tyranny which Russia had exercised for half a century over Europe.' Fate drags them on,' he exclaimed, when Lauriston returned from Wilna without being permitted to see the Emperor Alexander, the conquered assumie the tone of conquerors, and their destinies must be fulfilled!'

The French troops accordingly passed the Niemen, at Kowno, on the 24th of June; and though this exploit is recorded in high sounding terms in their bulletins, they appear to have advanced without any serious molestation. The Russians had gained experience by the last campaign, and could not fail to profit by the splendid exhibition of military talent which the English Fabius was, at that moment, displaying in the southern peninsula. This protracted mode of warfare is, of all others, most calculated to damp the ardor and impetuosity of French troops; and is peculiarly adverse to the invader who, like Buonaparte, trusts to the plunder of the country he attacks for the support of his army. It was most satisfactory, therefore, to those who knew how to appreciate measures of this kind, to observe that the Russians, in the opening of the campaign, had adopted this system-to lay waste the country as they retired to evacuate the great towns-to avoid all contact with the enemy-to fall back on their resources, and to concentrate their forces, by combined movements, on such strong positions as the nature of the country might afford. In pursuance of this plan, Wilna was abandoned to the enemy, who entered it on the 28th; but the magazines had been previously set on fire, and the splenetic ubservations, in the 4th bulletin, on the impolicy of the Russian generals, would alone convince us of the propriety of that measure.

On a comparison of the three French bulletins dated from Wilna, with the accounts in the Petersburgh Gazette of the operations which took place between the Niemen and the Dwina, the Russians appear to have carried into effect their intention of retiring to a stronger position with considerable skill: we are told indeed by the French bulletin of the disorder which pervaded the troops, and that they had no combined plan of action;' but the manner in which the detachment under Doctoroff extricated itself from the several divisions of the enemy, which pressed upon it from various quarters, is a sufficient proof of the contrary; and the storm, which is acknowledged to have destroyed several thousand horses, and which we are not disposed to attribute entirely to the elements, must have been rather a discouraging event to an army, in the outset of so arduous an expedition, and now checked in its career by the firm attitude which the Russians presented on the banks of the Dwina.

No part of Russia lies more open to attack, than the frontier which extends from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The northern

parts

parts of the empire are nearly surrounded by an unnavigable sea; and her late acquisitions in Finland must have removed all apprehensions of being assailed from that quarter: to the eastward she is only exposed to a few roving tribes, whose incursions can no longer give her cause for alarm. The Niemen and the Bug form the first strong line of defence to the southward, on the frontier where she is most assailable:-but we find, in the late campaign, that the first stand made by the Russians was on the the line formed by the Dwina and Boristhenes.

Though the Emperor Alexander had been, for some time, silently increasing his armies by new levies, and could exhibit on paper a military establishment of 600,000 men, the force brought up to oppose the progress of Buonaparte, in the outset, was very unequal to that of the enemy. The French bulletins do not make it amount to more than 150,000 men; and from the best accounts which we have been enabled to collect, at the commencement of hostilities it certainly did not exceed 200,000 men. The main army, under General Barclay de Tolly, consisted of 80,000 men; the second, under Bagrathion, of 30,000; Wittgenstein, who was posted on the Dwina, for the purpose of covering St. Petersburgh, had not more than 30,000 men under his command; and the army of Volhynia, under Tormasoff, even when joined (as it afterwards was) by the army of Moldavia, under Tchitzagoff, did not compose an effective force of more than 80,000 men. The invading army, on the other hand, was certainly the most formidable that France ever sent forth, whether we consider its numerical strength, the excellence of its equipment, the immense train of artillery with which it was attended, or the acknowledged reputation and skill of the generals who commanded under Buonaparte. Twelve separate corps are mentioned; and though they occasionally vary in point of numbers, we may fairly estimate them on an average at 25,000 men each. To these we must add the reserve of guards, amounting to 40,000, with some small bodies of auxiliaries, which do not appear to have been attached to any of the French corps. We are inclined to believe, therefore, that we shall be found correct in stating, that Buonaparte opened the campaign with an effective force of 350,000 fighting men, and that the whole amount, which he brought into the field, including artillerymen, waggon drivers, and others, did not fall short of 420,000 men.

The following appears to have been the disposition of the French force on the line of the Dwina, where the contending armies first came into serious contact. The 1st, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 8th corps, which were respectively commanded by Davoust, Ney, Beauharnois, Poniatowski and Junot, with the reserve of guards, formed the centre of the army, and were destined to fol

low

low the movements of the Russians under Barclay de Tolly. On the left, Macdonald, with the 10th corps, was before Dunaburgh and Riga; the 2d and 6th corps, under Oudinot, (who was afterwards relieved by St. Cyr,) were opposed to Wittgenstein on the Dwina. The 9th corps, under Victor, was assembled at Tilsit, and occupied the line of the Niemen; whilst Augereau, with the 11th and 12th corps, remained in the north of Germany to overawe Berlin and the Prussians; and though the turn which affairs took rendered it impossible for him to quit this position entirely, considerable detachments from his corps were brought up to oppose the progress of the Russians, at the close of the campaign. The right of the French was composed of the 7th corps, under Regnier, and the Saxon auxiliaries, under Klengel, and to these was afterwards attached Dombrowski's Polish legion. Beyond these, on the frontier of Gallicia, the Austrian army of 30,000 men was posted; and though not actively engaged during the whole of the campaign, yet as a Russian corps was required to watch its motions, it must not be omitted in a calculation of the force which Buonaparte had at his disposal at the commencement of hostilities.

But some pompous exhibition was now required to dignify the opening of the campaign, and Poland was to be again insulted by delusive hopes of freedom. We have been long accustomed to the stile of Buonaparte's eloquence, but a more impudent address was surely never penned, than the speech to the deputies assembled at Wilna on the Confederation of Poland. Love of his country,' says this eternal disturber of the peace of the world, is the first duty of civilized man: had I reigned during the first, second, or third partitions of Poland, I would have armed all my people to support you! But in the same breath he scruples not to acquaint a considerable portion of his hearers, that, though panting for liberty, they must still remain slaves, as he had guaranteed to Austria the integrity of her dominions. The Poles surely could not have forgotten, that in 1809, at the erection of the Duchy of Warsaw, he assured Russia that no change should take place in those very provinces which he now considered as the only fit objects for freedom.

While Buonaparte was thus occupied in haranguing the Confederation of Poland, Alexander was not unmindful of his duty in calling upon his subjects to arm in the defence of their country; and the manly language, in which he addressed them, was universally answered by a correspondent tone of feeling.

The stand made on the Dwina gave the Russians time to breathe, and to prepare to encounter the gigantic force brought against them, by exertions of public spirit, which were never sur

passed

passed in any age or country; whilst Buonaparte, who had paved his way to conquest elsewhere, as much by the arts of secret intrigue as by the terror of his arms, soon found that he had here to cope with a people true to themselves, and too uncivilized, or too wise, to be infected with the revolutionary principles of modern Europe.

The Carthaginian matrons have been celebrated for the sacrifice of their hair for the defence of their city when attacked by the Romans;-the patriotism of all ranks in Russia, at this period, was exhibited in an equal, though more efficient manner. Voluntary offers of men and money, and of whatever might assist in the prosecution of the war, were presented to the Emperor from every quarter, and with an earnestness that would not be denied. The Grand Duchess, his sister, set the example, by offering to ise a regiment on her estates to combat the adventurer who had formerly solicited her hand. The imperial city of Mosco magnificently proposed to arm and equip 80,000 men. The veteran Platoff, whose blood had been so often shed in the defence of Russia on former occasions, now shewed his ardour for the cause in which he was engaged, by promising his daughter, and 200,000 rubles, to the hero who should rid the world of the invader; and frequent instances occurred of young men of fortune, who were content to serve as subalterns in the corps which they had raised, and to yield the command to abler officers. Nor was this enthu→ siasm confined to the higher orders; the peasantry flocked from all quarters to avail themselves of the general permission to enlist in the army. The success of the English in the peninsula had reached their ears, and they were often heard to exclaim, What, shall a small state like Portugal succeed in expelling the French, with the assistance of England; and shall Russia not revenge the blood of those who fell at Eylau and Fredland!'

Mr. Eustaphieve states, that a militia of 600,000 men was raised in 1806, but was subsequently dismissed, with the reservation of 200,000 in case of emergency. These, we may conclude, were now called out; that of St. Petersburgh was instantly enrolled, and the first division, 12,000 strong, set off for the army, marching through the town with continued bursts of enthusiastic ardour. These new raised warriors, who joined the army in their plain grey country dress, and with no other accoutrement than a cap with the initials of the Emperor, and a cross upon it, seem to have excited the derision of the French, who sarcastically compared them to the horses of their army, which are marked with the first letter of -the baggage they carry.

But the most extraordinary instance of activity was shewn in the creation of a galley fleet, for the purpose of transporting a body of

15,000 men from Finland to the relief of Riga: within the short space of six weeks, above a hundred gun-boats were built, and equipped; and sailed to fulfil the object for which they were intended.

These facts incontestibly prove, that extraordinary efforts of patriotism under a despotic government do not always proceed from despotic measures, and that the system of slavery to which the Russian peasant is subject, is not such as to extinguish all love of his country.

The next accounts which we have of the progress of the French arms are contained in the 8th bulletin, which is dated the 22d July, from Glaubokoe, a small village on the road between Wilna and Polotzk. Above a month had now elapsed since the passage of the Niemen, without any exploit having taken place worthy of the military fame of Buonaparte; and this unusual pause was of itself sufficient to shew how formidable a front the Russians presented to his advance in their intrenchments on the banks of the Dwina. His chief object at this moment was to carry his threats into execution by a triumphant entry into Petersburg. He relied much upon the panic which the possession of the capital would occasion in the country, and on the effect which it might have on the mind of the Emperor himself; and the fleet at Cronstadt was a prize which he felt assured that no efforts could remove from his grasp. The French troops, however, were repulsed in three successive attacks on the camp at Dunaburg, and Riga was most ably defended by Essen; who acknowledges, in pointed terms, how much he was assisted by the advice and active co-operation of Admiral Martin, and the English officers and seamen under his command, in the defence of this important fortress.

Buonaparte, finding these positions could not be carried, resolved if possible to turn them, and to cut off the communication between the first Russian army, and the second under Bagrathion. The centre of the French army, therefore, under Davoust, was ordered to advance, and we find from the 9th bulletin, dated 25th July, that the French at that time occupied a line from Mohilow to Polotzk. By this movement Bagrathion was compelled to pass the Borysthenes; but we may attribute the little activity with which he was pursued, and of which Buonaparte complains, more to the skill displayed by Platoff in covering his retreat from Mohilow, than to any real want of zeal on the part of Davoust.

It now became evident to the Emperor Alexander, that the communication with Bagrathion could only be re-established by an inclination to his left, and that it would be more advisable to retire towards Mosco, than upon the unproductive country between his army and St. Petersburg. By this change of movement too, St. Pe

tersburg