according to the old system, and when in return the allies (1814 and 1815) marched straight on toward Paris, leaving almost unnoticed in their rear the triple belt of fortresses with which Vauban had endowed France, it became evident that a system of fortification was antiquated which confined its outworks to the main ditch or at the outside to the foot of the glacis. Such fortresses had lost their power of attraction over the large armies of modern times. Their means of doing harm did not extend beyond the range of their cannon. It thus became necessary to find some new means to break the impetuous movement of modern invading armies, and Montalembert's detached forts were applied on a large scale. Cologne, Coblentz, Mentz, Rastadt, Ulm, Königsberg, Posen, Lintz, Peschiera, and Verona were severally transformed into large intrenched camps, capable of holding from 60,000 to 100,000 men, but defensible, in case of need, by far smaller garrisons. At the same time, the tactical advantages of the locality to be fortified were placed in the background by the strategetical considerations which now decided the situation of fortresses. Such places only were fortified as might directly or indirectly stop the progress of a victorious army, and which, being large towns in themselves, offered great advantages to an army by being the centre of the resources of whole provinces. Situations on large rivers, especially at the points of junction of two considerable rivers, were chosen in preference, as they compelled the attacking army to divide its forces. The enceinte was simplified as much as possible, and outworks in the ditch were almost entirely done away with; it was sufficient to have the enceinte safe against an irregular attack. The principal battle-field lay around the detached forts, and they were to be defended not so much by the fire from their ramparts, as by the sallies of the garrison of the fortress itself. The largest fortress constructed upon this plan is Paris; it has a simple bastioned enceinte with bastioned forts, almost all squares; there is no outwork, not even a ravelin, in the whole fortification. No doubt, the defensive strength of France has gained 30 per cent. by this new and immense intrenched camp, large enough to afford a refuge for three beaten armies. The intrinsic value of the different methods of fortification has lost a great deal of its importance by this improvement; the cheapest will now be the best; for the defence is now based, not upon the passive system of awaiting the enemy behind the walls until he opens his trenches, and then cannonading them, but upon the active one of taking the offensive with the concentrated strength of the garrison against the necessarily divided forces of the besieger. II. SIEGES. The art of sieges had been brought to a certain perfection by the Greeks and Romans. They tried to breach the walls of fortresses by the battering ram, and approached them under cover of strongly roofed galleries, or in case of need by a lofty construction which was to com mand walls and towers by its greater height, and offer a safe approach to the storming columns. The introduction of gunpowder did away with these contrivances; the fortresses having now ramparts of less elevation, but a fire effective at long distances, the approaches were made by trenches, leading in zigzags or curved lines toward the glacis; batteries being erected at various spots so as to silence if possible the fire of the besieged and to batter down his masonry. Once arrived on the crest of the glacis, a high trench cavalier was erected, with the intention of commanding the bastions and their cavaliers, and then by a crushing fire to complete the breach and prepare for the assault. The curtain was the point generally attacked. There was, however, no system in this mode of attack until Vauban introduced parallels of ricochet firing, and regulated the process of sieges in the manner which is in use even now, and still denominated Vauban's attack. The besieger, after investing the place with a sufficient force on all sides, and choosing the fronts to be attacked, opens the first parallel during the night (all siege works are chiefly carried on at night) at about 600 yards from the fortress. A trench parallel to the sides of the besieged polygon is drawn around at least 3 of these sides and fronts; the earth, being thrown up on the side toward the enemy and propped upon the sides of the ditch with gabions (willow-work baskets filled with earth), forms a kind of parapet against the fire of the fortress. In this first parallel the ricochet batteries for enfilading the long lines of the attacked fronts are constructed. Taking for the object of the siege a bastioned hexagon, there should be ricochet batteries to enfilade the faces of 2 bastions and 3 ravelins, in all the batteries, one for each face. These batteries throw their shot so as to pass just over the parapet of the works and along the faces in their whole length, taking them in flank and endangering guns and men. Similar batteries are constructed to enfilade the branches of the covered way, and mortars and howitzers are placed in battery to throw shells into the interior of the bastions and ravelins. All these batteries are covered by earthwork parapets. At the same time, at two or more places, zigzag trenches are pushed forward toward the place, taking care to avoid all enfilading fire from the town; and so soon as the fire of the place shows signs of slacking, the second parallel, about 350 yards from the works, is opened. In this parallel the dismounting batteries are constructed. They serve to completely destroy the artillery and embrasures on the faces of the fortress; there will be 8 faces to attack (2 bastions and their ravelins, and the inner faces of the adjoining ravelins), for each of which there is a battery, constructed parallel to the attacked faces, and each embrasure exactly opposite to an embrasure of the fortress. From the second parallel fresh zigzags are pushed toward the town; at 200 yards the half parallel is constructed, forming new en largements of the zigzags armed with mortar batteries; and at last, at the foot of the glacis, the third parallel. This is armed with heavy mortar batteries. By this time the fire of the place will have been nearly silenced, and the approaches, in varied forms of curved or angular lines, to avoid ricochet fire, are carried up to the crest of the glacis, which it reaches opposite the points of the two bastions and of the ravelin. A lodgment or trench and parapet is then formed in the salient place of arms to enfilade the ditch by infantry fire. If the enemy is active and daring in his sorties, a 4th parallel connecting the salient places of arms across the glacis becomes necessary. Otherwise a sap is pushed from the 3d parallel to the reëntering places of arms, and the crowning of the glacis, or the construction of a trench all along the covered way on the crest of the glacis, is completed. Then the counter batteries are constructed in this couronne ment in order to silence the fire of the flank, which enfilades the ditch, and after them the breaching batteries against the point and faces of the bastions and ravelin. Opposite the points to be breached, a mining gallery is constructed leading down from the trenches through the glacis and counterscarp into the ditch; the counterscarp is blown in, and a fresh trench constructed across the ditch to the foot of the breach, covered on the side whence the enfilading fire of the flank comes by a parapet. As soon as both breach and passage of the ditch are complete, the assault takes place. This is in the case of a dry ditch; across a wet ditch, a dike has to be constructed with fascines, covered equally by a parapet on the side of the flank of the adjoining bastion. If on taking the bastion it is found that there is a further intrenchment or coupure in the rear, a lodgment has to be effected, fresh batteries to be constructed on the breach, and a fresh breach, descent, and passage of the ditch and assault to be made. The average resistance of a bastioned hexagon of Vauban's first method against such a siege is calculated to be from 19 to 22 days if there are no coupures, and 27 or 28 days if it is provided with coupures. Cormontaigne's method is expected to hold out 25 or respectively 35 to 37 days. III. FIELD FORTIFICATION. The construction of field works is as old as the existence of armies. The ancients were even far more expert in this art than our modern armies; the Roman legions, before an enemy, intrenched their camp every night. During the 17th and 18th centuries we see also a very great use of field works, and in the wars of Frederic the Great pickets on outpost duty generally threw up slightly profiled redans. Yet even then, and it is still more the case now, the construction of field works was confined to the strengthening of a few positions selected beforehand with a view to certain eventualities during a campaign. Thus Frederic the Great's camp at Bunzelwitz, Wellington's lines at Torres Vedras, the French lines of Weissenburg, and the Austrian intrenchments in front of Verona in 1848. Under such circumstances, field works may exercise an important influence upon the issue of a campaign by enabling an inferior army successfully to resist a superior one. Formerly the intrenched lines, as in Vauban's permanently intrenched camps, were continuous; but from the defect that if pierced and taken at one point the whole line was useless, they are now universally composed of one or more lines of detached redoubts, flanking each other by their fire, and allowing the army to fall upon the enemy through the intervals as soon as the fire of the redoubts has broken the energy of his assault. This is the principal use of field works; but they are also employed singly, as bridge heads to defend the access to a bridge, or to close an important pass to small parties of the enemy. Omitting all the more fanciful shapes of works which are now out of date, such fortifications should consist of works either open or closed at the gorge. The former will either be redans (two parapets with a ditch in front forming an angle facing the enemy) or lunettes (redans with short flanks). The latter may be closed at the gorge by palisadings. The principal closed field work now in use is the square redoubt, either as a regular or an irregular quadrangle, closed by a ditch and parapet all round. The parapet is made as high as in permanent fortification (7 to 8 feet), but not so thick, having to resist field artillery only. As none of these works has a flanking fire in itself, they have to be disposed so that they flank each other within musket range. To do this effectually, and strengthen the whole line, the plan now most generally adopted is to form an intrenched camp by a line of square redoubts flanking each other, and also a line of simple redans, situated in front of the intervals of the redoubts. Such a camp was formed in front of Comorn, south of the Danube, in 1849, and was defended by the Hungarians for 2 days against a far superior army.--The following statement exhibits the fortifications of the United States now existing or in course of construction (Oct. 1859), and the amount expended for their construction, modification, and repair: 18 Fort Gibson, Ellis's island, N. Y. 19 Fort Wood, Bedloe's island, N. Y. 20 Fort Richmond, Staten island, N. Y. 21 Fort on site of Fort Tompkins, Staten island 22 Battery Hudson, Staten island.. 28 Battery Morton, Staten island. 24 Fort Lafayette, at the Narrows, N. Y. 25 Fort Hamilton, at the Narrows... 26 Fort at Sandy Hook, N. J. 27 Fort Mifflin, near Philadelphia, Penn.. 28 Fort Delaware, Pea-patch island, Del. river 29 Fort McHenry, Baltimore harbor, Md.. 30 Fort Carroll, Sollers Point flats, Balt. harbor 81 Fort Madison, Annapolis harbor, Md.. 82 Fort Severn, Annapolis harbor. 38 Fort Washington, on Potomac river, Md.. 34 Fort Monroe, Hampton roads, Va.. 85 Fort Calhoun, Hampton roads.. 86 Fort Macon, Beaufort harbor, N. C.. 87 Fort Caswell, mouth of Cape Fear river. 88 Castle Pinckney, Charleston harbor, S. C... 89 Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor. 40 Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor.. 41 Fort Pulaski, mouth of Savannah river, Ga. 42 Fort Jackson, Savannah river.. 43 Fort Clinch, Amelia island, Fla. 44 Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla.. 45 Fort Taylor, Key West, Fla.. 46 Fort Jefferson, Garden Key, Fla.. 47 Fort Pickens, Pensacola harbor, Fla. 48 Fort McKee, Pensacola harbor.. 49 Fort Barrancas, barracks, and redoubt, Pensacola harbor... 50 Fort Morgan, Mobile point, Ala. 51 Fort Gaines, Dauphin island, Mobile bay. 52 Defences for inner passes into Mobile bay.. 53 Fort on Ship island, coast of Mississippi.... 54 Military defences at Proctor's Landing, La.. 55 Lower Dupre, Bayou Dupre, La. 56 Battery Bienvenue, Bayou Bienvenue, La.. Total on Atlantic and gulf coast.. 1 Fort at Fort point, San Francisco bay, Cal. 2 Fort at Alcatraz island, San Francisco bay.. Total on Pacific coast... RECAPITULATION. Amount for works on the northern frontier. Amount for works on Atlantic and gulf coast Amount for works on Pacific coast.. Total. Amount expended for construction and repair. $3,225,096 95,000 1,691,343 250,941 14,780 903,018 182,827 804,467 5,096 228,000 1,839,914 146,663 6,494 463,790 170,000 1,122,188 ly represented as blind, with wings on her feet, which she was believed to lay aside when entering Rome, with a crescent on her head, a helmet, cornucopia, or globe in her hand, and resting on a wheel. FORTUNATE ISLANDS. See CANARY ISL ANDS. FORTUNE, ROBERT, a Scottish botanist, born in Berwickshire in 1813. He was brought up as a horticulturist, and having procured employment in the botanical gardens of Edinburgh, availed himself of the privilege afforded to 620,777 young gardeners occupied there of attending the 115,800 lectures of the university professor. He also 25,081 3,508 went through a course of private reading, and 851,941 upon his promotion to a post in the botanical 685.752 100,000 gardens at Chiswick so recommended himself 82,999 by his acquirements and intelligence, that after a severe examination he was appointed by the Lon708,371 don horticultural society as collector of plants 45,600 in northern China, which the peace of 1842 had 575,869 just thrown open to Europeans. His "Three 2,476,771 Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces 1,824,851 of China" (2 vols. 8vo., 1847; 3d ed. 1853), 571,221 published soon after his return, beside affording 58,809 full information of the horticulture and agricul87,601 977,408 ture of the Chinese, is one of the most enter988,859 taining books of travel recently written. After 182,000 superintending for several months the gardens 51,394 of the apothecaries' company at Chelsea, he 1,180,000 again departed in the latter part of 1848 for 774,168 China, under the auspices of the East India com444,426 pany, to examine and report upon the nature and method of cultivating the tea plant and to col1,242,552 lect its seeds and introduce its culture into 221,500 northern India. After an absence of more 80,197 than 3 years, he returned to England and 150,000 published his valuable work, entitled "Two Visits to the Tea Countries of China" (2 vols. 465,991 8vo., 1852). Scarcely had this gone through 473,001 the press when he departed on a third tour to 258,784 the same country, the results of which were 862,379 given in his "Residence among the Chinese: Inland, on the Coast, and at Sea; being the Third $26,996,621 Visit from 1853 to 1856" (8vo., 1857). In 1857 Mr. Fortune was employed by the U. S. patent 1,553,834 896,666 office to visit China to collect the seeds of the tea shrub and of other plants, with a view to the introduction of their cultivation into the United States. He proceeded from England by the overland route directly to the tea districts in the middle and northern provinces of China, where he remained until March, 1859, and collected a large quantity of seeds, which he shipped to the United States, where they arrived in April, May, and June, generally in good condition. Mr. Fortune left Hong Kong March 15, and arrived in England in May, at which time his engagement with the patent office terminated. 598,504 150 88,976 129,571 837,609 500 $2,450,500 $780,250 26,996,621 2,450,000 $30,176,871 FORTUNA, the goddess of chance, both happy and unhappy, called by the Etruscans Nursia. Among the Greeks she was known under the name of Tyche, as the daughter of Oceanus, according to Hesiod, and as the sister of the Mæræ and Parcæ, according to Pindar, and had her temples at Smyrna and other cities. She was worshipped in Italy in the earliest times by the Etruscans at Volsinii, by the Latins at Præneste, and by the Volsci at Antium, where she had a temple, two statues, and an oracle, whose responses were highly valued. She was diverse FORUM, in ancient Roman cities, an open place, surrounded with public buildings, which was originally used for the administration of justice or the sale of goods, and subsequently for the transaction of all kinds of public business. In this respect it corresponded with the agora of the Greeks; but unlike the agora, it was oblong in form, and never square. The Romans had two kinds of fora, the civilia, sometimes called judicialia, in which popular assemblies and courts of justice were held, and where the bankers and usurers usually kept their shops; and the venalia, which were used exclusively for mercantile purposes. The city of Rome contained 19 of both kinds; but the forum Romanum, whose origin is coeval with that of the city, and which is known by the general name of the Forum, was by far the most important, notwithstanding some very magnificent ones were built under the emperors. It occupied a hollow space between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, extending probably from the arch of Septimius Severus to the temple of Antoninus and Faustina (although its limits have been the subject of much controversy), and comprised an area of 7 jugera. Around its 4 sides stood temples, basilica, triumphal arches, and other public edifices, while within it were the rostra or stages from which orators addressed public assemblies, statues of illustrious Romans, columns, and trophies of war. At the comitium or upper end were suspended the laws of the 12 tables, and the fasti or calendar of all the days on which it was lawful to work. It is now known as the Campo Vaccino, from having been used for several centuries as a cattle market, and preserves no traces of its ancient splendor beyond a few scattered columns of temples. A forum judiciale was built by Julius Cæsar, and one by Augustus, which, with the forum Romanum, seem to have constituted the only ones in Rome for the transaction of public business. The others were used as markets, or were simply embellishments of the city. FORWARD, WALTER, an American jurist and statesman, born in Connecticut in 1786, died in Pittsburg, Penn., Nov. 24, 1852. At the age of 17 he emigrated from New England to what was then the West, and settled at Pittsburg, where he studied law. He engaged early in politics, and in 1806, when he was only 19 years of age, he edited a democratic newspaper called the Tree of Liberty." He was admitted to the bar in 1806, and for 16 years practised with success, acquiring a high reputation as an eloquent advocate. In 1822 he was elected to congress, as a representative from the western district of Pennsylvania, and served till March 4, 1825. In the presidential elections of 1824 and 1828 he supported John Quincy Adams in opposition to Andrew Jackson, and thenceforward he was identified with the whig party. In 1837 he was elected a member of the convention to reform the constitution of Pennsylvania, and bore a distinguished part in its deliberations. In March, 1841, President Harrison appointed him first comptroller of the treasury of the United States. In September of the same year President Tyler, on the resignation of the cabinet appointed by President Harrison, called Mr. Forward into his cabinet as secretary of the treasury. In this office he exercised great influence on the tariff question, and contributed much to the enactment of the act of 1842 by an able official report on the subject. On retiring from the cabinet on the expiration of Mr. Tyler's term in 1845, Mr. Forward resumed the practice of the law at Pittsburg. In 1849 President Taylor appointed him U. S. chargé d'affaires at the court of Denmark, where he remained 2 or 3 years, when he resigned and came home to take the office of president judge of the district court of Alleghany co., Penn., to which he had been elected in his absence. While in court, engaged in his judicial duties, he was suddenly taken ill and died in 48 hours. FORWARDING MERCHANT, one whose business it is to send forward goods to a distant consignee. There are in the United States persons who engage in this business almost exclusively, especially in the western cities, in which produce accumulates on its way to the East, and to which eastern goods are carried for distribution through the West. There is nothing, however, in their business which is so far peculiar to them as to be governed by peculiar laws of its own, and therefore call for especial statement. But there are two classes of persons who come under this name, or discharge the duties which it describes, and of whom more should be said. One of these consists of those who are called expressmen, and the other of common carriers, who, beside carrying goods on their own route, undertake to forward them still further. The whole business of expressmen is of comparatively recent origin; but it has already reached an immense extent and importance. It has grown out of common carriage of goods, but differs from it mainly in the fact that expressmen have no means of carriage of their own, but hire cars or vehicles, or room in them, and usually go with their parcels. It may be said, too, that they usually carry parcels only, or if larger packages, still not cargoes or large quantities of goods, as hundreds of barrels or bales, the carriage of these things being still left to common or private carriers. The principal question in relation to expressmen is, are they still common carriers in law, and do they as such come under the strict responsibilities of common carriers? In other words, do they insure the safe carriage and delivery of all the goods against all risks "except the act of God and the public enemy?" We have no doubt whatever that they do thus insure the goods they receive throughout the whole route for which they profess to be carriers, and that they are therefore liable for any loss or injury to them, without any proof or intimation of their negligence or default. We hold, too, that no customer is bound to inquire by what means or by what arrangements the expressman proposes to carry his parcel. If he receives it in Portland, and undertakes, specially or by general advertisement, notice, or sign, to "express it through" (to use a common phrase) to New Orleans or San Francisco, he is responsible for its safe delivery there. -A railroad company which takes goods at one place to be carried to a distant one might be thought to come necessarily under the same upon the party that first takes charge of a parrule, but it is not quite so. There is this differ- cel than our own courts; but upon the whole, ence between the two cases: the expressman and resting upon the most recent adjudications, has not, or is not known to have, any regular the rules of law in this matter may be summed up means of conveyance of his own for any defi- thus. There may be a partnership in the businite portion of the distance over which he as- ness of common carriage as in all others, and a sumes to carry the goods. The owner who gives railroad company may connect itself with other him a parcel in Portland for New Orleans has companies or with other carriers, and form a no means of knowing, and indeed no reasons for quasi partnership, the effect of which will be supposing, that the expressman has not made that each member will be liable, in solido, for similar arrangements for all the parts of his all the rest. In that case, all the companies on route that he has made for any part. It is in- the whole route are liable for a loss occurring deed commonly understood that every express in any part; and in particular the first company man does not undertake to convey goods every- taking the parcel, or the last into whose hands where, but this man advertises from A to B, it may be traced, may be made liable severally because he has so arranged and provided, and for any loss which has happened on the route. that man from A to C, and the other from A to The company comes under such a liability equally D; and his advertising, or indeed his undertak- by forming such a partnership and entering into ing to carry to the specified place, may prop- such a joint business, or by advertising or indierly be understood as a declaration on his part cating such a joinder in business, in any way that he has made sufficient preparation in that which entitles third parties to act on the belief direction and to that distance. But if the man of it. And if such companies have a joint in Portland puts goods on board a railroad car agent at either terminus or at any station, and to go to New York, he knows, or should know, this agent, with the knowledge of all, and purthat the railroad company will convey it a cer- porting to act for all, sells a through ticket, as it tain part of the way in their own carriage, and is called, none of the companies thus repreunder the charge of their own servants, and sented can deny their joint business and joint or will not and cannot do any thing beyond that several liability for the whole; and if the price point except to put it safely on board of the of the ticket is credited by the seller to all the cars of another company, who will take it to or companies and is divided among them, this contoward New York. That is, the man in Port- stitutes conclusive evidence that each of them land knows that the railroad company will there undertakes to be a carrier, with a responsibility receive the parcel as a carrier, and take it a cer- as such, through the route. But the mere fact tain distance as carrier, and will then act as a that a parcel directed to a distant place is reforwarding merchant for the rest of the route, ceived at a station, and there paid for for the sending it on in the best way they can. Here whole route, does not of itself make any carrier then is a change of relation, and with it a change for a part of the distance liable as carrier beof obligation; for the essential difference is this: yond that part. The test of the liability in a common carrier insures his goods against all every case is, what did the party undertake to risks but those arising from the act of God or be and to do? If he said he would carry all the public enemy; but the forwarding merchant the way, he is liable as carrier all the way. If is liable only for his own default or neglect. If he said he would carry a part of the way and a company takes a parcel in Portland, and it then send it on, he is only liable accordingly. is lost between Boston and Worcester, no one And taking all the facts into consideration, knows how, the sender can look at once to which of these bargains was it that the railroad the company that took it, if they are carriers company made with the sender?-With this all the way, but not if they were carriers only principle to guide us, we may return to expressto Boston, where their road ends, and only men. A person living at Albany wishes to send forwarding merchants for the rest of the route, by express a parcel to New Bedford. He gives and can show that they delivered the parcel it to an expressman of Albany, who takes it to safely and properly for further carriage. If New York, and there gives it to the expressman it is known where the parcel is lost, the sender for Boston, who pays the Albany man his fee may always call on the company who had it in for bringing it to New York, and takes it to their possession or under their care when it was Boston. The expressman between Boston and lost. But if, as sometimes happens, it can be New Bedford pays the New York man what he traced beyond the first carrier, and no negligence paid, and also the fare from New York to Boscan be imputed to him, and no one knows what ton, and takes it to New Bedford; and the has become of it, the sender is wholly remedi- consignee when he takes the parcel pays the less unless the first carrier is carrier to the end. man who gives it to him all he has paid, and in Whether he is so or not has been very much dis- addition his fare from Boston to New Bedford. puted. Cases turning on this point have been Now, if the parcel did not arrive safely, but was very frequent both in England and the United lost somewhere on the route, is each one of these States, and perhaps the law may not be posi- expressmen liable for the whole? We should tively determined in either country. Perhaps say this must depend upon what each one unit may be said that the English courts are more dertakes to do. If the Albany man advertises disposed to fix the liability of carrier to the end that he takes goods to New Bedford, he is liable VOL. VII.-40 |