Persians may be of any size, the larger they are, the greater awe and astonishment will be impressed upon the beholder; they are used with propriety in arsenals and galleries of armour, under the figures of captives, heroic virtues, &c.

Pilasters. Their bases, capitals, and entablatures are the same as those of columns: they differ only from columns in their plan, which is square instead of being round.

Portico is a continued range of columus, covered at the top. The portico at Palmyra was 4000 feet in length.

Termini are sometimes employed instead of Persians or Caryatides, to support the entablatures of monuments, chimney-pieces, and similar compositions. These figures. owe their origin to the stones used by the ancients, to mark the limits of particular possessions. These were rendered inviolable by Numa Pompilius, who consecrated the Terminus into a deity, and instituted festivals and sacrifices to his honour. What were formerly only large upright stones, were represented in human shape, and introduced as ornaments in temples, and other edifices. The modern use of termini is chiefly confined to gardens and fields.

Select Books on Architecture.

Rudiments of Ancient Architecture, svo. Nicholson's Principles of Architecture, 3 vols, svo. and Architectural Dictionary, 4to. Aikin on Modern Architecture, Wood on Villas, and Beazeley on Gothic Architecture, in the Essays of the London Architectural Society, 8vo. 2 vols. to which last, § 3 is indebted. Milner on Gothic Architecture, 8vo. Essays on Gothic Architecture, by Warton, 8vo. Whittington on Gothic Architecture, svo.

SECT. V.-FORTIFICATION, AND MILITARY TACTICS,

§1. Fortification.

1. FORTIFICATION has been termed military architecture. It is the art of fortifying a place, by making works around it, to render it capable of being defended, by a small force, against the attacks of a numerous enemy. This, like gunnery and tactics, is a necessary branch of study for officers in the army and uavy, who would distinguish themselves by their talents and abilities. Fortification is

usually divided into ancient and modern; offensive and defensive; regular and irregular.

2. Ancient fortification consisted principally of defences made with trunks and branches of trees, mixed with earth, for security against the attacks of an enemy. Afterwards, when battering-rams, catapults, and other powerful instruments of attack were invented, fortifications were constructed of immensely thick walls of brick or stone, with round or square towers, placed at suitable distances.

3. In modern fortification, the object of which is to furnish defence against assailants with fire-arms, the walls are turned into ramparts, the towers into bastions, defended by numerous out-works; all which are so constructed that they cannot be beaten down but by the continual fire of several batteries of cannon. The works are so contrived, also, that one part flanks or defends another, so as to render the approach of the besiegers to any part very dangerous.

4. Regular fortifications are erected in the shape of regular or equilateral polygons, the sides being commonly at least a musket shot from each other, and fortified according to the rules of art.

5. Irregular fortifications, on the contrary, are those of which the sides and angles are not uniform, owing to the irregularity of the ground, occasioned by hills, valleys, rivers, and the like. These usually occur in

6. Field-fortification, which is the art of constructing all kinds of temporary works in the field. An army intrenched, or fortified in the field, produces, in many respects, the same effect as a fortress; for it covers a country, supplies the want of numbers, stops a superior enemy, or at least obliges him to engage at a disadvantage. The materials used for fortifications, in the field, are such as can be readily obtained, viz. sand-bags, earth, and fascines, or faggots of small wood, ten feet long and one foot thick, which are fastened to the parapet, by means of pickets driven obliquely into the bank. When wood cannot be obtained for the fascines, the parapet is clothed with turf, four inches thick, and a foot and a half square. But the dimensions of the work, of course, vary much with circum

stances.

§ 2. Tactics and Distinctions of Rank.

1. Military Tactics teach the art of disposing forces in form of battle, and of performing the proper motions and evolutions. The Greeks were very skilful in this part of the military art, having public professors of it, called Tactici, who taught and instructed their youth. Tactics is also used for the art of inventing, and making machines for throwing darts, arrows, stones, fire-balls, &c. by means of slings, bows, and counterpoises. Naval tactics, instruct us in the arrangement of a fleet for an engagement.

2. Military discipline is the training of the soldiers, and the due enforcement of the laws and regulations instituted by authority. This discipline is the soul of all armies; and unless it be established with prudence, and supported with resolution, they would be little better than a rabble, and more dangerous, to a state than even its enemies. By the force of discipline, men are kept in order and obedience to command, in opposition to the strongest impulse of their passions; and make each army, as it were, a complicated, but immense, and energetic machine.

3. Rank. The appointment of officers, and a regular gradation or chain of authority are necessary steps towards the establishment of discipline and subordination. The officers by which an army is commanded, are the captain-general or commander-in-chief, and the other general and staff-officers. Formerly there were fieldmarshals. They were, however, long disused in the British army; but have been lately revived in the persons of their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of York and Kent. The rank

of commander-in-chief corresponds to the degree of fieldmarshal in the French service. A lieutenant, or even a major-general, has often, in our service, the appointment of commander-in-chief. A proper number of general officers is appointed according to the strength of the army. For this proportion no certain rules are established. When an army is considerable, the following is deemed an adequate staff, exclusive of the commander-in-chief: a general for the horse, and one for the foot, or general for each wing of the army: a major-general for every two brigades; and

about half that number of lieutenant-generals. Notwithstanding the distinct appellation of general, lieutenant-general, and brigadier-general, their duties are much the same. Those terms serve little purpose but to denote successive gradations of rank.

General officers, are those who do not only command over a single company, or regiment, but whose office and authority extend over a body of several regiments of horse and foot.

I. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, called also captain-general, and simply the general, is an officer who commands all the military powers of a nation, who gives orders to all the general officers, and receives no orders himself but from the king.

II. COLONELS, are commanders in chief of a regiment, whether horse, foot, or dragoons: a colonel may arrest an officer of his regiment, but must acquaint the general with it. A colonel-lieutenant is he who commands a regiment of guards, of which the king, prince, or some other person of eminence is colonel. These colonel-lieutenants have always a colonel's commission, and are usually general officers. A lieutenant-colonel is the second officer in a regiment, is at the head of the captains, and commands in the absence of the colonels.

III. MAJOR-GENERAL, is a general officer, who receives the general's orders, and delivers them out to the majors of brigades, with whom he concerts what troops are to mount guard, to form detachments, to go on parties, or to be sent on convoys. He views the ground for encampments, is subordinate to the general, and lieutenant-general, and the next commanding officer to them. Major of a regiment, is an officer who conveys all orders to the regiment, draws them up, sees it march in good order, looks to its quarters, and rallies if it happen to be broken in an engagement. The major is the only officer of a regiment of foot, who is allowed to be on horseback in time of service: but he rides to facilitate communications. A major of a regiment of horse is the first captain of a regiment; and commands in the absence of

the colonel.

IV. BRIGADIER, is the general officer who has the command of a brigade. The eldest colonels are generally

advanced to this-post. He that is upon duty is brigadier of the day. They march at the head of their own brigades, and are allowed a serjeant and ten men of their own brigade for their guard. But the rank of brigadiergeneral in the British service is suppressed in time of peace. Brigadiers, or sub-brigadiers, are posts in the horse-guards. The brigadier or brigadier-general appoints an officer called a Brigade Major to assist him in the management of his brigade. The most experienced captains are usually appointed to this post; and they act in the brigade as major-generals do in the army, receiving their orders from their commanders.

V. CAPTAINS. A captain-general is he who commands in chief, and has been already noticed. Captain of a troop, or company, is an inferior officer, who commands a troop of horse, or company of foot under a colonel. The duty of this officer is to be careful to keep his company full of able-bodied soldiers; to visit their tents or lodgings; to... see what is wanting; to pay them well; and see that they keep themselves neat and clean, and their arms bright. He has power, in his own company, of making serjeants and corporals. In the horse and foot-guards, the captains have the rank of colonels. A captain-lieutenant, is he who, with the rank of captain, but with the pay of lieutenant, commands a troop or company, in the name and place of some other person, who is dispensed with on account of his quality from performing the functions of his post. Thus the colonel being usually captain of the first company of his regiment, that company is commanded by his deputy, under the title of captain-lieutenant. The captain is to his company, what the colonel is to the whole regiment. He has the entire charge and command of it in every particular that regards its discipline and economy. A captain's usual command on guard, or detachment, is from 50 to 100 men, and he has always two subalterns along with him,

The commissioned officers subordinate to the captain, are the lieutenants and ensigns, who are commonly called the subaltern officers. These, though their rank is not the same, yet, for the most part, perform duty together without distinction. Their ordinary duties are in garrison,