[ 309 3 

 LIII. Notices respecling New Books. 



jin £ssa)/ on the Principles and Covstrvction of Military 

 Bridget, mid the Passage of Rivers in Mdiiary Operations, 

 By Sir Howard Dodglas, Bart. Inspector-General of the 

 Royal Military College at Farnham. 



JLhis is a tt'ork of very considerable importance to engineers. 

 The author informs us, that it was written several years ago, for 

 the Use of the senior department of the college over which he 

 presides; and upon his embarkation for foreign serviie in 1808, 

 it being left in one of the offices, to which it was sent, accompa- 

 nied by a proposal for extending its utility, it became mislaid, 

 and was never afterwards recovered. Anxious to prevent its meet- 

 ing the public eye hereafter, without reference to the purpose for 

 which it was designed, the author has now published it, with many 

 additions derived from his own active services since that period. 



The long protracted, and strongly contested war which we 

 have lately carried on, has given our officers great experience in 

 ail military operations; and the present work n)av be considered 

 as the result of much attention to the practical part of the sub- 

 ject. Its utility is not wholly confined to the hostile art; many 

 parts of it being equally applicable to agriculture, and the con- 

 veniences of rural life : and we should bail the appearance of 

 many other treatises of a similar nature from the same source, 

 possessing the result of an equal quantity of experience. 



The continual motion of armies, and the frequent necessity 

 of crossing rivers of various sizes on short notices, render a ready 

 knowledge of this art ot the utmost importance to those who di- 

 rect their movements. The safety of the troops, or the success 

 of an expedition, most connnonly depends on the celerity with 

 which bridges can be made, by means of such materials as thd 

 country affords. There are many instances on record of whole 

 armies being destroyed, and large tracts of country desolated, for 

 Wantof iiiimediate communications across rivers. The advantages, 

 therefore, of a thorough acquaintance with the nature of those 

 materials which are generally emploved, and the best way of com- 

 bining and using them, to engineers, and indeed to soldiers iu ge- 

 neral, cannot but be evident. To inform young officers who are 

 imacquaintedwith the construction of military bridges, and to re- 

 fresh the memory of those who have previously learned and for- 

 gotten, is the object of this publication : and it cannot but be 

 pleasing to the country, to observe the author thus usefully occu- 

 pied in those researches which so immediately concern the service 

 for which the young gentlemen under his care are destined; whilst 

 the influence which his rank commands, will tend strongly to in- 

 due* 



