THE ENCYCLOPABIA BRITANNICA, VOLUME Ix.* THE ninth volume rather carries
on the business of the book, as it were, than exhibits papers by crack names; nor, for the reasons assigned in noticing the eighth volume some few months ago are we sure that merely great names are a very great ad- vantage except for advertising purposes. A celebrated man is not so amenable to editorial discipline as a lesser person. Yet it is this discipline, this sinking of the individual in the plan of the work, that is in most cases the paramount rule of an encyclopaedia, if it is really to answer its main object as a book of reference and ready information. Original treatises in the sense of new dis- ()ovules or new views are out of place. What is wanted is a con- densed and complete view of existing knowledge in arts, sciences, and other branches of information, done upon something like a uniform scale. And this is perhaps better done by a merely competent person than by a man of popular eminence. If a great genius , enters thoroughly into his work in a business spirit so as to be amenable to control, and if he possesses at the same time considerable skill in popular exposition, there is of course a ne plus ultra. Such a card, however, is rarely to. be got. More generally, a famous man will throw off his work easily, for he does not choose to sink his best thoughts in a joint- stock company ; or, if he earnestly enter into the project, he will produce an excellent treatise but hardly adapted to the place of its appearance. He will expatiate on that which particularly ex- cites his attention, and pass over that which is equally important for a whole view of the subject; or if he takes in all, the paper will be too long. It may further be observed, that at the com- mencement of cyclopsedias, upwards of half a century ago, eminent names were more necessary than they are now. Chemistry, me- chanics, many branches of natural philosophy, were in their in- fancy. The large amount of knowledge which is now found in every professor at every public school of mark was nonexistent. In those days, it was only an original genius in science that knew much about it.
One of the most earnest and conscientious articles in this volume is that of Mr. James Wilson on Fisheries. The author has thrown himself into his subject con amore ; luxuriating, as it were, in the natural history, artificial breeding, and fishery of salmon as well as in the Scotch law and practice relating to the fishery. Nor is this merely national. The Irish salmon and his congeners are treated with almost equal fulness. Then follow the Irish and Scotch sea- fisheries, the herring and mackerel fisheries of England, and in a slighter way some account of the Newfoundland and German Ocean fisheries. The whole is full, informing, and suggestive, and of other things beside fishes—the questions connected with the channels of national industry, for instance. At the same time, it is rather a book than an article, and contains a good deal of matter that is not essentially connected with its main subject. "Entomology," by the same author, is equally elaborate, but more closely limited to its subject.
"Fortification," by Lieutenant-Colonel Portlock, is another new paper, but in which the cyclopmdic character is distinctly visible. The style, indeed, is occasionally rather technical, and the dia- gramie exposition deficient in neatness ; but the plan is well con- ceived, and the military preacher sticks to his text. He first lays down the essential principles of the science ; then applies them to practice in field fortification, and next to town fortification. He illustrates the theory by some striking examples of actual sieges, presents a history of military engineering in a critical resume of authors, and winds up with a brief account of the different lays- toms of fortification. Sebastopol is alluded to in passing, but only illustratively. This is the most important passage—written before the news arrived of the fall of the fortress.
•
* The Encyclopedia Britannica, or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. Eighth Edition; with extensive Improvements and .Additions. Vtalume IX. Published by Black, Edinburgh.
The protracted and able defence of Sebastopol will doubtless lead many to doubt the accuracy of the opinion thus stated, and to imagine that the Russians have by some new defensive arrangements solved the problem so long under discussion, and again restored to the defence its former superiority over the attack. This idea has indeed so taken possession of the public mind, that already persons have been found ready not only to assert the supposed fact, but also to explain the mode in which the improvement has been effected : whenever Sebastopol shall fall, and as regards the Southern defences the period of such fall seems approaching, this delusion will doubt- less be dispelled, and the real merits of the Russian engineers will be found to consist not in the discovery of new principles, but in the skilful application of those principles which, recognized at an early period, have been by de- grees matured and enlarged. In estimating the comparative results of the attack aud defence of Sebastopol, it must be remembered that neither can be judged by strict rules, as neither has conformed to such rules.
"The North side being left open by the impossibility of fully investing the whole line of defences, the South became a detached line of powerful in- trenchments, upon which the whole force of an army, not of a garrison, could be directed at will in its defence. In another point, also, the attack has not had its usual advantage, not having been able to use, with the cus- tomary effect, the enfilading ricochet fire, as the disposition of the line of works was such as not to offer sufficiently salient points, and therefore to leave so much to be done by direct fire. The unlimited extent of the garri- son, being capable of continued renewal from the external army, has per- mitted the use of detached forts, or works which, when backed by a line in rear of them sufficiently strong to resist a coup-de-main, constitute one of the most powerful modes of defence."
The following passage is interesting for its general reference to, the Redan, where from some cause or other the sap terminated two hundred yards from the work, and for its exposition of the ne- cessity of soldier-workmen in sieges. • "From this description it must be obvious that the most important object' at a siege is to carry forward the covered road to the walls of the place; that" all the other operations are secondary to and in furtherance of such an ad- Vance; and that hence the efficiency of armies at sieges depends upon their ability to complete the road at a small expense of life. But in forming this covered road, different degrees of difficulty are experienced in proportion as it advances. At its commencement, the work being about six hundred yards from the fortifications, can easily be performed by the common soldiers. But when the road or trench has arrived within a fair range of musketry, or three hundred yards from the place, then particular precautions are required; yet the work at this stage is not so difficult as to prevent its being execided by soldiers who have had a little previous training. At the last stage, when the approaches have been pushed close to the place ; when to be seen is to be killed ; when mine after mine blows up the headof the road, with every- officer and man on the spot : when the space becomes so confined that little or no front of defence can be obtained ; and when the enemy's grenadiers sally forth every moment to attack the workmen, and deal out destruction to all less courageous or weaker than themselves; then the work becomes truly hazardous, and can only be performed by selected brave men, idled sappers, who have acquired the difficult and dangerous art from which they derive their name."
The illustrations of the volume deserve a word. Entomology, Etruscan art, and Fortification, are elucidated by numerous copperplates, engraved in a good style of art.
Previous page
