The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-12-19 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

On the Order of the Day being read for taking
into consideration his Royal Highness the Prince Re-
gent's most gracious Message, the Message was read
by the Clerk at the table,
The Earl of LIVERPOOL said, in rising to move
an Address in atAwer to his Royal Highness's most
gracious Message, he should perhaps have thought it
only necessary to move•the Address, leaving to the,
ebulliti,n of feeling which he was satisfied actuated
the r,.at majority of that Rouse, and the country,
to ore ress a concurrence' -in an object, which em-
bodied so many sentiments congenial with, and cha-
racteristic of genuine British feeling. Understand-
lug, holt-ever, that elsewhere some sentiment had
'been expressed hostile to the purpose of the Message,
he felt it necessary to draw. the attentiou of the
. Molise to the circumstances which gave vise to this
• proceeding—to events mast, unexpected by Many,
.and hasiug the mint important Influence upon the
state' of Europe. A grekter exertton had heen.
made by the Rider of fiance against Russia than
.he had put forth against any other power. He had
entered 'Aussie with a, force not less than • 360,000.
men, including 60,000 cavalry, and this at a
.linse
when, from various circumstances, not now to be
entered Tito, one of which, however, was the de-
lay which arose iu making peace with the Turks,
which detained a large portion of the Russian force
in a remote pirt of the empire, the Russian army
. was numerically inferior to the invading army of
• Fralice. -Under these circumstances, the advice was
folloyred which had been given from various quarters,
but particularly by the gallant Commander of our
Armies its the Peninsula, to act upon a defensive
system. In conformity with this system, the Rus-
sian troops retreated, but in a manner that gave ,
birth to the most sanguine hopes of the which "
ultimately followed. During the course of the re-
treat 'not !s corps was cut off, nor a detachment made '
prisoners, except in partial conflicts. At length the
opportunity arrived for offensive operations, and the
-events that followed were already before the public.
To give effect to this offensive system, the greatest
sacrifices had been made. There was no example in
modern warfare of so great and magnanimous a sa-
. crifice as that of the burning of Moscow. Look at
• a population of 200,000 persons, voluntarily quit-
ting their homes, and sacrificing their houses and
their property, in order that Moscow might not af-
ford quarters and become a place of,arms for the
enemy. Lt was not merely, however, at Moscow,
although from the magnitude of the object the most
prominent, that these sacrifices were made, but hun-
. tired' of villages were destroyed upon the approach
of the enemy by the inhabitants,, who, after making
this sacrifice, in numerous instances, retired into the
adjoining woods, and returned with whatever arms
they could procure to encounter the invaders of their
country. in every otherinstauce of an invasion by
the Frosch arms, except in the'Peninsula, the people
had stood for nothing, in' Russia they had stood for
every Using—ietuated by a universal spirit of pa-.
.they had voluntarily Mask, the greatest- sa-
eritices, die), had Otiered up every 'selfish considera-
tion., every sentiment of mere personal enjoyment,