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some escaped by swimming; meanwhile Marshal Ney's left wing reached the RaveJine, which encircles the town of Friedland. The enemy who had posted the imperial horse and foot guards in ambush there, adyanced with great intrepidity, and attacked Marshal Ney's left, which for a moment wavered: but Dupont's division, which formed the right wing of the reserve, fell upon the Russian imperial guards, defeated them, and made a most dreadful slaughter. The enemy sent forward several other corps from his centre, to defend Friedland: vain efforts! Friedland was forced, and its streets bestrewed with dead bodies. The centre, commanded by Marshal Lannes, was at the same time engaged. The attempts which the enemy had made upon the right wing, being frastrated, he wished to try the effect of similar efforts upon our centre, he was, however, suitably received by the brave divisions of Oudinot and Verdier, and the commanding Marshal.-The repeated attacks of the enemy's infantry and cavalry were incapable of obstructing the march of our columns, all the powers and all the courage of the Russians were exerted in vain.-Marshal Mortier, who, during the whole day, had given great proofs of coolness and intrepidity, in supporting the left wing, now advanced, and was in his turn supported by the fuzileers of the guard under the command of Gen. Savary. The cavalry, infantry, and artillery-all, on this occasion, generally distinguished themselves.-The imperial horse and foot guards, and two divisions of the first corps, were not in the action. The victory was never for a moment doubtful. The field of battle is horrible to behold. It is not too much to estimate the number of the dead on the side of the Russians, at from 15 to 18,000. The number of dead on the French side was not 500, but we have 3000 wounded. We have taken 80 cannon's, and a great number of cassoons. A great number of standards have also fallen into our hands. There are 25 of the Russian generals either killed, wounded, or taken. Their cavalry has suffered an incalculable loss. Gen. Drouet, Chief of Marshal Lannes' corps; Gen. Cohorn; Col. Regnaud of the 15th of the line; Col. Lajonquire of the 60th; Col. Lamotte, of the 4th dragoons; and Brigadier General Brunryn, are wounded. Gen. Latour Maubourg is wounded in the hand. Deffourneux, colonel of the artillery; Hutin, Chef d'Esquadron, and first Aid-de-Camp of Gen. Oudinot, are killed. Two ofthe Emperor's Aids-de-Camp, Mouton and Lacoste, are slightly wounded.Night prevented us from pursuing the ene

my; they were followed until 11 o'clock. During the remainder of the night, the cut off columns tried to pass the Alle at several fordable places, and next day, we saw caissons, cannon, and harness, every where in the river. The battle of Friedland is worthy to be numbered with those of Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena. The enemy were numerous, had fine cavalry, and fought bravely.

Next day the enemy endeavoured to assemble on the right bank of the Alle, and the French army made manœuvres on the left bank to cut them off from Koningsberg. The heads of the columns arrived at the same time at Wehlan, a town situated at the confluence of the Alle and the Pregel. The Emperor had his head quarters in the village of Peterswelde.--The enemy having destroyed all the bridges took advantage of that obstacle, at day-break, on the 16 h, to proceed on their retreat towards Russia.. At S in the morning, the Emperor threw a bridge over the Pregel, and took a position there with the army.--Almost all the magazines which the enemy had on the Alle have been thrown into the river, or burnt. Some idea may be formed of the great extent of their loss by what yet remains to us. The Russians had magazines in all the villages, which, in their passage, they every where burnt. We have, however, found more than 6000 quintals of corn in Wehlau.Koningsberg was abandoned on the arrival of the intelligence of the battle of Friedland. Marshal Soult has entered that place, where much wealth has been found. We have taken there some hundred thousand quintals of corn, more than 20,000 wounded Russians and Prussians, all the ammunition which Eugland had sent to the Russians, including 100,000 muskets which had not been landed. Thus has Providence punished those, who instead of negociating with good faith to bring about a salutary peace, treated that object with derision, and regarded the repose taken by the conquerors, as a proof of timidity and weakness.-The army is now in a delightful country. The banks of the Pregel are rich. In a short time the magazines and cellars of Dantzie and Koningsberg will afford us new resources of superfluity and health. The names of the brave men who have distinguished themselves, cannot be contained within the limits of one bulletin. The staff is employed in collecting their deeds -The Prince of Neufchatel gave extraordinary proofs of his -zeal and knowledge in the battle of Fried

He was frequently in the hottest part of the action, and made arrangements which were of great advantage. It was on the 5th

the enemy renewed hostilities. Their loss in the ten days which followed their first operations may be reckoned at 60,000 men, killed, wounded, taken, or otherwise put Fors de combat. A part of their artillery, the necessary supply of military stores, and all their magazines, on a line of more than 40 miles, are lost to them. The French army has seldom obtained such great advantages with so little loss.

80th Bulletin of the Grand French Army.

During the time that the French arms signalize themselves on the field of battle at Friedland, the Grand Duke of Berg arrives before Koningsberg, and takes in flank the corps of the army commanded by Gen. Lestocq.-On the 13th, Marshal Soult found at Creutzberg, the Prussian rear-guard. The division of Milhaud's dragoons makes a fine charge, defeats the Prussian cavalry, and takes several pieces of cannon.- -On the 14th, the enemy was compelled to shut himself up in Koningsberg. About noon, 2 of the enemy's columns, which had been cut off before that place, with a view of entering it, 6 pieces of cannon, and from 3 to 4000 men who composed this troop, were taken. All the suburbs of Koningsberg were raised, and a considerable number of prisoners were made. The result of all these affairs is between 4 and 5000 prisoners, and 15 pieces of cannon. On the 15th and 16th, Marshal Soult's corps was occupied before the en trenchments of Koningsberg; but the adrance of the main body of the army towards Wehlau, obliges the enemy to evacuate Koningsberg, and this place falls into our bands. The stores found at Koningsberg are immense: 200 large vessels from Russia are still all loaded in the port. There was much more wine and brandy than we had any reason to expect.-A brigade of the division of St. Hilaire advanced before Pillau, to form the siege of that place; and Gen. Rapp has sent off to Dantzic for a .co. Janin, ordered to go by the Nehrung, to raise before Pillau a battery which may shut the Haff Vessels manned by marines of the guard render us masters of this small sea.On the 17th, the Emperor transferred his head-quarters to the farm of Drucken, near Klein Schirau. On the 18th he advanced them to Sgaisgirren; and on the 19th, at 2 in the afternoon, he entered Tilsit-The Grand Duke of Berg, at the head of the greater part of the light cavalry, some divisions of dragoons and cuirassiers, has follow

ed the enemy in his retreat these three last days, and did him much injury.. The 5th regiment of hussars distinguished itself. The Cossacks were repeatedly routed, and suffered considerably in these different charges. We had a few killed and wounded: among the latter is the Chief d'Escadre Picton, Aidde-Camp to the Grand Duke of Berg. After the passage of the Pregel, opposite to Wehlau, a drummer was charged by a Cossack at full gallop; the Cossack takes his lance to pierce the drummer, but the latter preserved his presence of mind; takes his lance from him, disarms the Cossack, and pursues him.

-A singular circumstance, which excited the laughter of the soldiers, occurred for the first time near Tilsit, where a cloud of Cossacks were seen fighting with arrows. We were sorry for those who gave the prefer. ence to the ancient arms, to those of the moderns, but nothing is more laughable than the effect of those arms against our muskets. Marshal Davoust, at the head of the third corps, defiled by Labian, fell upon the enemy's rear-guard and made 2500 prisoners Marshal Ney arrived on the 17th at Insterbourgh, and there took 1000 wounded, and the enemy's magazines, which were considerable. The woods, the villages, are tull of straggling Russians, sick or wounded. The loss of the Russian army is enormous. It has not with it more than 60 pieces of cannon. The rapidity of our marches prevent us from being able as yet, to- ascertain how many pieces we have taken; but it is supposed, that the number exceeds 120.Near Tilsit, the annexed notes, numbered I and II were transmitted to the Grand Duke of Berg; and afterwards the Russian Prince, Lieut. Gen. Lubanoff, passed the Niemen, and had a conference for an hour with the Prince of Neufchatel.-The enemy burned in great haste the bridge of Tilsit over the Nicinen, and appeared to be continuing his retreat into Russia. We are on the confines of that empire. The Niemen, opposite Tilsitt, is somewhat broader than the Seine. From the left bank we see a cloud of Cbs-" sacks, who form the rear-guard of the enemy on the right bank.-Hostilities have already ceased. What remained to the King of Prussia is conquered. That unfortunate prince has only in his power the country situate between the Niemen and Memel. The greater part of bis army, or rather of the division of his troops, is deserting, being unwilling to go into Russia. (To be continued.)

Irted by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mine, Pall Mall.

VOL. XII. No.7.]

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1807.

[PRICE 10D. "For what true English heart will not swell, when it shall be made clear and evident, as in this book, "that the sovereignty of the seas, flowing about this island, even to the very shores opposite, hath, in all times, whereof there remains any written testimony, under every revolution, down to the present age, been held and acknowledged by all the world, as an inseparable appendant of the British Empire; and that, by virtue thereof, the kings of England successively have had the sovereign guard of the seas; that they have imposed taxes and tributes upon all ships passing and fishing therein; that they have obstructed * and opened the passage thereof to strangers at their own pleasure, and done all other things that may "testify an absolute sea dominion. What English heart, I say, can consider these things together with the late actings, and not be inflamed with an indignation answerable to the insolence of these people, raised, but yesterday, out of the dust."NEDHAM's Dedication of SELDEN's Dominion of the Seas.

225]

TO THE

INDEPENDENT ELECTORS

OF THE

CITY AND LIBERTIES OF WESTMINSTER. LETTER XX.

GENTLEMEN;

When I concluded the last letter which I did myself the honour of addressing to you (ee Vol. XI. p. 930); I foresaw, that occasions would arise, when I inight again think this, the best mode of communicating my remarks to the public in general. An occasion of this sort has now arisen. The bill for preventing grants of Places in Reversion has been thrown out in the House of Lords, after having passed the House of Commous; and, as it is reasonable to suppose, that some of you may not be fully acquainted of the nature of such grants, and of the circumstances under which the bill was thrown out, I, who have had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with both, will endeavour to give you a just description of them.

There are, Gentlemen, numerous places under the government, which are called sine-cures, from two Latin words which mean without care. Places having no care, no charge, and, of course, no employment, attached to them; places which give the holders no other trouble than that of receiving the salaries or fees arising from them. The reason why these places are described by out-landish words is evident enough; for, to call them, in plain English, places without employment, or nothing-to-do places, would naturally produce feelings, in the people, not very friendly to such a snug esta blishment; and, indeed, had these places always been described by English words, my opinion is, that they would have ceased to exist long ago. We have here, Gentlemen, a striking instance of the great utility of the

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"Learned Languages," which once were so serviceable to the monks and friars, and which are now kept as much in use as possible by all those who are desirous of making a mystery of what ought to be clearly and universally understood. For the same reasons the law, that which every man ought to understand as clearly as possible, has been rendered mystical by the introducing and the retaining of foreign words. Latin, French, Half-French and Half Latin, any thing so that it be incomprehensible to the people in general; no matter what it is so that it keeps them from a knowledge of the real nature of the thing; and, what is above all things provoking, when a couple of empty-headed fellows have once got a gown and wig on, and have learnt the use of this barbarous jargon, they will, without the least sense of decency or shame, stand up amidst hundreds of spectators, and bestow upon each other, at every second breath, the appellation of "learned friend." Much more depends upon names than seems to enter into our philosophy. When the excellent parliament, which made a law to provide against Englishmen being unjustly deprived of their personal liberty; when they were enacting that the persons of innocent men, of all ranks, should, for the future, be secure from the fangs of a tyrannical government, they should have taken care to give their act a name which all men must have clearly understood; and not have left it to the learned friends" to call it the act of Habeas Corpus, a name that, as far as ninetenths of the people know, may mean something to eat, or to drink. If it had been called the personal security act, or the act for preventing unjust imprisonment, be you assured, Gentlemen, that it never would have been suspended for seven years toge ther, not, at least, without sonic complaint, on the part of Englishnien, against such sus

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brought in a bill, a day or two before their being ousted, to prevent, for the future, the

cessors, though they have, as you have seen, obtained a decided majority in both Houses of Parliament, did not oppose the passing of this bill. But, when it came to the noble Lords, the noble Lords quickly dispatched it. On the 4th instant they did this, after à debate, which I shall here insert exactly as I find it reported in the Morning Chronicle newspaper; and I beseech you to read every word of it with attention.

pension The English name would, too, have sounded, badly in debate. Pitt, even Pitt, would not have talked so glibly of sus-granting of places in reversion. Their sucpending the act for preventing unjust imprisonment. Men out of doors would have been startled at such a proposition; upon Inquiry they would have found, that, from the moment this act was suspended, any man in the kingdom was liable to be seized by a messenger from the offices of government and to be imprisoned as long as the council thought proper, without any trial, and without any mode of obtaining redress, or even a hearing in his defence; and, finding this, it is not to be believed, that they would have acted as they did.

"Lord ARDEN considered the bill to be an unnecessary and indecent attack upon "the king's lawful prerogative. Nothing "whatever had been stated to prove that

such a measure was necessary, except

merely an expression in the preamble of "the bill, that it was expedient for the "public service. The manner also in which "the bill originated was very unusual, and "no ground had been shewn to prove that "there was any necessity to make such an "attack upon the king's just prerogative. "He should therefore oppose the bill and take the sense of the house upon it. "Earl GROSVENOR expressed great regret "at the opposition given to this bill by his "noble friend. He conceived the bill to "be so completely in unison with the po

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pular feeling at the present moment, that "it would be unwise to reject it, and he "thought his majesty's ministers, by oppo"sing the bill, would render themselves so

From this digression, in which I have anticipated myself as to one objection to the teaching of what modern imposture and impudence term " the Learned Languages," 1 return to sine-cure plates, the nature of which I have endeavoured to explain to you. But, Gentlemen, persons to fill, if it may be so called, places where there is nothing to do but to receive the salaries or fees, are found in such abundance and they meet with ministers so ready to reward their public" services, that these places, alas! numerous as they are, fall far short of the number required. They are all filled, at all times. This being the case, all that a poor minister can do for his friends, or relations, is to promise them the first vacancy. But, here arises a difficulty: two difficulties indeed; for the minister may not keep his promise; and, if, by any chance, he should be disposed to do that, he may not keep his place; besides which he may die, or the asker of the place may cease to support him. Therefore, in order to make things as sure as this sub lunary state of things will admit of, the place-hunter says, if you cannot give me the place, give me the reversion of it; that is to" say, obtain me a grant from the king, making me the heir of the man who now holds the place. Nay, sometimes these reversions are granted to two or three persons at once; first to one, and, if he or she should die, to another, and, if he or she should die to another, in which way, the late ministers have asserted in open parliament, that most of the places upon the Irish establishment are how granted, many of the grantees being young children; so that the places are granted away for sixty or eighty years to come.

This, Gentlemen, is what is meant by granting places in reversion, pensions, observe, being frequently granted in the same manner, and also some o fices which are not perfect sinecures.The late ministry, om.bcomposed of our friends, the Whigs,

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unpopular that they would not long re"main in office. He was a warm friend to "the bill, not merely for its own sake, but "for the sake of those measures of reform

relative to the public expenditure, of "which he considered this merely as the "forerunner; measures which were highly necessary at a crisis like the present, when it was of so much importance to engage the hearts as well as the arms of the people. He trusted their lordships "would not be induced to reject the bill,

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"The EARL Of Lauderdale called' their "lordships attention to his majesty's speech "at the close of the last session, in which

satisfaction was expressed at the conduct of the Committee of Finance, and con"tended that this bill, being the only mea

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sure which that committee had then re"commended, the king's speech contained "in effect an approval of the measure. After ministers had thus approved of the measure, after they had approved of it in "the other house, and after the bill had "been so long in this house, he was greatly astonished at the opposition it now expe

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ministers. He wished they had been there to declare their sentiments in oppo"sition to the bill, if such were the sentiments which they entertained upon the subject. But when the absence of ministers was spoken of, he would ask, where were the illustrious members of the late administration? Why did not they attend to support their own bill, and display their pa" rental fondness for their own offspring? "He denied that this measure had been ap› proved of or alluded to in his majesty's "speech. The speech applanded the ge

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put upon such conduct by the public. Heneral object of the Commitee of Finance, was convinced that the public feeling was strongly in favour of the bill; and that ought to be, at the present moment, a 66 strong argument in its favour. The granting of offices in reversion he consi"dered to be highly prejudicial to the pub "lic service, and highly improper, 'such grants being frequently made to children,

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"namely, to inquire into the means of reforming and economising the public expenditure buPcould trot be randeid apply to the present measured. No argument had, he contended; been fauced in favour of the present measure, "except an assertion?! phatoys was ayrecast to the pabllo feeling cepe daleleve that

at a very early age, and such offices, althere was any seen feeling in the public though requiring regulation, from

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change of ciscumstances, could not; duousy which the public cong về senefited. ring such grant, beregulated for the be "nefit of the publiav: He would instance 15 19

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one case, that of the large office held by: "the noble lord (Ailen), and the reversion "of which had been grated to him after "the death of his father whose public ser "vices were undoubtedly great, at a time

when the income arising from it was 'com"paratively trifling. The profits of it had *since increased to an amount which could "not possibly have been in the contemplas "tion of any one, and which arose, in a great degree, from the misfortunes of the country. It would, no doubt, have been thought expedient to regulate an office of

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If the bill were to pass no depence would becsered typit; the offices would rentain the same aut, the anly object of it avoid be to encroaeli upon the Ring's juse and law prerogative! The noble lord had spoken of reversions being "granted to children, but was it not the practice, when great services had been performed by an Admirul or General, to confer hereditary honours, and grant also an aminal sum, which was not con"fined to the person to whom granted, but was extended to his descendants diad been the constant practice of our an

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that description. He thought, upon evestors to act upon this principle. He

ry ground that could be stated,' that "this bill ought to be proceeded in.

LORD ARDEN said he was not sent "to that house to oppose the bill, nor * would he be sent there by any man: he " opposed the bill because he conceived it to be his duty as a peer of parliament to do so. Sa

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"The EARL OF LAUDERDALE, in expla "nation, disclaimed any intention of throw**ing the least imputation upon the noble "lord; he only mean to allude to the con- the former mode, a charge was made upon the public during the life of that person, and in the latter there was no addi

struction which would be put in the public mind upon the opposition given to the

*** bill, coupled with the absence of his mational expense. He could discover no**jesty's ministers...

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