"

soners. -The Marshal says, that Soult (Duke of Dalmatia) has retired with "a "tarnished reputation;" and the Times news-paper says, that the "proof of his discomfiture is, that he left his wounded at "the place of his retreat.”- -This paper has recently become devoted to the Wellesleys. But, did the writer perceive what his argument might lead to? Did he recollect, that we boasted of a Victory at Talavera; nay that we fired Park and Tower guns; and, what is more, gave Parliamentary Thanks, two Titles, and a pension of 3,000l. a year for three generations, to him who left his sick and wounded at that very Talavera? Did this newlyconverted writer remember that? If he did, he would hardly have assumed, that the fact of the Duke of Dalmatia having left some of his wounded behind him at Albuera was a proof of his discomfiture. --Some of the papers of to-day state, that the Duke of Dalmatia has issued Thanks to his Army for the valour which enabled him to obtain so signal a victory; and, it is added, that he boasts of having taken three pair of colours, several guns, aud a great number of prisoners, and that the colours will be sent to Paris.--How such a story as this comes to be afloat I leave the reader to guess. The Duke of Dalmatia had hardly sent his orders to our camp. How, then, could this be known otherwise than from conjecture; and to that conjecture what could give rise?Let us now, however, wait for the French account. "Hear both sides" is an old and good maxim, and one side we have heard. We know that a howitzer was taken from

S.

What was taken from the Spaniards we have not been told; but, I, at present, see no reason to doubt the fact of the French having taken "several guns.”. There really is about this victory something more marvellous than about any other that I ever before heard of. It would seem to have been a sort of coup-de-main on the part of the French. They seem to have rushed forward and killed and carried off a great part of their opponents without any serious design to remain upon the ground, and without supposing it possible to remain there.We are told by our news-papers, that the French were superior in artillery; and this, too, you will observe, though they had come about a hundred miles to the attack. Good heavens what people these French must be! We svere, too, setting about a regular siege. We ought to have had some artillery there.

We had long been collecting stores together for this siege; and, while this is going on, the French start out at 100 miles distance, and bring up to our very noses a superior artillery !—Now, then, reader, look back over all that we have been remarking on; and say, whether there is any ground for hope, that we shall be able to drive the French out of the Peninsula; and, observe, if we do not, all this expence in life as well as in money is lost. To me it has long appeared, that the true policy of Napoleon was to incite us to waste our force in that country. A war there which occupies all our attention, and draws off every man and every pound of food that we can raise, serves him surprizingly, while he is settling the northern part of his Empire to his liking, and building ships in all his arsenals. A reinforcement of 10 or 20 thousand men sent from France twice a year, will feed the war in Spain and Por tugal without absolutely disheartening the people of England. Such "victories" as we have recently gained seem to me to be the very things that suit him. We are thereby induced to hasten off more troops, and consequently more money. The war in the Peninsula has come to supply the place of all others. It leaves France in perfect tranquillity, and, at the same time, gives us full occupation. There are only three sufferers; England, Spain, and Por tugal. The French empire does not taste of the war, which affects it in so trifling a degree as for the people to have al most all the advantages of peace. They feel no alarms; they are in no" crisis; they merely hear of the war in Spain and Portugal as we do of the endless wars in the East-Indies, to which it bears some resemblance; is it with them a matter of curiosity rather than of concern. How different it is with us! We look upon this war, and, indeed, we are told to consider it, as a war for our exist ence; our eyes are constantly upon the stretch towards Lisbon; we wish for, and yet we fear, the arrival of every packet boat; at the most trifling success, nay, at the escape from overthrow, we rejoice without moderation, and yet, in the midst of our exultation, our hearts bid us fear, that, in the end, we shall see the Peninsula in the hands of our enemy.--Reader, is not this the truth? Is not this our situation truly painted Such, then, is the state af which we have arrived at the end of eighteen years of Anti-Jacobin war; of a war for the deliverance of Europe; and

OFFICIAL PAPERS. PORTUGAL. THE WAR.-London Gazette Extraordinary, Monday, June 3, 1811. Downing Street, June 2, 1811.-Dispatches, of which the following are Extracts, have been this day received by the Earl of Liverpoot, addressed to his Lordship by Lieutenant-General Viscount Wellington, duted Elvas, 22nd May, 1811.

On the night of the 15th instant I received from Marshal Sir W. Beresford letters of the 12th and 13th inst. which reported Marshal Soult had broken up from Seville about the 10th, and had advanced towards Estremadura, notwithstanding the reports which had been previously received that he was busily occupied in strengthening Seville and the approaches to that city by works; and that all his measures indicated an intention to remain on the defensive in Andalusia.I therefore set out on the following morning from Villa Fermosa; and having received further information of the 14th, from Sir William Beresford, of the enemy's movements, I hastened my progress, and arrived here on the 19th, and found that Sir William Beresford had raised the siege of Badajoz, without the loss of ordnance or stores of any description; and collected the troops under his command, and bad formed a junction with Generals Castaños and Blake, at Albuera, in the course of the 15th instant.-He was attacked there on the 16th by the French army under the command of Marshal Soult; and after a most severe engagement, in which all the troops conducted themselves in the most gallant manner, Sir William Beresford gained the Victory. The enemy retired in the night of the 17th, leaving between 900 and 1,000 wounded on the ground.-Sir William Beresford sent the allied cavalry after them; and on the 19th, in the moming, reinvested Badajoz.-I enclose reports of Sir William Beresford, of the 16th and 18th inst. on the operations of the siege to the moment of raising it, and on the battle at Albuera; and I beg to draw your Lordship's attention to the ability, the firmness, and the gallantry manifested by marshal Sir William Beresford throughout the transactions on which he has written. I will add nothing to what he has said of the conduct of all the officers and troops, excepting to express my admiration of it, and my cordial concurrence in the favourable reports

by Sir William Beresford of the good conduct of all.-All has remained quiet in Castile since I quitted that part of the country. The battalions of the 9th corps, belonging to regiments serving in the Corps d'Armée in Andalusia, had marched went towards Avila, and were to come by from Salamanca on or about the 15th, and Madrid.-I send this dispatch by Major (Lieutenant-Colonel) Arbuthnot, the Secretary of Marshal Sir William Beresford, who was present in the battle of Albuera, and can give your Lordship any further information you can require; and I beg leave to recommend him to your Lordship. Extract of a Letter from Marshal Beresford to Lord Wellington, dated Albuera, May 16, 1811.

In conformity to your Lordship's instructions given to me on the 24th. ultimo, in consequence of the then state of the weather, and our means of communication across the Guadiana having been destroyed by the sudden flooding of that river, and leaving my cavalry in Zafra, Los Santos, and Villa Franca, I placed the infantry with its head at Almandralejo, Azuechal, and Villa Alva, where were the divisions of Major-General the Honourable William Stewart and Major-General Ha milton; and the Honourable Major-General Cole's division with Brigadier-General Madden's brigade of cavalry in Merida, the infantry brigade of it commanded by Brigadier-General Kemmis, and that was intended for the attack of Fort Saint Christoval, at Montejo, and the light brigade German Legion under Major-General Baron Alten, at Talavera Real, leaving the light battalion L. L. Legion in Olivenca, during the period of waiting the fall of the water of the Guadiana, and the reestablishment of our bridge, it being of considerable importance to push the enemy from us as far as possible during the siege, as he had on our obliging him to retire from Llerana to Guadalcanal held the latter place.-I directed a small column of two thousand men composed of the 1st brigade 2d division, under the command of Lieute nant-Colonel-Colborne, with two squadrons of cavalry and two Spanish four-pounders, to proceed from Almandralejo, by Ribera and Maquilla to Azuaga to threaten his right, sending at the same time four squad. rons of cavalry from Brigadier-General Long at Villa Franca to Lierana, to support.the Count de Penne Villamur, who was then with the Spanish cavalry of Ge

neral Castano's corps, to make him fear an attack in front, and General Ballasteros went from Monasterio to Montemolin to threaten his left. These manœuvres had the desired effect; as soon as the enemy saw the advance of Lieutenant-Colonel Colborne near Azuaga, where he had five hundred infantry and three hundred cavalry, he abandoned precipitately the place, and retired to Guadalcanal, which place the General Latour Maubourg with the 5th corps quitted in two hours after the arrival of this detachment, and at eleven o'clock at night retired near to Constantino. Lieutenant-Colonel Colborne performed this service in a most judicious and handsome manner.-The weather having been some time fine, and the waters of the Guadiana having subsided, and our preparations having by Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher's activity been nearly completed for the siege of Badajoz, on the 3rd of May I sent three brigades of infantry, a brigade of six pounders, and two squadrons of cavalry, under the orders of Major General the Honourable William Stewart, to invest more close Badajoz, on the south of the River, which he performed with his usual zeal and attention on the 4th. On the 6th instant, I directed the march of the remaining divisions on Badajoz, one by Albuera, the other by Talavera, leaving the cavalry as before placed. On the 7th I came before Badajoz with these divisions. General Castanos furnished also to co-operate in the siege 2,000 men, under the command of Brigadier Don Carlos D'Espagne. On the 8th I directed the brigade of Brigadier-General Kemmis, which had been previously placed on the Chebora, to proceed to the Torre of St. Ingracia, about two miles from Badajoz, on the Campo Maior Road, and to be joined there by the 17th Portuguese regiment, two squadrons of cavalry, and four six-pounders from Elvas; the force to meet at three o'clock in the morning, and the whole to be placed under the orders of the Honourable MajorGeneral William Lumley, to invest the north side, and to attack Fort St. Cristoval. By some accident to the bearer of the orders to Brigadier-General Kemmis, the Officer did not arrive at his post till nine o'clock, the Honourable Major-Gen. Lumley on the approach of the light companies of the brigade, advancing towards the town, with the force he brought from Elvas, the Garrison made a sortie upon it, but was immediately drove back, and

the Grenadiers of the 17th regiment particularly distinguished themselves by charging the enemy, headed by Colonel Turner; the detachment suffered the loss as per Return No. 1.-On the 8th, Lieutenant-Colonel Fletcher, to protect the further approaches, constructed batteries against the Pardalleiras and Piquerino, on the heights commanding them, though at a considerable distance; and Captain Squire whom the Lieutenant-Colonel had sent to superintend the works intended to be erected against St. Cristoval, began his operations on the 8th. The breaking ground on that side immediately caused great jealousy to the enemy, and he opposed it by a most heavy fire of shot and shell, and on the morning of the 10th, he made a sortie against the battery constructing, with about twelve hundred men, being within five hundred yards of the place. He soon reached the battery, and it having of the covering party allotted to it, only one light infantry company in it, the enemy got possession of it, but had it not for two minutes, as the whole of the covering party that was close to the battery on the slope of the hill, immediately seized their arms and drove the enemy back with considerable loss to him, but I regret to say ours on this occasion must have been considerably greater, from our troops having exposed themselves to the shot and shell of the town and fort of Saint Cristoval, and the musquetry from this latter.-I annex the return of our loss on this day, and in it I have to lament being deprived of the ser vices of Colonel Turner, who in the very short time he had been in the Portuguese service, had given me the greatest satis faction, and in these two days, the most conspicuous proofs of his gallantry.-I annex the returns of our further loss of men on the respective days that our opera tions against Badajoz continued, and the Honourable Major-General Lumley's Reports on the circumstances and consequences of the enemy's sorties.-On the 12th I received information from General Blake that Marshal Soult had left Seville on the 10th, and with the avowed intention of coming to Badajoz, his force stated to be fifteen thousand men; and General Latour Maubourg had already again moved upon and occupied Guadalcanal and Llerena, from which places the Count de Penne Villamur had been obliged to retire. As General Blake had come down to Frejenal, and General Ballasteros from