WATER-GATE OF TILBURY FORT.
This daring attack was no doubt the cause of Tilbury Fort being made to assume its present form. It is now a regular fortification, and may be justly looked upon as the key to the City of London. The plan of the building was laid out by Sir Martin Beckman, chief engineer to Charles II., who also designed the works at Sheerness. The foundation is laid upon piles driven down, two on end of each other, till they were assured they were below the channel of the river, and that the piles, which were pointed with iron, entered into the solid chalk rock. On the land side, the works are complete; the bastions are faced with brick. There is a double ditch, or moat, the innermost of which is 180 feet broad, with a good counterscarp, and a covered way marked out with ravelins and tenailles. There are some small brick redoubts; the chief strength, however, of this part of the fort consists in being able to lay the whole level under water, and, by that means, make it impossible for an enemy to carry on approaches that way. On the river side is a very strong curtain, with the picturesque water-gate shown in our engraving in the middle. Before this curtain is a platform, in the place of a counterscarp, on which are planted cannon of large size. These completely command the river, and would no doubt cripple the ships of an enemy attempting to pass in this direction. A few years ago there were placed on the platform 106 cannon, carrying from 24 to 46 pounds each, besides smaller ones planted between them. The bastions and curtains are also planted with guns.
The circular tower shown in the engraving was in existence in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and was called the Block-house.
RINGING THE CHANGES.
It is curious to note the number of changes which may be rung on different peals. The changes on seven bells are 5,040; on twelve 479,001,600, which it would take ninety-one years to ring at the rate of two strokes in a second. The changes on fourteen bells could not be rung through at the same rate in less than 16,575 years: and upon four-and-twenty, they would require more than 117,000 billions of years.
DISGRACEFUL STATE OF THE LONDON POLICE IN 1724.
That notorious burglar, Jack Sheppard, finished his disgraceful career at Tyburn in the year 1724, and we notice the event, not with the view of detailing the disgusting particulars of an execution, but because the outrages which were allowed to take place after the dreadful scene was over, exhibit in a striking light the miserable police regulations which existed at that period, and the manner in which the mob were allowed to have it nearly all their own way. The Sheriff's officers, aware of the person they had to contend with, thought it prudent to secure his hands on the morning of execution. This innovation produced the most violent resistance on Sheppard's part; and the operation was performed by force. They then proceeded to search him, and had reason to applaud their vigilance, for he had contrived to conceal a penknife in some part of his dress. The ceremony of his departure from our world passed without disorder; but, the instant the time expired for the suspension of the body, an undertaker, who had followed by his friends' desire with a hearse and attendants, would have conveyed it to St. Sepulchre's churchyard for interment; but the mob, conceiving that surgeons had employed this unfortunate man, proceeded to demolish the vehicle, and attack the sable dependants, who escaped with difficulty. They then seized the body, and, in the brutal manner common to those wretches, beat it from each to the other till it was covered with bruises and dirt, and till they reached Long-acre, where they deposited the miserable remains at a public-house called the Barley-mow. After it had rested there a few hours the populace entered into an enquiry why they had contributed their assistance in bringing Sheppard to Long-acre; when they discovered they were duped by a bailiff, who was actually employed by the surgeons; and that they had taken the corpse from a person really intending to bury it. The elucidation of their error exasperated them almost to phrensy, and a riot immediately commenced, which threatened the most serious consequences, The inhabitants applied to the police, and several magistrates attending, they were immediately convinced the civil power was insufficient to resist the torrent of malice ready to burst forth in acts of violence. They therefore sent to the Prince of Wales and the Savoy, requesting detachments of the guards; who arriving, the ringleaders were secured, the body was given to a person, a friend of Sheppard, and the mob dispersed to attend it to the grave at St. Martin's in the fields, where it was deposited in an elm coffin, at ten o'clock the same night, under a guard of soldiers, and with the ceremonies of the church.
A TRIUMPH OF ENERGY.
After the accession of Tippoo Saib to the throne of Mysore in 1782, the English made overtures for a termination of the war which had been commenced by his father; but flushed by the possession of a large army, a well-filled treasury, a passion for war, and an inordinate sense of his own importance, Tippoo refused all terms of pacification, and left the English no alternative but to battle against him as they could. Lord Macartney, who was at that time the Governor of Madras, on becoming acquainted with the determination of Tippoo, resolved to prosecute hostilities with the greatest vigour, and having placed Col. Fullerton at the head of his force, he provided him with an army, collected from various parts, of 16,000 good troops, and afforded that excellent officer all available assistance in carrying the war into Tippoo's territory. Fullerton laid his plans with considerable skill; he encouraged the natives to bring and sell provisions to him on his march, effectually checked devastation and plundering, scrupulously respected the religious opinions of the Hindus, consolidated and improved the mode of march, and availed himself of the subtle cunning and nimble feet of the natives to establish a remarkably complete courier-system, whereby he could receive and communicate intelligence with a rapidity never before attained by any European officer in India. He had to choose between two systems of strategy—either to march through the Mysore territory, and frustrate Tippoo in his siege of Mangalore; or boldly to attack Seringapatam, in order to compel Tippoo to leave Mangalore as a means of defending his own capital. The colonel decided on the adoption of the latter course, as promising more fruitful results. Being at Daraporam, 200 miles south of Seringapatam, Fullerton resolved to divert the route, and take a circuit nearer the western coast, where the capture of the strong fort of Palagatcherry would afford him a valuable intermediate depôt, commanding one of the chief roads from the Malabar to the Coromandel coasts. On the 18th of October he started. After capturing a few small forts, he ascended to high ground, where dense forests, deep ravines, and tortuous water courses embarrassed every yard of his progress: to fill up the ravines before he could drag his artillery over them, to throw trees across them where the depth was too great for filling up, to clear gaps through forests with the axe, to contend against tremendous rains—were only part of the difficulties he had to meet; but he met them like a skilful commander, reached Palagatcherry on the 5th of November, and captured the fort on the 15th, obtaining with it a welcome supply of money, grain, guns, powder, shot, and military stores. When the difficulties which Colonel Fullerton had to encounter, and the triumphant manner in which he overcame them, are taken into consideration, it will be readily admitted, we think, that his enterprise is well deserving of being recorded as a striking example of what may be accomplished by a union of professional skill and invincible energy. Our engraving represents one of the devices which Colonel Fullerton employed for the purpose of enabling his forces to pass over a mountain torrent.