None of the French officers or soldiers could be brought to admit that they had sustained any material loss from the Russian arms in 1812; they maintained, on the contrary, that famine and cold alone had destroyed their legions, and that it was impossible for a French army to be beaten. What excuse will they now have to make, when they return, without baggage and artillery, to their countrymen beyond the Rhine?
That the French prophesied nothing good of their retreat the evening before it commenced, is evinced by the circ.u.mstance of their having broken up a great number of gun-carriages, and buried the cannon, or thrown them into marshes or ponds. These yet continue to be daily discovered, and that in places contiguous to houses which are fully inhabited. It is rather singular that they were not observed while engaged in this business, which must certainly have been performed with uncommon silence and expedition.
A Russian officer, to whom complaints were made respecting same irregularities committed by the Cossacks in the villages, expressed himself in the following manner in regard to those troops:--"The officers would gladly put a stop to such proceedings, which are strictly prohibited, and severely punished;--but how is it possible for them to have these men continually under their eye? The nature of the warfare in which they are engaged, which obliges them to be constantly making extensive excursions, prevents this. We are often under the necessity of leaving them for several days together to themselves, that they may explore every wood, every corner, and fatigue and hara.s.s the enemy. In services on which no other kind of troops can be employed, they are frequently obliged to struggle alone for several days through every species of hardship and danger; and then, indeed, it is no wonder if they occasionally indulge themselves. On account of the important service which they render to the army, we cannot possibly dispense with them. The incessant vigilance of the Cossacks, who are every where at once, renders it extremely difficult for the enemy to reconnoitre, and scarcely possible for him to surprise us; and so much the more frequently are we enabled by them to take him at unawares. In a word, the Cossacks are the eye of the army;--and it is a pity only that it sometimes sees too clearly where it needs not see at all."
*** _After the preceding Sheets were put to Press, the following important Doc.u.ments were received by the Publisher._
MEMORIAL
Addressed by the City of LEIPZIG to the independent and benevolent
BRITISH NATION,
In Behalf of the Inhabitants of the adjacent Villages and Hamlets, who have been reduced to extreme Distress by the Military Operations in October, 1813.
The prosperity of Leipzig depends upon commerce, as that of commerce depends upon liberty. Till 1806 it was a flourishing city. With England in particular, whose manufactures and colonial produce were allowed to be freely imported, its commercial relations were of the highest importance. For the opulence which Leipzig then enjoyed it was indebted to its extensive traffic, which contributed to the prosperity of Saxony in general; but it was more particularly the numerous adjacent villages and hamlets that owed to our city their respectability, their improvements, and the easy circ.u.mstances of their inhabitants.
The well-known events in October, 1806, rendered Saxony--the then happy Saxony--dependent on the will of Napoleon. Commerce, and the liberty of trade, were annihilated as by magic. A new code was enforced, and Leipzig was severely punished for the traffic which it had heretofore carried on with England and which had been encouraged by its sovereign, as for a heinous crime. Since that catastrophe Saxony had suffered severely, its prosperity had greatly declined, and our city in particular had, in addition to the general burdens, the most grievous oppressions of every kind to endure. How often did Leipzig resemble a military parade or hospital rather than a commercial city! How many pledges of our affection were s.n.a.t.c.hed from us by the contagious fever spread among us by means of the hospitals!--But with the spring of the present year, with the season which usually fills every tender heart with delight, commenced the most melancholy epoch for our country, as it became the theatre of a war which laid it waste without mercy, and of the most sanguinary engagements. After all the hardships which it had suffered, a lot still more severe awaited Leipzig and its vicinity.
From the commencement of October last the French troops here kept daily increasing, as did also their sick and wounded in a most alarming manner. On the 14th Napoleon arrived with his army in our neighbourhood, and the different corps of the allied powers advanced on all sides. On the 15th commenced all round us a great, a holy conflict, for the liberation and independence of Germany, for the peace of Europe, for the repose of the world--a conflict which, after an engagement of three days, that can scarcely be paralleled in history for obstinacy and duration, and at last extended to our city itself, terminated on the 19th of October, through the superior talents of the generals and the valour of their troops, which vanquished all the resistance of despair, in the most complete and glorious victory. The French still defended themselves in our unfortified town, and would have devoted it to destruction; the allies made themselves masters of it by a.s.sault at one o"clock, and spared it. They were received with the loudest acclamations by the inhabitants, whose joy was heightened into transport when they beheld their ill.u.s.trious deliverers, the two emperors, the king of Prussia, and the crown-prince of Sweden, enter the place in triumph.
During this engagement the Saxon troops went over to the banners of the allies.
This eventful victory justifies the hope of a speedy peace, founded upon the renewed political system of the balance of power,--an honourable, safe, permanent, and general peace, for which, with all its attendant blessings, Europe will be indebted, under divine Providence, to the invincible perseverance of England in the contest with France, to the combined energies of the south and the north, and to the exertions of the allied powers, and of the truly patriotic Germans by whom they were joined.
The battle of Leipzig will be ever memorable in the annals of History. A severe lot has. .h.i.therto befallen our city. To the burdens and requisitions of every kind, by which it was overwhelmed, were added the suspension of trade, and the injury sustained by the entire suppression this year of our two princ.i.p.al fairs. Our resources are exhausted, and we have yet here a prodigious number of sick and wounded;--upwards of 30,000 in more than 40 military hospitals, with our own poor and the troops yet stationed here for our protection, to be provided for; besides which numberless just claims for the good cause yet remain to be satisfied. But from misfortune itself we will derive new strength and new courage, and our now unfettered commerce affords us the prospect of a happier futurity. We have lost much; but those days when we ourselves knew the want of provisions, and even of bread--those days of horror, danger, and consternation--are past; we yet live, and our city has been preserved through the favour of Heaven and the generosity of the conquerors.
One subject of affliction lies heavy upon our hearts. Our prosperous days afforded us the felicity of being able to perform in its full extent the duty of beneficence towards the necessitous. We have before our eyes many thousands of the inhabitants of the adjacent villages and hamlets, landed proprietors, farmers, ecclesiastics, schoolmasters, artisans of every description, who, some weeks since, were in circ.u.mstances more or less easy, and at least knew no want; but now, without a home, and stripped of their all, are with their families perishing of hunger.
Their fields have gained everlasting celebrity, for there the most signal of victories was won for the good cause; but these fields, so lately a paradise, are now, to the distance of from ten to twelve miles, transformed into a desert. What the industry of many years had acquired was annihilated in a few hours. All around is one wide waste. The numerous villages and hamlets are almost all entirely or partially reduced to ashes; the yet remaining buildings are perforated with b.a.l.l.s, in a most ruinous condition, and plundered of every thing; the barns, cellars, and lofts, are despoiled, and stores of every kind carried off; the implements of farming and domestic economy, for brewing and distilling--in a word, for every purpose--the gardens, plantations, and fruit-trees--are destroyed; the fuel collected for the winter, the gates, the doors, the floors, the wood-work of every description, were consumed in the watch-fires; the horses were taken away, together with all the other cattle; and many families are deploring the loss of beloved relatives, or are doomed to behold them afflicted with sickness and dest.i.tute of relief.
The miserable condition of these deplorable victims to the thirst of conquest, the distress which meets our view whenever we cross our thresholds, no language is capable of describing. The horrid spectacle wounds us to the very soul.
But all these unfortunate creatures look up to Leipzig, formerly the source of their prosperity;--their eloquent looks supplicate our aid; and the pang that wrings our bosoms arises from this consideration, that neither the exhausted means of Leipzig nor those of our ruined country are adequate to afford them that relief and support which may enable them to rebuild their habitations, and to return to the exercise of their respective trades and professions.
All the countries of our continent have been more or less drained by this destructive war. Whither then are these poor people, who have such need of a.s.sistance--whither are they to look for relief? Whither but to the sea-girt Albion, whose wooden walls defy every hostile attack,--who has, uninjured, maintained the glorious conflict with France, both by water and by land? Ye free, ye beneficent, ye happy Britons, whose generosity is attested by every page of the annals of suffering Humanity--whose soil bus been trodden by no hostile foot--who know not the feelings of the wretch that beholds a foreign master revelling in his habitation,--of you the city of Leipzig implores relief for the inhabitants of the circ.u.mjacent villages and hamlets, ruined by the military events in the past month of October. We therefore entreat our patrons and friends in England to open a subscription in their behalf.
The boon of Charity shall be punctually acknowledged in the public papers, and conscientiously distributed, agreeably to the object for which it was designed, by a committee appointed for the purpose. Those who partake of it will bless their benefactors, and their grateful prayers for them will ascend to Heaven.
(Signed) FREGE AND CO.
REICHENBACH AND CO.
JOHANN HEINRICH KuSTNER AND CO.
_Leipzig, Nov. 1, 1813._
_We, the Burgomaster and Council of the city of Leipzig, hereby attest the truth of the deplorable state of our city, and of the villages around it, as faithfully and pathetically described in a Memorial dated November 1st, and addressed to the British nation by some of our most reputable and highly-respected fellow-citizens, namely, the bankers Messrs. Frege and Co. Messrs.
Kustner and Co. Messrs. Reichenbach and Co.; and recommend it to the generosity which has, in all ages, marked the character of the British nation. We have formally authenticated this attestation, by affixing to it the seal of our city, and our usual signature._
(L.S.) D. FRIEDRICH HULDREICH CARL SIEGMANN, Acting Burgomaster.
_Leipzig, Nov. 18, 1813._
Printed by W. Clowes, Northumberland-Court, Strand, London.
FORMED JAN. 1814,
FOR RELIEVING THE DISTRESS IN GERMANY.
About eight years ago the calamities, occasioned by the war in different provinces of Germany, gave rise to a Subscription and the formation of a Committee in London, to relieve the distresses on the Continent. By the generosity of the British Public, and with the aid of several respectable Foreigners resident in this country, the sum of nearly 50,000_l._ was remitted to the Continent, which rescued mult.i.tudes of individuals and families from the extremity of distress, and the very brink of ruin. The Committee received, both from Germany and Sweden, the most satisfactory doc.u.ments, testifying that the various sums transmitted had been received and conscientiously distributed; but at no period since the existence of this Committee has the ma.s.s of every kind of misery been so great, in the country to which their attention was first directed. Never has the cry of the distressed Germans for help been so urgent, their appeal to British benevolence so pressing, as at the present moment. Who could read the reports of the dreadful conflicts which have taken place in Germany, during the last eventful year; of the many sanguinary battles fought in Silesia, Lusatia, Bohemia, Saxony, Brandenburg, and other parts; and peruse the melancholy details of sufferings, almost unexampled in the annals of history, without the most lively emotions? Who could hear of so many thousands of families barbarously driven from Hamburg, in the midst of a severe winter; of so many villages burnt, cities pillaged, whole princ.i.p.alities desolated, and not glow with ardent desire to a.s.sist in relieving distress so multifarious and extensive? _To the alleviation of sufferings so dreadful; to the rescue of our fellow-men, who are literally ready to perish: the views of the Committee are exclusively directed._ Many well-authenticated afflicting details of the present distress having been, on the 14th Jan. 1814, laid before the Committee, it was immediately resolved, in reliance on the liberality of the British public, to remit, by that post, the sum of _Three Thousand Five Hundred Pounds_, to respectable Persons, with directions to form Committees of Distribution at the several places following:--
1. To Leipsic and its vicinity, 500 2. To Dresden and its vicinity, 500 3. To Bautzen and its vicinity, 500 4. To Silesia; on the borders of which, seventy-two villages were almost entirely destroyed, 500 5. To Lauenburg, Luneburg, and the vicinity of Harburg in Hanover, 500 6. To the many thousands who have been forced from their habitations in Hamburg, 1000
At subsequent Meetings the following sums were voted:--
7. _Jan. 18_, To Erfurt, Naumburg, and their vicinity, 500 8. _Jan. 23_, To Hamburg and its vicinity, 1000 9. To Berlin, its vicinity, and hospitals, 1000 10. To Leipsic and its vicinity, 1000 11. To Silesia and Lusatia, 1000 12. For several hundred Children, turned out of the Foundling Hospital at Hamburg, 300 13. _Jan. 31_, To Wittemberg and its vicinity, 500 14. To Halle and its vicinity, 500 15. To Dresden and its vicinity, 500 16. To the towns, villages, and hamlets, between Leipsic and Dresden, 1000 17. _Feb 1_, To Hanover and its vicinity, 500 18. To Stettin and its vicinity, 500 19. _Feb 3_, To Stargard, its hospitals, and vicinity, 300 20. _Feb 10_, To Liegnitz, Neusaltz, Jauer, Buntzlau, and the 72 villages, which are almost entirely destroyed, 2000 21. To Bautzen, with the recommendation of Bischoffswerda, Zittau, Lauban, Loban, and vicinity, 600 22. To Culm and neighbourhood, 500 23. To Dresden and vicinity, 500 24. To Pirna, Freiberg, and vicinity, 500 25. To Lutzen and vicinity, 300 26. For the unfortunate Peasantry in the vicinity Leipzig, 1000 27. To Torgau, 500 28. To Naumburg and vicinity, 500 29. To Weissenfels and vicinity, 500 30. To Erfurt and Eisenach, 500 31. To Dessau and vicinity, 500 32. To Fulda, Hanau, and vicinity, 1000 33. To Schwerin, Rostock, and vicinity, 800 34. To Wismar and vicinity, 200 35. To Frankfurt and vicinity, 500 36. To Lubeck and vicinity, 500 37. To Lauenburg, Ratzeburg, Luneburg, Zelle, Harburg, Stade, and neighbouring villages, 1000 38. To Berlin and Whistock, 1000 39. To be held at Berlin, for the sufferers at Magdeburg, when that fortress shall be evacuated by the enemy, 1000 40. To Stettin, 500 41. To Hamburg, 1000 42. To Bremen, 500 43. To Wurzburg, 500 44. _Feb 17_, To Stettin, 500 45. To the Exiles from Hamburg, at Altona, Lubeck, Bremen, and wherever they may be, 3000 46. To Kiel, in Holstein, 500 47. To Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Freyberg, and their vicinity, 2000 48. To Dresden, Pirna, and their vicinity, 2000 36,000 -------
At a General Meeting, convened by the Committee for relieving the Distress in Germany, and other parts of the Continent, on the 27th of January, at the City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street;
HENRY THORNTON, Esq. M.P. in the Chair;
The Chairman read a letter from His Royal Highness the Duke of Suss.e.x, stating, that an illness, which had deprived him of his rest the preceding night; totally incapacitated him from the proposed pleasure of presiding at a Meeting, the purpose of which was so congenial to his feelings, and in the success of which he avowed his heart to be deeply engaged.
The Secretary then read an interesting Memorial from the Inhabitants of Leipsic, praying that relief from British benevolence, which former experience had taught them, to confide in.
_The following Resolutions were agreed to:--_
1. That it appears to this Meeting that the distress arising out of the ravages of war in Germany, and other parts of the Continent, is inconceivably great, and loudly calls on the British Nation for the exercise of its accustomed beneficence.
2. That this General Meeting, convened by the Committee appointed in the year 1805, for relieving the Distresses in Germany and other parts of the Continent, approves most cordially of the object of the Committee, and especially of the prompt measures taken at their meetings of the 14th and 18th of January, antic.i.p.ating the liberality of the British Public, and sending immediate succour to the places in greatest need.