The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-09-23
RoSTOPCHIN'S PAMPHLET.

Dispatch sent to them Tor any period VI u'o ~
may desire, by leaving their orders ana paying 'ue
cash for the lime specified.
RoSToPCHIN'S PAMPHLET.
We continue our extracts from this work,
where we left off yesterday.
aBut the provisions which remained IN the
houses were a matter ofvery small considera-
tion. for Moscow is sufficiently supplied by
land and water carriage from the Spring to the
month OF September, and afterwards BY boats
until the Winter; but the war having copl.
menced in June. and the enemy having alrea-
dy, in August, made himself master of Smo-
lensk, from that time all transportation ceased,
and no attempts were made to bring provisions
into city menaced by powerful enemy, and
itself entirely without defence. At later PEI
Rod, the greater part of the grain in the govern
ment stores, and in those Of the corn merchants
was converted into bread and biscuit. During
the thirteen days which preceded the entry OF
Napoleon into Moscow, six hundred wagons,
with biscuit, oatmeal and oats. left every morn
ing for the army. Thus, even the motive OF
depriving the enemy ofprovisions, could not
have existed. A consideration still more i'm"
portant would have stopped the projected con
Aagration, +, in truth, such project had ever
existed. 1t was, that it would have assisted
Napoleon in forcing Prince Kutuzoff into a
battle, at his departure from Moscow; bat.
tle, in every chance, was against the Russian
army, which was greatly inferior to that OF the
French, and was, moreover, embarrassed by
of uonp1ed and hv n
part of the population of Moscow, which had
Just left the city.
"2. The bulletin speaks of the combusti-
BILE matter prepared by one Schmidt, who was
employed to complete balloon, &C.
"rhe confagration having never been either
concerted or prepared, the 'combustible mat
ter of Schmidt, of course, is reduced to moths
ing. That man, who pretended to have found
out plan for directing the course of balloons,
was employed in constructing one, and in the
spirit of charlatan, required that his labor
should be kept secret. Too much Importance
has been given to the history of that balloon,
for no other purpose than TO cast ridicule on
the Russians; but dupes are rare among them,
and no inhabitant of Moscow could ever have
been made to believe that Schmidt could de"
stroy the French army with balloon such as
the French used at the battle of Fleurus.-
Moreover, where was the necessity for estab-
fishing mandatory of combustible matter7
Straw and hay would have answered the pur-
pose of an incendary much better tn an fire
works, which require to be guarded with care,
and which are as difficult to be concealed as TO
BIZ managed, by persons who have no knowl-
edge Of them.
"'3d extract from the bulletins. The torpe-
does found in the stoves Of my hotel at Mos
cow
"Why should have placed torpedoes in my
hotel? When they came 10 make up fire,
they would have been discovered, and even if
they had exploded, few persons would have
been killed, and there would have been no con-
fagration.
"a French physician, who occupied my ho
tel, told me that few musket cartridges were
found in one ofthe stoves; if, in the course of
time, they had become torpedoes, there is no
reason in the world why it may not be said |
hereafter that they were globes of compress
sion. So far as l am concerned, leave the |
invention OF torpedoes to the bulletin. If any
cartridges were really found in the stoves o.
my house, they were, most probably, placed
there after had left it, to furnish another small
proof that had determined to set fire to Mos
cow. As for the crackers, which it alleged |
were found upon the persons of the incendia-
ries, if they ever existed, they might have been
taken from tpriva,e establishments where they |
were in the habit OF preparing fireworks for |
Moscow and the adjoining country"
ITO BE Continued