ART 
of lead, or nitrate of copper, form matches 
much superior to the common sort. For 
the method of making them, see the articles 
Match and Portfire. 
For the construction of iron guns for bat- 
tering pieces, and garrison, and ship guns, 
mortars, howitzers, and for other particulars 
relative to artillery in general, see the ar- 
ticles Cannon, Mortars, Howitzers, 
Gunnery, and Projectiles. 
It would appear at a superficial view, 
that the adoption of cannon and gunpowder 
in war had rendered it more bloody and 
destructive than the method of fighting and 
the arms formerly in use ; but the reverse 
of this will be found in reality to have taken 
p.'uce. The chief contest in modern war- 
fare is for posts and stations, where artillery 
can have such command of the adjoining 
ground as to give a material superiority ; and 
as the chief combat is carried on from a 
distance, on a reverse of fortune the defeat- 
ed have more opportunities of safe retreat. 
Hence mere extermination of an enemy 
ceases to be the ultimate design of war : 
when a post is seized, those under its in- 
fluence no longer think of contending ; the 
odds against their success are so excessive, 
that it ceases to be any disgrace to yield, 
and those become prisoners of war who in 
the ancient warfare must have been devoted 
to massacre. In the history of remote pe- 
riods, we often read of 200,000 or more 
men entering the field of battle, and not 
more than a dozen or two escaping alive, 
and in a few instances not even so many. 
Such sanguinary terminations to engage- 
ments never now occur, and it often hap- 
pens that in a long campaign not more lives 
are lost than formerly have perished in a 
single battle. 
The following observations of Dr. Smith 
on the subject shew still more the advan- 
tage to mankind in general of the use of can- 
non, and other modern instruments of 
war. 
“ In modern war the great expense of 
fire-arms gives an evident advantage to the 
nation which can best afford that expense ; 
and consequently to an opulent and civilized 
over a poor and barbarous nation. In an- 
cient times the opulent and civilized found 
it difficult to defend themselves against the 
poor and barbarous nations. In modern 
times the poor and barbarous find it difficult 
to defend themselves against the opulent and 
civilized. The invention of fire arms, an in- 
vention which at first sight appears to be so 
pernicious, is certainly favourable both to 
wammmmmm 
ART 
the permanency and to the extension of 
civilization.” 
This circumstance alone reduces the Tar- 
tar hordes to comparative insignificance, 
who in ancient times were so formidable to 
the civilized world ; who more than once 
have reduced it to primitive ignorance and 
barbarity, by the indiscriminate destruction 
of men of science and artists, and whose 
numbers, which have procured that part of 
the world they inhabit the name of the ojjicina 
gentium, might be still an object of terror 
but for the use of cannon. 
Artillery, flying, a species of it, called 
so from the celerity with which it is moved 
from station to station. 
Seats are contrived in the carriage and 
limbers of guns of this sort for the men who 
work it, and a sufficient number of horses 
are added to carry the whole at a gallop, 
when the ground wall admit of this pace. 
Each horse is in general rode by a separate 
driver, and the men are all trained either to 
drive or work the gun, as occasion may re- 
quire. 
Flying artillery were first used by the 
French, shortly after their revolution, and 
materially assisted them in some of their 
most signal victories. Their use has now 1 
become general in Europe, and may be ex- 
pected to increase. 
ARTIST, in a general sense, a person 
skilled in some art ; or, according to Mr. 
Harris’s definition, a person possessing an 
habitual power of becomingthe cause ofsome 
effect, according to a system of various and 
well-approved precepts. In this sense, we 
say, an excellent, a curious artist. The pre- 
eminence is disputed between ancient and 
modern artists, especially as to what relates 
to sculpture, painting, and the like. At Vi- 
cenza, we are told of a privilege granted to 
artists, like that of clergy in England ; in 
virtue of this, criminals adjudged to death 
save their lives, if they can prove themselves 
the most excellent and consummate work- 
men in any useful art. This benefit is al- 
lowed them in favor era artis, for the first of- 
fence, except for some particular crimes, of 
which coining is one. The exception is 
just, since here the greater the artist, the 
more dangerous the person. Evelyn’s 
Disc, of Medals, ch. vii. p. 237, &c. Ar- 
tists are persons who practise those arts 
which must necessarily be combined with a 
considerable degree of science, distinguish- 
ing them from such as are properly artizans 
or mechanics. Artists are particularly those 
who study and effect what are termed the pu- 
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