judge. He was born in the parish of Wear Gifford, in Devonshire, and educated at Oxford, from whence he removed to Lincoln's-inn. In 1430 he was made a sergeant at law, and in 1441 chief justice of the court of King's-bench. He served Henry VI. with such fidelity, that in the first parliament of Edward IV. he was attainted of high treason with other adherents of that unfortunate prince, whom he followed into Scotland, where Henry made him chancellor of England. In 1463 he went abroad, and settled in Lorrain. While in exile, he wrote his famous book, entitled, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, which however was not published till the reign of Henry VIII.; since which it has been frequently printed. When the affairs of the house of Lancaster turned, Fortescue came back to England, and though his party did not succeed, yet he remained unmolested. He lived to the age of 90, and was buried in the church of Elberton in Gloucestershire, where he had bought an estate. The best edition of his book is that of 1741.

FORTEVENTURA, one of the Canary Islands, 65 miles in length, and of a very irregular breadth. It produces plenty of wheat, barley, beeves, and goats. Lat. 28. 4 N. Lon. 14. 26 W.

FORTH. ad. (rond, Saxon; whence further, furthest, corrupted from forther, for thest.) 1. Forward; onward in time (Spenser). 2. Forward in place or order (Whitgift). 3. Abroad; out of doors (Shakspeare). 4. Out away; beyond the boundary of any place (Spenser). 5. Out into public view (Waller). 6. Thoroughly; from beginning to end (Shakspeare). 7. To a certain degree (Hammond). 8. On to the end (Memoir in Strype).

FORTH. prep. Out of (Donne).

FORTH, a fine river of Scotland, which rises in Perthshire. After a course of nearly

40 miles it meets the German ocean a little below Alloa, where it forms a noble æstuary, I called the Frith of Forth.

FORTHCOMING. a. (forth and coming) Ready to appear; not absconding (Shakspeare). FORTHI'SSUING. a. Coming out; coming forward from a covert (Pope).

FORTHRIGHT. ad. Straight forward; without flexions (Dryden).

FORTHRIGHT. s. A straight path (Shak

speare).

FORTHWITH. ad. Immediately; without delay; at once; straight (Davies). FORTIETH. a. (from forty.) The fourth

tenth.

FORTIFIABLE. a. (from fortify.) What may be fortified.

FORTIFICATION. s. (fortification, Fr.) 1. The science of military architecture. 2. A place built for strength (Sidney). 3. Addition of strength (Gov. of Tongue).

FORTIFICATION, called also Military Architecture, is the art of strengthening a place by erecting batteries, walls, and other works, around the same, to render it capable of being defended by a small force against the attack of a more numerous enemy.

At a time when the great simplicity of manners gave a limit to the ambition even of the most aspiring, and when science was yet in the womb of time, we may reasonably conclude, that the means of control and of resistance, then in use, were neither costly, laborious, nor very effectual. The details furnished in scripture prove incontestibly, that even the circumvallations used at their date were inadequate to the purposes of security and duration. In fact, the events that shone conspicuous in those times were, with very few exceptions, pitched battles in the open plain, ambuscades, and treasonable conspiracies!

Nor do we find in the more recent histories of

Rome, of Greece, of Asia, or of other parts then holding any rank in the military world, much to support the opinion of the ancients having knowledge of fortification. The few places that made any resistance appear to have been principally maintained by the personal prowess of their de fenders. Their walls were, indeed, sometimes of great moment, as we see in the instance of Troy; which, if existing in the eighteenth century, would probably capitulate at the first summons.

It was not to be expected that where the powers of demolition were insignificant, the means of resistance would be extended beyond the quantum absolutely necessary. The catapulta, the battering ram, the tower, and such devices, were opposed by heavy masses of stone, or of other adequate

materials, on which the besieged mounted to repel the assault. The various contrivances whereby those machines received additional vigour, and the necessity that arose for opposing to their progress

more resistance than could be accumulated im

mediately in their front, (of the tower in particular) first gave rise to the introduction of projections from the even line of the wall, whereby the besiegers could be annoyed laterally, as well as immediately front to front.

Still the engineer confined himself to small projections, generally semicircular, which, for the most part, appear to have been added to the old In the sequel, these towers were built the same as walls, impending like our modern balcony windows.

modern bastion, rested on the terra firma. It the other parts of circumvallation, and, like the

however seems doubtful, whether the former mode was not the best, considering every circumstance attendant upon the ancient mode of assault, and the nature of their weapons.

The invention of gunpowder does not appear to have made any important change for several years, nor indeed until heavy artillery formed a part of the assailants' means, as may be proved by an examination of the remaining castles, towers, keeps, &c. the dates may be traced beyond the middle of the fourteenth century. Such were the solidity the stone shots, originally used, produced a very and the hardness of many ancient buildings, that slight effect; nor was it until iron balls werebrought into use that the powers of cannon were, in any

measure, ascertained.

That point being gained, the whole system of defence was necessarily made to conform to the destructive engines which now were added to the common practices of assault. The sword, buckler, their wonted estimation, and, dwindling into insiglance, dart, javelin, sling, bow and arrow, lost nificance on the great scale, were reserved for individual contest, or for the lesser purposes of desultory warfare. The great object was to construct such stupendous bulwarks as might not only oppose the newly devised missiles, but, at the

Hence arose the formation of ramparts, and, gradually, the necessity for deep ditches, and various outworks; whereby considerable delay and difficulty might be created.

The fortifications of the fifteenth century, although to a certain extent new modelled, and made conformable to the necessity imposed by the invention and use of cannon, nevertheless did not display any ingenuity in regard to mutual defence. That great principle was little understood, and the minutiæ of the science remained, for a long time, miserably defective. Men of genius, at length, in part remedied the errors of the old school, and opened the way for that exactness of proportion, and for that systematic arrangement, which characterize the works of modern times. The impregnable fortresses to be seen in various parts of Europe, cannot fail to transmit the names of their several engineers to posterity; unhappily, not unaccompanied by those of the traitors who, even since the commencement of the present century, have shamefully abandoned the posts of honour, and yielded to inferior powers.

The immense armies now constantly brought into the field, and the heavy trains of artillery by which they are, in almost all cases, attended, occasion not only an adequate preparation for resistance, but the necessity for establishing lines of communication, of depots, &c. all of which must be on the best construction for defence, containing safe lodgment for a sufficient garrison, together with ample and secure magazines for provisions and for stores. Hence the province of the engineer becomes peculiarly important; it comprises various branches of information, and requires that readiness of computation, of discernment, and of appropriate resource, which rarely combine in the same individual. The merely planning in the closet, and the laying down on the soil such defences as may perhaps be void of fault, so far as relates to mutual support, and to the great work of procrastination, will avail nothing, if the other essentials are neglected; and even when they are not, the whole may be rendered abortive, and become contemptible, merely from a want of judgment in point of locality.

Those whose turn of mind, or whose professional pursuits, lead them to trace the gradual progress of fortification minutely from its rude origin to its present state, will read with pleasure the history given by Mr. Robins in the preface to his Gunnery. The principal treatises on fortification are Melder's Praxis Fortificatoria: Les Fortifications du Comte de Pagan: L'Ingénieur Parfait du Sieur de Ville: Sturmy's Architectura Militaris Hypothetical.: Blondel's Nouvelle Maniere de Fortifier les Places: the Abbé de Fay's Veritable Maniere de Bien Fortifier: Vauban's Ingénieur François: Coehorn's Nouvelle Fortification tant pour un Terrain bas et humide, que sec et elevé: Alexander de Grotte's Fortification: Donatus Roselli's Fortification: Medrano's Ingénieur François: the chevalier de St. Julien's Architecture Militaire: Lansberg's Nouvelle Maniere de Fortifier les Places: an anonymous treatise in French, called Nouvelle Maniere de Fortifier les Places, tirée des Methodes du chevalier de Ville, &c.: Ozanam's Traité de Fortification: Memoires de PArtillerie de Surirey de St. Remy: Muller's treatises of Elementary and Practical Fortification: Montalambert's Fortification Perpendiculaire: Landmann's works on Fortification: Pley

From the general idea and office of fortification some useful fundamental rules or maxims may be drawn: as,

1. That the manner of fortifying should be accommodated to that of attacking; so that no one manner can be assured always to hold, unless it be assured the manner of besieging be incapable of being altered; and that to judge of the perfection of a fortification, the method of besieging at the time when it was built must be considered.

2. All the parts of a fortification should be able to resist the most forcible machines used in be sieging, and they should be equally strong on all sides.

3. A fortification should be so contrived, as that it may be defended with as few men as possible; which consideration, when well attended to, saves a vast deal of expence.

4. That the defendants may be in the better condition, they must not be exposed to the enemy's guns and mortars; but the aggressors must be exposed to theirs.

Hence, 5. All the parts of a fortification should be so disposed, as that they may defend each other: in order to this, every part there is to be flanked, i. e. capable of being seen and defended from some other; so that there be no place where an enemy can lodge himself, either unseen, or under shelter.

6. All the campaign around must lie open to the defendants; so that no hills or eminence must be allowed, behind which the enemy might shelter himself from the guns of the fortification; or from which he might annoy them with his own.

The fortress, then, is to command all the place round about; consequently the out-works must all be lower than the body of the place.

7. No line of defence is to be above point-blank musquet-shot, which is from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty fathom.

8. The acuter the angle at the center, the stronger is the place; as consisting of the more sides, and consequently more defensible.

9. All the defences should be as nearly direct as possible. Such are the general laws and views of fortification: the particular ones, respecting each several work or member thereof, will be delivered under their proper articles. See BASTION.

The art of Fortification may be distinguished into two parts, viz. the elementary or theoretical, and practical.

Elementary or theoretical Fortification, consists in tracing the plans and profiles of a fortification on paper, with scales and compasses; and in examining the systems proposed by different authors, in order to discover their advantages and disadvantages.

Practical Fortification, consists in forming a pro ject of a fortification according to the nature of the ground, and other necessary circumstances, tracing it on the ground, and executing the project, together with all the military buildings, such as magazines, store-houses, bridges, &c.

Fortification again is either offensive or defensive. Offensive fortification is the same with the attack of a place, and is the art of making and conducting all the different works in a siege, in order to gain possession of the place.

Defensive, or defence Fortification, is the art of defending a town that is besieged, with all the advantages which the fortification of it will admit.

Fortification is also used for the place fortified;