Paris, " that in.
the course of.soine mortth,s, tionaparie would either .
conquer another. Crown; or another wife, in tt,ie ca.
Oa' of Austria." • His last "search. atter a wife."

has trterefore cost noqess than the. !Wes of '122;0()O
Frenchmen and Germans (according to the 1-,'tench
and gentian Bolletins), before Francis I. g%:vs:
•his daughter to 'preserve hiS dynasty "-gtrike,'t he
victim of your Alajesty's house is. ready;" rote
the unfortunate 'Maria. Louisa, on Feb. 2, 13 1 0.%
" May my resignaton, 'my produce the,.
desired expectation., the •eipetted advantages !"
But so little (lid Buonaparte appreciate-the value of
this'sacrifiue, that the Tyrolese Patriot, Hoffer, was..
shot' by .his order, at the very time he pretended to
be all love and gentleness, at the idea of being
united to this arniableTh'incesS. rn pressing the
darightersto his ferocious bosom, he insults and de-
grades the falher by the murder Of One of his most.
faithful subjects. It has truly been observed,
" that Buonaparte's path 'to the Temple of Hymen
was to be characteristic of his life and actions; it •
was to be sprinkled with blood, not to be, strewed.
with flowers." •

The following interesting communication
-from
the East Of Spain has been received from a most
respectable quarrer:
" TARRAGONA, . JULY 2 t.--The French made
their ..ent ranee into Venaros on the ist July, where
they remained about twelve !fouls,. when they, went
off for, Jana, leaving oiders to nave 7000 rat4/ifs'
sent to them there. This not being complied with,
they return. d on trie loth to enforce their 'Com,:
mantis; when .t.g,:neral I,illage took.place: Several
lives Were losh in attemp,ing to get on board the,
barks. The. Fiench left them on tl'.e 11th, after
doing them all the ,ttaaage -they could, to take 1116
road to La Gilt ,tfcl St. Mattheo; it is supposed for,
the purpose of recovering Morclla, which was taken
some time before by our troois under the command
of O'Donoghue.
" The French force laying siege to Tortosa is
„ne.ir 14,000 strong. The brae garrioti consists of
12,000 men, well, found in every ,rispeet.' If the
Valencian undq the command of Caro and
O'DonOglfue (calcultted at 12,000 men, atic.Ctthich
'are coming to the 'succour of. Tortosa), a 6.1 properly;
:he French
,must inevitably: be cut to pieCes,
render at discretion.

" The 'French have managed 'to cross the Ebro
With 2QOO men. They have been attacked several
tames by small divisions in the environs of Tfeisa,
where they have taken up a formidaUe position, and
they have been roughly tr. ated, particularly:in an
attempt on the'eabeza de Poente of Tot tosa, which
they. made, with a body of 400 men' on the night of
the 8t Ifintitant, but they met with such deTertnined-
opPosition and bravery, as to be .compelled to fall
back with losi. •

" In a word, all looks well; and if 'strong rein-
forcemenis do not speedily arrive, .no apprehenSion
need be entertained for the safety of Tortosa. In
Barcelona they are bloining w feel' the etfeCts of a •
want of provisions. A fora;ing patty of 1.50.0
.men'
sallied out some days ago trom thence lo plunder
the neighbouring:Villages, •They were attacked by. a
division of ours, which compelled them to return
precipitately, without being able to effect their
purpose. The enemy lost a number of me❑ on the
occasion.

. .
" Our forces in that quarter consist cf 8000 re-
gulara,•and abotit 4000 Somatenes. Their object at
present'is to inierce:et a convoy of cattle-with 6000
men, which we-are in great hopes they will etrect.
The brave General O'llonnet has put the army, of
this province on the most respectable footing in
every particular, as good as any army can be. They
are well paid and well clothed, and ❑ot inferior,: in
point of discipline, to their enemies.
The inhabitants-of-this place are all put-under
arms, and are doing garrison duty. The 'desertions
from the French army are very great. Within two
months upwards of 1500 men have entered Tarra-
gona 'and elsewhere, and all of them haire enlisted'
into the English service. /
P. S.'. The convoy for Barc'elona has -been -,at-
tacked. The enemy lost 1200 'men, but we vi ere
obliged to fall back: It is said, however, that four
of their waggons, loaded with corn, got into the
town.. We expect to get a-good accotritsof. the re-.
mainder, which are closely watched in all , their
movements."

'Acircular letter has been transmitted to all the
. maritime •.Prefeds"in'ltance.,. enjoining them to
cause every vessel that arrived or sailed to be dili-
gently searched, and if any persons should be found
or board wlthse iihines were not in the rOk
page, to:send them immediately to Paris, without
refeLerice to the country to which they might,te-
.lolig. it is suggested in a letter conveying the in-
tOrtnatia, that this extraordinary vigilance is for the
,porpose (,f ..pre%'eoting The „transinlSsion of. fnthlli
-gepcv refeeCtjng anv ee edition. w ITich •ha,:-:_tYl en 'se-
cretly preparing Yor some time in the ports from
Havre to the Texel.