will be exported, notwithstanding this act, or manufactured into articles of jewellery, and the coin be totally destroyed. No laws can prevent this consequence of the silent, slow, and secret operations of exchange.

The important question of the price of bullion must repeatedly occur until the paper and the funding system are finally destroyed. Hume has said that "either the nation must destroy the funding sys. tem or the funding system must destroy the nation." The time is fast approaching when this prophecy will be proved true or false; and it is the opinion of the present writer, that, if a peace should occur with in any reasonable time, Hume's prediction would be verified, and either the nation must immediately discharge its debts or be visited by those sudden changes which disturb or convulse the state to its centre. The war in his opinion will prolong the period of paper currency and bank funds, but cannot give it an eternal duration.

This subject is of vital importance to the state, and, with a true knowledge of the science of money, all the evils of dilapidated finances and a sudden destruction

of the funds may be avoided, and the state brought safe into the harbour of peace; but the blind ignorance of the present race of financiers, and absurd theorists upon money, may eventually cast it upon the rocks of destruction. A paper system has convulsed all the states of Europe, it threatens England with ruin. Let her take warning by the experience that is before her, and she may be saved.

One fact is now apparent by this act namely, that Bank notes are now to all purposes legal tender. For they are legally to pass for the value they import in coin, which is legal tender. It was said in 1797 that it was not intended to make bank notes legal tender, but it was obvious that this consequence must follow in due time, and it is now equally obvious that all legal remedies for recovering of debts being removed when Bank notes are tendered, that tender is directly inforced by law. A paper system is, therefore, clearly established in England, and all the consequences of such a system must ensue; it is now become a question in what this paper differs from any other system of paper, such as the assignats of France.

THE

RUSSIA.

THE infatuated government of this semi-barbarous empire continues to resist the French armies, which proceed with caution into its centre. There have been various bloody skirmishes, in which the joint loss may be estimated at 30,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, each side claiming the advantage, but followed by regular advances of the French. By the last accounts the French headquarters were at Witepsk, a position which separated the main Russian army from Petersburgh, and left the left wing of the French at liberty to secure the coasts of the Baltic, and finally the capital. The following are abstracts of the French Bulletins since our last :

Third Bulletin.

Korono, June 26, 1812. On the 23d, at two in the morning, the Emperor arrived at the advanced posts near Kowno, took a Polish cloak and cap from one of the light cavalry, and inspected the banks of the Niemen, accompanied by General Haxo, of the engineers, alone.

At eight in the evening, the army was again in motion. At ten, Count Morand, general of division, passed over three companies of voltigueurs, and at the same time three bridges were thrown across the Niemen. At eleven, three columns debouched over the three bridges. At a quarter past one, day began to appear. At noon, General Baron Pajol, drove before him a cloud of Cos. sacks, and took possession of Kowno, with a single battalion.

On the 24th, the Emperor proceeded to Kowno.

The Niemen is navigable for vessels of two or three hundred tons as far as Kowno. The communications by water are also se sured as far as Dantzic, and with the Vistula, the Oder, and the Elbe. An immense supply of brandy, flour, and biscuit, is passing from Dantzic and Konigsberg towards Kowno. The Vilia, which flows by Wilna, is navigable for very small boats from Kowno to Wilna. Wilna, the capital of Lithuania, is also the chief town of all Polish Russia. The emperor of Russia has been for several months in this city with a part of his court. The possession of this place will be the first fruit of victory.

Fifth Bulletin.

Wilna, July 6, 1812. The passage of the Vilia, which took place on the 25th of June, and the movement of the Duke of Reggio upon Janow, and towards Chatoni, obliged the corps of Wittgenstein to proceed towards Wilkomir and on its left; MONTHLY MAG. No. 231.

and the corps of Baggowont to make for Dunaburg, by Mouchnicki and Gedroitse. These two corps were thus cut off from Wilna.

The third and fourth corps, and Russian imperial guards, retired from Wilna upon Nementschin, Swentzianoui, and Vidzoni. The King of Naples pressed them vigorously along both banks of the Vilia. The tenth regiment of Polish hussars, which where at the head of the column of the division of Count Sebas tiani, came up near Lebowo, with a regiment of Cossacks of the party which covered the rear-guard, and charged at full gallop, killed nine, and made about a dozen prisoners. The Polish troops, which up to this moment have engaged in a charge, have shown rare resolu tion. They are animated by enthusiasm and passion.

On the 3d of July the King of Naples marched upon Swentziani, and there over took Baron Tolly's rear-guard. He gave orders to General Montbrun to charge, but the Russians did not wait the attack, and retired with such precipitation, that a squadron of Huhlans, which was returning from a reconnoisance on the side of Mihailetki, fell in with our posts. It was charged by the 12th Chasseurs, and the whole taken or slain. Sixty men were taken with their horses. The Poles who are amongst these prisoners have applied to serve, and have been taken, full mounted, into the Polish troops.

On the 4th, at day-break, the King of Naples entered Swentziani, the Marshal Duke of Elchingen entered Maliatoni, and Marshal Duke of Reggio Avanta.

On the 30th of June Marsha! the Duke of Tarento arrived at Rossiena; he proceeded beyond that to Ponevieji, Chawli, and Tesch.

The immense magazines which the Rus sians had in Samogitia have been burnt by themselves, which has occasioned an enor mous loss, not only to their finances, but still more to the subsistence of the people.

All the enemy's corps are in a state of the greatest uncertainty. The Hetman Platow was still ignorant on the 30th of June that Wilna had been two days in the possession of the French. He took the direction towards that city, as far as Lida, at which place he changed his route, and moved towards the South.

The sun, during the whole of the 4th, reestablished the roads. Every thing is now organising at Wilna. The suburbs have suffered by the vast crowds of people that rushed into them during the continuance of the tempest. There was a Russian apparatus there for sixty thousand rations. Another has been established for an equal number of rations. Magazines are forming. The kead of the convoys arrives at Kowno by the Nie. Y

men.

men. Twenty thousand quintals of flour, and a million rations of biscuit, have just arrived here from Dantzic.

Sixth Bulletin.

Wilna, July 11, 1812. The king of Naples continues to follow the enemy's rear-guard. On the 5th he met the enemy's cavalry in a position upon the Dwina. He caused it to be charged by the brigade of light cavalry, commanded by General Baron Subervie. The Prussian regiments, the Wirtemburgers and Poles, which form a part of this brigade, charged with the greatest intrepidity. They overturned a line of Russian dragoons and hussars, and took 200 prisoners, with their horses. When they arrived on the other side of the Dwina, they broke down the bridges, and showed a disposition to defend the passage of the river, General Count Montbrun then brought up his five batteries of light artillery, which, during several hours,

carried destruction into the ranks of the enemy. The loss of the Russians has been considerable.

General Count Sebastiani arrived on the 33me day at Vidzoni, whence the Emperor of Russia had departed on the preceding evening. Thus, ten days after opening the campaign, our advanced posts are upon the Dwiва. Almost the whole of Lithuania, containing four millions of inhabitants, has been conquered. The operations of the war commenced at the passage of the Vistula. The projects of the Emperor were from that time plainly unfolded, and he had no time to lose In carrying them into execution. Thus, the army has been making forced marches from the period of passing that river, in order to advance by means of manœuvres upon the Dwina, for the distance between the Vistula and the Dwina is greater than that between the Dwina and Moscow or Petersburgh. The Russians appear to be concentrating themselves upon Donaburg; they give out that it is their intention to wait for us and to give us battle before we enter into their ancient provinces, after having abandoned Poland without a contest, as if they were constrained by justice, and had wished to restore a country badly acquired, in as much as it had not been gained by treaties, or by the right of conquest.

Seventh Bulletin.

Wilna, July 16. His Majesty has erected upon the right bank of the Vilia an entrenched camp, sur rounded by redoubts, and constructed a citadel upon the mountain on which was the ancient palace of Jagellons. The two bridges upon piles are being constructed. Three Bridges upon rafts are already established.

We have at this moment more than 150,000 quintals of meal, 2,000,000 rations of biscuit, 600,000 quintals of rice, &c. The convoys succeeded each other with rapidity; the Niemen is covered with boats.

The passage of the Niemen took place on the 24th, and the Emperor entered Wilna on the 28th. The army of the West, cummanded by the Emperor Alexander, is com posed of nine divisions of infantry, and four cavalry, but is driven from post to post, and now occupies the entrenched camp at Dressa, in which the King of Naples, with the corps of Marshals the Dukes of Elchingen and Reggio, several divisions of the first corps, and the cavalry corps of counts Nansouty and Montbrun keep it.

The Diet at Warsaw, being constituted into a GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF POLAND, has named Prince Adam Czartorinski for its president. This prince, aged 80 years, has for 50 years been Marshal of the Diet of Poland. The first act of the Diet was to declare the kingdom of Poland re-established.

A deputation from the Confederation was presented to his Majesty at Wilna, and submitted to his approbation and protection the Act of Confederation.

Eighth Bulletin.

Gleubokoe, July 22. The corps of Prince Bagration is composed of four divisions of infantry, from 22 to 24,000 men strong of Platow's Cossacks, forming 6000 horse, and from 4 to 5000 cavalry. Two divisions of his corps (the 9th and 15th) wished to rejoin him by Pinsk; they were intercepted, and obliged to return to Wolhynie.

On the 14th General Latour Maubourg, who follows the rear guard of Bagration, was

at Romanoff. On the 16th Prince Poratiwowski had his head-quarters there.

Smolensk is in alarm. Every thing is removing to Moscow. An officer, sent by the emperor to cause the evacuation of the magazines of Orcha, was quite astonished to find the place in the possession of the French. This officer was taken with his dispatches.

On the 18th the emperor removed his head-quarters to Gleuhokoe. On the 20th the Marshals Dukes of Istria and Treviso were at Onchatch, the Viceroy at Kamen, and the king of Naples at Disna. On the 18th the Russian army evacuated their entrenched camp of Dressa, defended by twelve pallisadoed redoubts, united by a covered way, and extending 3000 toises on the river. These works cost a year of labour. We have levelled them. The immense magazines they contained were either burnt or thrown into the water.

On the 19th, the Emperor Alexander was at Witepsk. On the same day General Count Nansouty was opposite Polotsk. On the 20th, the king of Naples passed the Dwina, and covered the right bank of the river with his cavalry. All the preparations the enemy had made to defend the passage of the Dwina have been useless. The magazines he has been forming, at a great expense, for these three years past, have been entirely destroyed.

The

The same has happened to his works, which, according to the reports of the people of the country, have cost the Russians in one year not less than 6000 men. One can hardly guess on what ground they flattered themselves that they would be attacked in the encampments they had entrenched.

General Count Grouchy has reconnoitred

Babinovitch and Sienno. On all sides we are

marching upon the Oula. This river is joined by a canal to the Beresina, which runs into the Boristhenes. Thus we are masters of the communication from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In his movements the enemy has been obliged to destroy his baggage, and to throw his artillery and arms into the rivers. All the Poles of his army avail themselves of his precipitate retreat to desert and wait in the

woods till the arrival of the French.

The estimate of the French army acting against Russia, as given from the War Office at Paris, is as follows:

Poles

Confederation

French

Italians

Austrians Prussians

100,000

120,000

..250,000

50,000 90,000 30,000

exertions of his brother Joseph. The English ministry, at this juncture, have strained quess Wellington, and the consequence every nerve to augment the forces of Marhas been the discomfiture of Marmont at Salamanca, and the overruning of the plains of Castile by the English army. At present therefore the English interest has attained an ascendency through the northwest of Spain; and, if the Spaniards are faithful allies and in earnest, the French Generals in the South may find it difficult to return to France. Should the opportunity be lost, the cause of Spain may be considered as hopeless. The following is the London Gazette account of the victory over the French army near Sala

manca.

Fiores de Avila, July 24, 1812.

My Aid-de-Camp, Captain Lord Clinton, will present to your Lordship this account of a victory which the allied troops under my command gained in a general action fought near Salamanca, on the evening of the 22d. inst. which I have been under the necessity of delaying to send till now, having been engaged ever since the action in the pursuit of the enemy's flying troops.

In my letter of the 21st I informed your Lordship that both armies were near the Tormes; and the enemy crossed that river with the greatest part of his troops in the afternoon by the fords between Alba de Tormes and Huerta, and moved by their left towards the roads leading to Ciudad Rodrigo.

The allied army, with the exception of the 3d division and General d'Urban's cavalry, likewise crossed the Tormes in the evening by the bridge of Salamanca, and the fords in the neighbourhood; and I placed the troops in a position of which the right was upon one of the two heights called Dos Arapiles, and the left on the Tormes, below the ford of Santa Martha.

The 3d division and Brigadier-General d'Urban's cavalry were left at Cabreriaos, on the right of the Tormes, as the enemy had still a large corps on the heights above Babilafuente, on the same side of the river; and I

considered it not improbable, that, finding our army prepared for them in the morning, on the left of the Tormes, they would alter their plan, and manoeuvre by the other bank.

In the course of the night of the 21st I received intelligence, of the truth of which I could not doubt, that General Clauvel had arrived at Pollos on the 20th, with the cavalry and horse artillery of the Army of the North, to join Marshal Marmont; and I was quite certain that these troops would join him on the 22d or 23d at the latest.

During the night of the 21st the enemy had taken possession of the village of Calva