300 LON 
moment, he has befiowed not a (ingle thought, he has 
given not a (ingle day, to the repofe or happinefs of the 
world ! What miferies has not this man brought on his 
country ! In one folitary campaign, he tarniflied all his 
laurels,—lod all his conquefts,—facrificed his bed gene¬ 
rals and officers,—annihilated the fined and bed-equipped 
armies that the world ever produced,—excited a general 
enthufiafrn againft him, and expofed France herfelf, who 
but the other day dood foie ruler and arbitrefs of the def- 
tinies of Europe, to the horrors of invafion and civil war¬ 
fare. In Holland, Saxony, Weftphalia, Bohemia, Ba¬ 
varia, and in fhort every place he had conquered, he might 
have continued to reign in peaceful and undifturbed pcf- 
feflion, had he but known how to have refpefted the fa- 
cred rights of humanity, and fought to win the love and 
confidence of the people! But he permitted his troops 
to rob and fleece them with impunity, and never once 
condefcended to think of bettering their condition, or in- 
Jpiring in their bofoms tire principles of patriotilin. They 
feared him/ and fubmitted to him, while he po defied the 
power of coercing them ; but, the moment that power be¬ 
came doubtful and in jeopardy, they availed themfelves of 
the favourable opportunity to refent his oppreflion and 
(hake off his yoke, fie provoked their refentment, he 
drove them to revolt! and hence the ftupendous change 
that has recently taken place in the afpeft of European 
politics. 
We apologize for digrefling into reflections, when we 
fhould have been relating only facts ; and turn to the af¬ 
fairs of the peninfula, where alfo the allied army was 
gaining ground, and feemed to have won victory to their 
fide.—Lord Wellington, who, in the autumn of 1811, had 
placed his troops in cantonments acrofs the Agueda to 
recover from their ficknefs and fatigues, was in motion at 
the very commencement of the year. In a difpatch dated 
from Gallegos, January 9, 1812, he informs the Englifli 
fecretary of (fate, that he invefted Ciudad Rodrigo on the 
preceding day. He mentions having taken by (form a 
new redoubt conflruCted by the French on the hill of St. 
Francifco, and that he had broke ground within 600 yards 
of the place. In another difpatch, dated January the 15th, 
he gives an account of the progrefs of the fiege, which 
had been facilitated by two fuccefsful attacks on pods of 
the enemy, clofe to the body of the place; but on the 
20th his lordfliip was enabled to fend the welcome intel¬ 
ligence of the capture of that important frontier-town, 
which had fo often been the object of military operations. 
The fire of the batteries having confiderably injured the 
defences of the place, and made breaches regarded as 
prafticable, lord Wellington determined on a (form, 
though the approaches had not been brought fo the creft 
of the glacis, and the counterfcarp was (fill entire. The 
attack was made on the evening of the 19th, in five fepa- 
rate columns. All thefe attacks fncceeded, and in lefs 
than an hour the afl'ailants were in pofleflion of and formed 
upon the ramparts of the place, each column contiguous 
to the next. The enemy then, who had fuftained a fe- 
vere lofs in the conflict, fubmitted. The lofs of the be- 
fiegers was alfo confiderable, efpecially in officers of rank. 
His lordftiip beftows the warmed encomiums on all the 
officers engaged in this fervice, and the fuccefs of fuch a 
fpirited enterprife redounds equally to the honour of the 
commander, and thofe who acted under him. The fruits 
of victory were a garrifon of 1700 men, befides officers, 
and 153 pieces of ordnance, including the heavy train.of 
the French army, with great quantities of ammunition 
and (lores. The Ioffes of the be fiege rs from January the 
15th to the 19th, amounted to nearly 700 of all defcrip- 
tions, killed, wounded, and miffing.—The fenfe of the 
Spaniflt nation on this fuccefs was difplayed in a vote of 
the Cortes, by acclamation, conferring on lord Welling¬ 
ton the rank of a grandee of the fil'd clafs, with the title 
of Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo. 
Lord Wellington remained fome time at Ciudad Rodri¬ 
go, in order to repair the fortifications j and Chen, placing 
DON. 
it under the command of a Spaniffi governor, he withdrew 
to Freynada. Badajos was the next objedt of his arms} 
and, after making due preparations, he moved from Frey¬ 
nada on the 6th of March, and arrived at Elvas on the 
nth. At this time there was none of the enemy’s troops 
in the field in Edremadura, except a part of the 5th corps 
at Villa-Franca, and a divifion under general Darican at 
Serena. On the 15th and 16th his lordffnip broke up the 
cantonments of the army, and inveded Badajos, on both 
Tides the Guadiana, on the 16th. A fortie was made by 
the garrifon on the 19th, which was repulfed without 
having effected any thing. At the time of the in veil- 
rnent, general fir Thomas Graham eroded the Guadiana 
with a body of troops, and direfted his march towards 
Llerena; whild lieutenant-general fir Rowland Hill, who 
had returned from Miranda, to his cantonments near Al¬ 
buquerque, inarched again to that town. The operations 
of the fiege were carried on without intermiffion, notwith- 
ftanding the unfavourable weather, and the fwelling of the 
Guadiana, which damaged the bridges of communication; 
and, on the 25th, a fire was opened from twenty-eight 
pieces of ordnance in fix batteries. On the evening of 
that day, a drong out-work, called la Picurina/ was gal* 
lantly (formed by a body of five hundred men, who firmly 
edablilhed themfelves in it. On March the 3id, afire was 
opened from twenty-fix pieces of cannon, in the feconcl 
parallel, which was continued with great effect. A fe- 
cond fortie was driven in with lofs. At this time the 
movements of generals Graham and Hill had obliged the 
enemy to retire towards Cordova; but intelligence had 
been received that marffial Soult had broke up from be¬ 
fore Cadiz on the 23d and 24th, and marched upon Se¬ 
ville with all the troops that were there, with the excep¬ 
tion of 4000. Breaches being made in the baftions of ia 
Trinidad and Santa Maria, lord Wellington determined 
to attack the place on the night of April the 6th. Si¬ 
multaneous attacks of different parts of the works were 
planned ; of which, that of the caffle of Badajos by elea- 
lade, conduced by lieutenant-general Picton, was the fil'd 
that fncceeded, and the third divifion was edablilhed in it 
at about half pad eleven. In the mean time the breaches 
in'the baftions were vigoroufly aflaulted ; but, fuch were 
the obftacles raifed by the enemy upon and behind the 
breaches, and fo obftinate their refidance, that the affail- 
ar.ts, after a long conteft, and confiderable lofs, were or¬ 
dered to retreat. The pofleflion of the cadle, however, 
which was fecured by the fuccefs of the other divifions, 
decided the fate of the town, for it commanded all the 
works both of and in the place; and at day-light general 
Philippon, the commandant, who had retired to Fort St. 
Chridoval, lurrendered, with all the datf, and the whole 
garrifon. Thefe, at the beginning of the fiege, had con¬ 
fided of 5000 men ; but about 1200 had been killed and 
wounded during the operations cf the fiege, befides thofe 
who perished in the a(TauIt. The total lofs of the befiegers 
in killed, wounded, and miffing, from the invedment to 
the capture, amounted to upwards of 4850, Britilh and 
Portuguefe. This might perhaps be thought a dear pur- 
chafe; but, befides the glory to the allied arms in gaining 
this fecond drong place by dorm, the pofleflion of two 
important fortrefies on the frontiers of Portugal was of 
(o much confequence to the fecurity of that kingdom, 
and to the fuccefs of future operations in the peninfula, 
that, in a military conlideration, it jultified the payment 
of a high price. 
Soult, who had advanced from Seville into Edremadura 
as far as Villa-Franca,- on hearing of the fall of Badajos, 
retreated, on the 9th of April, towards the border’s of An- 
dalufia. General Graham directed fir Stapleton Cotton 
to follow his rear with the cavalry ; and, coming up with 
the French cavalry at Villa Garcia, with the brigades of 
generals le Marchant and Anfo.n, he defeated them on the 
nth, with a confiderable lofs. The French retired cn 
that day from Llerena, and afterwards entirely quitted 
Edremadura. Lord Wellington, as foon as he was-ap- 
