1806.] 
let every man be armed and exercifed ; if 
with mufkets, well; if not, with pikes. 
Permit not the nation to be ina fate of 
Auttrian imbecility ; a regular army de- 
feated, and the foot of the conqueror on 
the neck of the nation. 
The fortification fyftem has been fo 
much ridiculed, that it is not likely to be 
effected to the extent that might be of 
real confequence; but to plain men it 
fhould feem, that if fuch intrenchments as 
have been thrown up for fome miles near 
Chelmsford are confidered as an important 
defence, (and that they are fo confidered 
is evident, or they would not have been 
made,) fuch, or more effe&tive ones, on 
the coaft, the artillery bearing direftly on 
the fcene of Janding, would be much more 
formidable to an approaching foe. The 
expence might be very moderate. There 
are 760 yards in a mile; a ditch fix 
yards deep, and ten yards wide, and 1760 
yards long, at 1s. a cubical yard, amounts 
to 5280l., which {um would dig a mile of 
fuch intrenchment, and confequently one 
hundred miles of it would coft only 
528,900]. A broad road for the rapid 
advance of troops and artillery, and kept 
for that purpofe only, fhould run parailel 
to the intrenchment ; and the expence of 
this, at rool. per mile, would add only 
10,0001, for the one hundred miles: 
double or treble it, the object as to the 
expence is fall. If a four-and-iwenty 
pounder were mounted at every fix yards, 
there would be 293, fay 3005 ina mile ; 
at sol. each, thefe would coit 15,000l., or 
for one hundred miles 1,500,000]. Evi- 
dent enough it is, that for lefs than two 
millions fterling a molt formidable jn- 
trenchment, lined with artillery, might be 
executed through the extent of one hun- 
- dred miles; and the coafts of Suflex, 
Kent, Effex, and Suffolk, fecured for fix 
millions. Cafes are very numerous of 
raw and undifciplined troops ftanding to 
their arms Readily behind even a common 
breaft-work. 
‘« T hiave frequently feen brick towers, 
hollow, and weakly conftruéted, that have 
fuftained the fire of twenty pieces of Jarge 
cannon for three or four entire days toge-~ 
ther, at the diftance of only four hundred 
paces, without having been deftroyed.”— 
Marjfhal Saxe, p.117. Such cafes feem 
_ to prove that every fpecies of fortification 
is valuable when properly applied ; and 
in cafes of employing raw troops, of the 
fir confequence. 
No conclufions again fortifications are 
to be drawn from the fucceiles of Bona- 
Communicated by Mr, Arthur Young. 
413 
parte. Had General Mack’s army been 
employed in garrifoning ftrong and well- 
provided fortified pofts, the event of the 
campaign would probably have been very 
different ; but greatand ftraggling towns, 
that demand an army to man the works, 
and thefe probably unprovided with a 
fingle article requifite for ftanding a fiege, 
can be nothing more than fnares in which 
to find your troops captured. A regular 
hege is a tedious bufinefs for an invading 
army ; and itis one, befides, in which the 
affailants muft lofe more men than the de- 
fenders. ; 
We have had no {mall experience of the 
efficacy of batteries extended for many 
miles on the coaft of France, near which 
we have rarely approached but to be torn 
in pieces by their fire. If our enemy has 
made thefe exertions for colle&iing troops 
to attack us, furely we ought not to hefi- 
tate at the expence of any meafures of de- 
fence! Twomillions fterling converting 
one hundred miles of coaft into a formi- 
dable intrenchment, lined with artillery, 
feems to allow the very praéticable plan 
of rendering a defcent from Boulogne ab. 
folutely impoffib!e. If ene hundred miles 
will not give fecurity, treble the extent : 
what are fix millions, when the fecurity of 
the kingdom is the queftion ? 
i am not enovgh in the world to know 
what is practifing in it 3; nor whether the 
movements of vanity, and extravagance, 
and plea‘ure, and what is commonly call- 
ed luxury, flow in the fame tide at prefent 
which they have done at former periods, 
I hope not ; and that there is not fachan - 
unfeeling inattention to the tremendous 
events taking piace on the Continent, every 
_one of which is fraught with motives of 
alarm to thofe who have hitherto efcaped 
thele fearful judgments of the Almighty. 
If grand dinners, brilliant balls and maf- 
querades, elegant entertainments, private 
and public :heatricals, and all the chan- 
nels in which fortunes can be diffipated or 
mifapplied, flourifh as if Europe were in 
fafety, the fpeétacle would be lamentable 
indeed, and we fhould truly have reafon 
to exclaim, this 1s not the conduét that can 
avert the thunder which rolls yet at a dif- 
tance. All pleafure and diffipation that 
abforb the money, and divert the energy, 
wenting tor the defence of the country, is 
high treafon againit the independency of 
the kingdom. Nothing can fave this 
country but a long, fteady, and patient 
perfeverance in fupporting the neceflary 
burthens of fuch a war as fhall be neceflary 
to kezp infidiovs and mifchievous truces, 
armiftices, 
