PROCESS OF BATTERING A FORTRESS. 169 fortress, they commence the operation of battering, to form a breach. The cannon balls are first directed to strike with precision on the face of the stone work to break through it in a line of the form of the letter U. After the continual blows of the projected masses of iron have splintered and crumbled away the stones, like the operation of great sledge hammers, and have battered a deep furrow in a horizontal line at the bottom of the wall, and have cut two perpendicular channels through the stone work to unite at the bottom with the horizontal one, a section of the wall be comes thus insulated from the rest, and cut off from support. The battery is now discharged in salvos, or at once, and the whole mass, shaken by the shock, tumbles forward into the ditch. The largest fragments of masonry adhering together still require to be broken up by the cannon balls into smaller pieces, for allowing soldiers to walk over them. After this operation is completed, the breach is said to be practicable. The commander of a walled city containing women and children, it is held, is now justified in surrendering. Whilst their wall is thus battered, the besieged do not remain idle; but they sometimes build up a new wall behind the battered one, on the fall of which the besiegers have a view of the fresh obstacle to be overcome. After all these outer defences are beaten down, the garrison retreat to a small internal fort, called the citadel, which is in turn to be attacked and overcome. It was in these protracted attacks and defences, that powerful armies wasted whole campaigns. Such were the wars of Marlborough, in this quarter of the country. In modern tactics, invading armies, with a bold innovation on the old rule of never leaving a fortified post in the rear, dispose a force in front of each fortress more powerful than the garrison it contains, to mask it; and they then without loss of time push forward to strike at the capital, cal 170 CONVENT CONVERTED INTO A culating, that when the capital city of an European nation falls, the dependant extremities yield with it. From the top of the ramparts of the citadel of Lille, the fields of the adjacent country appear enlivened by the white moving canvass of several hundred windmills, which are employed to grind the wheat harvests of this most fertile region, as well as for various purposes connected with manufactures. CONVENT CONVERTED INTO A COTTON MILL. At Lille we visited an extensive cotton manufactory operated by steam power. An ancient convent has been here appropriated to the purposes of cotton-spinning, and the hum of machinery now resounds through the vaulted chambers and cloisters, instead of the measured notes of the matin and vesper anthems of the nuns, who once occupied these walls. It produces a most singular effect upon the mind to ascend the stone steps of a sculptured spacious stairway, and to view the anciently chiselled pillars and arches rising above the ranges of the machinery, freshly painted with bright colors, and rendered animated with rapidly revolving wheels. The spectator naturally falls into a revery upon the strange contrast between the original design for which these halls were constructed, and their present use. We here saw mules of 160 spindles each operated entirely by manual labor. This sort of spinning machine we had supposed to be, at the present day, every where turned by belts and pullies connected with some cheap moving power; but at this cotton mill the spindles were turned by the two men, who seized the crank, and by a vigorous exertion of their united strength, the threads were twisted in the same manner as was practised on the invention of this machine in England, nearly half a century ago. Notwithstanding the prices paid for the same descriptions of labor in France are less than those paid in England, it would appear in this instance that the superior skill of the English operatives, as well as the improved machinery generally employed by them, yield comparatively so much greater products as nearly to equalize the difference in the cost of labor. I have seen, for instance, in England, within the period of a few months, one man, with the aid of two girls and a boy, operating with the greatest apparent facility two mules containing about 700 spindles; whilst here I have found two Frenchmen exerting their utmost force to turn by their manual labor the crank of a single mule of less than 200 spindles, with a boy to assist in piecing the threads, notwithstanding a steam engine was in operation here to perform the carding of the cotton. This, it should be observed, is the only instance of hand spinning that I have witnessed in France, horses, and water and steam power being generally resorted to for the purpose. The yarn manufactured in this cotton mill is fine, and of even texture. In another manufactory, operated by horses, notwithstanding the irregularity of the moving power, a very fine and regular thread is produced, manifesting that careful labor and attention will, in some measure, make amends for the inferiority of mechanical contrivances, as is evinced in the spider-like webs fabricated in India by the single distaff twirled by the finger, and woven beneath a tree in the open air. Lille is a border town, situated on the confines of France. A portion of the low countries, including Brussels, was once considered as forming an integral part of the French empire. Immediately on passing the frontiers of Belgium, we were reminded of a change of country by the appearance of the sign boards, partly in Dutch characters, and by the hoarse guttural accents of the Dutch 172 THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS.—GREAT CANNON. language. The custom-house officers are here civil, merely opening the portmanteaux and closing them again, without examination. GHENT. The name of Ghent, where we passed a day, is familiar to every American, the treaty of peace between the United States and England having been negotiated and signed in this city. To a stranger the most interesting object is the University, a new and spacious building of substantial hewn stone, containing many large apartments and halls for the lectures of professors. It was stated to us that the number of students is about 300. The theological students must be numerous indeed, judging from the multitudes who appear in their peculiar costume in the streets, with their long black silken scarfs streaming in the wind or trailing upon the ground. The expenses of education are in this city very low, and many English children are sent here to be educated, with a view to economy, as well as to the excellence of the literary institutions. Ancient Piece of Ordnance. A remarkable ancient cannon, formed of bars of wrought iron, is mounted near a public square. Judging from its appearance, it must have been one of the earliest specimens of the manufacture of this powerful implement of war. The bars of wrought iron are welded together side by side, like the staves of a cask, to form the huge tube, the cavity of which is sufficiently large to admit a man to crawl into it without inconvenience; and thick iron hoops encircle the tube to add to its strength. It is fifteen feet in length, and is truly a most massy, ponderous, engine of destructionsufficiently so, indeed, to entitle it to the appellation of "murthering machine," anciently given to these great CHIMES OF BELLS. 173 guns by mailed warriors, who preferred to die by the hand of fellow-warriors in a fair fight, hand to hand, in the open field, rather than to be knocked down by unseen missiles projected by ignoble artillerists. A public garden is here also open for the instruction as well as the gratification of the citizens, the botanical names of the plants being painted upon small labels attached to each, to designate its class. Such tasteful and cheap amusements indicate a refinement of manners or habits which might be safely adopted in a republican country. The chimes of bells in this city are almost incessant, a short tune being struck up at the expiration of each quarter of an hour, by means of machinery moved by clock work. To strangers, unaccustomed to the sounds of bells through the quiet hours of the night, the chimes are sources rather of annoyance than of pleasure. Ghent is situated, upon the Scheldt, and, it is stated, once surpassed in extent the city of Paris. The streets are intersected by canals, which form numerous islands connected together by two or three hundred bridges. This city is said to be the centre of the principal manufacturing district of the Netherlands. It was stated to me by a machinist who has been for some time resident here, that there are few power looms in operation in the Netherlands, as we had found to be the case in France. At one of the cotton-mills, the proprietor denied us admission, disclosing his apprehensions, in sentences composed of half Dutch and French, that we wished to see his mill to gain knowledge; and like a bargain-driving Dutchman, he seemed unwilling to allow any body to be a gainer through his means, unless he could be a gainer also and share the profits. As he held the keys of knowledge with such a griping hand, we offered no arguments; but from a partial view of a portion of ancient machinery dis 16* VOL. II. |