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main army. The line of circumvallation, the park of artillery, the line of countervallation, trenches and parallels, propereft parts for attacking, opening of trenches, fap, batteries, fallies, lodgment on the glacis, and taking the covert-way, batteries on the covert-way, defcent and paffage of the ditch of the half-moon, attack of reduits, bastions, lunets, horn-works, crown-works, and of every other part of a fortification, that has hitherto been invented for the fecurity of towns, or the protection of countries. These feveral articles make the fubjects of fo many diftinct chapters.' To thefe fucceed the attack of a place fituated on uneven ground, of a place furrounded with a morafs, near a great river, on a hill, and of a maritime town. We are then taught how to prevent fuccours from being thrown into a town befieged, the manner of raifing a fiege, of attacking fmall towns and caftles, of furprifing large places, of taking a place by fcalade, and in what cafe, and by what means a fiege may be accelerated.

The author having in the first volume treated, very amply, the prefent method of attack, proceeds, in the fecond, to inform his readers in what manner they are to fruftrate the defigns of the befiegers. He begins, very properly, with confidering the garrifon, provifions, ammunition, and general difpofitions neceffary for a vigorous defence. He then defcends to the manner of fuftaining each particular work, or part of the fortification; defcanting, fomewhat largely, on the defence of fmall towns, caftles, caffines, &c. In this laft part, he confeffes to have borrowed confiderably from the Chevalier Folard's commentary on Polybius; as alfo to have copied from an able engineer (whom he does not name) the memorial, fubjoined to this treatise, containing a fummary account of the principal things to be obferved in reconnoitering a place. To this memorial, he adds, feveral of - his own notes, and concludes the whole with a fhort dictionary, of the terms that moft frequently occur in fortification, artillery, attack and defence, &c. Thus far Mr. Le Blond. The remainder of this volume, as we have feen in the title page, contains a fuccinct account of three remarkable fieges, viz. Bois le Duc, Namur, and Bergen-op-zoom,

The fiege of Bois-le-Duc, (fays the tranflator in his preface) formed by the Dutch under the command of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, lafted from the first of May 1629, to the fourteenth of September: there were five attacks, one carried on by the English and French,

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< under the Prince of Orange on the fouth-west quarter of the town; another carried against the north-cast quarter by the Scotch, under the command of Count Erneft Cafimir of Naffau; another under the conduct of the Baron de Broderode, was directed against the fouth-eaft fide: Count William of Naflau had the command of the attack on the north, and the Sieur Pinfen, Governor of Rees, attacked on the weft-fide. In this fiege, it feems, as if the method of carrying on direct approaches through a morafs, was firft ufed. Such approaches were conducted in the attacks of both Count Earneft, and Count William; their two approaches being joined, the attack was in conjunction carried on towards the Hintem-gate, where the horn-work and the ravelin between it and the town, were in poffeffion of the befiegers, when the chamade was beat at the Vucht-gate: the French having alfo made themfelves mafters of fort Ifabel on the eighteenth of July, and the English of fort St. Antony on the nineteenth, they in conjunction, carried on the approaches towards Vuchtgate; and here the breach in St. Peter's baftion was made, which brought on the capitulation, when the besieged were allowed the honours of war; the account of this fiege was first published in French in a small folio fize, and printed at Leuwarden in Friezeland, 1630.

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The fiege of Namur in 1695, was conducted by King William the Third. The whole was completely invested on the fecond of July, the town capitulated on the fourth of Auguft, and the caftle and other works on the hill capitulated from the first of September. The King's quarters extended from the Macfe to the fouth-east of the town, quite to the Sambre on the north-weft of the place. The Elector of Bavaria's quarters extended from the Sambre, on the north-weft of the town, down to the Maefe on the fouth-weft: and the quarters of the Brandenburghers extended from the fouth-eaft to the fouth-weft, on the fide of Condroz, or fouth-fide of the Maefe: what is faid on this fubject, is a tranflation of a folio book printed at the Hague 1696, and entitled, Relation de la Campagne de Flandre et du fiege de Namur, en l'année 1695. The plates were engraved by order of King William, and the • book published by his permiffion.

The fiege of Bergen-op-zoom in the year 1747, was formed by the French under the command of Martha Lowendhal; the town was defended by the allies unde General Cronftrom, and the lines by the Allies, unde

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the Prince of Saxe-Hilbourghaufen. The French came ⚫ against the town on the twelfth of July, and it was taken by affault on the fixteenth of September. This place having the river Scheld running on the fouth and foutheaft parts, and very strong lines ftretching from the north weftward through moraffes, it was only to be attacked • between the north-eaft and fouth-eaft parts, and the French • made their approaches on the eaft fide. The Journal given in this work is fomething more than what was publifhed in French in a quarto work printed at Strasbourg • in the year 1750, and entitled, Plans et Journaux des fieges de la derniere guerre de Flandres raffemblés par deux capitaines • eftrangers au fervice de France. For a copy of a manufcript journal of the fiege, kept by a very confiderable ⚫ officer in the service of the Allies, and fent over to England for the use of a great perfon, fome time fince deceafed, having fallen into the hands of the editor, he has blended the two journals together; and thereby, as he apprehends, has given a more diftinct account of the 'tranfactions on both fides, than has before been made 'public.'

This tranfcript will be fufficient to inform the reader. what he may expect to find in the account of these three remarkable fieges, which are the more inftructive as they were formed in diftant periods of time: thus every improvement will be evidently confpicuous. Upon the whole, the translation appears to be a good one; and, we make no doubt, it will be very acceptable to our young ftudents in the art of war.

Philofophical Tranfactions, Concluded. See our laft, Page 128.

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AVING given a separate account of the Mathematical Papers contained in this part of the volume, we fhall clafs the remaining articles, in like manner, under the sciences to which they more immediately relate; by which means, as we cannot enlarge upon each in their order, the reader may the more readily take a view of the entertainment and inftruction he is like to meet with, in his own particular branch of knowlege.

The articles which belong to Natural Hiftory, &c. are as follow.

Art.

Of PLANTS.

Art. 65. Some Obfervations on the Sleep of Plants; and an Account of that Faculty which Linnæus calls VIGILIA FLORUM. By Mr. Pulteney of Leicester.

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Acofta, and Profper Alpinus, are fuppofed to have been the firft who observed that nocturnal change in the Leaves of Plants, fince called their Sleep. It is now more than twenty years fince Linnæus first attended to it; and at present the Phænomenon, and its caufe, are very generally known. What the fame Naturalift calls the Vigilia Florum, is an appearance equally entertaining and curious. It is found, that by virtue of a certain quality, there are a clafs of Flowers, which open and fhut duly and conftantly at determinate hours; and this with fo little variation, in point of time, as to render them well worth the obfervation of all whofe tafte leads them this way. Linnæus has enumerated near fifty Plants, whose Flowers open and shut in this manner; a lift of which is annexed to this article.

Art. 86. Obfervations on the Sea Alga with broad Leaves. By Dr. Andrew Peyffonel.

Art. 90. A Lift of Fifty Plants prefented to the Society by the Apothecary's Company: for 1757.

Art. 91. A Memoir concerning a Genus of Plants called Lichen, &c. By Dr. Watson.

This is a curious article, and well worth the perufal of the Botanist.

Art. 105. Singular Obfervations on the Manchinelle Apple. By Dr. Andrew Peyffonel.

Tho' the fatal effects arifing from the Manchinelle Tree and its Fruit, are known to many, fome of our Readers may not have been informed, perhaps, that the Savages use the Juice of this Fruit to poison their arrows, the wounds of which are thereby rendered mortal; that the rain which wafhes off the Leaves, and falls on the human body, causes blifters to rife like boiling oil; and that even the fhade of the tree is fatal to those who fit under it. The fingular obfervations here made are, that a breeding woman eat three of these Apples, without receiving any prejudice from them; and that a man who had eaten two dozen of them was, by timely evacuations, happily relieved.

Art,

Art. 114. A farther Account of the Poisonous Effects of the Hemlock Dropwort; or the Oenanthe Aquatica fucco virofo crocante of Lobel. By Dr. Watson.

In the month of June, 1746, Dr. Watfon communicated to the Society, an account of feveral French Prisoners having been poisoned by this Plant, at Pembroke. This account was published in the Tranfactions, and afterwards in most of the periodical papers of the time. A late inftance, however, has evinced, fays this Gentleman, that those publications have not fully answered the end of the writer; the Plant in queftion not being yet fufficiently known and attended to. This inftance is here noticed in the cafe of one Mildane, a Cabinet-maker, of Havant in Hampshire; who, taking about five spoonfuls of the Juice of this Root, instead of the Water Parfnip, was foon after feized with vomiting and convulfions, in which he immediately died.

Art. 116. A Difcourfe on the Cinnamon, Caffia, or Canella. By Taylor White, Efq;

The intent of this Paper is to fhew, that the Caffia of Malabar and Sumatra might answer all the valuable purposes of the Cinnamon of Ceylon.

Of FOSSILES.

Art. 68. An Account of a Fofile Thigh-bone of a large Animal, dug up at Stonefield near Woodstock. By Mr. Joshua Platt.

Some Vertebræ of an enormous fize having been found, about three years ago, in the fame place, Mr. Platt, author of this paper, conceives the Thigh-bone now difcovered, might belong to the fame animal, which he fuppofes to have been an Hippopotamus or Rhinoceros, depofited there at the time of the Flood.

Art. 92. An Account of the Fofile Bones of an Allegator, found on the Sea-fhore, near Whitby in Yorkshire. By Captain. Chapman.

These Bones were prefented, together with the Description and a Drawing of them, to the Society. They were found in a Stratum, what is there called Allum-rock, a kind of Black Slate; lying near fixty yards lower than the top of the cliff; which is continually wearing away, by the washing of the Sea, and muft a Century ago have extended much farther than the spot where the Bones were found.

Art.

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