New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-20

iiT GOfu SPHft' StSHt ~ Do az ~~N''
= it'll This way Of thinking.
After the last war with England, 1t was
f,l to be urgently necessary to forfuy the
COASTS and frontiers. Accordingly, Gen.
Bernard. an eminent French officer OF
,noineers. was brought over here to examine
The country. and to preside over a Com
mitfee of military men who should draw
up the plan of thorough system OF tortl-
fications. They met and devised a grand
scheme of extensive and expensive works.
TO serve for any number of years ahead.
The most important points were to be tor
titled at once: others OF less consequence
atterward: and as the country grew, and
new points became prominent. they were
also 70 be decked out with the needtul
stronghods. In other words, as fast as we
had anything to defend, we were to dig
ditch. raise a wall, and mount cannon TO
defend it. The ideas of our French Engl-
peers, as well as of our own officers, could
of course be formed on no other model than
the old Notifications of Europe. They had
no conception of country under essentially
different circumstances, or of other instru-
mentalties of wal sare than those existing
in Europe thirty-tive years ago. Their plan
was made accordingly; for many years 1t
was steadily adhered to, and even yet has
not been entirely abandoned.
As we learn from q renort lately made
to the Senate by Mr.. Sheds, thee have
been expended under this plan, since 1876
in renewing or repairing some thirty old
forts existing at the close of the war, three
and half millions of dollars, and three
quarters of million more are required to
get them into fighting order; on works
commenced shortly after the plan was
formed, thirteen and a half millions have
been expended, and half million more Is
needed to finish them; on ten other
works, of which seven were begun since
1S43, four millions have been spent, and
five millions more are needed to get them
done; and sundry other forts on the northern
frontier will also cost million and quar-
ter of dollars. Thus twenty millions and
three quarters have been laid out, aud
seven and a half are wanted to finish
these works, making in all ttcenty-eight
and quarter millions Of dotlorS spent and
TO be spent on seventy-seven different forti-
fications, mounting 6,64S guns, and re-
curing 32.725 men for garrisons. These
works defend twenty-eight points on the
Atlantic coast the Gulf of Mexico, and the
northern frontier. Many of them are
larger than military men now regard as
necessary. Since the introduction OF steam
ships, and since electric telegraphs and
railroads render easy and rapid the transfer
of large bodies of troops to any point
where they are needed, it is not likely that,
in the event of war, any fort on our sea-
board or frontier would have to stand a
siege. All that it would have to do would
be to hold an enemy in check until the
telegraph could order up, and steamships and
railroads deliver, the force necessary to
repel him. This renders reedless the bigger
and more elaborate kinds of Notifications.
At leest so says Mr.. Shields III his report.
SO said Gen. Cass in 1886, 1--WE are glad to
find that on some points the General was
not then an Old Fogy,) and so say the most
intelligent of our eng neers. Accordingly,
Mr.. Shields proposes to lay aside the great
scheme of Gen. Bernard and his associ-
ates; to build at present only such works
as are palpably necessary, as for instance,
at San Francisco, Garden Key and the
Tortugas; and to appoint a new Com
mission of engineers and naval officers to re-
examine the whole subject, and determine
the localities to be defended and the nature
of the constructions required for the pur-
pose. Especially he would have this Com
mittee instructed to devote all their ener-
gies to the limitation of the present sys-
TEN, and the retrenchment of the vast ex-
penditure it contemplates.
This is a step in the right direction, and
we thank Mr.. Shields for advocating it. 1t
recognizes the fact, that, in a country
where there is real Power, there is COM
paratively little want of external fortifca-
tions ofmason- work and iron. 1t isthe weak
country which needs to shut itself up in
walls. After the last war with England
the Republic felt itself exhausted and fee
bic, and necessarily thought of building
forts to defend its weakness. But in the