The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-01 00:00:00

Surplus Balance in Ireland beyond the charge of the Consolidated Fund in Ire-
land, for the Quarter ended Dec 31, 1862

LAW LECTURES, at the INCORPORATED
LAW SOCIETY.

The several COURSES of LECTURES will be resumed
by
Mr.
Mr.

T. H. HADDAN, on Equity. Monday, January 5 ;
W. MURRAY, on Common Law and Mercantile Law,
Friday, January 0;
M. H. COOKSON, on Conveyancing, Monday, Jan. 12.
EDWARD WALTER WILLLA.MSON, Assist.-Seo.
Law Society's Hall, Chancery-lane,
London, Dec. 30, 1862.

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The Great Fortifications at Portland.

PORTLAND, DEC. 29.

The great Portland Breakwater is by no means the only
wonderful work of human skill and ingenuity which is
going on in this part of England. To quarry away a
mountain and build its fragments into a submarine work
is labour enough, but even this astounding effort of patient
toil is equalled by the magnitude and importance of the
works in progress at the Verne, where a tremendous head-
land is being shaped and hewn into one of the greatest
fortresses in the world. The ielitiVe merits of these de-
fences as compared with those of iron-clad steam floating
batteries is just now a matter of dispute among tacticians.
Each party has really so many strong and able reasons to
bring forward in support of its own views that the Govern-
ment very wisely decline to commit themselves exclusively
to either, and adopt both. We are building plenty of iron-
clads, but at the same time we are not neglecting our land
defences, which are by no • means the unimportant and
auxiliary defences which their opponents would make them
out to be. It is quite true that steam batteries can be sent
for and concentrated on any supposed point of attack, while
fortifications, unless in the neighbourhood of the post of
danger, are mere lumps of granite, and, as an active moans
of resistance against the descent of invasion, as useless as
so many Druidical cromlechs. On the other hand, with
movable batteries it must not be forgotten that an enemy
always thinks he may elude them by decoying them on a
false alarm away from the spot where the blow is to be
struck—a hope which is often successful, and which we
need scarcely say is never entertained with regard to for-
tresses. Once built and armed, these grim stone sentinels
are always on their posts, never to be eluded or dismayed ;
and whereas a landed enemy can afford to snap his fingers at
the baffled power of all the iron frigates in the world, he must
still be oantiotui with-oas Fortreasear—as fbrmidable on the land

as on the sea. The enemy knows they give a terrible base
of operations against him, while they jeopardise his
own ; they must be blockaded at sea by a fleet—avoided by
circuitous marches on land ; and even when thus avoided
troops must be left behind to watch and keep their garrison,
if possible, in check. We, of all people in the world, who
so toiled and suffered, lavishing blood and treasure under
the walls of Sebastopol, should be the last to underrate the
importance of a good fortification as a check to an invading
army. The lesson, however, has not been forgotten appa-
rently. Plymouth has been made secure ; the mouth of
the Thames is virtually impregnable—a tremendous chain
of forts is fast encircling Gosport and Portsmouth ; and,
surely but slowly, as becomes its magnitude and tremendous
strength, the Verne at Portland, the Gibraltar of the
Channel, is rising into what is probably one of the strongest
citadels it. the world. In spite, then, of the popular tradi-
tion embodied in the old song, that—
" Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep,"
it would seem that bulwarks are now considered indispens-
able, and towers compact in strength and tremendous in
array are rising, or have risen, along the steep in all dii ec-
tions. The vote taken two years ago for " towers and bul-
warks" was the largest sum taken for a single object since
the days of the Irish famine, and the money was well ap-
propriated, and has been tolerably well spent. It is a com-
mon objection of economists to say that, now we have made
these places so strong, an enemy will turn aside and attack
elsewhere, that is precisely the purpose they were intended
to answer, and for which they are built. A prudent man
has an iron safe for his valuables, though he does not oase
his house with metal. The naval arsenals contain the very
germs of our power, and need special protection accord-
ingly. All our great arsenals are so many national strong
boxes, which must be made fire and water and foe proof,
and so entirely does this consideration govern the whole
subject that the tremendous works at Portland are under-
taken solely in anticipation of the great naval depot to be
formed hereafter in its splendid harbour,
It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers of the pe-
culiar conformation of the Bill of Portland, Both in shape
and situation it almost precisely resembles Gibraltar. There
are some bold steep headland hills of stone, the Breakwater
stands in the place of the Mole, and that geological enigma,
Chesil-bank, connects it with the mainland, as the neutral
ground does our great Mediterranean citadel with the
Spanish shore. Its height, its isolation, and the harbour it
commands all pointed it out as a place for an impregnable
—we had almost said an inaccessible—fortress. To the late
Prince Consort is due the merit of having seen its vast im-
portance in this respect, as it was also owing to his enlight-
ened judgment that the Breakwater was begun at last, and
he himself laid the foundation-stone. Portland is rising,
as we have said, into a first-class fortress, of which the
Verne is the great key or citadel. More compact than
either Cherbourg, Cronstadt, or Sebastopol, it is more than
thrice the elevation of those works from sea, and therefore
so much the more unassailable from that point, while such
precautions are being taken to secure it from the one or two
places on which it might be threatened from the land, that
it is not too much to say that when all is finished any engi-
neer would regard its reduction by other means than starv-
ing out as almost a physical impossibility. That our readers
may understand how perfectly this is so we will explain
what the position of the Citadel and nature of its defences
are in the plainest and least technical terms that can an-
swer the purpose. The Verne, then, is on the extreme
northern end of the island of Portland—its highest point,
in fact, and quiteoverlooking not only the rest of the island,
but every part of the harbour within and without the Break-
water. It is a triangular piece of ground, about 60 acres in
extent, on the summit of three or four very steep rounded
hills of stone, which rise to a height of some 500 feet above
the level of the sea. These hills, though very steep, are by
no means inaccessible except on the north side of the island,
which overlooks the harbour, where for a length of about
one-third the circumference of the Verne they are perpen-
dicular for 100 feet beneath the summit, and then graduall
go down to the Breakwater in a broad, rapid slope, called
the East Weir. The first and most obvious step therefore
towards making the Verne impregnable was to surround it
with a deep dry ditch in the form of a horseshoe, the two
ends of the horseshoe terminating in the face of the perpen-
dicular cliffs which we have mentioned as protecting it on
the north or harbour side above the East Weir. But to
speak of this great artificial ravine as a ditch seems absurd.
It is a ditch to which all other fortification ditches, ancient
or modern, are mere gutters. Rocks have boon riven as if
by a convulsion of nature, and nearly two millions of tons
of stone blasted ani quarried away to make it. Its mini-
mum depth is 80ft ; its minimum width 100. In some
parts, as at the angles of the Citadel within it, its width is
nearly 200 ft., and as the floor of this immense cutting has
been kept at an even level all round the works, where
there is a rise in the surface of the ground above there
is sometimes A sheer perpendicular depth beneath the bat-

PRICE - .4d.
STAMPED —.51

teries it protects of 130 ft. In fact, the little mountain
which forms the Verne has been rent away and isolated
from its fellow headlands by this stupendous chasm. No
perfect idea can be got of it till the visitor descends to the
floor of the great excavation and traverses its whole length,
which is nearly a mile. The sections of the wonderful
geological strata which form the island of Portland are seen
for the first time in the straight rocky wall of the ditch in
all their curious variety. What is most singular is, that
at regular intervals of 25 or 30 yards, and commencing
about 20 feet below the surface of the ground, are a series
of vertical faults or gaps, about 2 feet wide, which, as far
as can be judged, penetrate to the lowest substrata of the
island and traverse it completely from north to south. In
these extraordinary clefts human bones have been found
with those of wild boars and the bones and horns of rein-
deer—not fossilised, but with all their osseous structure as
perfect as if they were not 50 years old. Lower still in
the oolite the bones of saurians have been brought to light
with sharks' teeth, shells now only found in the Red
Sea, huge ammonites of stone and copper, fossil trees, and,
near the surface, Phoenician gold coins, ancient British
weapons, Roman pottery, and the mysterious flints in the
drift. All these " faults" in the strata have been carefully
filled from base to summit with solid masonry, so that the
sides of the ditch, both scarp and counter-scarp, are almost
as smooth as a wall from end to end. It is, perhaps, need-
less to say that such a gigantic foss as this is unnecessary,
and would never have been attempted but that stone exca-
vated in its formation was wanted for the Breakwater. A
dry ditch of 40 feet deep by 50 feet wide would have been
of almost unusual proportions, and more than sufficient to
protect the Verne from any assault; but the Government
wanted cheap stone to make the Breakwater, at_ ', ao that
from the ditch round the Verne was already paid for, they
naturally took as much as they could get, and in so doing
made the foss of the enormous dimensions we have given.

Jutting out from the main bony of the fortress into the
ditch are to be two bastionettes. One of these is to have
eight faces mounting guns on each, so as to sweep with a
murderous fire two-thirds of the whole length of the exca-
vation. The second bastionette is to have three faces, and
placed in such a manner as while two of its guns cross fire
in the ditch, the remainder of its armament commands
every spot in the rest of the foss, where its curve keeps it
out of reach of the more important work of the same kind.
Both these bastionettes are also pierced with loopholes in
all directions for the fire of riflemen.

Within the great enclosure of the Verne, and snugly en-
sconced under the green parapets of the batteries, barrack
accommodation has been built for a minimum garrison of
3,500 men ; the size and height of these casemated barracks
being calculated on such a liberal scale as to give in the
rooms no less than 750 cubic feet of air per inmate. The
usual scale on which common barracks are built being at
the rate of 350 feet per man, it follows that the peace gar
risen at the Verne can in times of danger be increased with-
out the slightest inconvenience from 3,500 to 10,0J0 men,
which is really the number the place can accommodate, and
which it might perhaps require to fully man all its works,
though it is so strong by nature that its peace garrison
could stand a siege with safety. All these barracks are
bomb-proof. Their roofs are made of solid brick arches
nearly 4ft. thick, over which again is a layer of concrete
2ft. thick, and coated with asphalte to keep it water- tight,
then one foot of shingles to arrest the drainage, and over
all Bft. thick of solid made earth. There is nothing more
difficult in casemated barracks than to keep them free from
damp, and give a proper allowance of light and air without
interfering with the security of the inmates. These almost
irreconcilable conditions have been admirably fulfilled at
the Verne. The wide skylights over the parade face of the
doors give almost too much light ; the floors raised 4ft.
from the ground secure the soldier from damp, and give
immense cellarage for provisions ; while a fine corridor
running the whole length of the back of the casemates, and
communicating by pipes like windsails with the foss out-
side, gives not only ventilation but a very considerable
draught when the wind blows—and it always is blowing
over the heights of the Verne. The two ranges of these
barracks are almost quite complete. They could all be
occupied within a month, and some in fact are occupied
by small detachments. Near the barracks is already
built a small bomb-proof hospital, with surgeons' quarters
and stores, similarly protected; and nearer these a larger
hospital, or rather a series of casemates like the barracks, is
also to be erected, capable of accommodating, if need be,
500 patients, The Verne has no water supply of its own
within the great ditch of the fortress. Every attempt to
procur,: a supply by boring through the solid rock has proved
fruitless. A number of tanks, each capable of holding
60,000 gallons, have therefore been formed beneath the
casemates for the collection of rain-water, and, as rain is
as plentiful as wind at the Verne, these are always full and
always flowing away. In such an all-important matter,
however, the garrison, has not, of course, been left to de-
pend on the eccentricities of the weather. These great re-
serve water -tanks have therefore been excavated in the
solid rock beneath the parade ground. Each of these tanks
is 80ft. long by sffit... wide and 83ft. deep, and,being covered
In with the usual shot-proof roofs and the water kept from
the light and air, it will remain sweet for centuries. These
tanks each hold a three-months' supply for a garrison of
8,000 men at the rate of two gallons per man a day. As a
matter of course these important' reserve tanks are always
kept full to the top, but never to be used till the emergency
of a state of siege arises. The ordinary daily supply is
drawn from Chine, a little village about three miles from
the Verne, where there is ample water, which is pumped by
a 30-horse power engine through underground pipes into
the fort. By this engine, in case of a siege being imminent
not only the reserve tanks of the Verne could be filled to
their utmost cap icity, but the rain water tanks as well,
which would at the daily rate of consumption we have men-
tioned give more than a year's supply to the garrison, ex •
elusive of the rain water which would fall during that time,
and which, over a surface of sixty acres, where every
precaution is adopted to catch and retain it,
would probably be as much more. The expense and re-
serve magazines are on the same scale. There are five
expense magazines, built each to hold 100 bar-
rels of powder, with a proportionate allowance of live shell,
with one great reserve magazine cut in the rock, like the
tanks, capable of containing 3,000 barrels of powder. The
expense magazines are protected, in addition to walls of
solid masonry 14t't. thick, with an outer covering of wild
earth 18ft. thick.

As to the armament of this place of strength, it is, just
now, in the undecided state of the competition between
Whit worth's and Armstrong's, impossible to say whose
guns are eventually to defend it. All that the engineers
know is, that the Citadel itself, without any of its outworks
or East Weir batteries, will mount at least 200 guns and
mortars, at least half of which number, according to pre-
sent estimates, will be 150-pounders. The whole place is
to bristle with cannon, the longest and largest which science
can suggest, when it is fully armed. In fact, like Malta, it
errs on the side of being rather over than under gunned—
with this difference, that whereas the wide defences of
Malta would require at least 25,000 men to hold them all,
so compact is the Verne that its defence might be intrusted
safely to the peace garrison against almost any force. To
illustrate the almost excessive precautions taken we may
mention that the south-east face of the work looks down a
steep narrow valley like a funnel, leading to the little vil-
lage of Fortune's Well. It was thought possible that a mor-
tar vessel might run into the narrow inlet on which this
valley ends, and throw a shell or two into the Citadel.
The efforts, therefore, made to guard against this remote
eventuality are in much the same scale as the ditch, the
tanks, barracks, magazines, and, indeed, all connected with
the tremendous strength of the defences. Overlooking the
valley, the works have, at this point, a double flank,—that
is, there aro two tiers of stone batteries and three tiers of
guns of the heaviest kind. The lowest tier is a casemate
battery built a la Mao, which means with earth mounds
between the stone portholes, through which 12 guns will
peep. Above these is another tier of 12 guns in earth em-
brasures lined with stone, and above these again 12 more
guns mounted en barbette—tbat is, simply placed in a row
on a flat platform. 36 guns in all to sweep a little valley
not much wider nor so long as Regent .street, and so steep
that it is hard work to climb it I
contains
Outside the ditch, on the south face, and aboabouthalf a
mile from it, runs a thin ridge of hill, about a mile long
the
,
terminating on the West Cliffs. This rider!
quarries where the convicts pass the time which they ought
to devote to labour. It is a mere ',mg mound of stony
ground, exactly like that in sOich the allies had to work
against the Redan, and not within some 40 feet of the
height of the Verne, thosg that an
h the highest ground next to it.
It was thought just ,[thin the limits of possi `hole
Yhole crest
enemy might get
some cover her e,
the hill is to be shaved off 40 feet, so as so thet leave the raw,
s of
solid roarto be swept clear by the guns of the Cita.
del.
in addition to all this there are to be erected here-
aces beyond the ditch, and distant about three-quarters
of a mile from the Verne, two powerful outworks at Easton
and Weston. These are to be regular little fortresses,
mounting 30 or more guns each, and the positions chosen
for their site are so commanding to evetything but the
"erne, which looks down into each of them, that both
would have to be reduced by a regular siege before anything
could be attempted against the Verne itself, supposing that
an engineer was sanguine enough to hope to do anything
but starve it out. In short, the Verne is made, or will be
made, to dominate everything in range of cannon, to cover
the harbour inside and outside the Breakwater, to com-
mand all parts of the island of Portland, to sweep he
Csil-
bank, to cross fire with the great North Fort at the head
of the Breakwater, and with the still more powerful fort
which is being erected on the little headland called the
Nothe, which divides Portland proper from the beautiful
bay of Weymouth. The works on this Nothe have Pot
been recommenced, after having lain idly for nearly aYear..
glit of so feet above the
This headland is to be coated with an armour of graniteimmense thickness, and to a hei