The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

PROVIDENCE :
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1812

THE ADVICES FROM EUROPE.

The late intelligence from Europe is highly interesting. The summary of Russian news is, that a great battle had been fought near Moscow, in which the French forces appear to have been greatly superior to the Russian which consisted of one hundred and thirty thousand men—that the French lost about forty thousand and the Russians about thirty thousand—that the French fell back, and the Russians remained for three days masters of the field, after which they retired to a position twenty miles in the rear of Moscow, not choosing to risk another battle with a reinforced enemy, until strengthened and refreshed—that the French then moved on to Moscow and entered it on the 14th September, when that great city, having been stripped by the Russians of its valuables and provisions, was set on fire either by the French or Russians, and all parts of it consumed except the Kremlin, where Napoleon was lodged with his troops.

The Manifesto of the Emperor Alexander contains an eloquent, impressive and heroick appeal. It would have been well if Alexander had always thought and acted as now. The blaze of Moscow will kindle a fire in the bosoms of the hardy Russians that may consume the spoiler in the midst of his bloody dreams. Like the Scythians, their ancestors, they are now come to the tombs of their fathers, and will not give them up to violation without an awful struggle.