Military Bridges, and the Passage of Rivers. 303 



fire to the bridges, leaving vast quantities of ammunition, artillery, and 

 baggage, — thousands of men, and many women and children, to the mercy of 

 the enemy, and to the rigours of a merciless climate. 



" Napoleon is said to have exclaimed, when he heard that Tchaplitz (the 

 Russian General) had abandoned his position — < Ah ! J'ai trompe' I'Amiral ;* 

 and certain it is, that if Tchitchakof had not descended the Beresina, directing 

 Tchaplitz to move in that direction likewise, upon the supposition that Na- 

 poleon would not attempt the passage above, his further retreat would have 

 been intercepted there. The escape of Napoleon was thus so much owing to 

 the foresight, ability, and enterprise of General Ebl^, and to the intelligence 

 and experience of the corps of pontoneers, by which Napoleon was enabled to 

 profit promptly by this mistake, that these details cannot be too forcibly cited, 

 as proof of the vast importance of our keeping up, during peace, the nucleus 

 at least of a corps, which cannot be formed upon an emergency. The multi- 

 farious matter contained in this book all appertains to its duties, and may show, 

 that if, by inconsiderate economy, we reduce the establishments in which 

 only these executive qualifications can be perfected, we shall unquestionably, 

 some time or other, have again to encounter difficulties, such as those which 

 were experienced in all the early operations of the late war. It is a sage 

 maxim in state economy, that, in proportion as constitutional, political, or 

 financial, circumstances render it expedient to reduce the numerical force of 

 its army during peace, it becomes the more necessary to maintain the esta- 

 blishments in which practical science is upheld ; and no one, I think, who re- 

 flects upon the very extensive, important, and elaborate attributes of the 

 corps upon which such services as these depend, can doubt the expediency of 

 preserving such a nucleus of it as may insure the retention at little cost, of 

 what has been acquired in a long series of arduous and expensive training on 

 actual service." 



To these striking and forcible remarks, which carry convic- 

 tion to every mind capable of just reflection, little need be added 

 by us to recommend the protection of our seminaries to public 

 notice. If we allow our scientific institutions, either naval or 

 military, to be injured or suppressed, we may venture to pre- 

 dict that the country will pay dearly for the sacrifice. Euler 

 and Bouguer were honoured and rewarded for their theoretical 

 investigations of the principles which should be observed in 

 shipbuilding and naval equipments, and their efforts have been 

 long apparent in the superior qualities of the vessels in the 

 French marine. Before the establishment of our naval and 

 military colleges, their engineers were equally superior to ours, 

 though they were perhaps inferior towards the close of the late 

 war. It remains with the government of the country to deter- 

 mine what must be our future status as engineers in either 

 service. 



