The New-England chronicle — Boston [Mass.], 1776-05-09 00:00:00, page 1

^*^ T is now become highly ne
^ ^^ ceffary, that the Colonies ac
* M M * quaint themselves with all the
^g 1 ^ * J' rata g em s and art of war. And
& ^% $ when any one will give his ad
v'ce > to the common ftockJf
founded in reason, and given
with decency, it Should be cordially received.
If academies of military architecture were im
mediately set up, in every colony upon the con
tinent, where youth may be taught the art of
gunnery, fortification, engineering, &c. advan
tages furprizingly great would arise from such
an institution. I Shall at present dwell mbftly
upon fortification. There has been a general
ill for persons who were adepts in this way.
And their numbers are found to be few. This
art has chiefly been confined to the sons of Wogl
ivich. And because the demand in America was
so small, it was only here and there one that turn
ed his thoughts upon the fubjeCt. And I doubt
not it appears to many, such an intricate business,
that very few can attain to be masters at it. But
I think I can make it appear very evident, that a
person of but common abilities may grasp the
whole, or so much of it, as is now necessary for
the Americans to knew. True it is, there are
but few who are acquainted with Muller, M.
Vauban, M. Blondell, M. Belidor, Counts Pa
gan, Saxe, &c. But suppose a school only was
let up in this colony ; one master may very well
teach twenty scholars at a time, who very soon
would know as much as many of the sons above
mentioned. If a MODEL was made of the se
veral kinds of forts and redoubts, as laid down by
Muller, Plate 23, page 205, where the scholars,
at one view, may fee a compleat piece of work,
confining of rampart, parapet, ditch, scarp, coun
terfcarp, covered way, glacis and esplanade, with
the ravelins, line of fire, &c. &c. they would
learn more in one- week, than they would find
out by poring upon the books a year. If these
MODELS were made wholly of boards, from a
scale half an inch to a foot, they would cost but
a trifle. Here, at one view, you would have the
platform, embrasure, bastions, curtains, &e. And
all of them wrote on, with their several dimen
sions and proportions. And after the technical
terms are learned, which may be very soon, let
every one have his draught board and MODEL
before him, and reduce it upon paper : And when
he has got the bastion, faces, flanks, curtains,
lines of defence, exterior line, and perpendicular,
he may go on to Shading the glacis, ditch, &c.
And after a little practice of this fort, lay out the
work at large, in some flat ground (as. they will
at firft better comprehend the matter) and fix the
pins or flakes, draw all the lines of the work, and
from the MODEL or plans, examine the mea
sures by the different scales. In this way, in a
very little time, you may have Mullers and Vau
bans of your own, fufficient for your purpose.
I is true, tliat the forts and redoubts, above re
ferred to, may not answer so well for some places:
But the firft principles being fixed, from these you
may form any thing you please. And when you
once get the necessary problems and technical
terms at hand, the work will grow so familiar,
that the art of fortifying will not be found so dif
ficult as has been imagined. A future paper may
give a further explanation.
i herefore, never,fuffer an enemy man of war
to lie quiet in your harbour. If the security of
one will encourage another, by and by they will
get such strength, and perhaps throw up such
works, as to command the key, and let in and out
but who they please ; as is too much the case at
the Herculean-Straits. And it may cost more
blood and treasure to drive them off, than is at
present imagined. Therefore nip them in the
bud ; for as matters now are, the man that minds
a little extra expence, when his all is at stake,
is but a niggard in politicks. When they make
their appearance, salute them in compliment to
their makers ; and convince them of their dan-
BOSTON : Printed by SAMUEL HALL, at his Office next to the Oliver Cromwell Tavern, in School Street.
THE
NEW-ENGLAND CHRONICLE.
(Vol. VIII.)
To the PUBLIC.
THURSDAY, May 9, 1776.
ger, in approaching too near your cannon and
mortars. A few. companies of well disciplined ar
tillery, properly supported, will do the business.
If some such method as the above be come into,
it will soon appear that a Dunkirk can be made
in America.
The writer of the above may be thought, by
fame, to be seeking a place, and chalking out
something for a living ; and left this Should ope
rate to prejudice the plan, he assures them he
has no Such thing in view, for it is but a Short
time since he has looked into the matter. And
further, he is convinced of the fufficient abilities
of the gentlemen already employed to lead in this
matter. Therefore, what he has faid,and intends
further to fay upon the . fubjc'&, if it,be receiv
ed with candour, is all the reward he wjlhes lor,
or Gxpe&s.MEANWELL..,
N. B. The plan of the above forts and re
doubts arc left with the Printer for the Repre
sentatives of the town of Bofton' perusal, taken
from Muller. April 29^, 1776.
L O N 5 0 N, December zfr
HOUSE oFLORDS.
On Monday the following PROTEST was entered
againf the proceedings of the House on Friday las,
on the feco'd reading of. the bill to prohibit al!
'trade and commerce with certain Colonies $1
AMERICA.
Diffentinent,^
ift DECAUSE this bill, by considering the
' Colonies in America, as a foreign na
tion, and declaring war on them in that charac
ter, has a dire& tendency to effect an entire, and,
we fear, permanent separation between the two
capital parts of this empire. It is new to behold
a nation making a separation of its parts by a law,
in,hopes of reuniting them by a treaty. The so
vereign power has hitherto always regarded re
bellion as the criminal a& of individuals, and not
the hostility of any great collective body of the
community. The framers of this bill admit the
principle in its full force, although by all the pro
visions they every where contradict it ; for whilst
the clauses of the bill consign all to punishment,
the preamble only declares, that many are guilty,
the legislature chufing to be cqnfidered rather as
unjust to particulars, than confefs itfelf to be uni
versally odious. The English on both sides of
the oc&an are now taught by ad of Parliament to
look on themselves as Separate nations ; nations
susceptible of general hostility, and proper parties
for mutual declarations of war, and treaties of
pe^ce. We are by this act preparing their minds
for that independence, which we charge them
with affeding, whilst we drive them to the ne
cessity of it by repeated injuries.
2dly, BECAUSE this bill enables and en
courages the navy of England to make an indis
criminate prey of the property of English fubjeds
trading to or from the Colonies (even of the £hips
which lie quiet in the American ports) without
regarding whether that property belongs to friends
or Enemies, to the dutiful or to the disobedient.
This plan of promifeuous rapine (unworthy of
the wisdom and decorum of government) must
compleat what yet remains to be compleated, of
the union in North-America against the authority
of Parliament. Parliament in this bill leemsmuch
more inclined to distress, than able or willing to
proted. In North-America the refraCtory and
submissive may be blended together. In theWeft-
Indies all are innocent : but'all are doomed to a
much more severe, and much more certain punish
ment, than falls upon the most guilty in North-
America. Ihe whole accommodation, if not the
immediate subsistence of the Weft-Ihdia islands,
depends on a commercial connection with the
continent, from which by this bill they are ex
prefly retrained. One of the chief, and much
the most plausible of the complaints made last year
against the North-American Colonies, was a re
solution on their part to withhold supply from the
sugar plantations. But this year we have made
ourselves to adopt and fan&ify that very conduct
which we had painted to the world in such odious
colours. It must appear as if this bill was pur
posely made against the Weft-Indies ; and left
the people of the United Colonies might return
to sentiments of fraternal affection, or from mo
tives of felf.intereft, or from impatience of so
hard a reftramt, Should disobey or elude the or
ders of the Congress, and affoid relief to our in
nocent planters in the Well Indies, it leems as
if an a& of the BritiSh Parliament came in aid of
that authority, and provided that no supply what
soever Shall be carried ,to the Weft-Indies, con
trary to the rcfolution of the Congress..
'„3^b BECAUSE ,this bill greatly exceeds in
violence, the pattern of injustice which it seems
to follow. In some refpe&, the prohibition of
the Congress materially differed from the prohibi
tion ot this bill —.Their's was not immediate.
Time was given to the Weft-Indies for supply
both from America and-other places. No con
fifeations were made. We, on the other haßd,
have permitted the trade from America as long
as it was necessary to save ourselves from famine^
and 10 enable the Colonies to pay their debts,
i his supply they have , made plentifully,and manv
of these debts they have difeharged most honour
ably. In return for this, to us ufeful and honour
able behaviour, Miniffry, abusing the bounty of
Providence, on the firft restoration of domestic
plenty, has fabricated a bill for seizing American
vessels, now trading under the faith of an act of
Parliament, no Ship of their's being fuffcred to
return to it, own country, either from hence, or
from the Weft-Indies. : l j #
4thly, BECAUSE the bill, not fatisfied with
making predatory war upon the trade of the Co
lonies, thinks it neccllary to Stimulate particular
avarice.and rapacity to an activity jn such fer-.
vice, by rendering captures of North-American
vessels and goods, the property of the captors.
This regulation,is now, for. thefirft time, by any
regular authority in this kingdom, to be adopted
in a civil contention. We confider this method
of. holding out the spoil of their fellow citizens
for the reward of alacrity in civil wars, as a source
of the most dangerous corruption that can be
conceived, in the firft instance to our navy, and
in its consequence to our army. A number of
bold, enterprising men, trained to the profeffiou
of arms, with fortunes to make, and promotion
to be obtained, are naturally lovers of war.
When they have once tasted of emoluments from
domefttc spoil, they will no longer look on the
commerce of England as an object of protection,
but of plunder. I hey will fee the prosperous
state of peaceful domestic industry, not with plea-,
sure, but with envy. They will be taught to
wilh for those lucrative civil commotions, which
they will always Eave the means of provoking.
Our soldiers in the land service will fee no reason
for their being distinguished from the marines ; and
they will call for the plunder of English trading
towns, when they fee that the seamen have been
indulged in the plunder of English trading Ships.
It never can be^fafe for a state to hold out an in
terest in disturbing it, to those who have the sword
in their hand. The greatest republic, of which
history gives us any knowledge, was Subverted by
the licence of domestic plunder. We are per
fectly assured, that the navy of England wants no
such unnatural and impious encouragement to
wards the performance of any duty, which their
known public Spirit, and yet uncorrupted honor,
may make it fit for them to perform. And it is
no less on their s, than on the public acGount, a
matter of the most serious affliction to us, that a
service always looked upon (and hitherto most
justly) not only without fear or jealousy, but
With the most partial affe&ion in every part of
this empire, Should be unnecessarily exposed to
the lifting odium which must attend those who
are enriched from the spoils of citizens, amongst
whom they may be obliged to Spend their liyes,
and connexions. Civil wars (when they must
be made) Should be made in such a manner, as
het to render the return to peace and ccrdialitf
impracticable.
(Numb. 403.)