MINISTERIAL RETREAT.. srit'

GENERAL ORDERS,

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[From the British Press, Jan. 15.1

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!!! Head Quarters, Downing Street, Jan. 13, 1811. HIS

IS Little Excellency Major-general Poucélt, Com.

mander-in-chief of the Ministerial Forces, being sorely afraid that all his aris and stratagems are insufficient to enable him to keep his present ground; and wisely conceiving that it is the duty of every prudent General, on the eve of a defeat, to provide for a retreat and prepare accordingly; takes this opportunity of returning his thanks to the Officers and Mercenaries under his command, for their zeal and discipline on the various services in which they have been employed under bis auspices.

And, first, to the venal, scurrilous, and mercenary squad, commonly called “ the Treasury Journals, he returns his must heartfelt thanks for the grossness and illiberality with which they have attacked His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, from the moment that the wishes of the country placed him at the head of the Staff, and in the van of the Constitution and the country. The ability with which they masked their infamous designs, under the appearance of loyalty and love of our venerable Sovereign, and the curious structure of the covered ways by which they sought to gain admission into the hearts and minds of the great body of the British nation, and to draw them over to his standard, merit his bighest commendation.-The attack by the leader of these freebooters upon the whole body of the Royal Dukes and Princes, although badly executed, was well intended." When the object was to defeat the Head, it was a good preliminary measure to bring the whole corps it's disre

into

pute. It may, notwithstanding the first miscarriage, be advisable to persevere in this system of tactics: but in doing so it will be necessary to tread carefully, and avoid those morasses and quicksands in which so many gallant souls have lately got entangled and been made prisoners, and are now confined in the grand dépôt of Newgate!

It might also harass the enemy, impede his operations, and excite mutiny and discontent in the army, if an idea could be inculcated, that it was the intention of His Royal Highness, the new Commander-inChief, to increase the number of his Staff Officers, and provide full pay for them by deductions from that of the private soldiers; and that he further meant to disregard all claims of merit, of wisdom, valour, and virtue, and to put the meanest, the most worthless and contemptible, in the ranks, over the heads of old and meritorious veterans and soldiers. This calumny, if only advanced in general terms, might not have been efficient. It was therefore necessary to give it a barb to make it stick; and with this view his Little Excellency Major-general Poucett has seen, with admiration, the address with which his libelling corps have revived the old story of an intended barter of Peerages, for corrupt borough-interest, with Sir Christopher Hawkins and Alexander Davison; and the boldness with which they have brought it forward in the most base and shameless manner. The fire from I this battery appears to have done great execution, and to have induced the persons exercising the Govern...ment of the Country to put His Royal Highness upon short allowance. No rations extraordinary-no badges or medals will he be able to grant, at least for a considerable time, and perhaps during the whole of the present campaign!

At the time when his Little Excellency Major-general Poucett assumed his command, it is fresh in

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every man's recollection, that there was an idea of emancipating the galley-slaves. The galley-slaves, by some strange notion respecting the etymology of the word galley, have been strangely enough connected with the Gauls; and hence a connexion has been presumed between the galley-slaves, so to be emancipated, and the descendants of the Gauls, the present French. His Little Excellency Major-general Poucett having completely crushed this conspiracy the very moment when he assumed the command, he conceived that it would greatly strengthen his interest if the enemies of that measure were well assured that the new Commander-in-Chief meant to carry it into execution. On this subject his Little Excellency can dwell with pleasure. The conduct of his mercenary troops challenges his highest commendation, and the remembrance of it can never be obliterated from his heart.His pleasure was scarcely known, when his miscreant mercenaries flew to arms. They discovered a detached corps encamped in the city of Dublin, under the name of the Catholic Committee; and having obtained a list of the general order and private signals, the signs and countersigns of this corps, they affected to imply a complete understanding between this corps and the main army in England.

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His Little Excellency Major-general Poucett has contemplated the diversion created in his favour by these ruses de guerre, these little arts and stratagems, these marches and counter-marches, these feints and false signals; but it would be a reflection upon his own military talents, and upon the zeal and perseverance of the gallant troops under his command, were he to pass, without his most especial praise, the last grand effort made by them to perpetuate his present command. V

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dern, shows, that whenever it has been attempted it bas produced mutiny and revolt. Look to the conduct of the Janizaries of Constantinople, driven, according to recent accounts, into rebellion by the apprehension of a peace with Rņssia, and the consequent reduction in ihe value of their services. It was therefore a noble stratagem, suggested by experience, to spread a report that His Royal Highness, the new Commander-in-Chief, meant to break up the com mand, and disband all his Guards. Men accastomed to live upon the : phunder of the country, could illi brook the idea of returning home to earn a scanty livelihood from the spade and the plough, or perhaps to exchange their snug quarters for a dreary cell in a prison, from which latier state their rank in the Senatorial army had hitherto protected them. Nothing eould be better calculated to alienate the affections of the army from the new Commander-in-Chief than this manquvre. Indeed it might be expected that it

. would have produced a general Protest, a round-robin, against him; and for this stratagen, unsupported by:

single fact or plausible cause, yet fearlessly and audaciously practised by his literary mercenaries, those sripples and impostors who infest our streets, and may be daily seen begging admittance into our coffee rooms and public-houses, bis Little Excellency feels the decpest gratitude, and considers bimself under the bighest obligation,

Having thus briefly enumerated the distinguished services performed by that description of farce called the Velites, or light skirmishing troops, which gene- . rally constitute the van of the contending armies, who sometimes fight at the heads of the columns, and, when pressed, occasionally retire, within them it would be invidious, as well as ungrateful, were his. Little Dexcellency to pass by the other divisions of his. without notice. To the Trained Bands, there§ 5

fore

army

fore, including the Household Troops, the Lords of the Drumsticks and Fiddlesticks, he professes eternal obligations. Nothing shall ever erase froin his heart the memory of their faithful services. To his Gentlemen Bands of Placemen and Pensioners, those independent, generous, and disinterested patriots, he returns his sincerest thanks, with a solemn assurance, that should the new Commander-in-Chief remove them from their places, they shall, find an ample one in his Little Excellency's great heart. His Little Excellency abounds with places, and has room enough for them all, and more, if they are to be rewarded

, according to their merits. His Little Excellency, however, not wishing to throw any impediment in the way of the public service, advises them to come to an understanding with the new Commander-in-Chief; and from the obligingness and condescension which they have uniformly evinced, and which constitute

traits of their the peshersuasion the character, the entertains the fullest

that they have good sense," loyalty, patriotism, and independence enough to take the bint! ( cat ,

3^99 Done at Head Quarters, Downing Street, this 13th Jan. 1811.

(Signed) anal His Little Excellency Don PEDRO POUCETT.

(Countersigned)"? V PRAISE-GOD BABEBONES, Secretary.

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o La A AN EPIGRAMMATIC COLLOQUY? 71. I BETWEEN TWO STATE LEECHES. DIA [From the Morning Herald, Jan. 16.].

I THANK, our stars that we leeches could not be brush'd off From the temples of foolish Jobn Bull,

SIC (However the lank, hungry Talents may scoff,)

Till we'd suck'd all our bellies quite full!

FIRST LEECH.

SECOND