524 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



made to take place in a target of 3 

 feet diameter, at the distance of 

 about 100 yards. Tiiis, with the 

 common battalion firelock, is a high 

 degree of precision; and if accu- 

 racy on a proportional scale may be 

 expected from them in battle, the 

 efficiency of the military defence of 

 the country will thereby, it is evi- 

 dent, be greatly augmented. 



4th. It being impossible, on so 

 extensive a line of coast, to have a 

 stationary force at everyplace where 

 a landing may be attempted, the 

 commodious and expeditious con- 

 Teyance of troojjs from a distance 

 to the point of attack becomes of 

 great importance. With this view, 

 colonel Crichton, one of the com- 

 mittee, contrived a machine, of sim- 

 pie construction, to bo made at a 

 small evpence, and easily fixed, on 

 cither coach or chaise-wheels, and 

 which, Avhen so fixed, should be 

 equal to the conveyance of ten or 

 twelve men, with their arms and 

 accoutrements, to be drawn by two 

 horses only, and to go at the rate of 

 from five to seven miles an hour. 

 Of those machines (after a full and 

 satisfactory experiment, as publish- 

 ed in the newspapers) the committee 

 caused upwards of a hundred to be 

 made, at the expence of the associ- 

 ation, and have delivered them over 

 to the lord-lieutenant of the city, 

 with the necessary complement of 

 rope, &c. for fixing them on the car- 

 riages that have been volunteered 

 for their reception. A certain num- 

 ber of these, of nearly a similar con- 

 struction, have also been made ai\d 

 sent down to Dunbar, for the use 

 of the artillery. The utility of these 

 general Don acknowledges in the 

 handsomest terms in Ids letter to the 

 secretary of the association ; and his 

 royal highness the commander in 



chief has also honoured the plan 

 with his approbation, and given rea- 

 son to expect tkat the adoption and 

 use of it will soon become general 

 in England and elsewhere. . 



3th. To render this plan more ef- 

 fective : when the emergency calls 

 for putting it in practice shall ar- 

 rive, the committee set apart a sum, 

 to be proportioned out in premiums 

 of 1st, 'id, and 3d classes, to be 

 given to the coach and chaise hirers 

 who shall have the greatest number 

 of wheel. carriages mounted with 

 frames, and ready on tlie shortest 

 notice for the Conveyance of troops : 

 and to the conductors of carts ^ho 

 shall first reach tlie place to which 

 tliey may be called, by signal or 

 otherwise, by divisions of not less 

 than ten each, due regard being had 

 to the distance from whence they 

 started. Premiums also were ap- 

 ))()inted, in similar classes, to the 

 farmers or others, who shall first ap- 

 pear with their own carts at the 

 place of rendezvous. 



tjth. The e({uipment of a naval 

 force of any magnitude appeared to 

 thi- association (how much soever it 

 was to be wished for) so far beyond 

 the cnmj)ass of their funds, that they 

 relrained, for a time, from any at- 

 tempt of this sort. But when lord 

 l/obarfs letter of the 15th August, 

 transmitting " The plan of a Vo- 

 luntary Naval Armament for the 

 protection of the coast," and re- 

 commending it to the attention of 

 the lord-lieutenants of the maritime 

 coun'ies, was received, the associa- 

 tion immediately allotted 10001. of 

 their funds, to be applied in aid of 

 the plan. And, conceiving that the 

 money might be more tt'conomicallj 

 employed, and the plan more expe- 

 ditiously carried into full effect, bj 

 an unity of di-rection, the committee 



otlered 



