The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-10-12 00:00:00

PRICE 6{D.

FRENCH PAPERS.

PARIS, Ocr.
TWENTIETH BELLI:TIN OF THE GRAND mum
" Moscow, Sam 17.—The Russians have cele.
brated Te Deum for the battle of Polntsk. Ti

Mums hare been sung for the battles of Ostroinot

and for that of Smolensko. According to the Rut-
lion accounts they were every where conquerors, and
they drove the French to a great distance from the
field of battle. It was then, amidst the strains of this
Russian Te licums, that the army arrived at Moscow.

There they thought themselves conquerors, at least
the populace thought so, for well-informed parson•s

knew what was passing.

44 Moscow is the estrepot of Asia and cf &troy.
Its warehouses veva immense; every house was pee•
vided for eight months with necessaiies I f retry de-
scription. It *lig only the evening before, end the
day of our entrance, that the danger became ksowil,
We found in the house of the miserable Rostepchin
some papers, and a letter half written; he fled with-
oat finishing it.

" Moscow, one of the finest and richest cities in
the world, is no more. On the 14th, the Russians
set fire to the Exchange, to the Bazar, and the Hos-
pital. On the 16th a vtolent wind arose. Three or
four hundred ruffians set fire to thocity in 500 di ffes•-
ent places at the same moment, by order of the Go.
Teraor Restopchin. Five-sixths of the houses were
built of wood ; the fire spread with a prodigious
rapidity; It was an ocean of flame. Churches, of
which there were 1600, above 1000 palaces, itn•
amuse magazines, nearly all have fallen a prey to this
flames. The Kreinelin has been preserved.
Their loss is incalculable for Russia, for her
commerce, and for her nobility, who bed left all
there. It is not over-rating its value to state it at
many milliards.
" About 100 of these Incendiaries have be up.
prehended and shot : all of them declared that they
acted under the orders of Rostopehin, and the Di.
'rector of the Police.

" Thirty thousand sick and wounded Russians
have been burnt. The richest commercial houses In
Russia are ruined. The shock must be considerable.
The clothing, the magazines, and the equipments of
the Russian army have been consumed. They hark
thus lost every thing; they would remove nothing,
because they always thought it impossible for us to
reach Moscow, and because they were willing to de-
ceive the people. When they saw all in the hands
of the French, they conceived the horrible project
of destroying by fire the first capital,• this holy city,
the centre of the Empire; and they reduced to beg-
gary 200,000 repectable inhabitants. This is the
I crime of Rostopchin, executed by felons liberated
from the prisous.
" The resources which the army had found ore
consequently much diminished ; however, we hove
collected, and are still collecting a number of nem-
: series. All the cellars are untouched by thelre,
and the inhabitants, during the last 23 hours, had
saved many articles. They endeavoured to stop the
progress of the flames, but the Governor had taken
the horrid precaution to carry off or destroy-all the
engines.
46 The army is recovering from its fatigues ; it has
abundance of bread, potatoes, cabbages, and other
ivegetables, meat, salted provisions, wine, brendy)
sugar, coffee. and, in short, provisions of all sorts.
" The advanced-guard is twenty wersts on the
road to Kassau, by which the enemy is retreating.—
' Another French advanced-guard is on the road to
St. Petersburgh, where the enemy has not a singlet
isoldier.
" The temperature is still that of autumn; the
I soldiers have found, and continue to find, a number
of pelisses andfurs for the winter. Moscow was the
depot of those articles."
[The Moniteur, of the 4th, gives the sequel of the
Russian Military Reports, Proclamations, and other
ti productions, ridiculed in a previous Bulletin.]