~---~ .~+,~- ..~l' r '• - .~. THE 1° 215. POLITICAL DI,SQUISITION. ~d• No. 20'2. CAPTURE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO-. We have frequently had to record the achievements of British valour : instances of' British glory. The triumphs of our fleets have supplied us for a series of years with the most satisfactory grounds for private and public exulta tion. The bravery of our sailors had left us without a.ri val on the seas: the gallantry of our troops is daily raising the honour of the British name to an equal height on land. Scarcely had the report of the enemy's successes at Valen cia and in its vicinity filled us with sorrow for the disasters experienced by our Allies, and with alarm at the effects we apprehended they might have on the general spirit of the nation, when the news of our glorious triumph at Ciud:ld Rodrigo dispelled our fears, and revived hope and confidence. In Valencia, the last and most powerful army ('f Spain, commanded t'y its most experienced Offi cers, fell into the hands of the enemy.. This was a blow rendered the more severe by the expectations which the magnitude of the force under &t u. had created. A whole province submitted to the yoke of the lawless inva ders, and no other fortress remained in the possession of the patriots, with the exception of Cadiz, on the isie of Leon. It was therefore reasonable to dread, lest the con templation of such calamities should cause a momentary despondence, which the activity of the French would have turned to advantage, and which might have rendered the total submission of - Spain less distant. The blaze of Bri tish conquest will now rise from the walls of Ciudad Ro drigo as a beacon of war, inviting to renewed fortitude and active exertions. There are two ways of estimating the value of this fortress, as the possession of it may bear upon the general or the local interests of the Allies. Whether the ulterior views of Lord. WELLINGTON be to confine.himself to the defence of Portugal, as has been in some measure hitherto the case, or to prosecute operations against the enemy in Spain, he must derive great, obvious, and decisive advan. tages from the occupation of Ciudad Rodrigo and -Al meida. These fortresses have been very appropriately called the keys of the north of Portugal. They may also with equal justice, be called the keys of Spain, on that side. If, in the hands of the French, they were available, not only to facilitate an irruption into Portugal, but to cover the access to Spain in that quarter, their occupa tion by the Allies must enhance the dangers of the for nier in the same degree that it must do away the difficulties of the latter. For the. defence of Portugal, Yol. V. No. CC XV. NATIONA L It , ,CDtir Constitution, anti if,adz. PRINT! D AND PUBLISHED AT NO. 5, PICKET 'T-STREET', STRAND, NEAR TEMPLE BAR. - SUNDAY, F. 16_13 RUARY 9, ISO • - then, or the removal of the seat of war into Spain, the glorious conquest of Ciudad Rodrigo is equally and eminently beneficial. For even a comparison of the • time and circumstances of the reduction in this instance by the Biitisli, and in the preceding by the French armies, must prove so favourable to the former, as to render its defence more effectual if attacked, and the security of the Allied Army more certain, if it should be compelled to abandon any operations in the interior of Spain, and fall back upon this fortress. • But it is not so much by the physical advantages of the position, great as we have showa them to be, that the value of this acquisition is to be estimated. Superior numbers may overbear all the obstacles preseetted by the natural bulwaeks of a strotg• 10: ti ass. lr is the predomi nance of personal prowess and moral intrepidity that has been so signally, though not singularly, established by the result on the part of British troops, that gives a pecu liar value to this triumph. We, the people of England, wanted no such confirmation of a truth, dr more Crated beyond the possibility of doubt,' by the glorious achiev • ments of every war which we have waged against France, and of none more conspicuously _than of the present : yet the perpetual and plausible ingenuity of the French, favoured perhaps by the unit:au:late existence of some untoward circumstances of weakness and jealousy on the part of our Allies, too often song ived to raise suspicions of British motives, and to create doubts of British since. rity, in espousing the Spanish cause, and of British valour in supporting it. When we reflect that the French garrison, aided by all the strength of their works, and all the advantages of concentration, could not successfully withst!ind the impe• tuosity of British valour, we can have nothing to appre hend, if the circumstances of the contest were to be re versed ; on the ,coeitrary, we have every reason to be con fident in the vigoUr and energies of British troops. The style of the assault is a splendid specimen of the charac teristicqualities ef a British army, and the operation was conceived and executed in the tiue spirit of that a: de ,- ,t and decisive cute' prize, which so pe'euliatly distinguished the early part of the career of its illustrious Chief. Such an achievement, at such a moment, bas most seasonably oc curredto put down the halt-smothered insinuetiOno of these whowould take advantage of cireuneSzances, and htel plea surein decrying the character of confesse:lly the best t but de cidedly the.most fortunate' and succesfui Cleneral of mo dern titres. We shall hear no more complaints of ;laic tivity then ; nay, it is perhys not unlike' posture t)f afftirs, so, enateriall - y affected 'which we have been speaking, shixeld and obiriiirmonA ely, that, if the by the event of lute the British EGISTE 41i 0 PRICE 9('4.