Star.
London, England, 1810-02-16 00:00:00

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of the arttly if Castile, in place•bt the Duke of PaNtte.
Roman; who had been named about a fortnight be.
fore Captaln•General of Valencia, but had not left
Seville, accepted this cornthand, acid took part with
the insurgents ; and couriers were dispatched to stop
the Members of the Supreme Junta, who had fled to
Cadiz, and arrest them as traitors to their country.
—At Xerez de la Frontera, the Archbishcirof Lao-
dicea, President of the Junta k Valdes, formerly Mi-
nister of Marine ; and Ovalle, one of the Deputies
of Estremadura, were seized by the populace, and
would probably have been put to death, had not some
persons who had influence with the mob got them
shut up in the Carthusian Convent; and detained them
there as prisoners of state. On the news of these
excesses, General Castanos, who was at the Isla de
Leon, exerted himself to procure their liberation, and
had them conveyed in safety to the Isla ; but as they
felt that their authority was now completely at an
end, no sooner bad they assembled at that place, with
the other Members of the Junta, than they appointed
a Regency, composed of the Bishop of Orense ; of
Saavedra, Minister of Finance ; of Castanos, Captain
General of Andalusia ;* of Escane, Minister of Ma-
rine ; and of Fernandez de Leon, Minister of the In-
dies ; and transferred to these five persons the govern-
ment of the country. This appointment took place
on the 29th of-January.
The French are in the mean time advancing with-
out opposition. Cordova, which was indeed incapa-
ble of defence, has surrendered to them without re-
sistance. Their head-quarters are Alcala de Gua-
dayra, two leagues from Seville, and only 17 leagues
from Port St. Mary's. We are as yet unacquainted
with the fate of-Seville, but considering the great ex-
tent of the works that surround it, and the want of
any troops of the line for its defence, we cannot flat-
ter ourselves with the hope of its making the least re-
sistance. Our own situation would have been equally
desperate, had not the Duke of Albuquerque arrived
here this morning with 8000 men, which he con-
ducted with great skill and success over the Marisma,
which, at this season of the year, was supposed to be
impassable for an army. He was pursued by the
French cavalry as far as Lebrixa, but finding that
they could not overtake him, they there stopped their
pursuit. Before his arrival we had not above 1000
troops of the line to defend this place and the city of
Cadiz. Our fleet is at length equipped and ready to
put to sea, and is now in the outer harbour. We
have great confidence in Castanos and the Duke of
Albuquerque, but Alava, the Admiral of the fleet, is
a person on whom no reliance is to be placed. It has
been a culpable neglect of the Spanish, as well as of
the English Government, to have suffered such a
man to remain so long in this important command.
Part of our army, we understand, is collected at
Ronda, and part at Granada ; but as soon as the
French shall advance to Pares and Port St. Mary's.
our communication with the rest of the country will
be entirely cut off, except by sea. We are in *expecta-
tion of a reinforcement of English troops from Gi-
braltar to assist at the defence of Cadiz, and many
thousand persons are at work in completing the for-
tifications on the Peninsula which had been left un-
finished.