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By the Rev. J. Evans. 1s. 1 A Short Address to the Public respecting the raising the Prices at Covent Garden Theatre. By a Ren ter. 1s. A Letter addressed to the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, on the Subject of General Medical Relief to the Diseased Poor of the City of London. is. 6d. POLITICAL ECONOMY. lustrative of the Interests of Great HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. OFFICIAL DETAILS of the OPERA- officers; and I shall endeavour to [Continued from p. 253.] Dispatches, of which the following are copies and extracts, were this day received at the office of Viscount Castlereagh, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, from Lieutenant-General Viscount Wellington, K.B. I have the honour to be, &c. Lord Viscount Castlereagh, Truxillo, Aug. 21, 1809. General Cuesta, who, it had been settled, was to remain at Talavera. I understood that General Cuesta put Sir Robert in communication with advanced guard, which retired from Talavera on the night of the 4th. MY LORD,-When I marched from Talavera on the 3d inst. with a view Truxillo, Aug. 20, 1809. to oppose the French corps which we MY LORD, I wrote some days ago had heard had passed through the a letter to the French commander-in- Puerto de Banôs, and had arrived at chief, which I sent to him by Lieut.- Placentia, Sir Robert Wilson was deColonel Walters, to request his care tached, upon the left of the army, to and attention to the wounded officers wards Escalona; and before I marchand soldiers of the British army, who ed on that morning, I put him in had fallen into his hands, in return communication with the Spanish for the care and attention which I had paid to the French officers and soldiers, who had fallen into my hands at different times; and that he would allow money to be sent to the officers; and that officers, who should not be deemed prisoners of war, might be Sir Robert Wilson, however, did sent to superintend and take care of not arrive at Valada till the night of the soldiers, till they should recover the 4th, having made a long march from their wounds, when the officers through the mountains: and as be should be sent to join the British was then six leagues from the bridge of Arco Bispo, and had to cross the high road from Oropesa to Talavera, of which the enemy was in possession, he conceived that he was too late to retire to Arco Bispo, and he deter mined to move by Venta St. Julien and Centinello towards the Tietara, and across that river towards the mountains which separate Castile from Estremadura. army. I received a very civil answer from Marshal Mortier, promising that every care should be taken, and every attention paid to the British officers and soldiers who were wounded; but stating, that he could not answer upon the other demands contained in my letter, having been obliged to refer them to the commander-in-chief. Some of Sir Robert Wilson's dis Since the receipt of this letter, Mr. Dillon, the assistant commissary, has patches having missed me, I am not arrived from Talavera, having been through the mountains, but I believe aware by which of the passes he went taken prisoner near Cevolla on the by Tornavacas. He arrived, however, 27th of July, previous to the action, at Banôs on the 11th, and on the 12th and having been allowed to come was attacked and defeated by the away. He reports that the British French corps of Marshal Ney, which, officers and soldiers, who are wounded, with that of Soult, returned to Plaare doing remarkably well; and are centia on the 9th, 10th, and 11th; that well fed and taken care of; indeed he of Ney having since gone on towards says preferably to the French troops. Salamanca. I propose to send Colonel Walters with another flag of truce, to-morrow morning, and a letter to the commander-in-chief of the French army, requesting that a sum of money, which I shall send, may be given to the I inclose Sir Robert Wilson's account of the action. He has been very active, intelligent, and useful in the command of the Portuguese and Spanish corps, with which he was detached from this army. Before the battle of the 28th of on both flanks, when they were obliged July, he had pushed his parties almost to retreat. to the gates of Madrid, with which city he was in communication; and he would have been in Madrid, if I had not thought it proper to call him in, in expectation of that general action which took place on the 28th of July. He afterwards alarmed the enemy on the right of his army; and throughout the service, shewed himself to be an active and intelligent partizan, well acquainted with the country in which he was acting, and possessing the confidence of the troops which he commanded. The enemy's chasseurs à cheval and cavalry advanced in great numbers in every direction, and pushed to cut off the legion posted between Aldea Neuva and Banôs; but, by the steady conduct of officers and men, the enemy could only advance gradually, and with a very severe loss, from the commanding fire thrown on them. Being persuaded that his retreat was not open by Arco Bispo, he acted right in taking the road he did, with which he was well acquainted; and although unsuccessful in the action which he fought (which may well be accounted for, by the superior numbers and description of the enemy's troops,) the action, in my opinion, does him great credit. I have the honour to be, &c. The Merida battalion, however, having given way on the right, a road was laid open, which cut behind our position, and I was obliged to order a retreat on the heights above Bands, when I was again necessitated to detach a corps, in order to scour the road of Monte Major, by which I saw the enemy directing a column, and which road turned altogether the Puerto de Banôs, a league in our rear. At this time, Don Carlos Marquis de Estragne came up with his battalion of light infantry, and, in the most gallant manner, took post along the heights commanding the road of Banôs, which enabled me to send some of the Merida battalion on the mountain on our left, commanding the main road, and which the enemy had tried to ascend. Aug. 13, 1809. SIR,-I have the honour to acquaint you, that I was on march yesterday The battalion of light infantry, and morning on the road of Grenadelia the detachment of the legion on its from Aldea Neuva, to restore my right, continued, notwithstanding the communication with the allied army, when a peasant assured us, that a considerable quantity of dust, which we perceived in the road of Placentia, proceeded from the march of a body of the enemy. I immediately returned, and took post in front of Banôs, with my pickets in advance of Aldea Neuva, selecting such points for defence as the exigency of the time permitted. enemy's fire of artillery and musketry, to maintain their ground; but, at six o'clock in the evening, three columns of the enemy mounted the height on our left, gained it, and poured such a fire on the troops below, that longer defence was impracticable, and the whole was obliged to retire on the mountains on our left, leaving open the main road, along which a considerable column of cavalry immediately poured. The battalion of Seville had been The enemy's cavalry advanced on the high road, and drove back my small cavalry posts; but a picket of left at Bejar, with orders to follow me Spanish infantry, which I had con- next day, but when I was obliged to cealed, poured in on the cavalry a return, and the action commenced, steady and well-directed fire, that I ordered it to Puerto Banôs, to watch killed and wounded many of them. the Monte Major road, and the The two hundred Spanish infantry heights in the rear of our left. in advance of Aldea Neuva, con- When the enemy's cavalry came tinued, under the direction of Colonel near, an officer and some dragoons Grant and their officers, to maintain called out to the commanding officer their ground most gallantly, until the to surrender, but a volley killed him enemy's cavalry and chasseurs à che- and his party, and then the battalion val, in considerable bodies, appeared proceeded to mount the heights, in UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. XII. 2 U which movement it was attacked and surrounded by a column of cavalry and a column of infantry, but cut its way and cleared itself, killing a great many of the enemy, especially of his cavalry. The enemy is now passing to Salamanca with great expedition; I la ment that I could no longer arrest his progress; but, when the enormous superiority of the enemy's force is considered, and that we had no artillery, and that the Puerto de Banôs, on the Estremaduran side, is not a pass of such strength, as on the side of Castile, especially without guns, I hope that a resistance for nine hours, which must have cost the enemy a great many men, will not be deemed inadequate to our means. I have to acknowledge the services rendered me on this occasion by Col. Grant, Major Reiman, Don Fermen Marquis, Adjutant-Major of the dragoons of Pavia, Captain Charles and Mr. Bolmon; and to express the greatest approbation of two companies of the Merida battalions, advanced in front, and of the commanding officer and soldiery of the battalions of Seville, and the Portuguese brigade. I have already noticed the distinguished conduct of Don Carlos, and his battalion merits the highest encomiums. I have not been able to collect the returns of our loss. From the nature of mountain warfare, many men are missing, who cannot join for a day or two, but I believe the enemy will only have to boast that he has achieved his passage, and his killed and wounded will be a great diminution of his victory. I have the honour to be, &c. Sir Arthur Wellesley, &c. &c. Truxillo, Aug. 21, 1809. General Cuesta moved his headquarters from the neighbourhood of the bridge of Arcobispo on the night of the 7th inst. to Peraleca de Garbin, leaving an advanced guard, consisting of two divisions of infantry, and the Duke D'Albuquerque's division of cavalry, for the defence of the passage of the Tagus at this point. The French cavalry passed the Tagus at a ford immediately above the bridge, at half-past one in the afternoon of the 8th, and surprised this advanced guard, which retired, leaving behind them all their cannon, as well as those in the batteries constructed for the defence of the bridge. The General then moved his headquarters to the Mesa d'Ibor, on the evening of the 8th, having his advanced guard at Bohoral. He resigned the command of the army on the 12th, (on account of the bad state of his health,) which has devolved upon General Equia. The head-quarters of the Spanish army are now at Deleytosa. It appears, that a detachment of Venegas's army had some success against the enemy, in an attack made upon it in the neighbourhood of Aranjuez, on the 5th instant. Gen. Venegas was then at Ocana, and he had determined to retire towards the Sierra Morena; and, after the 5th, he had moved in that direction. He returned, however, towards Toledo, with an intention of attacking the enemy on the 12th; but, on the 11th, the enemy attacked him, with Sebastianis corps and two divisions of Victor's, in the neighbourhood of AlmoracidThe action appears to have lasted some hours; but the French having at last gained an advantage on Gen. Venegas's left, he was obliged to retire; and was about to resume his position in the Sierra Morena. On the 9th, 10th, and 11th, large detachments of the French troops, which had come from Placentia, re turned to that quarter; and, on the 12th, they attacked and defeated Sir Robert Wilson in the Puerto de Banôs, on their return to Salamanca. It appears now, that the French force in this part of Spain is distributed as follows: Marshal Victor's corps is divided between Talavera and La Mancha; Sebastiani's is in La Mancha; Marshal Mortier's at Oropesa, Arco Bispo, and Navalmoral; Mar shal Soult's at Placentia; and Mar shal Ney's at Salamanca. Distress for want of provisions, and its effects, have at last obliged me to move towards the frontiers of Por tugal, in order to refresh my troops. In my former dispatches, I have informed your lordship of our distress for the want of provisions and the means of transport. Those wants, |