est daughter, the princess Amelia, which terminated in her death on the second of November, was again attacked by the mental malady under which he had before laboured, and his advanced age left no just grounds to hope for his recovery. The parliament stood prorogued to the first of November, on which day both houses met, expecting to be further adjourned; but the king was not in a state to sign the commission, and as the reports of the physicians afforded hopes of his speedy recovery, successive adjournments took place, until it became necessary to appoint a regency; on the twentieth of December, three resolutions, framed on the precedents of 1788-9, were proposed by Perceval, as preparatory to the introduction of a bill for supplying the defect in the personal exercise of the royal authority. By this bill the prince of Wales was appointed regent, and empowered to exercise the royal authority in the name of his majesty. He was, for a specified time, restrained from granting peerages, or summoning heirs-apparent, or appointing to titles in abeyance; likewise from granting offices in reversion, or for a longer time than during pleasure, excepting those allowed by law to be granted for life, or during good behaviour, as well as pensions to the chancellor, judges, &c. These restrictions were to terminate on the first of February, 1812, provided parliament should have been sitting six weeks, and should be then assembled. The care of his majesty's person and the direction of his household were vested in the queen, who was to be assisted by a council, the members of which were, the archbishops of Canterbury and York, the duke of Montrose, the earl of Winchelsea, the earl of Aylesford, lord Eldon, lord Ellenborough, and sir William Grant. If his majesty should be restored to health; the queen and her council were to notify that event by an instrument transmitted to the privy council, who were to assemble and make entry of it; after which the king by his sign manual might require them to assemble, and at his pleasure direct proclamation to issue, when the powers of the act were to cease. 1811.-Lambe moved an amendment, that the entire royal power should be conferred upon the prince of Wales, without any restriction. A debate ensued, in the course of which arguments of a similar tendency with those used under the same circumstances during Pitt's administration were adduced, and with the same result, the amendment being negatived by two hundred and twenty-four against two hundred; the smallness of which majority denoted a general opinion that ministers held their places by a very doubtful tenure. Indeed the opposition had every reason to contemplate the establishment of the regency as the conclusion of the existing administration, the members of which had never possessed the prince's confidence. After much discussion, the regency bill, by resorting to the fiction of signifying the king's assent to an act founded on that very incapacity which disabled him from performing any legislative function, finally passed into a law on the fifth of February, 1811; and as it was well known that the political attachments and principles of the prince-regent lay on the side of earl Gray and lord Grenville, it was expected that the existing administration would be dissolved, and their opponents taken into power; but the installation of the prince, as regent, took place on the sixth of February; and no arrangements for a new ministry had been made. The malady of the king, after undergoing frequent and great variations, assumed a much more mild and favourable form, and the physicians again pronounced his recovery as not far distant. This circumstance, combined with others, determined the prince to retain the present ministers, which he communicated to Perceval, in a note dated the fourth of February: at the same time stating, that the irresistible impulse of filial duty and affection made him unwilling to do a single act which might retard his father's recovery; and that this consideration alone had dictated his decision. He added, that it would not be one of the least blessings which would result from the restoration of his Majesty, that it would rescue the regency from a situation of unexampled embarrassment, and put an end to a state of affairs ill calculated, he feared, to sustain the interests of the kingdom in this awful and perilous crisis, and most difficult to be reconciled to the genuine principles of the British constitution. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. On the twelfth of February the session was open ed with the usual formalities; and a speech was de livered by commission, in the name of the regent, which, after expressing the most unfeigned sorrow on account of the calamity that had imposed upon him the duty of exercising the royal authority, congratulated parliament on the success of his Majesty's arms, both by sea and land, and trusted that he would be enabled to continue to afford the most effectual assistance to the brave nations of the Peninsula. It was his earnest wish to bring the discussions with the United States of America to an amicable termination, and he trusted to the zeal of par liament for adequate supplies in order to bring the great contest in which the country was engaged to a happy issue. Th, usual address was carried in both houses. A proof of the manner in which the prince-regeat regarded his temporary authority was afforded by a communication made to the house of commons ca the twenty-first of February, when the chancellor of the exchequer stated that his royal highness, on being informed that a motion was intended to be made for a provision for the royal household, declared that he would not add to the burthens of the people by accepting of any addition to his public state as regent. Adam stated that the prince had put into his hand a letter from the chancellor of the exchequer, relating to the intended provision, accompanying it with written instructions, that, should any proposition for an establishment be made, he should inform the house that his royal highness wished to discharge the duties of the temporary regency without an increase. In case, however, of such circumstances occurring as might lead to a permanent regency, he conceived that the question would then be opened anew to the consideration of his royal highness. The commercial distresses of the nation were now so seriously felt, that the attention of government was necessarily fixed upon them; and on the first of March a committee of twenty-one members was appointed to investigate the state of the commercial credit of the country, and to make their report thereon. On the eleventh the report was taken isto consideration, and an act was passed, whereby the sum of six million pounds was to be advanced to certain commissioners, for the assistance of such merchants as should apply for the same, on giving sufficient security for repayment. It might natural ly have been supposed that, in the midst of so much embarrassment and distress, the money voted by parliament at the recommendation of the committee would have been eagerly sought after, and soon exhausted. Such was the case in 1793; the reverse, however, happened now, and the sums applied for were to a less amount than the provision made. Yet the commercial distresses continued to increase during the year, and displayed themselves by frightful lists of bankrupts in every gazette, amounting to an aggregate of which no former year in the annals of the country afforded a parallel, and they were mainly attributable to the effects of the American embargo, to the operation of the Berlin and Milan decrees, and to the sequestration and confiscation of British property on the continent. The report of the bullion committee was brought under consideration on the sixth of May, when Horner, the chairman, moved a series of resolutions grounded upon the report, and contending that the standard value of gold, as a measure of exchange, could not possibly fluctuate under any change of circumstances, though its real price was unquestionabiy subject to all the variations arising from the increase or diminution of the supply; that bank paper, measured by this standard, was depreciated; and that the consequence was to render our exchanges with the continent unfavourable, to advance prices, to occasion immense losses to creditors, and materi ally to injure all monied incomes. Vansittart, secretary of the treasury, who took the lead in opposing the bullionists, moved a number of counter resolutions, in which it was declared that bank notes were not depreciated; that the political and commercial relations of this country with foreign states were sufficient to account for the unfavourable state of the foreign exchange, and the high price of bullion; that it was highly important that the restrictions on cash pavments at the bank should be removed whenever it was compatible with the public interest; but that to fix a definite period earlier than that of six months after the conclusion of peace, which was already fixed, would be highly inexpedient and dangerous. These discussions occupied the house of commons no less than seven nights, when the resolutions moved by Horner were rejected, and those presented by Vansittart adopted by a large majority. Before the session closed, however, a practical illustration was adduced by lord King, that the question was not set at rest by this decision. His lordship, in a notice sent to his tenants, reminded them that they had agreed to pay their rents in good and lawful money of Great Britain, and as he would no longer accept of bank notes at their nominal value, he called upon them to pay either in guineas or in equivalent weight in Portuguese gold coin, or in bank notes sufficient to purchase, at the existing market price, the weight of as much standard gold as would discharge the rents. Lord Stanhope thought this proceeding so mischievous that he introduced a bill into the house of lords, on the twenty-seventh of June, for preventing the current gold coin of the realm from being paid for more than its mint value, and for preventing bank notes from being received for any smaller sum than that for which they were issued. The fate of this bill was very extraordinary on its first reading ministers opposed it, on the ground that such a measure was unnecessary; but on the second reading they had discovered their error, and the prorogation of parliament was actually delayed for the purpose of passing it into a law. The practice of flogging in the army had fre. quently been a subject of animadversion, both in and out of parliament; but though government had hitherto strenuously opposed the motions which had been made to abolish it, Mauners Sutton, the judge advocate, when the mutiny bill came before the house of commons on the fourteenth of March, introduced a clause by which a discretionary power was given to courts-martial of sentencing to imprisonment, instead of corporal punishment. A bill was also passed for effecting an interchange of militias between Great Britain and Ireland. The attention of parliament was likewise called, by Brougham, to the enormities practised by captains of vessels and others, who still carried on the African slave trade. His proposition, which passed into a law, was to render any British subject who might engage in this traffic liable to transportation, for any period not exceeding fourteen years. Among the catholics of Ireland an opinion had universally prevailed that the prince was favour. able to their claims; and on his investment with power, their activity and zeal in promoting their object greatly increased. Among other measures, they had proposed to establish a committee in Dublin, composed of delegates from each county, for the management of their affairs, which being deemed unlawful, Wellesley Pole, secretary to the lord-lieutenant, addressed a circular to the sheriff's and chief magistrates of the counties, requiring them to arrest all persons concerned in the electior of such delegates; and this letter, being brought before parliament, excited considerable discussion. On the third of March, Pool, having returned from Ireland, stated, in explanation, that the catholic committee of 1809 bad confined their deliberations to the business of petitioning; whereas the dele. gates of 1810 were empowered to manage the catholic affairs generally; and that a committee of grievances, which met weekly, imitated all the forms of the house of commons. The lord-lieutenant had taken the opinion of the great law officers, and the attorney-general had drawn up the circular letter which was issued. The catholic petitions were this session rejected. Not discouraged by this defeat, the Irish catholics held a meeting on the ninth of July, at Dublin, for the appointment of delegates to the general committee of catholics, when five persons were apprehended for a breach of the convention act, one of whom, Dr. Sheridan, was tried and acquitted. A new committee of delegates met on the nineteenth of October, at a theatre, and having placed lord Fingal in the chair, despatched their business before the magistrates arrived to disperse them. On the twenty-sixth the aggregate meeting was held, when it was resolved to present an humble address to the prince regent as soon as the restrictions on his authority should cease. The sensation excited by a bill introduced by lord Sidmouth, for altering the toleration act, can scarcely be described. In forty-eight hours, three hundred and thirty-six petitions against it were poured into the house of lords; and when the bill came to be read a second time, on the twenty-first of May, it was encountered by five hundred more. Such an expression of the public feeling was not to be resisted: ministers themselves, and even the dignitaries of the church, now opposed the further progress of the measure; and under these circumstances it was rejected without a division. On introducing the bill, lord Sidmouth stated, that, till within the last thirty or forty years, the toleration act had been construed in such a manner as to exclude all persons unqualified, by the want of the requisite talents and learning, and unfit, from the meanness of their situation, or the profligacy of their character, from exercising the functions of ministers of religion: but since that period, all who offered themselves at the quarter-sessions, provided they took the oaths, and made the declaration required by law, obtained the requisite certificates, not only as a matter of course, but as a matter of right. In order to remedy this evil, he proposed, that, to entitle any man to obtain a license as a preacher, he should have the recommendation of at least six respectable householders of the congregation to which he belonged; and that such congregation should be actually willing to listen to his instructions. Those who were itinerants were to bring a testimonial, stating them to be of sober life and character, together with the belief that they were qualified to perform the functions of preachers. The effects expected from this bill were, that improper and unaccredited men would have been prevented from assuming the most important of all duties,-that of instructing their fellow creatures in the principles of religion and virtue. As it might, however, have been occasionally perverted to purposes of intolerance, it is better, perhaps, that it was lost. On the twentieth of May, Perceval opened the budget for the year. The supply voted for the public service amounted to about fifty-six million pounds, including a sum of two million pounds granted to the government of Portugal, and one hundred thousand pounds as an eleemosynary aid to the distressed Portuguese. The loan for the present year, he stated at twelve million pounds, the interest on which he proposed to discharge by an additional duty on British and foreign spirits. He further stated it to be his intention to impose an additional duty on timber, pearl and pot ashes, and foreign linens, which, with a tax of one penny per pound on cotton wool, imported from the United States of America, he estimated at eight hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred pounds. Owing, however, to the opposition made to the principle of taxing a raw material, the proposed duty on cotton wool was abandoned; and a tax upon hats, which had long operated as a burdensome and vexatious impost on the fair trader, while it sunk into insignificance as a subject of revenue, shared the same fate. One of the earliest acts of the prince regent, after his assumption of the royal functions, was the restoration of his brother, the duke of York, to the post of commander-in-chief of the army-a measure which induced lord Milton to propose a vote of censure on the advisers of it. The chancellor of the exchequer acknowledged the responsibility of his majesty's servants in recommending the measure in question. Sir David Dundas, who had lately filled the office, was obliged, by illness, to retire from its arduous duties, and there was not the slightest hesitation in the minds of ministers, whom they should recommend to supply the vacancy :the eminent services rendered to the army by the duke of York left them no choice; and as to the proceedings on a former occasion, alluded to by the noble lord, they pledged the house to nothing. On this occasion, several gentlemen who had, during the proceedings in the year 1809, taken part against the duke of York, did not hesitate to avow, either that they had been formerly carried away by the current of public opinion, or that they considered the case, as it now presented itself, in a different point of view. The votes for lord Milton's motion were forty-seven; against it, two hundred and ninety-six; constituting a majority of two hundred and forty-nine in favour of the re-appointment.The nation at large seemed to have been affected with a similar change of opinion, and the duke resumed his post with all the facility of a public functionary who had quitted his office without im putation. His majesty's health, in the early part of the year, underwent several variations; but in the report of the queen's council, made on the sixth of July, a few days before the prorogation of parliament, which took place on the twenty-fourth, it was stated that his health was not such as to enable him to resume the oersonal exercise of the royal functions. AMERICAN DISPUTES. THE orders in council not being repealed on the second of February, Pinkney, the American minister in London, was recalled, and had his audience of leave of the prince regent on the first of March, from which time the American ports were open to the ships of France, and closed against those of England. An encounter which took place between a British sloop of war, the Little Belt, commanded by captain Bingham, and the American frigate, called the President, under commodore Rodgers, had nearly proved the signal of open war between the two nations; but their respective governments disavowed the issue of any hostile orders to the commanders, and vere disposed to take no further notice of the affair. In the spring, an envoy extraordinary was sent to the United States on the subjects in dispute, but he found it impossible to effect an adjustment without exceeding his instructions, by holding forth an expectation that the orders of council would be repealed. On the meeting of congress in November, the president recommended vigorous measures of préparation, both by sea and land, in consequence of the hostile inflexibility of the British cabinet: the finances of the American government, however, seemed but little suited to meet the expense of a war; and the friends of peace, though outvoted in the legislative assemblies, put some confidence in the prospect of loans and taxes to cool the martial ardour of a people unaccustomed, like those of Europe, to acquiesce in such burdens. CAPTURE OF JAVA-NAVAL ACTIONS. THE Dutch settlements in the island of Java, from which the mother country had, in the days of her prosperity, derived great wealth and consequence, were now destined to augment the preponderating power of Britain in the East, a formidable expedi tion being fitted out against them by lord Minto, governor-general of India, who entrusted the command of the troops to Sir Samuel Auchmuty, and accompanied them in person. On the fourth of August, a landing was effected about twelve miles eastward from the city of Batavia; and on the eighth, the city of Batavia surrendered without resistance. The garrison retreated first to Welterzeede, and then to a fortified position or entrenchment which surrounds Fort Cornelis. On the twenty-sixth a general assault of the works was ordered, when the lines were forced-the fort was stormedand the whole of the hostile army was killed, taken, or dispersed: General Jansens fled with a few cavalry, but he was soon compelled to capitulate, and the whole island of Java surrendered to the British arms,-which after this event had neither an enemy nor a rival, from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn. In the Italian seas a brilliant achievement was performed by four frigates, under captain Hoste, against a French force of five frigates, and several smaller vessels, with five hundred troops on board, destined to garrison the island of Lissa. Confiding in their superiority, the French attacked the English with more than their accustomed skill, follow. ing up that skill with a considerable share of activity and bravery. The unconquerable spirit of British seamen, however, was most brilliantly dis played on this occasion; and the result was, that the ship of the French commander, who fell in the action, was destroyed, and two were captured. A fourth escaped after striking her colours. In the Indian sea, three French frigates, with a reinforcement of troops for the Mauritius, having appeared off that island after its capture, they were pursued by three frigates and a sloop, when one was taken; another escaped after having struck; and the third, having proceeded to Tamatava, which had been repossessed by the French, was there captured, with the fort and the vessels in the harbour. In every direction the enemy's coast was kept in continual alarm; and in none could his vessels, armed or unarmed, move in safety. MEASURES AGAINST BRITISH COMMERCE. A SON was born to Napoleon on the twentieth of April. The ancient title of King of Rome, which had long lain dormant, was immediately revived for the young prince, and he was welcomed with all the extravagant adulation usually bestowed on the heirs of absolute monarchy or extensive dominion. Nothing, however, could for a moment divert the attention of the ruler of France from his favourite object, the exclusion of English commerce from the continent; and while the French people were substituting horse beans for coffee, and extracting sugar from beet-root and palm sea-weed, they were called upon to applaud the wisdom and goodness which dictated the exclusion of colonial produce, and the burning of British merchandise. The conscription law was applied to the levying of seamen in the thirty maritime departments, and the quotas liable to serve in the years 1813 to 1816, were placed at the disposal of the minister of marine. At Antwerp twenty ships of the line were ordered to be built, and the basin was rendered capable of containing fifty sail. Spanish prisoners were em ployed in the dock-yards and fortifications; and men of all countries were collected to man the fleet. About this time it began to be apparent that no great cordiality subsisted between Buonaparte and the emperor Alexander; and in an answer to an address from a council of commerce, he complained that Russia had not caused his decrees to be respected; adding, “ I am, and always will be, master of the Baltic." CHAPTER XL. Surrender of Tortosa and Olivenca-Battles of Barossa and Albuera, and various Operations of the contending Armies-Loss of Tarragona and Valencia-Capture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz-Lord Wellington enters Spain-Battle of Salamanca-Capture of Madrid-Retreat of Allies to Portuguese Frontier-Parliament assembled-The King and the Regent-Overtures to Lords Grey and Grenville-Assassination of Perceval-Ministerial Negotiations-Riots in Manufacturing Districts-Repeal of Orders in Council-War by Americans-Proceedings in Parliament-Invasion of Russia by Buonaparte-Battles of Smolensko and Borodino Destruction of Moscow-Disastrous Retreat of the French-Invasion of Canada-Actions at Sea-Meeting of Parliament-Charges against Princess of Wales-Appointment of Vice-Chancellor-Declaration on the American War -Treaty with Sweden-Proceedings and Prorogation of Parliament. SURRENDER OF TORTOSA-BATTLES OF BAROSSA AND ALBUERA. O N the second of January Suchet made himself master of Tortosa, the siege of which was truly honourable to the Spanish name; and on the twenty-second Olivenca was taken possession of by Soult, almost without being defended. On the lat ter day died the galiant and truly patriotic marquis de la Romana, in a fit of apoplexy, at Badajoz. Within a month afterwards, his corps, the command of which had devolved on general Mendizabel, was totally defeated by Soult. An expedition sailed from Cadiz, under the command of lieutenant-general Graham and Don Manuel La Pena, to attack the French who were employed in the siege of that city, and to open a communication with the Isle de Leon, in the absence of a considerable part of the besiegers' force. On the morning of the fifth of March, this force, comprising a body of English, Spaniards, and Por tuguese, arrived on the low ridge of Barossa, about four miles from the mouth of the river Santi Petri. A spirited and successful attack on the rear of the enemy's lines at Santi Petri, opened the communication with the Isle of Leon; after which general Graham moved down from the position of Barossa to the Torre de Bermesa, about half way to the Santi Petri, to secure the communication across that river, over which a bridge had been recently thrown; but the general, when he advanced into the middle of the wood through which his route lay, received notice that the enemy was advancing towards the beights of Barossa, and, considering that position as the key to Santi Petri, he immediately made a counter-march, to support the troops left for its defence: before this corps, however, could wholly disentangle itself from the woods, the Spanish troops on the ridge of Barossa were seen retiring, whilst the left wing of the enemy was rapidly ascending. To retreat in the face of an enemy superior in numbers, and so advantageously posted, would have exposed the allies to great danger: relying, therefore, on the courage of his troops, an immediate attack was determined on by the English commander, which was executed with the utmost bravery, and in an hour and a half the French were in full retreat; but, after so unequal a contest, the allies found pursuit impracticable. The enemy lost about three thousand in killed, wounded, and prisoners, including general Bellegarde, and many other officers, killed, and generals Rupin and Rousseau taken, with six pieces of cannon. The English loss in killed and wounded amounted to twelve hundred and fortythree, amongst whom were several officers high in estimation. Admiral Sir Richard Keats ably se conded the operations of the army, and a small body of seamen and marines stormed and dismantled the works of the enemy at the mouth of the Gaudaleté. General Graham, finding it impossible to procure supplies, withdrew the next day across the Santi Petri, and afterwards returned to the Isle of Leon. La Pena, who was blamed for not having more effectually co-operated with the British, returned with his forces to Cadiz; and the French resumed the blockade. General Massena began his retreat from Santarem, where he had never found an opportunity to engage lord Wellington with any favourable prospect. The vanguard of his lordship, however, attacked his rear near Pombal, and drove it from its position, on the eleventh of March; but this advantage was much more than counterpoised by the loss of Badajoz, which, after a vigorous resistance, surrendered to marshal Soult on the same day. Massena, continuing his retreat through Portugal, was closely pursued by lord Wellington, having been attacked on the fourteenth, and forced to abandon a strong position near Cazac Nova; he was also obliged to change the line of his retreat, in which he was harassed by the militia under colonels Trant and Wilson, and was driven from the Tierra di Moira, with the loss of six thousand prisoners. General Beresford, on the twenty-fifth of March, attacked the advanced guard of marshal Mortier, and pursued it to the gates of Badajoz ; and on the fifteenth of April he forced Olivenca to capitulate. On the tenth of the same month the Catalonians took Figueras by surprise, having maintained intelligence with the Italian troops in that place. Lord Wellington attacked the rear of Massena's army on the third of April, near Sabergal on the river Coa; and after a spirited contest, the French position was carried by the bayonet. His lordship was in turn attacked by Massena, in his position of Fuente de Honore, on the third of May, and the French gained some advantage at the commencement of the action, which was retrieved by the British before night; the battle was renewed next day by the enemy, but they were at length obliged to recross the Agueda, without accomplishing their object of throwing a body of troops into Almeida. The garrison of that fortress, however, succeeded in evacuating the place, and blowing up the works, on the night of the tenth of May. These events established the fame of the British generalin-chief. Massena, rapidly pursued by the English, conducted his retreat in the most able manner; but his route was tracked by the most horrible desolation; and he and his followers were accused, by the British commander, of acts of cruelty and wanton mischief which would have disgraced a horde of barbarians. By the eighth of May general Beresford had invested Badajoz, and repelled, though with some loss, the sorties of the garrison: scarcely, however, had he commenced the siege, when intelligence arrived that marshal Soult had left Seville, with fifteen thousand men, and was marching to its relief. This information was confirmed on the night of the twelfth of May; in consequence of which the English commander immediately suspended his operations, removed the battering cannca and stores to Elvas, and, having been joined on the fourteenth by the Spanish generals Castanos and Blake, he prepared to meet the enemy. Soult, in the afternoon of the fifteenth, appeared in front of the allies with a force of about twenty thousand men, having been joined in his march by a corps of five thousand, under Latour Maubourg. The allied army completed its dispositions for receiving the enemy on the morning of the sixteenth it was then formed in two lines, on a rising ground, running nearly parallel to the little river Albuera. Several of the Spanish corps, although they made forced marches, were unable to join the army till the middle of the preceding night. The French began the attack, in which they attempted, after pushing across the river, to turn the right flank of the allies, and to carry the village and bridge of Albuera in front; and they succeeded so far as to drive from their ground the Spanish troops, who were posted on the heights to the right of the line, and to occupy their place. In this situation they were enabled to keep up a raking fire upon the whole position of the allies, so that it became necessary to recover it; and the most vigorous efforts were made, with that view, at the point of the bay. onet. A dreadful carnage ensued, by which some regiments were nearly annihilated; occasioned, principally, by a body of Polish lancers, who broke in, unperceived, upon the rear of the right division, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Colbourn. One regiment, the thirty-first, alone escaped the fury of this attack, and kept its ground till the arrival of the third brigade under major-general Houghton, who fell, pierced with wounds, as he was cheering his men to advance. At length, however, the enemy was driven back, with great slaughter, across the river. The main attack being thus frustrated, that of the village, upon which no impression had been made, was relaxed, and the remainder of the day was spent in cannonading and skirmishing. Soult retired to the ground he had previously occupied; and on the night of the seventeenth he commenced his retreat towards Seville, leaving Badajoz to its own defence, and relinquishing the care of many of his wounded to the allies. In this battle, though it ended so honourably to the allies, the British sustained a greater loss than in any action previously fought in the Peninsula, and its influence was seriously felt on subsequent occa sions; but the steadiness and gallantry of the troops obtained the highest commendations, as well from their commander as from both houses of parliament; though the generalship displayed was not equally applauded, as it was known that lord Wellington was of opinion, that the heights on the right should have been occupied by British troops. Shortly after this engageinent lord Wellington joined general Beresford, leaving his army, in the north of Portugal, under the command of general Spencer, and the siege of Badajoz was re-commenced. The French army opposed to general Spencer was now commanded by marshal Marmont, Massena having been recalled to Paris. It soon appeared that the French were resolved that Badajoz should not fall, if they could possibly prevent it; and, in order to enable Soult again to advance to its relief, Marmont detached fifteen thonsand men under Drouet, to reinforce him. Lord Wellington therefore resolved, if possible, to gain possession of Badajoz, before the French army, thus reinforced, should advance for its relief; and, for this purpose, two different attacks were made against it. But both attempts were unsuccessful,multaneous attacks on different parts of the works and the siege was soon after raised. lington retired, and his rear was attacked by the advanced guard of Marmont. The infantry, how ever, forming a square, and presenting a firm front, retreated without being broken. It is in such con. tests of man to man, that the superiority of mind and manhood is decided; and happily the decision was uniformly in favour of British troops in the sharp contests on the frontiers of Portugal. General Hill, with a division of the allied army, by a series of bold and skilful manoeuvres, surprised and completely routed a French column, commanded by general Girard, on the twenty-eighth of October, taking one thousand four hundred prisoners, the whole of Girard's artillery, baggage, and commissariat, together with the contribution of money which he had levied at Merida. Suchet having taken the town of Murviedro, and invested the castle, which is built on the ruins of the ancient Saguntum, general Blake attacked him on the twentyfifth of October; but the former was victorious, and the castle capitulated on the twenty-sixth. Suchet passed the Guadalquiver on the twenty-sixth of December, defeated the patriots, and compelled Blake to retire within the walls of Valencia. The baron d'Eroles, on the other hand, had defeated the French near Perigeorda, on the twenty-sixth of October. LOSS OF TARRAGONA AND VALENCIA. On the twenty-eighth of June Suchet took Tarragona by assault, when a most inhuman slaughter of the inhabitants took place; on the first of August general Blake was repulsed in an attack on Niebla; and on the ninth Soult defeated the army of Murcia, in the vicinity of Baza. On the fourteenth the Spaniards surprised the French in Santander; on the nineteenth Figueras was retaken by the French general Macdonald, after a tedious blockade; and on the twenty-fifth the Spanish general Abudia, was defeated, by Dorsenne, in the neighbourhood of Astorga. Lord Wellington formed the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo on the fourth of September; but the French having collected all their troops from the north and from Navarre, to that which had retreated from Portugal, on the twenty fifth lord Wel 1812.-On the ninth of January, the important city of Valencia capitulated, with an army of eighteen thousand men; by which event three hundred and seventy-four pieces of cannon, and immense maga zines, also fell into the hands of the enemy. The commencement of this year was distinguished by the raising of the siege of Tariffa, which had been bravely defended, by a small garrison of English and Spaniards, from the twentieth of December to the fourth of January, against eleven thousand men, under marshal Victor. On the nineteenth of January, lord Wellington, who was now in a condition to resume offensive operations, carried Ciudad Rodrigo by assault, after a fortnight's siege, where he captured the heavy train of the French army. Major general M'Kinnon fell, mortally wounded, in the breach; and the loss of men was considerable. On this occasion a vote of the Cortes conferred on lord Wellington the rank of a grandee of Spain of the first class, with the title of duke of Ciudad Rodrigo. In the eastern parts of the kingdom the patriotic generals carried on the war against the common enemy with considerable spirit. The French commander, Montbrun, was compelled to retire from before Alicant, after an ineffectual cannonade of the fortress. The French attacked general Lacy, who was posted on the heights of Atafalla, near Tarragona, on the twenty-fourth of January, when the patriots eminently distinguished themselves; but, overwhelmed by the numbers and discipline of the enemy, they were ultimately obliged to retreat to the mountains. By the treachery of its governor, the town of Peniscola, a place of great strength, seated on a bold promontory overlooking the Mediterranean, was soon afterwards surrendered to the French. CAPTURE OF BADAJOZ. GENERAL BALLASTEROS defeated, near Malaga, a French corps under general Marausin, on the sixteenth of February. On the sixteenth of March lord Wellington again invested Badajoz; on the thirty-first he opened his fire; and, on the sixth of April three practicable breaches were made, when an assault in the night was determined upon. Si were planned, of which that on the castle, by escalade, conducted by lieutenant-general Picton, was the only one that succeeded; and his third division was established in it by about half-past eleven. In the mean time the breaches in the bastions were vigorously assailed by other divisions; but the assailants, after six hours hard fighting, and considerable loss, were obliged to retire, the garrison having employed every imaginable contrivance for repelling the assault. The possession of the castle, however, which commanded all the works, decided the fate of the town; and at day-light, on the 7th, general Philippon, the commandant, surrendered, with the whole garrison, which, at the beginning of the siege, had consisted of five thousand men ; but about twelve hundred had been killed or wounded during its progress, besides those who perished in the assault. This triumph compelled the French, who had advanced into Portugal as far |