nothing can withhold the state from ruin, the fate of Spain has confirmed by a frightful and warning experience. In the then situation of Austria, such an example could not fail of its effect; an army of 200,000 men environed the monarchy, and waited but the signal of attack. The conquest of the Western states being thus completed by that of Spain and Portugal; and the principle, that every thing is just and lawful which the interest of the Emperor of France required, being openly avowed in this act of outrageous violence, and without reserve proclaimed in the official papers of the government; and that restless love of dominion, for which Europe seemed hardly large enough, having on no account found its limit; nothing was more natural than the expectation, that the next mortal blow would be aimed at Austria. The apprehensions and presentiments of the world were in concord with such an expectation.

What at the same time was taking place in Italy, gave new force to these threatening omens. That broad circle of dominion which at one time was denoted under the name of the New Federal System-at another, under the more expressive appellation of the Great Empire, had long embraced the whole of the Italian states. This was not enough. The subjugation was to go into the detail-was to be more immediate and complete. The Pope had, in the sense of his duty, resisted a series of pretensions which would have wounded the dignity of the head of the church, and his ancient rights as a Sovereign. In an instant every thing was disregarded, which reverence for his sublime person, and esteem for the greater part of christendom, which beheld in him a common father, appeared to prescribe, even to unsparing violence. Tho provinces were taken away which remained to the Pope after earlier enroachments. Rome itself became the seat of a military prefecture, and it could not be concealed from the world that his holiness endured, in his own capital, the fate of a state prisoner. The provinces belonging to the church, as well as the principalities of Parma and Placenza, and the kingdom of Etruria, which France herself had erected, and now suddenly and tyrannically destroyed, were incorporated either with France or the kingdom of Italy; and Austria learnt on this occasion, by a solemn

oration in the French senate, that "it is the will of the Emperor Napoleon that the whole coast of the Mediterranean and Adriatic sea be united either with the French territory, or with that of the Great Empire."

To rely, under such circumstances, upon the uninterrupted continuance of peace, however strong, the resolution might be to do the utmost to obtain it, would have been obvious infatuation. From day to day the necessity might occur of vindicating the independence of the monarchy from pretensions utterly inadmissible, or from immediate attack; from day to day the approximation of this critical moment became more apparent. If there were means of averting this, they could be found only in the adoption of a perfect system of defence-only in a military constitu tion which might set bounds as effectual as possible to the hope of subjugating the monarchy with ease. In this sense, and with this design alone, did his Majesty adopt those measures which were to lay a broader foundation for the reinforcement and completion of his army. The enlightened patriotism of his faithful subjects promoted the success of these measures. Every mind was impressed with the conviction that his Majesty sought nothing but well gua-` ranteed repose; that nothing was more foreign from his breast than a longing after war; and that inevitable necessity alone could induce him to demand new sacrifices from his people. The paternal regulations of the Emperor every where carried into execution, with a confidence honourable alike to the government and the citizen.

were

The true character of those measures

could be mistaken or misinterpreted by foreign powers, only in case they were before resolved to deny Austria the right of self-preservation. Every thing which was established at that period remained within the strictest limits of a just system of defence. It was confined to the organization and completion of the military powers of the nation; and so much the less reason was there to apprehend that this could give offence to any state, as similar, and far more extensive establishments had been made for several years before, and were every day making, not only in France, but in other adjoining countries. The kingdom was surrounded by foreign armies, who were put upon a war establishment, and every moment

ready to march. The Austrian troops were on the peace establishment; they were dispersed in their ordinary garrisons, and no where collected together. A position exciting less suspicion, and giving less alarm, could not well be expected from a great state.

Even on the part of the French cabinet there was no reason to expect complaint; as his Majesty, on every occasion which presented itself, gave proof of his unshaken adherence to the pacific system he had hitherto followed. While, to avoid unpleasant discussions, his Majesty maintained an uninterrupted silence on some very essential matters of complaint-while, by virtue of an arbitrary decree, more than 80 Austrian vessels had been taken by French cruizers (a procedure which afforded no very promising prognostic of the freedom of the sea) the Austrian court was incessantly engaged in repelling from itself and its subordinate agents the fancied or feigned accusations which were brought forward by restless French agents, principally at Trieste. Not one of these accusations could be verified. They were all victoriously refuted. His Majesty did not, however, rest here. In order to close a source of groundless yet ever-returning complaints, and at the same time give the French government a proof of readiness which even anticipated its desires, and which, as the Emperor flattered himself, would allow no doubt to arise concerning his real sentiments, his Majesty did not hesitate, how severely soever this further restriction the last upon mains of commerce would be felt in his maritime provinces, to shut his harbours (though not required to do so) against the North American states.

re

But nothing now had the power to induce France to estimate more justly the conduct of his Majesty. The steps which his Majesty had taken to secure the existence and independence of his states, in case of a nearer approaching danger, passed in the eyes of the Emperor Napoleon for so many unwarrantable attempts to counteract the plans which had long been prepared, and were to determine the future destiny of this kingdom. These steps were treated as hosțile movements against France. The most anxious endeavours of the Austrian minister to set this matter in a proper light were without effect. Their explanations were not worthy of any attention. The French cabinet intimated in an official note of the 30th. of July, 1808,

War is inevitable, unless the military movements made throughout the Austrian monarchy be succeeded by measures of a directly contrary tendency;' and this also, after the same note had immediately before expressed, 6 The French army in

Germany, as well as in Italy, is twice as strong as it was in 1805, independently of the troops of the confederation? From that day war was to be considered as declared! The language then held was never retracted. At Paris, Bayonne, and Erfurt, it remained unalterably the same. If, in the meanwhile, events occurred which held the French armies engaged on other points, this could be considered only as a compulsory postponement of actual hostilities. The resolution was embraced, to bring the point to a decision as soon as possible. The relations between Austria and France had taken a certain direction; and an essential change in those relations was for this reason impossible-that the condition of peace imposed by the Emperor Napoleon was of such a character that it could not be even a subject of deliberation.

Already in the month of August, steps were taken which caused an immediate rupture to be apprehended. The German princes dependent upon France were called upon to furnish troops even beyond their contingents, to collect them together into camps, and to be every day prepared to march. That, which with intentional perversity was called "the armaments of Austria," was assign ed as the reason for these measures. The

French armies themselves made movements, the direction and object of which were for a long time veiled in obscurity. During several weeks, the strongest apprehensions were raised on different points of the Austrian frontier; and numerous French agents, from Lisbon to Constantinople, already announced the speedy ruin of this monarchy,

The tempest, however, dispersed "for a time. But not to suffer the moment to pass away without profiting from it, the French cabinet required the immediate and unconditional recognition of the. French prince who had been nominated King of Spain, amid the most determined resistance of the Spanish na tion. The price set upon this recognition, was the removal of the French troops from the hitherto closely environed frontiers of Austria, to a somewhat remote, but not less dangerous position. But his Majesty well knew, at the same time, that he was indebted for the al

Admiralty-Office, July 18. Extract of a Letter from Captain Goate, Commander of his Majesty's ship the Musquito, addressed to Rear Admiral Sir R. Strachan, and transmitted to the Hon. W.W. Pole, dated in the River Elbe, July 9, 1809.

I proceeded up this river with his Majesty's vessels named in the margin, and anchored out of gun shot of the battery at Cuxhaven, on the 7th inst. and as it was too strong to be attacked by his Majesty's vessels, I was determined on landing and taking it by storm, having previously made the necessary preparations for that purpose.

At daylight on the morning of the 8th, I disembarked with Cap. Watts of the Ephira, and the commanding officers, seamen, and marines, of the respective vessels: the first boats that landed were fired upon by the enemy's advanced post, and they then retreated to the battery: we marched on to storm, but from our appearance the enemy thought proper to retreat, about eighty in number, so that we took the battery (which had six guns, twenty-four pounders, and surrounded by a wet ditch) without opposition; his Majesty's colours were then hoisted on the French flag staff, and afterwards those of Hamburgh on the castle of Kitzbuttle: we then dismounted the guns and put them on board of vessels lying in the harbour, as well as several other small pieces of cannon, with all the shot and military stores. The battery was then undermined, and, by a variety of explosions blown up. I then gave the town of Cuxhaven in trust to the civil governor, and embarked all the seamen and marines. Two French gun boats, with two guns each;

*Musquito, (sloop.) Briseis, Ephira, Bruizer, (gun vessel.) Centinel, Blazer, Pincer, Basilisk, Patriot, (Schuyt,) Alert (cutter.)

which were lying in the harbour, were also taken possession of.

Although we did not meet with the opposition that was expected (as the French had sometimes five hundred men, at other times about one, hundred at Cuxhaven), yet I think it my duty to inform you of the activity and good conduct of the commanders, commanding officers, seamen and marines, on this occasion, as it was partly from their regularity. in forming and marching, that induced the enemy to retreat.

Captain Pettett of the Briseis commanded afloat, and got that vessel under weigh to assist, had it been

necessary.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE GAZETTE.

Tuesday, July 11.

An Account of the Battle fought near Aspern, on the Marchfield, on the 21st and 22d of May 1809, between the Archduke Charles of Austria, Generallissimo of the Imperial Austrian armies, and the Emperor Napoleon, Commander in Chief of the French and allied armies.

The Emperor Napoleon having, after some sanguinary engagements near Abensberg, Hausen and Dinzlingen, in which the fortune of war favoured the Austrian arms so as to force the French garrison at Ratisbon to surrender, succeeded in cutting off the left wing of the Austrian army, and driving it back to Landshut, and afterwards in advancing by Eckmulh with a superior corps of cavalry, taking the road of Eglofsheim, and forcing to retreat those Austrian corps that were posted on the heights of duke on the 23d of April crossed the Leikepoint, and Talmessing, the ArchDanube near Ratisbon, and joined the corps of Bellegarde, who had opened the campaign by several successful affairs in the Upper Palatinate, had reached Amberg, Neumarkt and Hemau, and had by this time approached Stadt-amHof, in order to execute his immediate

junction with the Archduke.

The Emperor Napoleon ordered the bombardment of Ratisbon, occupied by a few battalions who were to cover the passage of the Danube. On the 23d, in the evening, he became master of it, and

immediately hastened along the right bank of the Danube to enter the Austrian states, in order, as he openly declared, to dictate peace at Vienna. The Austrian army had taken a position near Cham, behind the river Regen, which was watched by some of the enemy's divisions, while the Emperor Napoleon called all the disposeable troops, in forced marches, from the North of Germany to the Danube, and considerably reinforced his army with the troops of Wirtemberg, Hessia, Baden, and some time after with those of Saxony.

Near Kirn and Nittenau, some affairs had happened between the out-posts, which, however, had no influence upon the armies.

However easy it would have been for the Archduke to continue his offensive operations on the left bank of the Danube without any material resistance, and however gratifying it might have been to relieve provinces which were groaning beneath the pressure of foreign dominion, the preservation of his native land did not permit him to suffer the enemy to riot with impunity in the entrails of the monarchy, to give up the rich sources of its independence, and expose the welfare of the subject to the devastations of foreign conquerors. These motives induced the Archduke to conduct his army to Bohemia, by the way of Klentsch and Neumarkt, to occupy the Bohemian forest with light troops and part of the militia, and to direct his march towards Budweis, where he arrived on the 3d of May, hoping to join near Lintz, his left wing, which had been separated from him, and which was under the command of Lieut.-General Baron Hiller. But the latter had been so closely pressed by the united force of the French armies, that, after several spirited engagements, and even after a brilliant, affair in which he had the advantage near Neumarkt, and in which the troops achieved all that was possible against the disproportionate superiority of the enemy, he indeed was able to reach Linz, but was incapable of crossing the Danube, and obliged to content himself with destroying the communication with the left bank, and taking up a position behind the Traun near Ebersberg. This was the occasion of an extremely murderous engagement, during which the enemy, in storming the bridge lost near 4000 men; Ebersberg was set on fire, and Lieut.-Gen. Hiller continued

his retreat, till he got so much the start as tolpass the Danube near Stain without being disturbed by the enemy, and to wait the approach of the Archduke, who, after having in vain attempted a junction of the army near Linz, had marched from Budweis to Zwettel; still hoping, by a quick passage of the Danube, to arrest the enemy's progress towards the metropolis. Meanwhile a corps of Wurtembergers had advanced from Passau along both the shores of the Danube, had occupied Linz and the bank opposite to it; had restored the bridge, and signalized itself by destroying the defenceless villages and castles which could not be protected by the small advanced guard proceeding by the side of the main army.

The enemy, by marching through the valley of the Danube in the straightest line, had got so much a-head, that all hopes of coming up with him in front of Vienna vanished; still, however, if that city had been able to hold out for five days, it might have been relieved; and the Archduke resolved on venturing the utmost to rescue that good city, which, by the excellent disposition of its citizens, the faithful attachment to its Sovereign, and its noble devotion, has raised to itself an eternal monument in the annals of Austria.' All his plans were now directed towards gaining the bridges across the Danube near Vienna, and endeavouring to save the imperial residence by a combat under its very walls.

Vienna, formerly an important fortress, was in vain besieged by the Turks, and would, even now, from the solidity of its ramparts, the strong profiles of its works, and the extensive system of its mines, be capable of making a protracted resistance, had not, for upwards of a century back, the luxury of a large metropolis, the wants of ease, the conflux of all the magnates in the empire, and the pomp of a splendid court, totally effaced every consideration of military defence. Palaces adorn the rampart, the casemates and ditches were converted into workshops of tradesmen; plantations mark the counter-scarpes of the fortress, and avenues of trees traverse the glacis, uniting the most beautiful suburbs in the world to the Corps de la Place. Although under such circumstances no obstinate resistance of the capital was to be expected, yet from the unexampled loyalty of the inhabi