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FLIES-FLINT.

in the lower surface are drawn away from each other, and those in the upper are more closely packed together, while between the surfaces there is a line called the line of no disturbance, wherein the particles are neither drawn asunder nor compressed, and from which the mathematical theory of the flexure of beams starts. Experiments shew that the flexure of solid beams, supported at their ends, and loaded, varies--(1.) directly as the load; (2.) inversely as the product of their breadths, and the cube of their depths, and (3.) directly as the cube of the distance between the supports, while the flexure, if the load be uniformly distributed over the beam, is ths of the amount produced by the load placed on its centre. See STRENGTH OF MATERIALS.

men.

rolled F. nodules are also often found in compound rocks, and in alluvial soils; vast alluvial tracts being sometimes full of them. F. geodes often contain crystals of quartz. F. nodules are usually moist in the interior if broken when newly taken from their beds.

F. is sometimes harder than quartz, sufficiently so to scratch it. The readiness with which it strikes fire with steel is well known, and it would seem that the sparks are not all merely incandescent particles, heated by the friction, but that in some of them a chemical combination of silica and iron takes place, causing great increase of heat. The use of the F. and steel for igniting tinder, once so common, has been almost superseded by that of lucifer-matches, and gun-flints have given place the first who struck fire with flint; or more pro to percussion-caps. According to Pliny, Clias was bably, he was the first to shew its application to useful purposes; and he therefore received the name Pyrodes. The most ancient use of F. was probably for sharp weapons and cutting instruments; and F. knives, axes, arrow-heads, &c., are among the most interesting relics of rude antiquity.

manufacture of fine earthenware, into the comAt present, a principal use of F. is in the position of which it enters, being for this purpose first calcined, then thrown into cold water, and afterwards powdered.

FLIES, SPANISH or BLISTERING. See CANTHARIS. FLINDERS, MATTHEW, an adventurous English navigator, to whom we are indebted for a correct knowledge of a great portion of the Australian coasts, was born at Donington, in Lincolnshire, 1760. He entered the merchant service at an early age, and subsequently the royal navy. In 1795, the vessel in which he was midshipman conveyed the governor of New Holland to Botany Bay; and while there, F. determined to investigate the coast south of Port Jackson, about 250 leagues of which were laid down in the charts as unknown.' With an equally daring and ambitious young surgeon in his ship, called Bass, he departed on the enterprise in a small decked vessel, with a crew of only six difficulty. Silicious deposits are sometimes a purely The origin of F. is a subject of considerable Their chief discovery was the straits between chemical operation, as in the case of the silicious Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and the main-sinter formed round the geysers of Iceland, from land of Australia, which were named after Bass. In 1801, F. obtained from the British government the command of a scientific expedition for the investigation of the Australian coasts and their products. Commencing his examination at Cape Leuwin, F., in the course of two years, gradually explored the coast to Bass's Straits, thence northwards-laying down carefully the Great Barrier Reefs to the Gulf of Carpentaria, which he thoroughly surveyed across to Timur, then back to Cape Leuwin, and round the south coast to Port Jackson. In 1810 he was liberated from a six years' imprisonment by the French in the Isle of France, returned to England, and gave the world the result of his researches in a work, entitled A Voyage to Terra Australia. He died in July 1814, the day on which his book was published.

FLINDERS LAND, now South Australia (q. v.). FLINDERSIA, a genus of trees of the natural order Cedrelace, one species of which, F. australis, yields timber little inferior to mahogany. It is much used in Australia, and is there called CALLCEDRA WOOD.

FLINT, a mineral which may be regarded as a variety of quartz, or as intermediate between quartz and opal, consisting almost entirely of silica, with a very little lime, oxide of iron, water, carbon, and sometimes even traces of organic matter. It has a flat shell-like fracture, is translucent or semi-transparent, and varies in colour from a very dark brown, or almost black, to light brown, red, yellow, and grayish white, and is sometimes veined, clouded, marbled, or spotted. Dark-coloured flints are most common in the chalk, in which principally F. occurs imbedded, forming nodules of various sizes, sometimes large nodular masses, of irregular and often grotesque shape; but gravel formed of light-coloured flints is very common, and it is disputed whether or not a change of colour has taken place by exposure to atmospheric and other chemical agencies. F. is sometimes found in beds or veins. It is very abundant wherever the chalk formation extends, in England and other countries;

the evaporation of water largely charged with silex. But at the bottom of the sea, as no evaporation could take place, some other agent than springs of water saturated with silex must have supplied the materials. It is a fact of considerable importance in this inquiry, that almost all large masses of limestone have thin silicious concretions, or flints. Thus, chert is found in carboniferous and other limestones, and menilite in the tertiary limestones of the Paris basin. The conditions necessary for the deposition of calcareous strata seem to be those required for the formation of silicious concretions. The materials of both exist in solution in sea-water, and as it needed the foraminifer, the coral, and the molluse to fix the carbonate of lime which formed the chalk deposits, so the silex was secreted by innumerable diatoms and sponges, and their remains most probably supplied the material of the flint. The discovery by Dr Bowerbank and other microscopists of the spicules of sponges and the frustules of diatoms in almost every specimen of F., has clearly shewn that F. to a large extent, if not entirely, owes its origin to these minute organisms. It is, however, difficult to account for the changes that have taken place in these materials subsequent to their deposition.

FLINT, a parliamentary borough and seaport in the east of Flintshire, North Wales, formerly the capital of the county, on the left side of the estuary of the Dee, 191 miles north-west of London by rail, and 124 miles north-west of Chester. It forms a rectangle like a Roman camp, and is surrounded by now nearly obliterated ramparts and intrenchments. The Dee estuary is some miles wide here, but is shallow and narrow at low water. Vessels of 300 tons reach the town. The principal exports are coal and lead from mines in the vicinity, which afford the chief employment. Pop. (1861) 3540. It unites with seven other places in se ding one member to parliament. Roman relics and traces of Roman lead smelting-works have been found here. On a low freestone rock in a tidal marsh are the remains of a castle, built by Henry 1, and

FLINT-FLINT IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS. dismantled in 1647. The double tower or keep is 40 or labour expended in their manufacture. In some ! feet in diameter, and includes two concentric walls, instances, the flint has been roughly fashioned into each 6 feet thick, with an intervening gallery 8 feet et something like the required form by two three broad; within, is a circle 20 feet in diameter, with blows; in others, it has been laboriously chipped four entrances. Deterioration of the channel of the into the wished-for shape, which is often one of Dee has made F. in a great degree a port of Chester, no little elegance. In yet another class of cases, and here larger vessels, especially with timber, are the flint, after being duly shaped, has been ground discharged, and the cargoes floated up the Dee in smooth, or has even received as high a polish as smaller vessels, the timber in rafts. could be given by a modern lapidary. Examples of all the varieties of flint weapons and implements will be found in the British Museum, in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin, in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland at Edinburgh, and above all, in the Museum of the Royal Society of Antiquaries at Copenhagen, which is especially rich in this class of remains. Representations of interesting or characteristic types Museum at Edinburgh in 1856 (Edin. 1859); in Mr may be seen in the Catalogue of the Archeological Wilde's Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy (Dubl. 1857-1861); in Worsaae's Nordiske Oldsager i det Kongelige Museum i Kjobenhavn (Copen. 1859); and in M. Frederic Troyon's Habitations Lacustres (Lausanne, 1860).

FLINT, a river of Georgia, one of the United States of America, unites on its right with the Chattahoochee, at the south-west angle of the state, to form the Appalachicola, which, after a course of 100 miles, enters the Gulf of Mexico. The F. itself is about 300 miles long, being practicable for steam-boats up to Albany, about 250 miles

distant from the sea.

FLINT, TIMOTHY, REV., an American clergyman and author, was born, in 1780, at Reading, Massachusetts, and graduated at Harvard College. In 1802 he became minister of the Congregational Church in Lunenburg, county of Worcester in that state, where he remained till 1814. In the following year, he became a missionary for the valley of the Mississippi, where he was engaged in itinerant preaching and teaching a school. In 1825, he returned to the northern states; and in 1826, published his Recollections of Ten Years passed in the Valley of the Mississippi (Boston, 8vo). The same year appeared from his pen a novel, entitled Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot, purporting to be the autobiography of a New England adventurer who acted a conspicuous part in the first Mexican revolution, and in the overthrow of Iturbide. In 1828, he issued two works: A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States in the Mississippi Valley (Cincinnati, 2 vols. 8vo); and Arthur Clenning, a novel (Philadelphia, 2 vols. 8vo). Another novel, George Mason, or The Backwoodsman, and a romance in 2 vols., The Shoshonee Valley, appeared at Cincinnati in 1830. In 1833, he edited several numbers of the Knickerbocker Magazine, and was subsequently editor for three years of The Western Monthly Magazine. His other works are: Indian Wars in the West (1833, 12mo); Lectures on Natural History, Geology, Chemistry, and the Arts (Boston, 1833, 12mo); translation of Droy's L'Art d'étre Heureuse, with additions by translator; and Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone, the first Settler of Kentucky (Cincinnati, 1834, 18mo). In 1835, he contributed to the London Athenæum a series of Sketches of the Literature of the United States. He died at Salem, August 16, 1840. His son, MICAH P. FLINT, published a volume of poetry,

entitled The Hunter and other Poems.

FLINT GLASS. See GLASS.

FLINT IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS, believed to have been used by the primitive inhabitants, have from time to time, in more or less number, been turned up by the plough and the spade, dug out from ancient graves, fortifications, and dwellingplaces, or fished up from the beds of lakes and rivers, in almost every country of Europe. They do not differ, in any material respect, from the flint implements and weapons still in use among uncivilised tribes in Asia, Africa, America, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The weapons of most frequent occurrence are arrow-heads (see ELF-ARROWS), spear-points, dagger-blades, and axe-heads or Celts (q. v.). The more common implements are knives, chisels, rasps, wedges, and thin curved or semitircular plates, to which the name of 'scrapers' has been given. There is great variety, as well in the size as in the shape, even of articles of the same <ind. There is equal variety in the amount of skill.

Geological discoveries have recently invested flint implements with a new interest. At Abbeville, at Amiens, at Paris, and elsewhere on the continent, flint weapons, fashioned by the hand of man, have been found along with remains of extinct species of the elephant, the rhinoceros, and other mammals, in undisturbed beds of those deposits of sand, gravel, and clay to which geologists have given the name of the drift.' They so far resemble the flint implements and weapons found on the surface of the earth, but are generally of a larger size, of ruder workmanship, and less varied in shape. They have been divided into three classes-roundboth being chipped to a sharp edge, so as to cut or pointed, as in fig. 1; and sharp-pointed, as in fig. 2, pierce only at the pointed end; and oval-shaped, as in fig. 3, with a cutting edge all round. The first and second classes vary in length from about four inches to eight or nine inches; the third class is generally about four or five inches long, but examples have been found of no more than two inches, and of as much as eight or nine inches. In no instance has any flint implement discovered in the drift been found either polished or ground. The French antiquary, M. Boucher de Perthes, was the first to call attention to these very interesting remains, in his Antiquités Celtiques et Antediluviennes (Paris, 1847-1857). But it has since been remembered that implements of the same kind were found in a similar position at Hoxne, in Suffolk, along with remains of some gigantic animal, in 1797, and at Gray's Inn Lane, in London, along with remains of an elephant, in 1715. Both these English examples are still preserved the first in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries at London, the second in the British Museum, and they are precisely similar in every respect to the examples more recently found in France.

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To what age these remains should be assigned, is a question on which geology seems scarcely yet prepared to speak with authority. But, in the words of Mr John Evans, in his essay on Flint Implements in the Drift,' in the Archæologia, vol. xxxviii. (Lond. 1860), thus much appears to be established beyond a doubt, that in a period of antiquity remote beyond any of which we have hitherto found traces, this portion of the globe was peopled by man; and that mankind has here witnessed some of those geological changes by which the so-called diluvial beds were deposited. Whether these were the result of some violent rush

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man, been submerged under fresh water, and an aqueous deposit from 20 to 30 feet in thickness, a portion of which, at all events, must have subsided from tranquil water, has been formed upon it; and this, too, has taken place in a country the level of which is now stationary, and the face of which has been little altered since the days when the Gauls and the Romans constructed their sepulchres in the soil overlying the drift which contains these relics of a far earlier race of men.'

FLINTSHIRE, a maritime county of North Wales, bounded on the E. by Cheshire and the river Dee, on the S. and W. by Denbighshire, and on the N. by the Irish Sea. The main portion of the county is 25 miles long by 10 broad, and the larger of the two outlying portions, which lies toward the south-east of the main part, is 10 miles by 5. F. is the smallest of the Welsh counties, its area being only 184,905 acres, of which 4th is arable. The coast, 20 miles long, is low and sandy, but on the Dee estuary fertile. A hill-range, parallel to the Dee, runs through the length of the county, and rises in Garreg to 825 feet. Another range along the southwest border of the county rises in Moel Famma, 1845 feet. The chief rivers are the Dee, Alyn, and Clwyd. The chief strata are Permian, Carboniferous, and Devonian. Coal, and ores of iron, lead, silver, copper, and zinc are the chief mineral products and exports. F. supplies a fourth of the lead produced in Britain. The soil is fertile in the plains and

vales, and the staple produce is wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, cattle, cheese, and butter. Cotton is the main manufacture. The London, Chester, and Holyhead Railway skirts the east and north shores. F. contains 5 hundreds and 32 parishes. Pop. (1861) 69,870. About 215 places of worship (110 Methodists, 41 Episcopal). F. sends two members to parliament. The chief towns are Flint, formerly the county town; Mold, St Asaph, Holywell, Rhyddlan, and Hawarden. F. has traces of Roman lead-mines, is traversed by Wat and Offa's Dykes, and has some ancient castle and ecclesiastical ruins. In F., in the 7th c., Saxon invaders massacred 1200 Christian monks of the monastery of Bangor. In 796, the Saxons defeated the Welsh here with dreadful slaughter, which event gave rise to the still popular plaintive air of Morfa Rhyddlan.

FLINTY SLATE, of which there are beds in some parts of Scotland, and in many other countries, is an impure quartz, assuming a slaty structure. It contains about 75 per cent. of silica, the remainder being lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, &c. Its fracture is rather splintery than shell-like. It is more or less translucent. tions into clay-slate, with which it is often in most It passes by insensible gradaintimate geological connection. Lydian Store (q. v.) is a variety of flinty slate.

FLOATING BATTERY is a hulk, heavily armed, and made as invulnerable as possible. used

FLOATING BATTERY-FLOATING ISLANDS.

[graphic]

in defending harbours, or in attacks on marine the icebergs of colder latitudes. Imagination ha fortresses. The most remarkable instance of their always invested with a peculiar interest the employment was by the French and Spaniards against Gibraltar, in the memorable siege which lasted from July 1779 to February 1783, when ten of these vessels, carrying 212 large guns, were brought to bear on the fortress; they had sides of

and ancient legend did not fail to notice the floating
islets of the sacred Vandimonian Lake, which were
large enough to bear away cattle that were tempted
upon them by their fresh green grass; and the island
of the Cutulian waters, which carried on its surface a
dark and gloomy grove, and was constantly changing
its place. A small lake in Artois, near St Omer, is
remarkable for the number of its floating islands, as
are also the marshy lakes of Comacchio near the Gulf
of Venice. Among the largest in the world are those
of the Lake of Gerdau, in Prussia, which furnish pas-
turage for 100 head of cattle; and that of the Lake
of Kolk, in Osnabruck, which is covered with beau-
tiful elms. Loch Lomond was long celebrated for
its floating island; it, however, can no longer boast
of one, as it has long since subsided and become
stationary. Floating islands are found in some lakes
of Scotland, and also in Ireland, and consist for the
most part of large floating masses of peat. Pennant
gives a description of one which he saw in Breadal-
bane, the surface of which exhibited plenty of coarse
grass, small willows, and even a little birch tree.
More interesting to the scientific inquirer, as pre-
senting a phenomenon not so easily explained, are
those floating islands which from time to time
appear and disappear in the same spot, of which
there is one in the Lake of Derwentwater in Cum-
berland, one in the Lake Ralang in the province of
Smalande in Sweden, and one in Ostrogothia. That
in Derwentwater is opposite to the mouth of a
stream called the Catgill; and the most probable of
the many theories which have been proposed to
account for it is that which ascribes it to the waters
of the stream, when flooded by rains, getting beneath
the interlaced and matted roots of the aquatic plants
which there form a close turf on the bottom of the
lake. This floating island, when it rises above the
water, is most elevated in the centre, and on its
being pierced with a fishing-rod, water has spouted

great thickness, and were covered with sloping roofs,
to cause the shot striking them to glance off inno-
cuously. But their solidity and strength were
unavailing against the courage and adroitness of the
defenders, under the gallant General Elliot, who
succeeded in destroying them with red-hot cannon-
balls. Steam floating batteries of iron were con-
structed for the war with Russia in 1854, both by
the British and French governments; but, notwith-up to the height of two feet.
standing that they rendered good service before
Kinburn, they have since been generally discarded
for other than purely defensive purposes, as too
cumbrous for navigation, and too suffocating from
the smoke that collected between their decks during
action. The iron-plated frigates now (1862) made
(such as the Warrior) can scarcely be regarded as
floating batteries, being rather frigates of splendid
build, rendered almost impenetrable by sheets of
iron overlying their sides.

The marshy ground of the vale of Cashmere, and particularly around the city of Cashmere, containing many lakes, and liable to inundations, exhibits a peculiar form of human industry in its numerous FLOATING GARDENS, employed chiefly for the cultivation of cucumbers, melons, and water-melons. These floating gardens may be described as portions of the marshy ground artificially made to float, by cutting through the roots of the reeds, sedges, and other plants about two feet below the surface, upon which mud is then spread. The floating of the garden secures the soil and crop from destruction by inundations.

FLOATING ISLANDS exist in some lakes, and more rarely in slow and placid rivers. Not unfrequently, they are formed by the detachment of portions of the bank; the interlaced roots of plants Floating gardens existed on the Lake of Mexico forming a fabric sufficiently strong to endure the before the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. occasional buffeting of waves, and to support soil The Mexicans had made great progress in the art for herbage or even trees to grow in. Floating of gardening, and particularly in the cultivation of islands are often formed by aggregation of drift- flowers, which were much used both in their festiwood in the creeks and bays of tropical rivers, and vities and in their worship. How they were induced being wafted into the channel of the river when it to attempt the formation of floating gardens, and at is flooded or by the wind, are carried down to the what period it was first done, are mere matters of sea, with the soil that has accumulated, and the conjecture. The shallowness of great part of the vegetation that has established itself upon them. lake was favourable to the success of the attempt, They are sometimes seen at a distance of 50 or 100 and perhaps the gradual receding of its waters may miles from the mouth of the Ganges, with living be reckoned among the reasons of the gradual trees standing erect upon them. Portions of the diminution of the number of the floating gardens, alluvial soil from the deltas of rivers, held together which have almost ceased to be reckoned among oy the roots of mangroves and other trees, are the wonders of the world. The Abbé Clavigero, in sometimes also carried out to sea after typhoons his History of Mexico, describes them as formed or hurricanes, and ships have, in consequence, of wicker-work, water-plants, and mud; as somebeen involved in unexpected dangers, as amongst times more than 20 poles in extent; the largest

FLOATSTONE-FLOOR-CLOTH.

uner commonly having a small tree in the centre, and sometimes a hut for the cultivator; and as employed for the cultivation both of flowers and culinary plants. Humboldt confirms this description, but states that the real floating gardens, or chinampas, are rapidly diminishing in number. The existing chinampas are in general not floating gardens, but plots of ground with very wide ditches between them, formed by heaping up earth from the ditches in the swamps or shallows at the side of the lake.

Great part of Bangkok, the capital of Siam, consists of floating houses. See BANGKOK.

FLOATSTONE, a variety of quartz, consisting of fibres-delicate crystals-aggregated so that the whole mass is sponge-like, and so light, owing to the air confined in the interstices, as to float for a while on water. It is found in a limestone of the chalk formation near Paris, in imbedded masses, or incrusting flint nodules.

FLOBE CQ, a small town of Belgium, in the province of Hainault, 20 miles north-east of Tournai. It has extensive manufactures of linens, has breweries, salt-works, oil and flour mills, and has two fairs annually. Pop. 5258.

FLO'DDEN, BATTLE OF. On the 24th January 1502, a perpetual peace' was concluded between England and Scotland. In the course of a few years, however, a series of petty quarrels had done much to bring this peaceable arrangement to a termination; and in 1513, on the invasion of France, Scotland's ancient ally, by Henry of England, a war broke out between the two countries. James IV., the chivalrous but rash king of Scotland, summoned the whole array of his kingdom to meet on the Borough or Common Moor of Edinburgh, which extended from the southern walls of the city to the foot of the Braid Hills, and which was then a field spacious, and delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks.' Here an army, it is said, of 100,000 men assembled. With this force James crossed the border on the 22d August 1513; but instead of advancing at once, and achieving a decisive success, he lingered in the neighbourhood of the Tweed until his army had become reduced by desertion to about 30,000 men. On the 6th September, James took up his position on Flodden Hill, the last and lowest eminence of the Cheviots toward the north-east. On the morning of the 9th, the Earl of Surrey, lieutenant-general of the northern counties of England, at the head of an army of about 32,000 men, advanced from the south-east, crossed the Till by a skilful and unexpected movement, and thus cut off all communication between King James and Scotland. While the English were crossing the Till, the Scots might have attacked them with every chance of success, and their not taking advantage of this opportunity was the first great mistake of the battle. Observing that the English were aiming at a strong position to the north-west of Flodden Hill, and desirous of preventing this, James, having ordered his tents to be set on fire, advanced against them in battle-array. The two armies were drawn up in similar order, each consisting of a centre, a right and left wing, and a reserve placed behind the centre. At about four o'clock on Friday, 9th September, the battle commenced with cannonading on both sides. The Earls of Huntly and Home, who commanded the left wing of the Scottish army, charged the English right, which was led by Sir Edmund Howard, and entirely defeated it. Instead, however, of following up their success, Home's borderers commenced pillaging the baggage of both armies; and Huntly, after his first charge, is said

to have left the field. On the Scottish right, the clansmen under Lennox and Argyle, goaded to fury by the English archers, rushed forward, heedless of order, and fell with the greatest violence upon their opponents, who, however, received them with wonderful intrepidity and coolness, and at length put them to flight with great slaughter. Meantime, a desperate resistance was being made by the Scottish centre, where the king fought on foot among his nobles. Scottish history presents

1

no instance in which the national valour burned with a purer flame than in this. Hemmed in by outnumbering enemies, the king among his slender group of lords fought manfully until, when the night was closing on Flodden, he fell pierced by hill was held during the night by the Scots; but at an arrow, and mortally wounded in the head. The dawn, learning the state of matters, they abandoned their position. Their loss amounted to from 8000 to 10,000 men. Scarce a Scottish family of eminence,' says Scott, but had an ancestor killed at Flodden.' Besides the king, the Archbishop of St Andrews and twelve earls were among the slain. The English loss amounted to about 6000 or 7000; but Surrey's victory was so nearly a defeat that he was unable to prosecute the war with any vigour. The sixth canto of Sir Walter Scott's poem of Marmon con• tains a magnificent, and in the main an accurate description of the battle.

FLOGGING, ARMY AND NAVY. Corporal punishment has existed from time immemorial in the British army and navy; formerly having been inflicted upon slight occasion, and often with bar barous severity. In deference, however, to public opinion, it has been much less resorted to during recent years, and promises almost to disappear under a regulation of 1860. A man must now be convicted of one disgraceful offence against discipline before he can be liable to flogging for the next such offence; and even after one such degradation, he may be restored to the non-liable class by a which is generally administered with a whip or cat year's good conduct. The punishment of flogging, of nine tails on the bare back, cannot, under existing rules, exceed fifty lashes.

On the

Corporal punishment is not recognised in the French army; but then the soldiers in that country and have, on an average, a higher moral tone than are drawn by conscription from all ranks of society, the British recruits, who, attracted by a bounty, volunteer usually from the lowest orders. other hand, the discipline in the French army, and especially during war on a foreign soil, is universally admitted to be inferior to the strict rule preserved among British troops. Soldiers and sailors being men unaccustomed to control their passions, and esprit of a force, unless summarily repressed, it is any breach of insubordination being fatal to the considered necessary to retain the power-howhumiliating punishment of flogging. ever rarely exercised-of inflicting the painful and soldier, though escaping the ignominy of personal The French chastisement, is governed by a code harsher than our' articles of war as actually administered; and the punishment of death, scarcely known in the British service during peace, is not unfrequently visited in France upon offenders against discipline.

FLOOR-CLOTH, a coarse canvas coated on both sides, and partly saturated with thick oil-paint, one side having usually a coloured pattern printed upon it in oil-paint. The canvas basis for floorcloth is chiefly manufactured in Dundee. As it is required to be without seam, and of sufficient width to cover considerable spaces of flooring, special looms are required for weaving it. It made

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