718 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



The total failure of provisions and 

 forage was alone sufficient to pre- 

 Tent our maintaining our post 

 any longer at Olinutz, or to take 

 another station further in the rear. 

 These circumstances urged the ne- 

 cessity of the Ijattle, the happy re- 

 sult of which could only be expect- 

 ed from the valour of the troops. — 

 The imperial guard, of wliich it is 

 said in a bulletin, that it lost all its 

 colours, are still in possession of 

 them, and have taken one pair from 

 the enemy. The combined army, 

 it is said, lost 15,000 killed and 

 20,000 prisoners. Do they include 

 among these the 20,000 said to have 

 been drowned ? — After so many 

 forced marches, and so much fatigue 

 and hunger as had been sustained, 

 with the sickness consequent tiiere- 

 unto ; after the affairs upon the Da- 

 nube and in Moravia ; of the whole 

 Russian army there is not a defici- 

 ency of more tlian seventeen (liou- 

 sand men. But, were the loss as con- 

 siderable as the bulletin has pretend- 

 ed, why was not the Rnshian army 

 pursncd, as that bulletin falsely as- 

 serts? On the contrary, the Russian 

 army kept the field (ill the next 

 morning. The armis/icc was not 

 roncluded, but with the emperor of 

 Germany, at whose particular de- 

 sire the RuFsians fust commenced 

 tlieir retreat, and which was also ef- 

 fected in good order and without 

 loss, notwithstanding the French 

 partly assert, tliat during the tu-go- 

 tiations with Austria, the French 

 army prosecuted its victories. To 

 enhance the glory of this day, the 

 French bulletin says, that the French 

 guard, (the reserve corps) took no 

 part in the battle. 1 he same buile- 

 tJM however afterwards asserts, that 

 when one French battalion was bro- 

 ken by the Russian guard, Buona- 



parte ordered marshal Bessleres to 

 advance, and that the imperial guards 

 on both sides immediately came to 



action. -The French bulletins 



abound with false statements, over 

 which the pretended noise and dis- 

 traction, occasioned by the discharge 

 of 200 pieces of cannon, and a con- 

 flict between 200.000 men, throw 

 but a flimsy covering. Can it possibly 

 serve the interests of a great general 

 to sanction such reports ? Can he 

 really stand in need of such means as 

 these to increase that military glory, 

 which is not denied him ? Posterity 

 will do justice to the truth. 



Declaration of the King of Swedeji. 

 Dated Marsxcinshohn, near Ystad, 

 October 31st, 1805. 



We, Gustavus Adolphus, by the 

 grace of God, king of Sweden, the 

 Goths and Vandals, heir of Denmark 

 and Norway, duke of Sleswig and 

 Ucfitein, &c. (S:c. declare and make 

 know n, that when we entered upon 

 the government of our kingdom, the 

 unfortunate French revolution had 

 prevailed for some years, while the 

 most sanguinary and unheard-of 

 scenes which had been there perpe- 

 trated, had spread discord, insurrec- 

 tion and war over the greatest part 

 of Europe. During thu nine suc- 

 ceeding years, the French revolution 

 never ceased to threaten an inter- 

 ruption of the general tranquillity, 

 and to excite (he attention of every 

 country. Trusting in the fidelity of 

 the Swedish nation, and favoured by 

 its distance from France, we wit- 

 nessed, without alarm, the furious 

 zeal of the factions, and (heir tyran- 

 ny over a divided state, persuading 

 ourselves that the experience of these 



. great 



