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 assault 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 illustrious 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 hitherto 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 principal 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 circumstances 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.