The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
FORTIFICATION. With illustrations and Notes.
By Lieutenant henry Yule, Bengal Engineers.
Blackwood and Sons.
Uncle Toby would have greeted the appearance of
this volume with enthusiasm. He could not have
failed to regard it otherwise than with what his cele-
brant has facetiously designated emotions of a de-
cidedly " hobbihorsicar character. Under any cir-
cumstances, however, the work here submitted to our
consideration must command the scrutiny of the
more intelligent, no matter whether they be members
or not of the military profession. For the book com-
piled by Lieutenant Yule expressly or directly, as he
himself has declared on his very title-page, "for
tinkers of the army and students in military history,"
is of a nature so strangely provocative of curiosity
among all classes of readers, that we doubt not it
will prove on examination to be generally deserving
of a perusal. It is because we regard the volume in
this particular light that we would here the more
earnestly direct to its pages the attention of the com-
munity. The production now given to the world
as the fruits of the research and industry of Lieu-
tenant Yule was printed, according to the
author's account of it in his preface, last
year in a condensed form—a form comprising merely
the substance of the present octavo—for the use of the
Scottish Savel and Military Academy at Edinburgh.
Encouraged by the approbation obtained by that
epitome of his views, Lieutenant Yule has adventured
upon a more pretentious and more substantial publi-
cation. His labours even now are submitted by r o
means vauntingly to the ordeal of criticism, the writer
referring all who may feel disposed to prosecute the
inquiry yet further to the masterly essay of Bous-
mard, or to the scarcely less admirable treatise of
Major Straith, formerly Lieutenant Yule's military
preceptor. We are therefore called upon to regard
the volume under review as an elementary work, con-
stituting a species of introduction to the science of
" Fortification." Neither can we pronounce our
author as mistaken in his estimate of his peculiar en-
terprise, seeing that at the very commencement
of his compilation we meet with a preliminary
chapter explanatory of certain geometrical pro•
btems of the simplest imagivable description.
Nevertheless, we by no means feel disposed to quarrel
with this feature of the undertaking any more than
with the glossary of military terms forming its ap-
pendix—aware that by these means the book before
us is deprived of the chance of being unintelligible
from its containing a multitude of unexplained tech-
nicalities. After reading through the chapter above
referred to, and aided by the dictionary of terms al-
ready mentioned, the unprofessional reader will find
himself enabled to comprehend what might other-
wise have remained in his regard altogether incom-
prehensible, the various divisions of this ingenious
treatise on the science of fortification. Let it not be
forgotten that this science or art, as it is called, of
fortification has been cultivated for many ages—ever
since, in fact, war became the deadly pastime of
humanity. Let it be remembered, moreover, that in
its cultivation have from time to time been
engaged some of the most renowned cap-
tains both of modern days and of anti-
quity. According to the remark of Sir Walter
Scott, when speaking of Gustavus Adolphus, it was
" the custom of that valorous soldier to fight as much
by the spade and shovel as by the sword, pike, and
musket." Besides whom might have been mentioned
many other of the remarkable conquerors of the world
from the Homeric era down to the existing genera-
tion, from Nestor on the TrojAn plain to Edwardes
in the Punjaub. As an additional attraction, we have
prefixed to the different chapters some beautifully
engraved likenesses of the great men whoSe intellects
have been most conspicuous in the development of the
art of fortification, these portraits being rendered yet
more interesting by the historical sketches with which
Lieutenant Yule has celebrated their appearance. In
this manner we behold the effigy of Sebastian Le-
prestre de Vauban, of Albert Purer, of Gustavus
Adolphus, of Francesco di Georgio, and
Michael San Michele, of Frederic Henry, Prince
of Orange, of Ambrose Spinola, Duke of San Save-
rino, of Belidor, of Major-General Sir John T.
Jones, Bart., of Sir Francis Vera, of Maurice, Prince
of Orange, of Peter Navarre, of Maximillian de
Bethune, Duke of Sully, of Minno Baron Van
Coehorn, of Blaise Francois, Count de Pagan, and
of Marc Rae, Marquis de Montalembert—making
altogether no less than fifteen of those very interest-
ing embellishments. A variety of minor illustra-
tions, such as diagrams, are given afterwards as elu-
cidative of the more recondite portions of the treatise.
There is a creditable symmetry in the arrangement of
Lieutenant Yule's volume, the whole mass of his
materials being given in a manner admirably se-
quential. Having explained the ranges of firearms,
and prefixed to the work, as already observed, a se-
ries of useful, if not absolutely essential defi-
nitions, the author sets out at once with. a
record of the objects and elementary features of
Fortification. The Cover, the Parapet, and the
Excavation, the Rampart, the Barbettes, and the
Embrsnures, are here severally considered. Then
follow the principles of outline—referring more espe-
cially to flanks and bastions, with a mention of the
effects of enfilade and ricochet. Next comes the
record of obstacles, materials, and other accessories of
Fortification. Subsequently we find explanatory
chapters respectively upon various forms of field works,
upon calculations necessary in the actual construction
of works, upon lines or extended systems of works,
upon defence of posts and villages, upon permanent
fortifications, upon the mode of attacking a fortress,
upon retrenchments and additional works, upon the
defence of a fortress, and upon the various systems of
fortifications, more particularly in regard to the first,
second, and third system of Vauban and the modern
system, namely, that of Carmontaigne. Such is
the nature and such the construction of the really
remarkable volume before us, a volume in the highest
degree honourable to the assiduity and intelligence of
Lieutenant Henry Yule, one, moreover, which has
constituted him, we believe, permanently the writer of
the best elementary book in the English language
upon the subject of Fortification. The work under
notice, in fact, is worthy of being in regard to the art
of Fortifications what the literary masterpiece of the
Prince Louis Napoleon is in regard to the science of
Artillery, a standard authority, a work entitled to the
respect of the military profession.

LYRA CHRISTIANA. Poems Original and Se-
lected. By Robert Montgomery. George Bell.
A charming volume is that now lying before us,
and one which will be acceptable to the very nume-
rous class delighting in religious versification. In its
300 pages are comprised some of the very best pas-
sages to be found in the writings of Robert Mont-
pinery. That the book is capable of achieving for
itself a wide popularity may be readily admitted,
when it is borne in mind how large has been the de-
mand, during some years past, for the rhythmical
works of the author of this collection. The fact of
that demand is one requiring the consideration of
everyone interested in the progress of literature. Ac-
cording to Mr. Macaulay (our readers will find the
circumstance mentioned somewhere in one or other of
his two first volumes of the "History of England"),
the most extraordinary success ever achieved by any
poem in our tongue was that which welcomed the
first appearance of Dryden's "Hind and Panther."
Now the "Hind and Panther, as everyone knows,
was not only a religious poem but a controversial
poem, expressing as it did the views entertained by
that great man John Dryden on the occasion of his
becoming a Catholic. So that verse when applied to
the dogmas of Christianity was more than usually
acceptable to English readers in the seventeenth cen-
tury, just as it is with English readers now-a-days.
In testimony of this it is only necessary to remark the
reputation obtained within a very moderate interval
by Robert Pollock's " Course of Time"—a work
which has reached already its nineteenth
edition. Similar has been the success achieved
by the ethical verse of Robert Montgomery—his
" Messiah" being in its tenth edition, his " Satan"
in its twelfth, and his "Omnipresence of the Deity"
in its twenty-third. Aware of these remarkable
facts, we are satisfied that the beautiful little bijou of
a volume before us will be eagerly welcomed in many
quarters, and that with a fervour like that accorded to
the "Christian Life," the religious world in England
will turn to the pages of the lyra Christiana.

LITHOGRAPUIC I'OETELAITS.—We hare just had
submitted to us an admirable lithographic proof
print, after a daguerreotype by J. E. Mayall, pub-
lished by Mr. J. L. Grundy, of 130, Regent-street, ex-
ecuted on stone by that accurate delineator of pictorial
life, Mr. G. B. Black, representing four of the most
eminent medical psychologists of the present day
(Messrs. Munro, Winslow, Lawrence, and Suther-
land) in consultation, a subject which forms a suit-
able companion to a print previously published by the
same house, of celebrated chemists.

TUE LATE ME. JAMES WOODS.—Tn our obituary
of this day week we noticed the decease of this gentleman,
who for no less than thirty-six years was a distinguished or-
nament
of the newspaper press of the metropolis. For more
than thirty years of that time Mr. Woods was connected
with the literary department of the Times, and it is not too
much to say that during that long period it would be difficult
to point out any one individual who had more endeared him-
self to his colleagues and his cotemporaries by the amenity of
his manners, the kind-hearted aid he was always ready to
extend to his juniors in an arduous vocation, and perhaps
more than all by the social warmheartedness which made every
can whose hand was once grasped in his feel that he had ac-
quired a friend who had an affectionate interest in his wel-
fare. Such was the' man who was yesterday consigned to
his last home in Nunhead Cemetery. "lo sleeps well," but
years on years will roll away ere those who enjoyed the
pleasure of Lis friendship will lose the memory of one who
shed so many hours of happiness around him. Reguiescat in
pace !—Herald.

Application 73 to be made to Government for a
supply of convict labour, for the erection of a breakwater in
the .Bay of Wick, as a harbour of refuge to shipping on that
out.— Glasgow Mail.