Intelligence from Oporto, which had been interrupted for neailx - a
month, has been received down to the 9th instant. A great number of particulars, possessing in general little or no interest except for the parties actually engaged in the siege or the defence, have been communicated by the correspondents of the Times. The principal events are the arrival of Don MIGUEL to take the command of his army, and of the French General SOLI GNAC to command the Pedroites. Much is expected from the exertions of this latter officer. Judging from the accounts received of the disorganized state of the Constitutional forces, he will have his hands full of disagreeable work. Don PEDRO appears to be a most inefficient and undecided personage; and the entire relin- quishment of the command of the troops into the hands of the French General, who has been made a Field-Marshal, is consi- dered a necessary preliminary to any.decisive improvement in ilia affairs.
The blockade of Oporto by MIGUEL'S squadron is merely a paper one; for no effectual interruption is offered to the landing Of .bullocks and other stores from Vigo, for the use of the besieged. _Upwards of 250 sailors had deserted from the ,squadron of SARTORIUS ; and 200 of Colonel _WILLIAMSON'S marines had sailed in the City of Edinburgh steamer, to replace them. A vessel under Brazilian colours, with wounded and invalided English and .other foreigners on board, was fired at from one of IVI194.tax.'s bat- teries, and brought" up in the middle of the river. It on Friday the 44hJanuary the day previous t9 tbis twisting Brazilian colours had changed them for those of PEDRO, as soon as she crossed the bar. This was the pretence for the attack upon this unfortunate ship, Captain BELCHER of the Etna, and the assistant-surgeons of the Orestes, obtained leave to go on board and dress the wounded. On their return in the gig of the Orekes, nine shots were fired at them, but without effect. 'This is a specimen of the mode in which the Miguelites make war. The Pedroites are not much better. Orders were given to the British volunteers to fire upon the peaceful occupants of the South side of the Douro. The result was the death of two monks-and lone old woman.
On the 18th December, a detachment from the garrison of Oporto, consisting of about 800 men, crossed the river, attacked and plundered one of the Company's stores, and carried off fifty or _sixty pipes of wine : they also levelled one of MIGUEL'S barricades, and fired and plundered the Convent of St. Antonio. All this time MIGUEL'S troops did not fire a shot ; but succeeded in en- ticing their opponents to the top of a hill at some distance from the shore. Here they showed themselves in force, and drove the Pedroites down the hill ?gain with great slaughter. Mean- while, most of the boats had been despatched with the wine; and a cleft or hollow in the bank afforded the only shelter to the luckless detachment. They were stationed in a direct line with the English vessels. This gave the Miguelites an opportu- mity of firing by mistake into the Nautilus, Etna, and Echo, and • cutting up their rigging, network, Sec. The Times correspondent says, that "While this was going on, the flight of the poor fugitives was dreadful ; the tre being so hot that even those who were in boats dared not cross, and upwards of fifty got on board two brigs, the Red Port and Ltisitania, which were at anchor between the men of war and the shore. Others there were who, in despair of boats, endeavoured to swim off to the ships ; and some succeeded. tine got on board the Orestes by climbing up the chain-cable; but another, bile making the same attempt, whether struck by shot is not ascertained, failed in his attempt, fell overboard, and was drowned. The same fate befel several others : two in particular, both wounded, held on by the chains of the Lnsitania and Red Port, uttering the only English they knew—' I say :' but there was such a deluge of shot that it was impossible to render them assistance —...their hold soon slackened, and they sunk to rise no more. Several were shot in the boats ; and in one boat which was astern of the Red Port, there lay seven men, one of them a major, and a very young man whom I remember frequently to have seen in the city. He was dead shot through the temples as were three beside him ; and others were wounded, and obliged to feign death, as their COuntrymen from the shore would otherwise have continued their fire. A more miserable scene of rout—thank God it was on a small scale—could not be wit- -messed; and the condition of some of the boats, packed with human beings close as they could lie, was melancholy in the extreme."
The whole expedition seems to have been most miserably planned. No information whatever of the intended attack was given to the commanders of Don PEDRO'S vessels and boats, who might otherwise have been prepared to carry off their routed com- rades. This is the grand military affair of the last month.:, It is o f a piece with the general course of proceedings in that quarter. rip to the 6th January, no English mail had. been received at 'Oporto for upwards of a month. There has been a good deal of correspondence between Captain tLASCOCK, the commander of the British ships in the Douro, and SANTA MARTHA, respecting the frequent petty attacks made by the Miguelites upon the English vessels and boats. The General endeavours to excuse himself, on the plea of the insubor- dination of his men and their inability to distinguish the British from the Pedroite colours, which nearly resemble each other. Captain GLA.SCOCK talks about firing broadsides and carrying the war into the Tagus; but is prevented, we sup- pose, by orders from home, from doing either one or the other. Captain ROSE, one of the officers of the squadron under SARTORIUS, had been tried by a Court-martial on-several charges preferred against him by the Admiral. He was accused of want of zeal and activity, absenting himself from his ship, and insulting conduct to his superior officers ; but was fully acquitted on all the charges.
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