47t> 
SYNOPTICAL CHARTS. 
In consequence of this, General Mackay “ invented the way to fasten 
the bayonet to the musle without, by two rings.”—(Hime’s Stray Mili¬ 
tary Papers, page 21). The French infantry as well as our own were 
during the war of the Spanish Succession armed with the socket 
bayonet, and the long period of infantry predominance on the field of 
battle had begun. 
So much for the authorities relied upon in fixing the dates of the 
tactical supremacy of various arms upon the field of battle. In justifi¬ 
cation of the inclusion of the column! in a chart the main object of 
which is the elucidation of the causes of change in fortification, let me 
quote some preliminary remarks on the subject of Land Fortification 
from Major Lewis’ well-known text-book: “Permanent Fortification 
for English Engineers.” 
‘‘Permanent Fortification,” says Colonel Hime, in his “Precis of 
Modern Tactics,” “stands on the same basis as tactics, arms and con¬ 
tour of ground.” 
“ This sentence,” says Major Lewis, “ clearly indicates how we should 
study the general principles of fortification; that is, as a branch of 
tactics ; and one which, like the tactics of an army in the field, requires 
change with each change in the power of the weapons in use, and with 
each new application made of them. 
In fact, fortification is the careful preparation of ground in such a 
manner that the defenders may use their weapons with the greatest 
possible effect, an(d with the least interruption from the enemy. All 
the changes made in fortification have been the consequences of the 
improvements that have been made in weapons.^ 
It is of the greatest importance always to bear in mind these prin¬ 
ciples. Most of the errors of Engineers arise from their exaggerating 
the constructional part of fortification, while those of officers of other 
arms come from their looking on it as an art somehow distinct from 
the tactics to which they are accustomed. Fortification is a branch 
of tactics.”—(“ Lewis’ Fortification for English Engineers,” p. 4). 
One of the objects of this chart is to emphasize this truth, and to 
show that the study of fortification is merely a branch of the general 
study of war, that it is intimately connected with the study of tactics, 
and that its great historical changes have been directly and absolutely 
dependent on improvements in the science of gunnery. A reference to 
the chart indeed shows that the larger part of it is devoted to' the 
evolution of Artillery. 
Woolwich, I may mention in passing, is an ideal place for carrying 
on a study of this nature ; for besides containing the Arsenal, in which 
all the latest inventions in Artillery may be seen in process of manu¬ 
facture, Woolwich possesses by far the finest collection of old ordnance 
in the country. 
The Tower of London contains, I suppose, the second best collec¬ 
tion, but it is not to be named in the same breath as the splendid col¬ 
lection in the Rotunda. 
The last column in the chart refers, it will be noticed, to typical guns, 
of wrought iron, bronze, cast iron, and steel, to be found in this unique 
collection. , 
