on this occasion recovered the greater part of the CHA P. plunder which the French had taken from their LXXXV. cities. 1812. enters AFTER repairing the bridges, the Russian armies Kutusoff advanced, and on the 12th of December, prince w Kutusoff established his head-quarters at Wilna. The retreat of the French from the Beresina to the Niemen was attended with horrors, to which no parallel can be found in the annals of the world. For weeks before they quitted Moscow, they had no regular supplies of food; they were exhausted by long marches, harassed by an indefatigable foe, and exposed to the severity of a Russian winter, with scarcely a garment to protect their freezing limbs. In some places their route might be traced by the dead bodies, which appeared like the mounds in a church-yard when covered with snow. The scene of a night-watch often exhibited at dawn a circle of the dying and the dead wrapped in rags, matting, old canvas, and even raw hides stripped from the perished horses. The fugitives set fire to houses and villages; and many, when their joints were racked by the sudden transition from cold to heat, became frantic and fell into the flames. Numbers, with their feet frozen and half mortified were left to perish in the snow. It would be tedious to pursue the detail of these complicated miseries, of which the result may be calculated when it is known that of the 400,000 men who composed the invading army, not more than 50,000, including the Saxon auxiliaries, recrossed the Russian frontiers. Their losses by capture were stated by the accounts published at St. Petersburg to be 41 generals, 1298 officers, 167,510 privates, and 1131 pieces of cannon. to Paris BONAPARTE did not remain to witness the last Flight of scenes of the tragedy. On the 7th of December he Bonaparte reached Wilna, and having appointed Murat to the chief command, he departed for Warsaw, accompa 1812. CHAP. nied by Caulaincourt, and made a rapid journey to LXXXV. Paris. He was the herald of his own discomfiture; and he proclaimed with circumstantial precision, the results of a campaign which did equal credit to his foresight as a politician, and to his skill as a general. In making this plain avowal, which intimated that France would be more in need of him than he of France, he betrayed some compunction; and that feeling would have been paramount, if his love of glory had not been exceeded by his contempt for mankind. CHAP. LXXXVI. Hopes excited in England by the events in Russia. - Speech of the prince regent on the opening of parliament. - Exposition of the causes of the war with America. · Discussion of the Catholic question. Mr. William Smith's bill in favour of Unitarians. · Renewal of the East India Company's charter.- New plan of finance. - Budget. - Discussions on the treaty with Sweden. Stipendiary curates' bill.-Speech on the close of the session.- Campaign in America. Defence of Canada. - Loss of the Java. Capture of the Chesapeake. - Spanish campaign. The French retreat beyond the Ebro. - Advance of lord Wellington.- Battle of Victoria.- Suchet repulsed at Castella by the British.-Sir John Murray's abortive expedition to Catalonia. Soult resumes the command of Joseph Bonaparte's army. - Battles of the Pyrennees.- Capture of St. Sebastian and Pampluna.-Lord Wellington enters France. -Drives Soult into his entrenchments at Bayonne. 1812. England events in IT was amidst the ferment of a general election, CHAP. that the conflagration of the ancient capital of _LXXXVI. Russia was made known to the people of England in one of those memorable bulletins, which issued Hopes exfrom the Kremlin while Moscow was overwhelmed cited in in" an ocean of flame." The sensation of asto- by the nishment and awe produced by this event gave Russia. place to a hope that the Russians after making so tremendous à sacrifice, would persevere in opposing the invader, until the delusion which represented his power as irresistible should be dispelled, and the other nations of Europe should be relieved from the incubus which had so long oppressed them. Subsequent events soon heightened this hope into confidence; and the new parliament assembled on the 24th of November, under happier auspices than CHAP. than the most sanguine politician could have venLXXXVI. tured to anticipate. 1812. the prince regent on the opening of parliament. THE session was opened on the 30th, by the Speech of prince regent, who pronounced from the throne a speech, containing a comprehensive view of the great events of the year. In Spain, the marquis of Wellington, by the glorious victory at Salamanca, had compelled the enemy to raise the siege of Cadiz, and the southern provinces had thus been delivered from the armies of France. The concerted movements of those armies had rendered it necessary to withdraw from the siege of Burgos, and to evacuate Madrid for the purpose of concentrating the main body of the allied forces; but those efforts had been attended with important sacrifices on his part, which must materially contribute to extend the resources and facilitate the exertions of the Spanish nation. His royal highness expressed his firm reliance on the determination of parliament to continue every aid in support of a contest, which had first given to the continent of Europe the example of persevering and successful resistance to the power of France. The recent treaties with the courts of Petersburg and Stockholm, were another topic of congratulation, and the exertions of the Russian emperor and his people against the common enemy, were mentioned with high applause. As a proof of his confidence in the British government, his imperial majesty had recently sent his fleets to the ports of this country; and the prince regent declared his fixed determination to afford to that monarch the most cordial support in the great contest in which he was engaged. In reference to the war with the United States of America, his royal highness, after noticing the measures pursued on either part, added, that his best efforts should not be wanting to restore the relations of peace and amity between the two countries, but until this object could be obtained without sacrificing the mari time rights of Great Britain, he relied on the cordial support of parliament in a vigorous prosecution of the war. The prince concluded by stating that the approaching expiration of the East India company's charter, rendered it necessary that the early attention of parliament should be called to the propriety of providing for the future government of the Indian provinces of the British empire. The addresses were voted in both houses without a division. The principal proceedings before the adjournment for the holidays were, a grant of 100,000%. to lord Wellington; the renewal of the gold coin bill, and a grant of 200,000l. for the relief of the sufferers in Russia. CHA P. LXXXVI. 1812. of the causes of war with AFTER the Christmas recess, the attention of 1813. parliament was directed to the origin and causes of Exposition the war between this country and the United States. On the 3d of February, lord Castlereagh war United presented to the house of commons a series of States. papers on this subject, accompanied by a declaration issued on the 9th of January by the prince regent, containing a summary of the whole transactions, a vindication of the conduct of Great Britain towards America, and the following exposition of the principles on which that conduct had been regulated. Great Britain can never acknowledge any blockade, which has been duly notified and is supported by an adequate force, to be illegal, merely upon the ground of its extent, or because the ports or coasts are not at the same time invested by land. She can never admit that neutral trade with Great Britain can be constituted a public crime, the commission of which can expose the ships of any power to be denationalised. She can never admit that she can be debarred of her right of just and necessary retaliation through the fear of eventually affecting the interest of a neutral; or that in the exercise of the undoubted and hitherto undisputed right of searching neutral merchant |