their full fighting strength at a few hours’ notice? It can only be answered when the circumstances of a particular country are examined.
If we assume such an impossible case as that of two nations of equal fighting strength and equal resources standing ready in arms to defend a common frontier, and that the theatre of war presents no difficulties on either side, then the use of permanent fortifications, merely as The use and abuse of fortresses. an adjunct to military strength, is wrong. Fortresses do not decide the issue of a campaign; they can only influence it. It is better, therefore, to put all the money the fortress would have cost, and all the man-power that its maintenance implies, into the increase and equipment of the active army. For the fate of the fortress must depend utlimately on the result of the operations of the active armies. Moreover, the very assumption that resources on both sides are equal means that the nation which has spent money on permanent fortifications will have the smaller active army, and therefore condemns itself beforehand to a defensive rôle.
This general negation is only useful as a corrective to the tendency to over-fortify, for such a case cannot occur. In practice there will always be occasion for some use of fortification. A mountain range may lend itself to an economical defence by a few men and some inexpensive barrier forts. A nation may have close to its frontier an important strategic centre, such as a railway junction, or a town of the first manufacturing importance, which must be protected. In such a case it may be necessary to guard against accidents by means of a fortress. Again, if one nation is admittedly slower in mobilization than the other, it may be desirable to guard one portion of the frontier by fortresses so as to force invasion into a district where concentration against it is easiest.
As for the defence of a capital, this cannot become necessary if it stands at a reasonable distance from the frontier until the active armies have arrived at some result. If the fighting strength of the country has been practically destroyed, it is not of much use to stand a siege in the capital. There can be but one end, and it is better, as business men say, to cut losses. If the fighting strength is not entirely destroyed and can be recruited within a reasonable time, say two or three months, then it appears that under modern conditions the capital might be held for that time by means of extemporized defences. The question is one that can only be decided by going into the circumstances of each particular case.
The case of a weak country with powerful and aggressive neighbours is in a different category. If she stands alone she will be eaten up in time, fortifications or no fortifications; but if she can reckon on assistance from outside, it may be worth while to expend most of the national resources on permanent defences.
These hypothetical cases have, however, no value, except as illustrations to the most elementary arguments. The actual problems that soldiers and statesmen have to consider are too complex to be dealt with in generalities, and no mere treatise can supply the place of knowledge, thought and practice.
Bibliography.—The more important works on the subject are: Dürer, Unterricht zur Befestigung (Nuremberg, 1527); Speckle, Architectur von Festungen (Strassburg, 1589); Fritach, L’Architecture mil. ou la f. nouvelle (Paris, 1637); Pagan, Les Fortif. (Paris, 1689); de Ville, Les Fortif. (Lyons, 1629); de Fer, Introduction à la fortification (Paris, 1723); B. F. de Belidor, Science des Ingénieurs, &c. (Paris, 1729); works of Coehoorn, Vauban, Montalembert, Cormontaingne; Mandar, De l’architecture des fortresses (Paris, 1801); Chasseloup-Laubat, Essais sur quelques parties de l’artil. et de la fortification (Milan, 1811); Carnot, Défense des places fortes (Paris, 1812); Jones, Journals of Sieges in Spain (3rd ed., London, 1846); T. Choumara, Mémoire sur la fortification (1847); A. von Zastrow, Geschichte der beständigen Befestigung (N.D., Fr. trans.); works of Sir C. Pasley; Noizet, Principes de fortif. (Paris, 1859); Dufour, De la fortif. permanente (Paris, 1850); E. Viollet le Duc, L’Architecture militaire au moyen âge (Paris, 1854); Cosseron de Villenoisy, Essai historique sur la fortification (Paris, 1869); works of Brialmont (q.v.); Delambre, La Fortification dans ses rapport: avec la tactique et la stratégie (Paris, 1887); v. Sauer, Angriff und Verteidigung fester Plätze (Berlin, 1885); Schroeter, Die Festung in der heutigen Kriegführung (Berlin, 1898–1906); Baron E. v. Leithner, Die beständige Befestigung und der Festungskrieg (Vienna, 1894–1899); W. Stavenhagen, Grundriss der Befestigungslehre (Berlin, 1900–1909); Plessix and Legrand, Manuel complet de fortification (Paris, 1900, new edition 1909); Ritter v. Brunner, Die beständige Befestigung (Vienna, 1909), Die Feldbefestigung (Vienna, 1904); Rocchi, Traccia per lo studio della fortificazione permanente (Turin, 1902); Sir G. S. Clarke, Fortification 1907); V. Deguise, La Fortification permanente contemporaine Brussels, 1908); Royal Military Academy, Text-book of Fortification, pt. ii. (London, 1893); British official Instruction in Military Engineering, pts. i., ii. and iv. (London, 1900–1908). (L. J.)
FORTLAGE, KARL (1806–1881), German philosopher, was
born at Osnabrück. After teaching in Heidelberg and Berlin,
he became professor of philosophy at Jena (1846), a post which he
held till his death. Originally a follower of Hegel, he turned to
Fichte and Beneke (q.v.), with whose insistence on psychology as
the basis of all philosophy he fully agreed. The fundamental idea
of his psychology is impulse, which combines representation (which
presupposes consciousness) and feeling (i.e. pleasure). Reason
is the highest thing in nature, i.e. is divine in its nature, God is
the absolute Ego and the empirical egos are his instruments.
Fortlage’s chief works are: Genetische Geschichte d. Philos. seit Kant (Leipzig, 1852); System d. Psych. als empirische Wissenschaft (2 vols., Leipzig, 1855); Darstellung und Kritik der Beweise für das Dasein Gottes (Heidelberg, 1840); Beiträge zur Psych. als Wissenschaft (Leipzig, 1875).
FORT LEE, a borough of Bergencounty, New Jersey, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, on the W. bank of the Hudson river, opposite the northern part of New York City. Pop. (1905) 3433; (1910) 4472. It is connected with the neighbouring towns and cities by electric railways, and by ferry with New York City, of which it is a residential suburb. The main part of the borough lies along the summit of the Palisades; north of Fort Lee is an Interstate Palisades Park. Early in the War of Independence the Americans erected here a fortification, first called Fort Constitution but later renamed Fort Lee, in honour of General Charles Lee. The name of the fort was subsequently applied to the village that grew up in its vicinity. From the 15th of September until the 20th of November 1776 Fort Lee was held by Gen. Nathanael Greene with a garrison of 3500 men, but the capture by the British of Fort Washington on the opposite bank of the river and the crossing of the Hudson by Lord Cornwallis with 5000 men made it necessary for Greene to abandon this post and join Washington in the famous “retreat across the Jerseys.” An attempt to recapture Fort Lee was made by General Anthony Wayne in 1780, but was unsuccessful. On the site of the fort a monument, designed by Carl E. Tefft and consisting of heroic figures of a Continental trooper and drummer boy, was erected in 1908. The borough of Fort Lee was incorporated in 1904.
FORT MADISON, a city and the county-seat of Lee county, Iowa, U.S.A., on the Mississippi river, in the S.E. corner of the state, and about 20 m. S.W. of Burlington. Pop. (1890) 7901; (1900) 9278, of whom 1025 were foreign-born; (1905) 8767; (1910) 8900. Fort Madison is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé (which has repair shops here) and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railways. The city has various manufactures, including canned goods, chairs, paper and farm implements; the value of its factory product in 1905 was $2,378,892, an increase of 50.8% over that of 1900. Fort Madison is the seat of one of Iowa’s penitentiaries. A stockade fort was erected on the site of the city in 1808, but was burned in 1813. Permanently settled in 1833, Fort Madison was laid out as a town in 1836, and was chartered as a city in 1839.
FORTROSE (Gaelic for t’rois, “the wood on the promontory”), a royal and police burgh, and seaport of the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1179. It is situated on the south-eastern coast of the peninsula of the Black Isle, 8 m. due N.N.E. of Inverness, 2614 m. by rail. It is the terminus of the Black Isle branch of the Highland railway; there is communication by steamer with Inverness and also with Fort George, 212 m. distant, by ferry from Chanonry Ness. Fortrose consists of the two towns of Rosemarkie and Chanonry, about 1 m. apart, which were united into a free burgh by James II. in 1455 and created a royal burgh in 1590. It is a place of considerable antiquity, a monastery having been established in the 6th century by St Moluag, a friend of Columba’s, and St Peter’s
