LON 
marfhals, in pur/bit of the Englifh army. The tardinefs 
of the janta expreffed by Mr. Frere in his letter to fir 
John Moore, the indecifive fluctuations of the govern¬ 
ment as to the means of defending the country, and fe- 
veral other imperious motives, fuggefted to the Britilh 
commander the necefiity of abandoning a country and 
a people who feemed to think fo little ot themfelves, that 
they could hardly be perfuaded.to do any thing for their 
own fecurity.—A retreat, therefore, was determined upon. 
On the nth of January, 1809, the Britifli army marched 
from Betanzosto Corunna ; having now traverfed twohun- 
dred and fifty miles of mountainous and difficult country, 
in the face of an enemy immenfely fuperior in numbers; 
very often without food or fhelter, drenched with rain, 
and worn out with cold and fatigue; yet (till unbroken, 
prefenting every where an undaunted front to the enemy, 
who had not to boaft of having won a fingle trophy. As 
yet, however, they were not in fafety ; very few tranfports 
having arrived from Vigo, owing to contrary winds. The 
pofition of Corunna was bad; and the enemy were af- 
fembling on the heights which furround it. There were 
not wanting generals who advifed fir John Moore to offer 
terms to the duke of Dalmatia, for the purpofe of being 
allowed to embark in fafety. But the Britifli general was 
determined not to accept of any terms, which (to life his 
own expreflion) would be in the leafi dilhouourable to the 
army or to the country, 
The peninfula of Betanzos, fir John Moore bad reafon 
to hope would afford a pofition for defending the embarka¬ 
tion ; and was alfo fo much nearer, that, had not contrary 
winds detained the tranfports two days longer at Vigo, 
the army would have embarked unmolefted. As this 
was not the cafe, the general prepared for aCtion, by oc¬ 
cupying a fmall chain of hills, a fhort diftance from Co¬ 
runna. The enemy occupied a more extended chain in 
his front; and a valley, with the village of Elvina, fepa- 
rated the two armies. From the 13th to the 15th, the 
embarkation of the fick,the artillery, horfes, &c. was go¬ 
ing on ; the enemy, in the mean time, gradually drawing 
round, and fkirraifhing with our out-pofts. 
On the 16th of January, when orders had been iffued 
for the embarkation of the whole army, general Hope re¬ 
ported from his poft, that the enemy’s line were getting 
under arms. Sir John flew to the field, where the pickets 
were engaged, and beheld the French defcending from the 
hills in four columns, two of which threatened the right 
<of the Britifh line, compofed of fir David Baird’s divifion ; 
upon whole right the rifle-corps formed a chain acrofs the 
valley, which united it with general Frazer’s divifion ; the 
whole ftretching in an oblique direction towards Corunna. 
Sir John Moore, perceiving that the great effort of the 
enemy would be directed againlt lord W. Bentinclt’s bri¬ 
gade, and general Manningham’s, which compofed fir 
David Baird’s right wing, had ordered general Frazer to 
move up, and general Paget to fupport lord W. Bentinck 
with the referve. The 50th and 4zd, which compofed 
the remainder of lord W. Bentinck’s brigade, charged 
gallantly, and drove the enemy from the village of Elvina 
-with great daughter. Sir John Moore was in the a£t of 
ordering lip the guards to fupport the brave Highlanders, 
when he received his death-wound by a cannon-ball on 
the fhould.er, and was conveyed from the field, in a blan¬ 
ket, by fix foldiers of the 4-2d. Sir David Baird had al¬ 
ready left the feene of aCtion from a fevere wound in his 
arm. The foldiers, however, undifinayed by the lofs of 
their leaders, maintained the advantages they had gained 
on the right, and continued to repel the repeated attacks 
of theenemy on their centre and left, until night left them 
mailers of the field. Not more than 15,000 Britifli were 
engaged, of whom about 7 or 800 were killed or wounded. 
The French engaged in this battle were eftimated at 20,000 ; 
and confided, in part, of the regiments feut back from 
Portugal to the ports of France nearelf to Spain, by tlie 
convention of Cintra ; their lofs was reckoned at about 
aooe. General Hope, on whom the chief command de- 
Vol. XIII. No. 899. 
T) O N. In¬ 
volved, took advantage tfle fuceefs which had been, 
obtained to embark the army, before it fliould be over¬ 
whelmed with the increafing numbers of the enemy. 
The boats were all in readinels, and the previous meafures 
were fo well concerted, that nearly the whole army were' 
embarked during the night. 
While general Moore was conveyed in the mannei? 
above-mentioned from the field, captain Harding, ob- 
ferving that his fword incommoded him, attempted to un¬ 
buckle it: “ It is as well as it is,” (aid he, calmly ; “ I had 
rather it fhould go out of the field with me.” He was fo 
fenfible of his approaching difl'olution, that lie faid to the 
furgeons who offered their aflillance, “ You can be of no 
fervice to me : go to the foldiers, to whom you may be 
ufeful.—You know,” faid he to his friend colonel Ander- 
fon, “ that I have always wifhed to die this way. I hope 
the people of England will be fatisfied : I hope my coun¬ 
try will do me jultice.’’ The remainder of his moments 
were conlecrated to tender remembrances, and enquiries 
about the fate of his friends.—He was buried in his uni¬ 
form upon the ramparts of Corunna ; where a monument 
to his memory has been lince railed by the marquis Ro- 
mana. A monument alfo, in confequence of an addrefs 
to his majelty by the houle of commons, was ordered t* 
be ereCted to liis memory in the cathedral church of St. 
Paul, London. 
The confequence of thefe defeats in Spain was, that 
Jofeph Bonaparte was again conduded fate to Madrid,,, 
where he was crowned towards the end of January 1809; 
after he had been previoully acknowledged and proclaim¬ 
ed in the principal towns throughout the country, with 
the exception of thofe of Arragon, Murcia, Grenada, and 
Andalufia. The ceremony was performed with the ut- 
molt pomp, and attended by perfons who affumed the cha¬ 
racter of deputies from the different kingdoms of Spain, 
Bonaparte liimfelf returned to Paris on the Z2d of Ja¬ 
nuary, 1809. 
After the reduction of Madrid, a large force was fenfc 
by Bonaparte to Talavera del Reyna, with the view of re¬ 
ducing Cordova, Seville, Cadiz, and Lifbon. Marlhal 
Soult took poffeffion of Oporto, though occupied by' 3 
garrifon three times his number, without any reliltance. 
Ney, ftrongly reinforced by Kellerman, with Mortier and 
Bonnet at Lugo, made progrefs in Galicia, Alturias, and 
Bifcay. Ferrol, as well as Corunna, Bilboa, and St. An- 
dero, and all places of molt importance on the northern 
coalt of Spain, fell into the hands of the French. O11 the 
whole, it was evidently the defign of Bonaparte, after 
having obtained poffeffion of Madrid and the fortreffes 
on the frontier, to fubdne the whole peninfula by fending 
corps or columns, according to the nature and lirength of 
the different territories, againlt the molt important towns, 
and into all the valleys, great and fmall, of the country. 
But it appears from the whole tenor of his conduit, both mi¬ 
litary and political, that it wasamongft his leading maxims, 
never to carry on more than one arduous defign at the 
fame time; but to bear with his main force and undivided 
attention on one object. Wherever the main lirength of 
his enemy lay, thither he bent his molt ftrenuous efforts. 
If that were once broken, fecondary objects would fall 
into his hands of courfe : if that were fuffered to remain 
entire, no conquelt could be other than precarious and 
tranfient. When, therefore, it became evident to Bona¬ 
parte, that a war with Aultria was altogether unavoidable, 
the war in Spain alfumed a new form. Inltead of pulhing 
forward detachments into unfubdued provinces or dis¬ 
tricts, the firlt care of the French, for the prelent, was to 
provide for their own fecurity by concentration. The 
march cn Cadiz and Lifbon was fufpended : the French 
were every-where feen drawing nearer and nearer up the 
Tagus towards Madrid ; orcreeping near the frontier for* 
treffes of Catalonia and Navarre; or concentrating their 
force in the northern provinces of Galicia, Alturias, and 
Bifcay. To retain a fure footing in Spain by keeping 
open the communication between Bayonne and Madrid ; 
3 C retaining 
