Chapter VIII: Part 8

W.E. Forster gradually began to take an active part in public affairs by speaking and lecturing. In 1858 he gave a lecture before the Leeds Philosophical Institution on "How we Tax India." In 1859 he stood as Liberal candidate for Leeds, but was beaten. But he was highly esteemed in the West Riding, and in 1861 he was returned unopposed for Bradford. In 1865 (unopposed) and in 1868 (at the head of the poll) he was again returned. He took a prominent part in parliament in the debates on the American Civil War, and in 1868 was made under-secretary for the colonies in Earl Russell's ministry. It was then that he first became a prominent advocate of imperial federation. In 1866 his attitude on parliamentary reform attracted a good deal of attention. His speeches were full of knowledge of the real condition of the people, and contained something like an original programme of Radical legislation. "We have other things to do," he said, "besides extending the franchise. We want to make Ireland loyal and contented; we want to get rid of pauperism in this country; we want to fight against a class which is more to be dreaded than the holders of a L7 franchise--I mean the dangerous class in our large towns. We want to see whether we cannot make for the agricultural labourer some better hope than the workhouse in his old age. We want to have Old England as well taught as New England." In these words he heralded the education campaign which occupied the country for so many years afterwards. Directly the Reform Bill had passed, the necessity of "inducing our masters to learn their letters" (in Robert Lowe's phrase) became pressing. Mr Forster and Mr Cardwell, as private members in opposition, brought in Education Bills in 1867 and 1868; and in 1868, when the Liberal party returned to office, Mr Forster was appointed vice-president of the council, with the duty of preparing a government measure for national education. The Elementary Education Bill (see EDUCATION) was introduced on the 17th of February 1870. The religious difficulty at once came to the front. The Manchester Education Union and the Birmingham Education League had already formulated in the provinces the two opposing theories, the former standing for the preservation of denominational interests, the latter advocating secular rate-aided education as the only means of protecting Nonconformity against the Church. The Dissenters were by no means satisfied with Forster's "conscience clause" as contained in the bill, and they regarded him, the ex-Quaker, as a deserter from their own side; while they resented the "25th clause," permitting school boards to pay the fees of needy children at denominational schools out of the rates, as an insidious attack upon themselves. By the 14th of March, when the second reading came on, the controversy had assumed threatening proportions; and Mr Dixon, the Liberal member for Birmingham and chairman of the Education League, moved an amendment, the effect of which was to prohibit all religious education in board schools. The government made its rejection a question of confidence, and the amendment was withdrawn; but the result was the insertion of the Cowper-Temple clause as a compromise before the bill passed. Extremists on both sides abused Forster, but the government had a difficult set of circumstances to deal with, and he acted like a prudent statesman in contenting himself with what he could get. An ideal bill was impracticable; it is to Forster's enduring credit that the bill of 1870, imperfect as it was, established at last some approach to a system of national education in England without running absolutely counter to the most cherished English ideas and without ignoring the principal agencies already in existence.

Forster's next important work was in passing the Ballot Act of 1872, but for several years afterwards his life was uneventful. In 1874 he was again returned for Bradford, in spite of Dissenting attacks, and he took his full share of the work of the Opposition Front Bench. In 1875, when Mr Gladstone "retired," he was strongly supported for the leadership of the Liberal party, but declined to be nominated against Lord Harrington. In the same year he was elected F.R.S., and made lord rector of Aberdeen University. In 1876, when the Eastern question was looming large, he visited Servia and Turkey, and his subsequent speeches on the subject were marked by studious moderation, distasteful to extremists on both sides. On Mr Gladstone's return to office in 1880 he was made chief secretary for Ireland, with Lord Cowper as lord-lieutenant. He carried the Compensation for Disturbance Bill through the Commons, only to see it thrown out in the Lords, and his task was made more difficult by the agitation which arose in consequence. During the gloomy autumn and winter of 1880-1881 Forster's energy and devotion in grappling with the situation in Ireland (see IRELAND) were indefatigable, his labour was enormous, and the personal risks he ran were many; but he enjoyed the Irish character in spite of all obstacles, and inspired genuine admiration in all his coadjutors. On the 24th of January 1881 he introduced a new Coercion Bill in the House of Commons, to deal with the growth of the Land League, and in the course of his speech declared it to be "the most painful duty" he had ever had to perform, and one which would have prevented his accepting his office if he had known that it would fall upon him. The bill passed, among its provisions being one enabling the Irish government to arrest without trial persons "reasonably suspected" of crime and conspiracy. The Irish party used every opportunity in and out of parliament for resenting this act, and Forster was kept constantly on the move between Dublin and London, conducting his campaign against crime and anarchy and defending it in the House of Commons. His scrupulous conscientiousness and anxiety to meet every reasonable claim availed him nothing with such antagonists, and the strain was intense and continuous. He was nicknamed "Buckshot" by the Nationalist press, on the supposition that he had ordered its use by the police when firing on a crowd. On the 13th of October Mr Parnell was arrested, and on the 20th the Land League was proclaimed. From that time Forster's life was in constant danger, and he had to be escorted by mounted police when he drove in Dublin. Early in March 1882 he visited some of the worst districts in Ireland, and addressed the crowd at Tullamore on the subject of outrages, denouncing the people for their want of courage in not assisting the government, but adding, "whether you do or not, it is the duty of the government to stop the outrages, and stop them we will." Forster's pluck in speaking out like this was fully appreciated in England, but it was not till after the revelations connected with the Phoenix Park murders that the dangers he had confronted were properly realized, and it became known that several plans to murder him had only been frustrated by the merest accidents. On the 2nd of May Mr Gladstone announced that the government intended to release Mr Parnell and his fellow-prisoners in Kilmainham, and that both Lord Cowper and Mr Forster had in consequence resigned; and the following Saturday Forster's successor, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was, with Mr Burke, murdered in Phoenix Park. It was characteristic of the man that Forster at once offered to go back to Dublin temporarily as chief secretary, but the offer was declined. His position naturally attracted universal attention towards him, particularly during the debates which ensued in parliament on the "Kilmainham Treaty." But Mr Gladstone's influence with the Liberal party was paramount, in spite of the damaging appearance of the compact made with Parnell, and Forster's pointed criticisms only caused thoroughgoing partisans to accuse him of a desire to avenge himself. It was not till the next session that he delivered his fiercest attack on Parnell in the debate on the address, denouncing him for his connexion with the Land League, and quoting against him the violent speeches of his supporters and the articles of his newspaper organs. It was on this occasion that Parnell, on Forster's charging him, not with directly planning or perpetrating outrages or murder, but with conniving at them, ejaculated "It's a lie"; and, replying on the next day, the Irish leader, instead of disproving Forster's charges, bitterly denounced his methods of administration. Though, during the few remaining years of his life, Forster's political record covered various interesting subjects, his connexion with these stormy times in Ireland throws them all into shadow. He died on the 6th of April 1886, on the eve of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill, to which he was stoutly opposed. In the interval there had been other questions on which he found himself at variance with Gladstonian Liberalism, for instance, as regards the Sudan and the Transvaal, nor was he inclined to stomach the claims of the Caucus or the Birmingham programme. When the Redistribution Act divided Bradford into three constituencies, Forster was returned for the central division, but he never took his seat in the new parliament.

Forster, like John Bright, was an excellent representative of the English middle-class in public life. Patriotic, energetic, independent, incorruptible, shrewd, fair-minded, he was endowed not only with great sympathy with progress, but also with a full faculty for resistance to mere democraticism. He was tall (the Yorkshiremen called him "Long Forster") and strongly though stiffly built, and, with his simple tastes and straightforward manners and methods, was a typical North-country figure. His oratory was rough and unpolished, but full of freshness and force and genuine feeling. It was Forster who, when appealing to the government at the time of Gordon's danger at Khartum, spoke of Mr Gladstone as able "to persuade most people of most things, and himself of almost anything," and though the phrase was much resented by Mr Gladstone's _entourage_, the truth that underlay it may be taken as representing the very converse of his own character. His personal difficulties with some of his colleagues, both in regard to the Education Act of 1870 and his Irish administration, must be properly understood if a complete comprehension of his political career is to be obtained. For an account of them we need only refer to the _Life of the Right Hon. W.E. Forster_, by Sir T. Wemyss Reid. (H. Ch.)

FORSYTH, PETER TAYLOR (1848- ), British Nonconformist divine, was born at Aberdeen in 1848. He took first-class honours in classics at Aberdeen, subsequently studied at Gottingen (under Ritschl) and at New College, Hampstead, and entered the Congregational ministry. Having held pastorates at Shipley, Hackney, Manchester, Leicester and Cambridge, he became principal of Hackney Theological College, Hampstead, in 1901. In 1907 he delivered the Lyman Beecher lectures on preaching at Yale University, published as _Positive Preaching and Modern Mind_. Among his other publications may be mentioned _Religion in Recent Art_, and articles in the _Contemporary Review_, _Hibbert Journal_, and _London Quarterly_. He was chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1905.

FORTALEZA (usually called CEARA by foreigners), a city and port of Brazil and the capital of the state of Ceara, on a crescent-shaped indentation of the coast-line immediately W. of Cape Mucuripe or Mocoripe, 7-1/2 m. from the mouth of the Ceara river, in lat. 3 deg. 42' S., long. 38 deg. 30' W. Pop. (1890) of the municipality, including a large rural district, 40,902. The city stands on an open sandy plain overlooking the sea, and is regularly laid out, with broad, well-paved, gas-lighted streets and numerous squares. Owing to the aridity of the climate the vegetation is less luxuriant than in most Brazilian cities. The temperature is usually high, but it is modified by the strong sea winds. Fortaleza has suffered much from epidemics of yellow-fever, small-pox and beri-beri, but the climate is considered to be healthy. A small branch of the Ceara river, called the Pajehu, traverses the city and divides it into two parts, that on its right bank being locally known as Outeiro. Fortaleza is the see of a bishopric, created in 1854, but it has no cathedral, one of its ten churches being used for that purpose. Its public buildings include the government house, legislative chambers, bishop's palace, an episcopal seminary, a lyceum (high school), Misericordia hospital, and asylums for mendicants and the insane. The custom-house stands nearer the seashore, 1-3/4 m. from the railway station in the city, with which it is connected by rail. The port is the principal outlet for the products of the state, but its anchorage is an open roadstead, one of the most dangerous on the northern coast of Brazil, and all ships are compelled to anchor well out from shore and discharge into lighters. Port improvements designed by the eminent engineer Sir John Hawkshaw have been under construction for many years, but have made very slow progress. The Baturite railway, built by the national government partly to give employment to starving refugees in times of long-continued droughts, connects the city and its port with fertile regions to the S.W., and extends to Senador Pompeu, 178 m. distant. The exports include sugar, coffee, rubber, cotton, rum, rice, beans, fruits, hides and skins.

Fortaleza had its origin in a small village adjoining a fort established at this point in early colonial times. In 1654 it took the name of Villa do Forte da Assumpca, but it was generally spoken of as Fortaleza. In 1810 it became the capital of Ceara, and in 1823 it was raised to the dignity of a city under the title of Fortaleza da Nova Braganca.

FORT AUGUSTUS, a village of Inverness-shire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 706. It is delightfully situated at the south-western extremity of Loch Ness, about 30 m. S.W. of Inverness, on the rivers Oich and Tarff and the Caledonian Canal. A branch line connects with Spean Bridge on the West Highland railway via Invergarry. The fort, then called Kilchumin, was built in 1716 for the purpose of keeping the Highlanders in check, and was enlarged in 1730 by General Wade. It was captured by the Jacobites in 1745, but reoccupied after the battle of Culloden, when it received its present name in honour of William Augustus, duke of Cumberland, the victorious general. The fort was used as a sanatorium until 1857, when it was bought by the 12th Lord Lovat, whose son presented it in 1876 to the English order of Benedictines. Within four years there rose upon its site a pile of stately buildings under the title of St Benedict's Abbey and school, a monastic and collegiate institution intended for the higher education of the sons of the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry. The series of buildings consists of the college, monastery, hospice and scriptorium--the four forming a quadrangle connected by beautiful cloisters. Amongst its benefactors were many Catholic Scots and English peers and gentlemen whose arms are emblazoned on the windows of the spacious refectory hall. The summit of the college tower is 110 ft. high.

FORT DODGE, a city and the county-seat of Webster county, Iowa, U.S.A., on the Des Moines river, 85 m. (by rail) N. by W. from Des Moines. Pop. (1890) 4871; (1900) 12,162; (1905, state census) 14,369, (2269 being foreign-born); (1910) 15,543. It is served by the Illinois Central, the Chicago Great Western, the Minneapolis & Saint Louis, and the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern railways, the last an electric interurban line. Eureka Springs and Wild Cat Cave are of interest to visitors, and attractive scenery is furnished by the river and its bordering bluffs. The river is here spanned by the Chicago Great Western railway steel bridge, or viaduct, one of the longest in the country. Fort Dodge is the seat of Tobin College (420 students in 1907-1908), a commercial and business school, with preparatory, normal and classical departments, and courses in oratory and music; among its other institutions are St Paul's school (Evangelical Lutheran), two Roman Catholic schools, Corpus Christi Academy and the Sacred Heart school, Our Lady of Lourdes convent and a Carnegie library. Oleson Park and Reynold's Park are the city's principal parks. Immediately surrounding Fort Dodge is a rich farming country. To the E. of the city lies a gypsum bed, extending over an area of about 50 sq. m., and considered to be the most valuable in the United States; to the S. coal abounds; there are also limestone quarries and deposits of clay in the vicinity--the clay being, for the most part, obtained by mining. Fort Dodge is a market for the products of the surrounding country, and is a shipping centre of considerable importance. It has various manufactures, including gypsum, plaster, oatmeal, brick and tile, sewer pipe, pottery, foundry and machine-shop products, and shoes. In 1905 the value of all the factory products was $3,025,659, an increase of 200.8% over that for 1900. Fort Clark was erected on the site in 1850 to protect settlers against the Indians; in 1851 the name was changed by order of the secretary of war to Fort Dodge in honour of Colonel Henry Dodge (1782-1867), who was a lieutenant-colonel of Missouri Volunteers in the War of 1812, served with distinction as a colonel of Michigan Mounted Volunteers in the Black Hawk War, resigned from the military service in March 1833, was governor of Wisconsin Territory from 1836 to 1841 and from 1846 to 1848, and was a delegate from Wisconsin Territory to Congress from 1841 to 1845, and a United States senator from Wisconsin in 1848-1857. The fort was abandoned in 1853, and in 1854 a town was laid out. It was chartered as a city in 1869. From the gypsum beds near Fort Dodge was taken in 1868 the block of gypsum from which was modelled the "Cardiff Giant," a rudely-fashioned human figure, which was buried near Cardiff, Onondaga county, New York, where it was "discovered" late in 1869. It was then exhibited in various parts of the country as a "petrified man." The hoax was finally exposed by Professor Othniel C. Marsh of Yale; and George Hall of Binghamton, N.Y., confessed to the fraud, his object having been to discredit belief in the "giants" of Genesis vi. 4. (See "The Cardiff Giant: the True Story of a Remarkable Deception," by Andrew D. White, in the _Century Magazine_, vol. xlii., 1902.)

FORT EDWARD, a village of Washington county, New York, U.S.A., in the township of Fort Edward, on the Hudson river, 56 m. by rail N. of Albany. Pop. of the village (1900) 3521, of whom 385 were foreign-born; (1905) 3806; (1910) 3762; of the township, including the village (1900), 5216; (1905), 5300; (1910), 5740. The village lies mostly at the foot of a steep hill, is at the junction of the main line and the Glens Falls branch of the Delaware & Hudson railway, and is also served by electric line to Albany and Glens Falls; the barge canal connecting Lake Champlain and the Hudson river enters the Hudson here. The river furnishes good water-power, which is used in the manufacture of paper and wood pulp, the leading industry. Shirts and pottery (flower pots, jars and drain tile) are manufactured also. The village is the seat of the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute, a non-sectarian school for girls, which was founded in 1854 and until 1893 was coeducational. The village owns and operates the waterworks. Indian war parties on their way to Canada were accustomed to make a portage from this place, the head of navigation for small boats on the Hudson, to Lake George or Lake Champlain, and hence it was known as the Great Carrying Place. Governor (afterwards Sir) Francis Nicholson in 1709, in his expedition against Canada, built here a stockade which was named Fort Nicholson. Some years afterwards John Henry Lydius (1693-1791) established a settlement and protected it by a new fort, named Fort Lydius, but this was destroyed by the French and Indians in 1745. In 1755, a third fort was built by General Phineas Lyman (1716-1774), as preliminary to the expedition against Crown Point under General William Johnson, and was named Fort Lyman; in 1756 Johnson renamed it Fort Edward in honour of Edward, Duke of York. In the War for Independence Fort Edward was the headquarters of General Philip Schuyler while he and his troops were blocking the march of General Burgoyne's army from Fort Ticonderoga. When a part of Burgoyne's forces was distant only 3 or 4 m. from Fort Edward, on Fort Edward Hill, on the 27th of July 1777, the leader of an Indian band whose assistance the British had sought is supposed to have murdered Jane McCrea (c. 1757-1777), a young-girl who had been visiting friends in Fort Edward, and who was to be escorted on that day to the British camp and there to be married to David Jones, a loyalist serving as a lieutenant in Burgoyne's army; it is possible that she was shot accidentally by Americans pursuing her Indian escorts, but her death did much to rouse local sentiment against Burgoyne and his Indian allies, and caused many volunteers to join the American army resisting Burgoyne's invasion. A monument has been erected by the Jane McCrea Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution near the spot where she was killed, and she is buried in Union Cemetery in Fort Edward. Fort Edward township was erected in 1818 from a part of the township of Argyle. Fort Edward village was incorporated in 1852.

See R.O. Bascom, _The Fort Edward Book_ (Fort Edward, 1903).

FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN (c. 1394-c. 1476), English lawyer, the second son of Sir John Fortescue, of an ancient family in Devonshire, was born at Norris, near South Brent, in Somersetshire. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. During the reign of Henry VI. he was three times appointed one of the governors of Lincoln's Inn. In 1441 he was made a king's sergeant at law, and in the following year chief justice of the king's bench. As a judge Fortescue is highly recommended for his wisdom, gravity and uprightness; and he seems to have enjoyed great favour with the king, who is said to have given him some substantial proofs of esteem and regard. He held his office during the remainder of the reign of Henry VI., to whom he steadily adhered; and having faithfully served that unfortunate monarch in all his troubles, he was attainted of treason in the first parliament of Edward IV. When Henry subsequently fled into Scotland, he is supposed to have appointed Fortescue, who appears to have accompanied him in his flight, chancellor of England. In 1463 Fortescue accompanied Queen Margaret and her court in their exile on the Continent, and returned with them afterwards to England. During their wanderings abroad the chancellor wrote for the instruction of the young prince Edward his celebrated work _De laudibus legum Angliae_. On the defeat of the Lancastrian party he made his submission to Edward IV., from whom he received a general pardon dated Westminster, October 13, 1471. He died at an advanced age, but the exact date of his death has not been ascertained.

Fortescue's masterly vindication of the laws of England, though
received with great favour by the learned of the profession to whom it
was communicated, did not appear in print until the reign of Henry
VIII., when it was published, but without a date. It was subsequently
many times reprinted. Another valuable and learned work by Fortescue,
written in English, was published in 1714, under the title of _The
Difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy_. In the Cotton
library there is a manuscript of this work, in the title of which it
is said to have been addressed to Henry VI.; but many passages show
plainly that it was written in favour of Edward IV. A revised edition
of this work, with a very valuable historical and biographical
introduction, was published in 1885 by Charles Plummer, under the
title _The Governance of England_. All of Fortescue's minor writings
appear in _The Works of Sir John Fortescue, now first Collected and
Arranged_, published in 1869 for private circulation, by his
descendant, Lord Clermont.

AUTHORITIES.--Plummer's Introduction to _The Governance of England_;
_Life_ in Lord Clermont's edition; Gairdner's _Paston Letters_; Foss's
_Lives of the Judges_.

FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN (c. 1531-1607), English statesman, was the eldest son of Sir Adrian Fortescue (executed in 1539), and of his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir William Reade or Rede of Borstall in Buckinghamshire. The exact date of his birth is unrecorded.[1] He was restored in blood and to his estate at Shirburn in Oxfordshire in 1551. Through his father's mother, Alice, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, he was a second cousin once removed from Queen Elizabeth. He acquired early a considerable reputation as a scholar and was chosen to direct the Princess Elizabeth's classical studies in Mary's reign. On the accession of Elizabeth he was appointed keeper of the great wardrobe. He was returned in 1572 to parliament for Wallingford, in 1586 for Buckingham borough, in 1588 and 1597 for Buckingham county, and in 1601 for Middlesex. In 1589 he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer and a member of the privy council. In 1592 he was knighted, and in November 1601, in addition to his two great offices, he received that of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. By means of his lucrative employments he amassed great wealth, with which he bought large estates in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and kept up much state and a large household. He took a prominent part in public business, was a member of the court of the star chamber and an ecclesiastical commissioner, sat on various important commissions, and as chancellor of the exchequer explained the queen's financial needs and proposed subsidies in parliament. On the death of Elizabeth he suggested that certain restrictions should be imposed on James's powers, in order probably to limit the appointment of Scotchmen to office,[2] but his advice was not followed. He was deprived by James of the chancellorship of the exchequer, but evidently did not forfeit his favour, as he retained his two other offices and entertained James several times at Henden and Salden. In 1604 Sir John, who stood for Buckinghamshire, was defeated by Sir Francis Goodwin, whose election, however, was declared void by the lord chancellor on the ground of a sentence of outlawry under which he lay, and Fortescue was by a second election returned in his place. This incident gave rise to a violent controversy, regarding the chancellor's jurisdiction in deciding disputed elections to parliament, which was repudiated by the Commons but maintained by the king. The matter after much debate was ended by a compromise, which, while leaving the principle unsettled, set aside the elections of both candidates and provided for the issue of a new writ. Fortescue was then in February 1606 returned for Middlesex, which he represented till his death on the 23rd of December 1607. He was buried in Mursley church in Buckinghamshire, where a monument was erected to his memory. His long public career was highly honourable, and he served his sovereign and country with unswerving fidelity and honesty. His learned attainments too were considerable--Camden styles him "vir integer, Graece, Latineque apprime eruditus,"[3] and his scholarship is also praised by Lloyd, while his friendship with Sir Thomas Bodley procured gifts of books and manuscripts to the latter's library. Fortescue married (1) Cecily, daughter of Sir Edmund Ashfield of Ewelme, by whom, besides a daughter, he had two sons, Sir Francis and Sir William; and (2) Alice, daughter of Christopher Smyth of Annabels in Hertfordshire, by whom he had one daughter. His descent in the male line became extinct with the death of Sir John Fortescue, 3rd baronet, in 1717.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Article in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_; Lord
Clermont's _Hist. of the Family of the Fortescues_; _Hist. Notices of
the Parishes of Swyncombe and Ewelme_, by A. Napier, p. 390; D.
Lloyd's _State Worthies_ (1670), p. 556; _Add. MSS._ 12497 f. 143
("Sir John Fortescue's meanes of gaine by Sir R. Thikstin told me [Sir
Julius Caesar]"); _Hist. MSS. Comm., Marquis of Salisbury's MSS._;
Spedding's _Life of Bacon_; Architectural and Archaeological Soc. for
Bucks, _Records of Bucks_, vol. i. p. 86. (P. C. Y.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The inscription on his tomb states that he was 76 at his death on
the 23rd of December 1607 (Lord Clermont's _Hist. of the Family of
Fortescue_, 377), but according to a statement ascribed to himself,
he was born the same year as Queen Elizabeth and therefore in 1533
(Bucks. Architect. and Archaeolog. Soc. _Records of Bucks_, i. p.
89).

[2] David Lloyd's _State Worthies_ (1670), 556.

[3] _Annales_, 613.

FORTEVIOT, a village and parish of Perthshire, Scotland, on the Water of May, a right-hand affluent of the Earn, 6-3/4 m. S.W. of Perth. Pop. of parish (1901) 562. It is a place of remote antiquity, having been a capital of the Picts, when the district was known as Fortrenn, and afterwards of the Scots. The army led by Edward Baliol camped here before the battle of Dupplin (1332), in which the regent, Donald, earl of Mar, was slain along with 13,000 out of 30,000 men. The parish of Findo-Gask adjoining it on the N.W. contains remains of a Roman road, station and outpost, besides the "auld hoose" of Gask in which the Baroness Nairne was born, and which forms the theme of one of her most popular songs. The new house in which she died dates from 1801.

FORT GEORGE, a military station of Inverness-shire, Scotland. It lies 12 m. N.E. of Inverness, and is the terminus of the small branch line connecting with the Highland railway at Gollanfield junction. It occupies a sandy promontory forming the extreme end of the southern shore of Inner Moray Firth (also called the Firth of Inverness), which is here only 1 m. wide. There is communication by ferry with Fortrose on the opposite coast of the Black Isle. The fort was begun in 1748, partly after the plan of one of Vauban's works, and named in honour of George II. Wolfe, who saw it in course of erection in 1751, was much impressed with it and thought it would, when finished, be "the most considerable fortress and best situated in Great Britain." It covers 16 acres and contains accommodation for nearly 2200 men. It is the depot of the Seaforth Highlanders, and a military training-ground of some size and importance because the surrounding country gives ample facilities for exercise and manoeuvres. General Wade's road is maintained in good order. Fort George, it is said, had almost been chosen as the place of detention for Napoleon when the claims of St Helena were put forward. About 2 m. S.E. is the fishing village of Campbelltown, in growing repute as a seaside resort. Midway between the fort and Inverness stands Castle Stuart, a shooting-box of the earl of Moray.

FORTH, a river and firth of the east of Scotland. The river is formed by two head streams, Duchray Water (12 m.) and Avondhu (10 m.), or Laggan as it is called after it leaves Loch Ard, both rising in the north-east of Ben Lomond in Stirlingshire, and uniting 1 m. west of Aberfoyle. From this point till it receives the Kelty, the Forth continues to be a Perthshire stream, but afterwards it becomes the dividing line between the counties of Perth and Stirling as far as the confluence of the Allan. Thence it belongs to Stirlingshire to a point 1-1/2 m. due west of Cambus, whence it serves as the boundary between the shires of Stirling and Clackmannan. Owing to the extremely tortuous character of its course between Gartmore and Alloa--the famous "links of the Forth,"--the actual length of the river is 66 m., or nearly double the distance in a direct line (30 m.) between the source of the Duchray and Kincardine, where the firth begins. The river drains an area of 645 sq. m. Its general direction is mainly easterly with a gentle trend towards the south, and the principal tributaries on the left are the Goodie, Teith, Allan and Devon, and on the right, the Kelty, Boquhan and Bannock. The alluvial plain extending from Gartmore to the county town is called the Carse of Stirling. The places of interest on the banks are Aberfoyle, Kippen, Stirling, Cambuskenneth, Alloa and Kincardine, but after it crosses the Highland line the Forth does not present many passages of remarkable beauty. There are bridges at Aberfoyle, Gartmore, Frew, Drip and Stirling (2), besides railway viaducts at Stirling and Alloa, and there are ferries at Stirling (for Cambuskenneth), Alloa (for South Alloa) and Kincardine (for Airth). The tide rises to 4-1/2 m. above Stirling, where the river is navigable at high water by vessels of 100 tons. There is, however, a brisk shipping trade at Alloa, where the dock accommodates vessels of at least 300 tons.

The Firth of Forth extends from Kincardine to the North Sea, that is, to an imaginary line drawn, just west of the Isle of May, from the East Neuk of Fife to the mouth of the Tyne in Haddingtonshire--a distance of 48 m. Thus, according to some calculations, the Forth measures from source to sea 114 m. The width of the firth varies from 1/2 m. at Kincardine and 1-1/2 m. at Queensferry to 6-1/2 m. at Leith and 17-1/2 m. at the mouth. The chief affluents are, on the south, the Carron, Avon, Almond, Leith, Esk and Tyne, and on the north, the Tiel, Leven, Kiel and Dreel. The principal ports on the south shore are Grangemouth, Bo'ness, Granton and Leith, and on the north, Burntisland and Kirkcaldy; but fishery centres and holiday resorts are very numerous on both coasts. Since the opening of the Forth Bridge (see Bridges) in 1890 the ferries at Queensferry and Burntisland have greatly diminished in importance. The fisheries are still considerable, though the oyster trade is dwindling. The larger islands are Inchcolm, with the ruins of an abbey, Inchkeith, with fortifications and a lighthouse, and the Isle of May, with a lighthouse. The anchorage of St Margaret's Hope, with the naval base of Rosyth, lies off the shore of Fife immediately to the west of the Forth Bridge.

The Forth was the _Bodotria_ of Tacitus and the Scots Water of the chroniclers of the 11th and 12th centuries; while Bede (d. 735) knew the firth as _Sinus orientalis_ (the Eastern Gulf), and Nennius (fl. 796) as _Mare Friesicum_ (the Frisian Sea).

FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT. "Fortification" is the military art of strengthening positions against attack. The word (Lat. _fortis_, strong, and _facere_, to make) implies the creation of defences. Thus the boy who from the top of a mound defies his comrades, or shelters from their snowballs behind a fence, is merely taking advantage of ground; but if he puts up a hurdle on his mound and stands behind that he has fortified his position.

Fortification consists of two elements, viz. _protection_ and _obstacle_. The protection shields the defender from the enemy's missiles; the obstacle prevents the enemy from coming to close quarters, and delays him under fire.

_Protection_ may be of several kinds, direct or indirect. Direct protection is given by a wall or rampart of earth, strong enough to stop the enemy's missiles. The value of this is reduced in proportion as the defender has to expose himself to return the enemy's fire, or to resist his attempts to destroy the defences. Indirect protection is given by _distance_, as for instance by a high wall placed on a cliff so that the defender on the top of the wall is out of reach of the enemy's missiles if these are of short range, such as arrows. This kind of defence was very popular in the middle ages. In the present day the same object is attained by pushing out detached forts to such a distance from the town they are protecting that the besieger cannot bombard the town as long as he is outside the forts. Another form of indirect protection of great importance is concealment.

The _obstacle_ may consist of anything which will impede the enemy's advance and prevent him from coming to close quarters. In the earliest forms of fortification the protecting wall was also the obstacle, or it may be a wet or dry ditch, an entanglement, a swamp, a thorn hedge, a spiked palisade, or some temporary expedient, such as crows' feet or chevaux de frise. The two elements must of course be arranged in combination. The besieged must be able to defend the obstacle from their protected position, otherwise it can be surmounted or destroyed at leisure. But a close connexion is no longer essential. The effect of modern firearms permits of great elasticity in the disposition of the obstacle; and this simplifies some of the problems of defence.

Protection must be arranged mainly with reference to the enemy's methods of attack and the weapons he uses. The obstacle, on the other hand, should be of such a nature as to bring out the best effects of the defender's weapons. It follows from this that a well-armed force operating against a badly-armed uncivilized enemy may use with advantage very simple old-fashioned methods of protection; or even dispense with it altogether if the obstacle is a good one.

When the assailant has modern weapons the importance of protection is very great. In fact, it may be said that in proportion as missile weapons have grown more effective, the importance of protection and the difficulty of providing it have increased, while the necessity for a monumental physical obstacle has decreased.

The art of the engineer who is about to fortify consists in appreciating and harmonizing all the conditions of the problem, such as the weapons in use, nature of the ground, materials available, temper of assailants and defenders, strategical possibilities, expenditure to be incurred, and so forth. Few of these conditions are in themselves difficult to understand, but they are so many and their reactions are so complex that a real familiarity with all of them is essential to successful work. The keynote of the solution should be simplicity; but this is the first point usually lost sight of by the makers of "systems," especially by those who during a long period of peace have time to give play to their imaginations.

Fortification is usually divided into two branches, namely _permanent fortification_ and _field fortification_. Permanent fortifications are erected at leisure, with all the resources that a state can supply of constructive and mechanical skill, and are built of enduring materials. Field fortifications are extemporized by troops in the field, perhaps assisted by such local labour and tools as may be procurable, and with materials that do not require much preparation, such as earth, brushwood and light timber. There is also an intermediate branch known as _semi-permanent fortification_. This is employed when in the course of a campaign it becomes desirable to protect some locality with the best imitation of permanent defences that can be made in a short time, ample resources and skilled civilian labour being available.

The _objects of fortification_ are various. The vast enceintes of Nineveh and Babylon were planned so that in time of war they might give shelter to the whole population of the country except the field army, with their flocks and herds and household stuff. The same idea may be seen to-day in the walls of such cities as Kano. In the middle ages feudal lords built castles for security against the attacks of their neighbours, and also to watch over towns or bridges or fords from which they drew revenue; whilst rich towns were surrounded with walls merely for the protection of their own inhabitants and their property. The feudal castles lost their importance when the art of cannon-founding was fairly developed; and in the leisurely wars of the 17th and 18th centuries, when roads were few and bad, a swarm of fortified towns, large and small, played a great part in delaying the march of victorious armies.

In the present day isolated forts are seldom used, and only for such purposes as to block passes in mountainous districts. Fortresses are used either to protect points of vital importance, such as capital cities, military depots and dockyards, or at strategic points such as railway junctions. Combinations of fortresses are also used for more general strategic purposes, as will be explained later.

I. HISTORY

Ancient methods.

The most elementary type of fortification is the thorn _hedge_, a type which naturally recurs from age to age under primitive conditions. Thus, Alexander found the villages of the Hyrcanians defended by thick hedges, and the same arrangements may be seen to-day among the least civilized tribes of Africa. The next advance from the hedge is the _bank_ of earth, with the exterior made steep by revetments of sods or hurdle-work. This has a double advantage over the hedge, as, besides being a better obstacle against assault, it gives the defenders an advantage of position in a hand-to-hand fight. Such banks formed the defences of the German towns in Caesar's time, and they were constructed with a high degree of skill. Timber being plentiful, the parapets were built of alternate layers of stones, earth and tree trunks. The latter were built in at right angles to the length of the parapet, and were thus very difficult to displace, while the earth prevented their being set on fire. The bank was often strengthened by a palisade of tree trunks or hurdle-work.

After the bank the most important step in advance for a nation progressing in the arts was the _wall_, of masonry, sun-dried brick or mud. The history of the development of the wall and of the methods of attacking it is the history of fortification for several thousand years.

The first necessity for the wall was height, to give security against escalade. The second-was thickness, so that the defenders might have a platform on the top which would give them space to circulate freely and to use their weapons. A lofty wall, thick enough at the top for purposes of defence, would be very expensive if built of solid masonry; therefore the plan was early introduced of building two walls with a filling of earth or rubble between them. The face of the outer wall would be carried up a few feet above the platform, and crenellated to give protection against arrows and other projectiles.

The next forward step for the defence was the construction of _towers_ at intervals along the wall. These provided flanking fire along the front; they also afforded refuges for the garrison in case of a successful escalade, and from them the platform could be enfiladed.

The evolution of the wall with towers was simple. The main requirements were despotic power and unlimited labour. Thus the finest examples of the system known to history are also amongst the earliest. One of these was Nineveh, built more than 2000 years B.C. The object of its huge perimeter, more than 50 m., has been mentioned. The wall was 120 ft. high and 30 ft. thick; and there were 1500 towers.

After this no practical advance in the art of fortification was made for a very long time, from a constructional point of view. Many centuries indeed elapsed before the inventive genius of man evolved engines and methods of attack fit to cope with such colossal obstacles.

The earliest form of attack was of course _escalade_, either by ladders or by heaping up a ramp of faggots or other portable materials. When the increasing height of walls made escalade too difficult, other means of attack had to be invented. Probably the first of these were the _ram_, for battering down the walls, and _mining_. The latter might have two objects: (a) to drive an underground gallery below the wall from the besiegers' position into the fortress, or (b) to destroy the wall itself by undermining.

The use of missile _engines_ for throwing heavy projectiles probably came later. They are mentioned in the preparations made for the defence of Jerusalem against the Philistines in the 8th century B.C. They are not mentioned in connexion with the siege of Troy. At the sieges of Tyre and Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. we first find mention of the ram and of movable towers placed on mounds to overlook the walls.

Classical times.

The Asiatics, however, had not the qualities of mind necessary for a systematic development of siegecraft, and it was left for the Greeks practically to create this science. Taking it up in the 5th century B.C. they soon, under Philip of Macedon and Alexander, arrived at a very high degree of skill. They invented and systematized methods which were afterwards perfected by the Romans. Alexander's siegecraft was extremely practical. His successors endeavoured to improve on it by increasing the size of their missile and other engines, which, however, were so cumbrous that they were of little use. When the Romans a little later took up the science they returned to the practical methods of Alexander, and by the time of Caesar's wars had become past-masters of it. The highest development of siegecraft before the use of gunpowder was probably attained in the early days of the Roman empire. The beginning of the Christian era is therefore a suitable period at which to take a survey of the arts of fortification and siegecraft as practised by the ancients.

Conditions at opening of the Christian era.

In fortification the wall with towers was still the leading idea. The
towers were preferred circular in plan, as this form offered the best
resistance to the ram. The wall was usually reinforced by a ditch,
which had three advantages: it increased the height of the obstacle,
made the bringing up of the engines of attack more difficult, and
supplied material for the filling of the wall. In special cases, as at
Jerusalem and Rhodes, the enclosure walls were doubled and trebled.
Citadels were also built on a large scale.

The typical site preferred by the Romans for a fortified town was on
high ground sloping to a river on one side and with steep slopes
falling away on the other three sides. At the highest point was a
castle serving as citadel. The town enclosure was designed in
accordance with the character of the surrounding country. Where the
enemy's approach was easiest, the walls were higher, flanking towers
stronger and ditches wider and deeper. Some of the towers were made
high for look-out posts. If there was a bridge over the river, it was
defended by a bridge-head on the far side; and stockades defended by
towers were built out from either bank above and below the bridge,
between which chains or booms could be stretched to bar the passage.

The natural features of the ground were skilfully utilized. Thus when
a large town was spread over an irregular site broken by hills, the
enceinte wall would be carried over the top of the hills; and in the
intervening valleys the wall would not only be made stronger, but
would be somewhat drawn back to allow of a flanking defence from the
hill tops on either side. The walls would consist of two strong
masonry faces, 20 ft. apart, the space between filled with earth and
stones. Usually when the lie of the ground was favourable, the outside
of the wall would be much higher than the inside, the parapet walk
perhaps being but a little above the level of the town. Palisades were
used to strengthen the ditches, especially before the gates.

There was little scope, however, in masonry for the genius of Roman
warfare, which had a better opportunity in the active work of attack
and defence. For siegecraft the Roman legions were specially apt. No
modern engineer, civil or military, accustomed to rely on machinery,
steam and hydraulic apparatus, could hope to emulate the feats of the
legionaries. In earthworks they excelled; and in such work as building
and moving about colossal wooden towers under war conditions, they
accomplished things at which nowadays we can only wonder.

The attack was carried on mainly by the use of "engines," under which
head were included all mechanical means of attack--towers, missile
engines such as catapults and balistae, rams of different kinds,
"tortoises" (see below), &c. Mining, too, was freely resorted to, also
approach trenches, the use of which had been introduced by the Greeks.

The object of mining, as has been said, might be the driving of a
gallery under the wall into the interior of the place, or the
destruction of the wall. The latter was effected by excavating large
chambers under the foundations. These were supported while the
excavation was proceeding by timber struts and planking. When the
chambers were large enough the timber supports were burnt and the wall
collapsed. The besieged replied to the mining attack by countermines.
With these they would undermine and destroy the besiegers' galleries,
or would break into them and drive out the workers, either by force of
arms or by filling the galleries with smoke.

Breaches in the wall were made by rams. These were of two kinds. For
dislodging the cemented masonry of the face of the wall, steel-pointed
heads were used; when this was done, another head, shaped like a ram's
head, was substituted for battering down the filling of the wall.

For escalade they used ladders fixed on wheeled platforms; but the
most important means of attack against a high wall were the movable
towers of wood. These were built so high that from their tops the
parapet walk of the wall could be swept with arrows and stones; and
drawbridges were let down from them, by which a storming party could
reach the top of the wall. The height of the towers was from 70 to 150
ft. They were moved on wheels of solid oak or elm, 6 to 12 ft. in
diameter and 3 to 4 ft. thick. The ground floor contained one or two
rams. The upper floors, of which there might be as many as fifteen,
were furnished with missile engines of a smaller kind. The archers
occupied the top floor. There also were placed reservoirs of water to
extinguish fire. These were filled by force pumps and fitted with hose
made of the intestines of cattle. Drawbridges, either hanging or
worked on rollers, were placed at the proper height to give access to
the top of the wall, or to a breach, as might be required. Apollodorus
proposed to place a couple of rams in the upper part of the tower to
destroy the crenellations of the wall.

The siege towers had of course to be very solidly built of strong
timbers to resist the heavy stones thrown by the engines of the
defence. They were protected against fire by screens of osiers,
plaited rope or raw hides. Sometimes it was necessary, in order to
gain greater height, to place them on high terraces of earth. In that
case they would be built on the site. At the siege of Marseilles,
described by Caesar, special methods of attack had to be employed on
account of the strength of the engines used by the besieged and their
frequent sallies to destroy the siege works. A square fort, with brick
walls 30 ft. long and 5 ft. thick, was built in front of one of the
towers of the town to resist sorties. This fort was subsequently
raised to a height of six storeys, under shelter of a roof which
projected beyond the walls, and from the eaves of which hung heavy
mats made of ships' cables. The mats protected the men working at the
walls, and as these were built up the roof was gradually raised by the
use of endless screws. The roof was made of heavy beams and planks,
over which were laid bricks and clay, and the whole was covered with
mats and hides to prevent the bricks from being dislodged. This
structure was completed without the loss of a man, and could only have
been built by the Romans, whose soldiers were all skilled workmen.