The Statesman.
London, England, 1813-07-31 00:00:00

Ti I E STATESMAN.

the by.: less lay on Sir ROWLAND lines division,
which was engaged from eight in tiseatorning until
dark, which alone put an end to the action, and
1 saved King losv.en from being, taken* ind the re.
mains of his army from destruction. Our loss
in officers' is very, severe. Colonel cADOOAIf
• •
fell, gloriensly leading the, light brigade of Sir Lt.
Thu.'s army into action—the regiments he com-
' mended were his own, the 71st, the,soth, and the
92d, all distingai.hed corps; they sufered severely ;
the 71st alone lost 300 killed and wounded. This
is a victory in every sense of the word ; it has com-
pletely decided the fate of Spain. The enemy
occupied, with about 35,000 men, the heights com-
manding the road from Puebta to Vittoria; Sir Row-
LAND HILI.'S corps d'armee attacked them there,
Idrove them from thence to a second position, about
a mile nearer the latter town, where they took
up a most formidable and imposing post ; here
they were, a second time, attacked by that army,
and by. _Generals COLE'S, PICTON'S and Avrem's
' divisions, and driven from thence by diiit of abso-
-1 lute hand-to-hand lighting. The French de-
fended, most bravely, every inch of ground. Jo-
ann, mounted on a white horse, was conspicuous
in the hottest of the ire. A battery of several heavy
pieces of cannon made great destruction among the
' British ; this battery, however, was carried, and
the whole of the guns taken. Joszen Then took up
a third position, about a league from Vittoria, from
which he was beaten precisely in a similar manner.— '
And now the route commenced—the enemy fled io aU 1
directions—abandoning their killed, wounded, guns,.
ammunition, baggage—every thing. We drove them I
through Vittoria, where all Josarn's carriages were,'
and his equipage of all sorts. They took up a fourth
position about a league beyond Vittoria, from
whence they were driven precisely as before. Night
now came on, and the army could pursue no further;
and now the plunder commenced—the whole mad
was strewed Kith carriages of all sorts and of all
countries—English, French, Spanish, Germane *c. ;
several capital English barouches were soon torn to
atoms by the men ; at least 2000 carriage., of all
sorts, were completely destroyed—the loss is incal.l
soluble—Josteu himself escaped with only the'
clothes he wore. So unexpected was- our success,
that not an article was removed from thence, or
attempted to be, until it was too late; and so
rapid was our advance, that nothing could be
saved. The - Spanish Crown, worth near a
lmillion, on which are several diamonds and jewels.
of the most valuable sort, fell into our hinds ; It
' will be sold for the benefit of the army. The quan-1
tity of property that was destroyed is immense; the
country, for miles, is literally strewed with It.
Books; papers torn to pieces; carriages torn
asunder to search them ; trunks broken open by one
blow of a fireiock ; every article that can be con.
ceived is involved in one common destruction, From 1
the impossibility of transport, nothing that was note
portable, such as money and jewellery, could be
taken ; therefore clothes, of all sorts, were thrown •
in all directions. This pillage commenced at night.
fall. It rained incessantly in the heaviest manner.
Judge what a condition every thing must be in at
day-beak. Dead bodies, of all nations, lying I
indiscriminately in the roads. Dying men in
ttle last agonies ; others wounded, and unable ,
"to crawl from the spot where they fell, and of 1
which numbers are left to perish, from the
ether impossibility of collecting them. Property of
all kindsvuined by the rain and mud. This was the
scene which the daybreak of yesterday, the 22d,
presented to view. A shocking event occurred ,
in my own sight. Two poor French Officers, se. '
verely wounded, had crawled together, and had been
found at dusk by •some men who were collecting
wounded. They had remained, as, indeed, thousands
had, of necessity done, since the day before, with.
out food, or their wounds dressed, exposed in that
state to the inclemency of the weather,—it was too
late to have them conveyed in last night, and this
morning they were found, having stabbed each other
with knives, thus putting an end to a miserable exist-
ence, the agonies of which they were unable to
bear. The loss, on the part of the French, is really.]
Immense,—in artillery irremediable, for we have alt
.they Wf:-in trertue, valuables, &c. npwards
ttiointiffn-i.. ' ""
•
General Faxes cavalry, the Royals, mei 3tl
Dragoon Guards, eminently distinguished themselves.
.1
That officer had his horse shot under him. A strange
perversion, or mixture of force, appealed. The
heaviest and the lightest troops we possess were
brigaded, or rather acted together; the Hussar Bri-
gade and the Household Brigade. The latter never
got into action; of the former, the 18th regiment suf-
fered some loss, in being exposed on the advance from
the Ist to the 2d position, to a severe fire from some
12 - pounders the enemy had got on a height
they had to pass. The 88th regiment distinguished
itself much ; as did the 28th and 30th, under Colonel
O'CALLAGHAN% who fought them in a most masterly
manner. ' The artillery did wonders., Captains
Bass and Waiters Sntre's troops of horse ertillery
were engaged from -morning tit night, and were of
'Whale use. In chart, every body acted as English-
men ire ammatomod to de in action.
• ,
' 'WS Ilialweleked ern the field of battle on the night
.'lll,llO 1111 ;. ea' Us, SS we seinalnod near it, for the
Wier, Cillibtait be ooltoot*4 froth plundering i and,
ogli saiankhs'eorrenisentl iny, nothing Can egad the
-.1. 4di wow. is *Ay * tiler tit tat ti Mire

.1. • 7
40. •

^..*: :

tierra ; sad to-morrow, of coarse, we shall pursue
the flying enemy. Whether JOSEPH will reach
France is yet a doubt. Sir Toom,a GRAHAM
is after him with his division. It is uncertain what
direction he has takes, whether Tolosa Ir Panipel ono.
W. IWO *Ow Half way between both. :The enemy
rumen- forisoth, and I soltpo- re the army will de-
cide and follow them to each of • those places.---
1 Whether we shall then advance by St. Sebastian to
Sayonnetor by Pompeian., southward, or Saragossa,
sad annihilate SUCEIET and his corps, lg., of course,
unknown ; the latter is, I think, probable. Judging
from the events of the last month, and are they not
incredible ? there can be little doobt but that this
campaign will have finished before the end of July,
of course the army will he sent home, for it cannot be
supported without money, without rations, without,
food, in arrest upwards of eight months : now the
enemy is expelled, or about to be, no reason can
exist for keeping us here. Of the want of money.
and credit, 4be following anecdote will be tolerably
illustrative :—At Valladolid, a Commissary purchased
several loads of barley for the cavalry, he had no
money to pay for it—the Spaniard would not part
without--40. price was two drillers for a measure
of aboat a bushel. One of those harpies, called
Contractors, who follow the Army, was then found,
Mho. purchased it, paid for it, and received bills on
Lisbon, at the retest eight dollars for what he paid
only Awe i This .tact, on the truth of which you
may rely, speaks for Itself. It proves at once the
state of our poverty and our miseries—how long as
an Army of 160,000 be fed at this rate!

si Thursday Mann's, Jane 24.
" We have jest received positive information that.
JosErm has succeeded in gaining the Pyrenees. if
so, and there is no reason to doubt it, all idea of sari
penetrating into France must beat attend. The area
informed believe, that the unexampled rapid mardats
we have been making had no other object. .Levdl
WiLLINGTOII9II ambition would nnqoastiowahly itwt

been Much gratified at leading such an and kb'
France as this. The motives I bait lips, WWI
tioned, the difficulty of subsisting it mackiMsosel
pewit
in this country, were, of course, • argu-
ments with him. It is underatoolt ifisat • poems
to Bayonne are so strong, that the ssimalos of
Joszca's At my, which now occupy them, can d*.
fend them against the world. Nothing, therefore,
remains but to heat Strefirf, and destroy the manias
of the enemy in detail. Saragossa, Barcelona, &c.
will, no doubt, •soon full. Funipelorta. it is sop.
posed, is in no state of defence, fir such has haus
the rapidity of our march, that It Is totally appro.
vided.”

Mr. D muss, a King's Messtogsr, etsirqd-tith
morning at Lord amtlasesathee, In Downi ng.streeft
with dispatches from the Marquis of Vissz.puTrow.
He left the bead.quarters of the British Army
on the 19th instant but the accounts brought by
him had not transpired whoa our Paper went to press.
A Bulletin is espeoted to be issued this afternoon,
which we shall publish its a Second Edition, if pos.
sible.