In 1808 a French land-battery of only three guns, near Fort Trinidad, drove off an English seventy-four-gun ship, and a bomb-vessel.

In 1813 Leghorn, whose defences were of a very mediocre character, and whose garrison at that time was exceedingly weak, was attacked by an English squadron of six ships, carrying over three hundred guns, and a land force of one thousand troops.  The whole attempt was a perfect failure.

“In 1814, when the English advanced against Antwerp,” says Colonel Mitchell, an English historian, “Fort Frederick, a small work of only two guns, was established in a bend of the Polder Dyke, at some distance below Lillo.  The armament was a long eighteen-pounder and a five and a half inch howitzer.  From this post the French determined to dislodge the English, and an eighty-gun ship dropped down with the tide and anchored near the Flanders shore, about six hundred yards from the British battery.  By her position she was secured from the fire of the eighteen-pounder, and exposed to that of the howitzer only.  As soon as every thing was made tight her broadside was opened; and if noise and smoke were alone sufficient to ensure success in war, as so many of the moderns seem to think, the result of this strange contest would not have been long doubtful, for the thunder of the French artillery actually made the earth to shake again; but though the earth shook, the single British howitzer was neither dismounted nor silenced; and though the artillery-men could not, perfectly exposed as they were, stand to their gun while the iron hail was striking thick and fast around, yet no sooner did the enemy’s fire slacken for a moment than they sprang to their post, ready to return at least one shot for eighty.  This extraordinary combat lasted from seven o’clock in the morning till near twelve at noon, when the French ship, having had forty-one men killed and wounded, her commander being in the list of the latter, and having besides sustained serious damage in her hull and rigging, returned to Antwerp without effecting any thing whatever.  The howitzer was not dismounted, the fort was not injured,—­there being in fact nothing to injure,—­and the British had only one man killed and two wounded.”

It is unnecessary to further specify examples from the wars of the French Revolution; the whole history of these wars is one continued proof of the superiority of fortifications as a maritime frontier defence.  The sea-coast of France is almost within stone’s throw[18] of the principal British naval depots; here were large towns and harbors, filled with the rich commerce of the world, offering the dazzling attraction of rich booty.  The French navy was at this time utterly incompetent to their defence; while England supported a maritime force at an annual expense of near ninety millions of dollars. Her largest fleets were continually cruising within sight of these seaports, and not unfrequently attempting to cut out