BRITAIN. 



tttts 



1S07. 



a*tle of 

 ohrin- 



l <:nd 



y!au. 



victory, his antagonists did the same. Of the mur- 

 derous conflicts on these new scenes of warfare, it is 

 not easy to separate the real from the falsified ac- 

 counts on both sides; hut the indisputable trophies 

 ut SO pieces of cannon taken from the Russians, 

 which their enemies brought back to Warsaw, left 

 room to suppose, that the severest loss was not upon 

 the side of the French. After the battle of Pultusfc, 

 the French retired into winter quarters on the Vistu- 

 la ; the Russians fell back to Ostrolenka, on the Nic- 

 inen. The command of the army after the battle ot 

 Pultusk, was given to Benningsen, who joined with 

 Buxhoveden, after the undeniable defeat of that ge- 

 neral at Golymyn. 



The plan of Benningsen was to turn the left flank of 

 the French army, and his eye was therefore kept upon 

 the Vistula; while Bonaparte, perceiving that his 

 enemy meant to give him no rest in his winter quar- 

 ters, directed his view to the Pregel and the Nie- 

 men, and determined to anticipate the attack. At 

 Mohringhen, a general action was brought on, where, 

 as usual, both sides claimed the victory. In this, as 

 well as in the tremendous battle of Eylau, which suc- 

 ceeded to it, the claims of the Russians, to the ho- 

 nour of checking Bonaparte, are not without appear- 

 ances of justice. If the French emperor buried their 

 dead at Eylau, took a number of their artillery, and 

 remained seven days on the field after the latter bat- 

 tle, he failed, through the obstinacy of their resist- 

 ance, in fulfilling his promisf of being at Konings- 

 berg. Inspired by the unexpected circumstance of 

 even a doubtful contest with Bonaparte, the public 

 sanguine expectation made no distinction between the 

 efforts which might keep him at bay for a short time, 

 and those which should destroy him. But if Rus- 

 sia possessed, at any moment, either generalship or 

 physical force to combat France, it can only be said, 

 that they both declined instsntaneously after the 

 battle of Eylau. It seemed as if the understanding 

 of her leaders, as much as the numerical power of her 

 armies, had been wasted in the agony of her struggle. 

 Anumber of actions inthe spring campaign of 1807, in 

 the intermediate time between those of Eylau and 

 Friedland, displayed the superior tactics of the French, 

 and in .spite of all her reinforcements, the decreasing 

 strength of her army. Yet, after all the successes of 

 Jerome Bonaparte in Sil-sia, and even after 40,000 

 French troops were added to the main army of Bo- 

 naparte, by the capture of Dantzic, the Russians 

 persisted in the plan of coming to a gener il and deci- 

 sive action. The battle of Friedland was indeed de- 

 cisive. 



Vflairs of With a wanton and ambitious confidence in her 

 "urkey. own strength, Russia bar! so timed her attack upon 

 Turkey, as to have 30,000 of her troops invading 

 Wallachia and Moldavia during the crisis of her 

 struggle with France. A revolution in Constanti 

 nople, which placed Mustapha IV. on the throne of 

 the empire, tj'-k place during the approach of the 

 Russian armies. It was ascribed, by the French, to 

 the influence of English gold ; but it was, in truth, 

 unconnected with politics, and wholly prompted by 

 the resentment of the Janissaries, at some recent in- 

 novations which had been made by the government, 



supposed to be favourable to the Christians. The l; 

 new Turkish sovereign Ml, likrlii; pr< <lc ITS .or, into ~ 

 the French influence ; a natural consequence of the 

 hostility of Russia, although the Russiai'.. declared, 

 that they only wished to rescue the Oi toman empire 

 from the grasp of Bonaparte. Whilst the influi-ncc 

 of Sebastiani, the French resident, was sensibly gain- 

 ing ground, our minister, Mr Arbuthnot, wrote home 

 to our government the state of affairs, and, at his in- 

 stance, as well as by the advice of the Russian mini*- 

 ter at Petersburgh, a British fleet was sent out under 

 the command oi' Sir John Duckworth, * to give Optratious 

 weight to the joint negotiation of England and RIIS-"' s ' r Jo ' ul 

 sia with the Porte, for concluding a peace. Our na- l)ui 'H 

 val force cast anchor at the isle of Tencdos about ^"dron, 

 the middle of February, where it was joined by a at . on- 

 British frigate from the harbour of Constantinople, tuuii:iop!e. 

 on bon.rd of which Mr Arbuthnot, in the fear of per- 

 sonal violence, made his escape. On the 19th, our 

 fleet passed the Dardanelles, and, at the outer castle, 

 as a mark of forbearance, made no return to the fire 

 of the Turks. But in passing the narrow strait be- 

 sween Sestos and Abydos, they were obliged to an- 

 swer a very heavy cannonade, which was opened from 

 the inner castles. Within these, a small Turkish 

 squadron was destroyed by Sir Sydney Smith, and a 

 formidable battery was spiked by the marines. Af- 

 ter this a fruitless negotiation commenced, which 

 lasted for several days, during which time the Turki 

 had time to construct most formidable batteries along 

 the shore. In this work, the population of the 

 Turkish capital and its neighbourhood, inspired by 

 unbounded enthusiasm, were employed from the 

 highest to the lowest orders, till they had mounted 

 batteries and breast-works with 600 pieces of artil- 

 lery. They were directed by French engineers, 

 whom the sultan had obtained from Dalmatia at the 

 breaking out of hostilities with Russia. In the 

 mean time, the British admiral and ambassador offer- 

 ed to withdraw beyond the Dardanelles, even should 

 the proffered amity of England and Russia be decli- 

 ned, if the Porte would deliver its fleet and naval 

 stores. ,n the event of a refusal, they threatened 

 Constantinople with bombardment. But during the 

 whole negotiation, if we may credit Sir John Duck- 

 worth, it was not in the power of the British squa- 

 dron to put their threat in execution ; for although 

 they had cast anchor within a few miles of the city, 

 the state of the weather would not have permitted 

 them to maintain a station so near as to bombard it. 

 Had the Turks been allowed another week to com- 

 plete their batteries, the very return of the British 

 squadron would have been doubtful. From this peril 

 the British admiral was glad to make his escape, and 

 to forego the threatened assault of a city, defended 

 by 200,000 enemies, of which the destruction, had 

 it been possible, could have been an unprofitable act 

 of vengeance. On the first of March, he weighed 

 anchor to repass the Dardanelles, a return, which was 

 not effected without peril and loss. The Turkish 

 mortars, in short, discharged bullets and blocks of 

 marble of incredible size upon our ships. One ol 

 these, weighing 800 pounds, cut the main mast of the 

 Windsor Castle man of war in two, and the ship wat 



* It consisted of 7 ships of the line, two of them three-deckers, besides frigates and gun-boat.-. 



