The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-10-11 00:00:00

t is to be wished that the British Cabinet may peg'.
rist, as it has begun, in the plsn of deserting i 3
ships and throning itself on tho Continent. We
have predicted the higiniiiati.in of En„lantl, and
peace, before a ye.tr el .rses.
Before a year shall bar,. etpired, the Engli4i,
whatever efforts they may mike, will be driven
out of the Peninsula, and the imeerial eagle will
Ay on the fortress of Lisbon.

We had re.oro to expect, that, a. the Marg.'',
Reyna would oat remove Ow ho at Irmo t e rit%•r A mnt”e,
Y lett would have dewored them. Oer only retreat
therefore, by toe bridge of Are° Bawl; :aid if Is,. 1..n1 r. I,
I on, the ~lnv, by bresthiag that triage, the ;up,
should he pained with Soot! a d Nev. Rawl' ti•r 4,04‘41
to of It'at roily resource. b% r.uld not lake p womb di
Ortspettn. as ire thereby left open the en 41 to t h ldip. nt
Arzo Mops, from Tabisera, hy Calera ; and after roomer.
the oh .le:othtect :lintel-oy, em o I f ooi r w
i tont it as
lantmahle
to retire to the bridg •of z I !;•-p AIM to; its
up a defensivr position upon the (Lvottott Geurte.)
NOTE or vile Meerreus.... We 'lt id not con.
tietie these Not 5..-it would be an ins dt to our
readers. The falsehond of tie meat of Lord
Wellesley stint be evident to every
CONCl.osloa....i.oted Weilegt y, without know.
ing the force of the enemy ‘sith w hum he had to
contend, without being furnished with that n hick
constitutes an army, ailvaiiced to Talevera. The
idea of entering Madrid tensed his brain. He
took the French army (or an army of tiepoys.
lie arrived at Talavera ss ilh 25 or 26,000 men.
He was there joined by 80,000 slid, with
these two armies united, he int •nileil to penetrate
to Madrid. The Duke of Dellents manceevred
skilfully to draw him on, aeil termed a junction
with the fourth corps and the reserve, and, with
the King at their.heatl, marched against the enemy.
The Duke of Dalmatia, with still mire consider..
able forces than those of the King, marched upon
their rear. Lord Wellesley could not extricate
himself but by beating, separately, the two senile*.
The first and fourth corps preseeted him with
an opportunity, since they attacked, without
waiting for the three corps commanded by the
Dike of Dalmatia. The English fought well ; the
battle of Talavera was doubtful ; though the loss of
the English was much more considerable than ours,
for the French artillery was more numerous. It
appears that, by a series of mtiltiplied faults, the
French could not take the position on the left;
but the English were beaten back every time they
attempted to advance epee the French. %Viten
the 70,000 men commanded by the. D Ike of Dal-
matia. were at Plasencia, Lord Wellesley believed
there were nut more than ten thousand men there,
and formed the most ridiculous combinations. He
perceived, however, the fully of his calculations,
his extreme imprudence, and was sufficiently for_
tunate to escape into Portugal with his infantry.
What would have been the case, if, manoeuvring
according to the principlts of war, the French
armythad not given battle until all united ? Lord
Wellesley says, that the want of the means of
conveyance prevented him (ruin marching to Ma-
drid. What would have been the consequence, if
he had marched to Madrid, and the Doke of Dal.
matia had placed hi iiself between liim and the
Tagus ? Ile wneld have come with his army to
France. lie has cierificed brave men through
presumption, and iviorance of (hat of which a
General ought nit to lie ignorant._ _ _

This eapedition gre.itly resembles that of Gen.
Moore it, the 'with ref November last. But Ge-
neral Moore was more pru.leut, and sated himself
sootier; and though ho aulfertxl enormous losses,
the half of his ar py returned to Englsnd, without
their baggage, ke. Like General Moore, Gene-
ral Wellesley ahatidoned his hospitals, kis bag..
gage, his artillery, and arrived in Portugal a kit
the half of his army. At this motneut he has out
18,000 men under arms, out of the .20,00() winds
kft the ports of E•iglan,l.