466 · Comments on English Gasconading, from the Moniteur. LONDON PAPER, AUGUST 3. "In relation to the charge against Lord Wellington, that the cries of the inhabitants of Ciudad Rodrigo are heard in his camp, but that his ears are shut against them,' we shall only say, that if his Lordship has in this instance, as is stated in the Moniteur, imitated the conduct of Gene. ral Moore, in refusing to march to Madrid, he has acted most wisely, and has therein frustrated the arts of his opponents; for it is now ascertained beyond doubt, that all the endeavours which were made to draw the deceased commander to the Spanish capital, resulted from the plots of a traitor, conspiring, along with the enemies of his country, the ruin of the British army, which had been sent to its assistance; but the want of parallelism in the two cases is, first, that Gen. Moore was not, as is falsely stated in the Moniteur, within sight or hearing of Madrid when it surrendered, but at the distance of many days march: and further, that Madrid never made any defence, as did Ciudad Rodrigo: and, lastly, that however it might be the design of Massena to draw the British Commander into an engage ment, which it was prudent in the latter to decline, we have never yet heard that the insiduous machinations of treachery were employed for that purpurpose. Had the brave Herasti (1) in imitation of Morla, entered into a compromise with the enemy, to urge Lord Wellington to come to relieve the town, while it was secretly stipulated to surrender it, and to fall upon our forces (2), the cases of Madrid and Ciudad Rodrigo would have been, in this respect, at least similar. As the matter stands at present, they are dissimilar in every respect whatsoever. It was never yet stated, that 24,000 English must necessarily defeat 70,000 Frenchmen, or that one Eng lish soldier was at least equal to four French grenadiers; but this we may say, in conformity to the opinion, though not in the words of General Stuart, that a British army when properly commanded, has no occasion to dread meeting a French one of onethird greater number (3); for we have defeated and put to flight Bonaparte's best troops, in this proportion, wher ever we have met them, again and again, in Egypt-in Italy, and at Corunna." MONITEUR. (1) This Irish officer, whom the most superstitious, nay, we may say, the only intolerant government now existing in Europe, formerly compelled to serve against you, because you, who call yourselves so liberal and so wise a nation, insist, that several millions of your countrymen should think as you do, and abjure the religion of their fathers, under pain of exclusion from public office and military rankthe brave Herasti, incessantly shews the letters he had from Lord Wellington, encouraging him to prolong the de fence, and promising that he should be relieved. He loudly complains of you. But it is not the Spaniards of Cuidad Rodrigo alone that complain of you. The following is the language of those at Cadiz :-" The English say, they have in this instance done as they always do. They have let Cuidad Rodrigo be taken, as they let Madrid and Seville! At the appearance of danger they take themselves off! When it is of importance to succour us, and to save the effusion of blood, they run away!-They are here only to stir up war and disorder among us; and to encourage us to shed our blood without risking a drop of their own." General Morla is not a traitor. Had General Moore been either with Blake at Espinosa, or with the army of Es tremadura tremadura at Burgos, or with that of Castanos at Tuedela; if a fortnight after the opening of the campaign, when the Spanish armies of the first lines were beaten, Moore had, instead of remaining at Salamanca, advanced to the Somo-Sierra, and in that position rallied the Spanish troops, he must without doubt have ultimately given way, because the English are not a match for the French by land; but he would, at least have acted a frank and honourable part in the game which he had to play. Instead of this, he allowed the Spaniards to be beaten in the first line, suffered Madrid to be taken, and ended with disgracefully re-embarking, in the very heat of the contest. and when there still existed a Spanish army. Why, also, did he retreat upon Corunna, and not upon Lisbon? It was because the English were fully sensible that the war in Spain was finished; and it would indeed have been then finished, had not the war with Austria called off the attention of the head of the French Government to another point. Thus, it was not the English, and the handful of Spanish Chiefs to whom they distributed their gold for the maintenance of brigandage in Spain, that prevented the war from being finished before the spring of 1809; it was the diversion on the Continent, and undoubtedly a diversion of between five and 600,000 men was of some weight in the balance of affairs. (2) How fall upon your forces? How come you to talk of snares and ambuscades? That victorious army which was to have done such great things, you feared, you say, lest it should have been drawn towards Ciudad Rodrigo in order to fall upon it! If you could not relieve Ciudad Rodrigo, why did you leave there 7000 unfortunate Spaniards? If you could Ост. 1810. 3 N not attack the French army at the moment when it was harrassed with the fatigues and details of a siege, how did you expect to be able to sustain its attack, when the fortress be ing reduced and all our means collected, that the same army should advance to meet you? What! you have no more than 24,000 men? After so many proclamations, so many, expectations, and so many boasts, we thought you had at least sent 60.000 into field. The defence of Lisbon was at least worthy of such an effort. You say, you have only 24,000 against 76,000 French; but have you not, besides, that redoubtable Portuguese army commanded by English officers, and which you have represented amounting to 30,000 men ? Have you not also Romana's army, which, by your account, is equally formidable? Have you not in the rear that Portuguese Militia, which you tell us is animated with such ardour? If you only have 24,000, why have you no more? The Walcheren fever was surely cured. A number of your soldiers perished; but the survivers ought to have been by this time fit. for service. Why do not you send them to the assistance of your be loved allies? Do you think there can' be no occasion when they will have greater need of auxiliaries? So all the efforts of that British Empire which wishes to pass for being colossal, and which is so ambitious, to reduce themselves to the mere employment of 24,000 men in an interest which is so dear to it? This is very nearly the contingent which Wirtemberg would furnish in a general contest, for the aid of her allies. In a word, either you can furnish more than 24,000, and if so, why do not you furnish more? or you cannot, and in that case why do you, in a contest which you can not not maintain, cause so much blood to be shed, and make a whole population the victims of your ambition? (3) Here is an assertion which will make every man in Europe shrug up his shoulders; ask the Austrian army, which fought in conjunction with the English army under the walls of Dunkirk? Ask the Russian officers who to their misfortune fought along with the English at the famous landing of the Helder, in Holland? Ask them if the English can beat the French with inferior numbers. Those officers smile with pity when they hear talk of the English troops, and, in general they even refuse them the name of an army. Indeed, if this were an age of the battle of the thirty, we should much fear to pitch 25,000 French against 40,000 English. But where did you put to flight the French troops? In Egypt, do you say, Italy and Corunna? In the conflicts in Egypt, Gen. Lanusse, with only six battalions, broke the ranks of your 16,000 men; you were always three to one. But has it not been said that the English re-conquered Egypt? The Grand Vizier, with 70,000 Ottomans, their squadrons upon the coasts, their partizans in the country, all these united against 25,000 French, made very nearly a force of 100,000 against 25,000; and yet, had Kleber or Dessaix been in Egypt at the head of the French, the Grand Vizier would have been beaten, your army would have been driven into the lake of Aboukir, as it was the year before, and neither Turks nor English would have succeeded in re-conquering that country. The English, then, were only auxliaries. When they were before Alexandria, the Turks were at Cairo, and the Ottoman troops formed the principal army. The French capitulated; Ne but, what is unprecedented, they brought back with them thier arms, artillery, baggage and horses. vertheless, we must say, that the French army was under the directions of a weak man. In Italy Italy will be greatly astonished to hear that a French army was routed by the English. At Maida, you say. Must we speak of that petty affair? So it seems, if we attend to the language of the proceed. ings of Parliament, which amuses itself in returning thanks for a skir mish. You had on that occasion between 5 and 6000 men intrenched under the cover of the fire of your ships. The French General attacked you with three pieces of cannon, 4 French battalions, a Swiss battalion, and a Polish battalion. You were at least one third more in number than the French. If the latter did not succceed at the moment in compelling you to re-imbark, they did so in a few days after. But at Maida, also you were only auxiliaries. All Calabria was in insurrection, 20,000 armed peasants had surrounded the French division and, cut off its communications. But such is the vanity of the English, that their allies, the Spaniards, Turks and Sicilians, are nothing, when boasting is the only thing to be done; they are every where when danger is to be faced. Thus it appears, that at Maida the English were no moret han auxiliaries. At Corunna? And when did you beat the French at Corunna? and how did you beat them? They did not even attack you. It was the next day that they were to attack. Our advanced guard only which was engaged with you, did you some mischief; night came on, and you reimbarked. Instead of our advanced guard, had the whole French army boldly attacked you, you would have been ruined. Where Where then did you ever beat the French? At Talavera? But there you had, in the first place, 26,000 English, 'nor were you by yourselves. There again, you were only auxiliries. You had with you 40,000 Spaniards; you had therefore, in that quarter 70,000 men, while the French had no more than 26,000. You had another Spanish corps which was advancing by La Mancha; so that you had more than 80,000 men operating against the French army. This is known to every body; but the truth is shamefully disguised in the English Journals, where the greatest absurdities find insertion. Even in the Parliamentary proceedings you will find it stated that they beat the French! But if they beat the French, why did they not march on to Madrid, that city which they represent as so discontented and so ripe for revolt? LONDON PAPER, AUG. 11. (In an article "Continental Com merce,")" Bonaparte knows the enemy he has to deal with; he knows that this Government, from a sense of honour and rectitude, will not do injury to other nations for the sake of defeating his purposes." LORD CASTLEREAGH. By William Sampson, Esq. ROBERT STUART, at the general election in 1790, set himself up for representative of the county of Down, against what is called the Lordly Interest: and, in order to ingratiate himself with the popular party, took the following oath or test upon the Hustings, as a solemn compact between hin and his Constituents, namely— "That he would regularly attend his duty in Parliament, and be governed by the instructions of his Constituents. "That he would, in and out of the House, with all his ability and influence, promote the success of "A bill for amending the Representation of the People. "A bill for preventing pensioners from sitting in Parliament, or such placemen as cannot sit in the British House of Commons. "A bill for limiting the number of placemen and pensioners, and the an ount of pension. "A bill for preventing Revenue Officers from voting at elections. "A bill for rendering the servants of the crown of Ireland responsible for the expenditures of the public money, "A bill to protect the personal safety of the subject against arbitrary and excessive bail, and against the siretching the power of attachment beyona the limits of the Constitution." REMARK. Compare that test with the test of the United Irishmen, and there is not so much difference that the taker of the one should be exalted on a gallows, and the other to a peerage. The only difference is this-He that continued true to his test, was hanged; and he that was forsworn, hanged him. lamentable effects of a colonial When the Habeas Corpus was to be suspended, could no other be found to execute arbitrary imprisonment, but, 3 NS he he who had sworn to oppose "all arbitrary stretches of power?" When the Parliament was to be annihilated, could no man be found so fit to destroy it as the man who had sworn to defend its independence and its purity? How many of those whom Lord Castlereagh swore to protect against imprisonment, he has since imprisoned arbitrarily, and betrayed to the most cruel sufferings, may be better known hereafter his biography will be written. It is time that false honours should cease to varnish treason; and that lying and foreswearing should cease to pass for talents and merit, Does it require so much genius to lic-and is it so meritorious to betray? If so let it be proclaimed aloud to all mankind. The field of Genius may be much enlarged-honest men will cease to be troublesome, and thieves will have due honor. It is much to be wished, for the repose of mankind, that a great convention should be formed upon this head-That all may submit, or all rebel together. ARMY OF CANIBALS, OR HOTTENTOTS IN THE ISLE OF LEON. "We have 8,000 British, 1,500 Portuguese, and 17,000 Spanish troops in the Isle of Leon, besides their militia, volunteers, and a great many lookers on; in the whole, a number more than sufficient to EAT the force opposed to them, &c." The foregoing unchristian and savage paragraph, I have read in the Hibernian Journal of the 7th Sept. inst. being as it says, an Extract of a Letter from a British Officer, dated Cadiz Bay, 12th ultimo. MR. Cox. SIR-As you always had the good. ness to favour the public with extraordinary, important, and interesting extracts from Newspapers, &c. I hope you may have the above inserted in our Irish Magazine, that the public may see with detestation the savage and ferocious mind of this canibal officer, and military coward. I hope the foregoing extract is only a fabrication sent to the Editor of the H-n J-l, and that our army in the Isle of Leon is belyed, as we believe them to be gallant and brave soldiers, and not Men Eaters. I remain, yours truly, &c. 8th September, 1810. MR. Cox, SIR-In looking over an old Irish manuscript a few days since, the fol lowing lines attracted my attention in a particular manner. They are extracted from work of one of our native poets, Angus O'Daly, who was cotemporary with the virgin Queen Eli zabeth, and who is better known to the Irish scholar, under the names of donguy na n'do, Angus the Satyrist, or an bánò ruao, the Red Bard. The lines are a proof, that, the late Lord Jacky Fitzgibbon, was not the only person of his name who merited and obtained the execration of the Irish people, but, that the Fitzgibbon's were always a detested race, If you should think them worthy of a place in your Magazine, they are at your disposal. O. |