FORT DE FRANCE, formerly Port Royal, the capital of the French island of Martinique, one of the smaller Antilles, is situated on the west coast of the island, on the north side of a well-sheltered bay. It is the residence of the governor, and possesses a court of justice and a chamber of commerce. The harbour, which is commanded by a fort, is good and safe, and connected with it there is a floating dock and a repairing dock. The town possesses sugar works, and its chief exports are sugar, coffee, and rum. Its trade will be considerably increased by the railway to St Pierre. During the war with France Port Royal was for a time the headquarters of the British West Indian fleet. The population of the town is about 11,500.
FORT WAYNE, or, as it is sometimes called, “Summit City,” a city of the United States, at the head of Allen county, Indiana, situated 751 miles W. of New York aud 102 N.E. of Indianopolis, at the junction of the St Joseph and the St Mary, which form what is known as the Maumee River. The Wabash and Erie canal passes through the town, and no fewer than eight railway lines branch out from it in various directions. Besides the extensive works maintained by several of the railway companies for the building of carriages, &c., there are a number of engineering establishments, planing mills, flour mills, and tanneries, sash and door works, and a woollen factory. The churches are twenty-seven in all; the educational institutions comprise a high school, a normal school, a Methodist college (founded in 1846), the Concordia Lutheran college (founded in 1850), and two public libraries; and among the other public buildings may be mentioned the court-house, the county jail, the city hospital, and the orphans’ home. Interior communication is facilitated by six miles of tramway lines. In the early part of the 18th century the French established a trading port on the site of the present city, which took its name, however, from a British fort erected in 1794 by General Wayne. The town was laid out in 1825, but did not become of much importance till the opening of the Wabash and Erie canal in 1840. In that year it attained the rank of a city, though its inhabitants numbered only 2080. By 1850 they had increased to 4282, by 1860 to 10,388, and by 1870 to 17,718.
FORTESCUE, Sir John, an eminent English lawyer in the reign of Henry VI., was descended from an ancient family in Devonshire, and, in all probability, was born at Norris, near South Brent in Somersetshire, towards the close of the 14th century. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. During the reign of Henry VI. he was three times appointed one of the governors of Lincoln’s Inn. In 1441 he was made a king’s sergeant at law, and in the following year chief justice of the king’s bench. As a judge Fortescue is highly commended for his wisdom, gravity, and uprightness; and he seems to have enjoyed great favour with the king, who is said to have given him some substantial proofs of esteem and regard. He held his office during the remainder of the reign of Henry VI., to whom he steadily adhered; and having faithfully served that unfortunate monarch in all his troubles, he was attainted of treason m the first parliament of Edward IV. When Henry subsequently fled into Scotland, he is supposed to have appointed Fortescue, who appears to have accompanied him in his flight, chancellor of England. In 1463 Fortescue accompanied Queen Margaret and her court in their exile on the Continent, and returned with them afterwards to England. During their wanderings abroad the chancellor wrote for the instruction of the young Prince Edward his celebrated work De laudibus legum Angliae. On the defeat of the Lancastrian party, he made his submission to Edward IV., from whom he received a general pardon dated Westminster, October 13, 1471. He died at an advanced age, but the exact date of his death has not been ascertained....
Fortescue’s masterly vindication of the laws of England, though received with great favour by the learned of the profession to whom it was communicated, did not appear in print until the reign of Henry VIII., wlιen it was published by Wnitechurch in 16mo, but without a date. In 1516 it was translated by Mulcaster, and printed by Tottel; and again in 1567, 1573, and 1575, and also by White in 1598, 1599, and 1609. It was likewise printed, with Hengham’s Summa Magna et Parva, in 1616 and 1660, 12mo; and again with Selden’s notes in 1672, in 12mo. In 1737 it appeared in folio; and, in 1775, an English translation, with the original Latin, and Selden’s notes, besides a variety of remarks relative to the history, antiquities, and laws of England, was published in 8vo. Waterhouse’s Fortescue Illustratus, which appeared in 1663, though prolix and defective in style, may be consulted with advantage. Another valuable and learned work by Fortescue, written in English, was published in 1714, under the title of The Difference between an Absolute and Limited Monarchy, as it more particularly regards the English Constitution, and accompanied with some remarks by John Fortescue Aland, of the Inner Temple, London·, and a second edition with amendments appeared in 1719. In the Cotton Library there is a manuscript of this work, in the title of which it is said to have been addressed to Henry VI.; but many passages show plainly that it was written in favour of Edward IV. Of Fortescue’s other writings, which were pretty numerous, the most important are—1. Opusculum de Natura Legis Natures, et de ejus censura in successione Regnorum Supremorum·, 2. Defensio juris Domus Lan-castrioe; 3. Genealogy of the House of Lancaster; 4. Of the Title of the House of York·, 5. Genealogiae Regum Scotice∙, 6. A Dialogue between Understanding and Faith,·, 7. A Prayer Book which savours much of the Times we live in. In 1869 his descendant, Lord Clermont, printed for private distribution The Works of Sir John Fortescue, now first collected and arranged, and A History of the Family of Fortescue in all its branches (see Lambeth Review, 1872).
FORTH, one of the largest rivers in Scotland. It is formed of two streams rising to the north of Ben Lomond, (one of them passing through Loch Chon and Loch Ard), which unite above Aberfoyle. The river flows eastward in a direct course for above 100 miles, receiving in its progress the Goodie, the Teith, and the Allan above Stirling, and below it the Devon, the Carron, the Avon, the Almond, the Leith, the Esk, the Leven, the Tyne, and others; and it discharges itself into the German Ocean in about 56° 10' N. lat. The windings or “links” of the Forth above and below Stirling are extremely tortuous. From its junction with the Teith to the “carse” or alluvial plain below Gartmore they extend about 28 miles, although the distance in a direct line is only about 20. From Stirling harbour to Alloa, where it widens into an estuary, the length of the river is 10 j miles, though the distance in a straight line is not more than 5. From Grangemouth to North Queensferry the depth increases in the first mile from 10 to 15 feet, in the second to 25, and in the third mile to 53 feet, while the remaining part of the distance—7 miles, including the great anchorage of St Margaret’s Hope—has a depth generally of about 60 feet at low water. At Queensferry the firth is 2 miles wide; between Dysart and Aberlady about 12; and between St Abb’s Head and Fifeness, where it joins the German Ocean, it is from 35 to 40 miles. Near Queensferry, between Inchgarvie and the North shore, it deepens to 37 fathoms. The bed of the river consists to a great extent of mud,—the depth of the deposit in some places being upwards of 200 feet; and there are extensive alluvial formations along the lower part of its course, and in the upper reaches of its estuary. The tides are felt 4¾ miles ...above Stirling, and at Stirling harbour the spring tides rise 7 feet 9 inches. At Leith and Kinghorn their average height is 17∣ feet. Steamers go as far up the river as Stirling,— the only important obstructions to the navigation between that town and Alloa, the “Town Ford” and the “Abbey Ford,” having been removed since 1843. The shallowness of the channel seems to have been occasioned by the practice in vogue from 1732 among the Stirlingshire proprietors of using the river to carry off the peat from their lands; Mr Drummond of Blair-Drummond, for example, between 1783 and 1839 floated away upwards of 1000 acres of this substance. Further down in the firth the principal obstructions are the Drumsands near Cramond and the Sand-end to the east of Burntisland harbour. The anchorages in the firth are excellent; and it thus forms the most important harbour of refuge to the north of the Humber. Several of its ports carry on a large foreign trade, more especially Leith, Granton, Bo’ness, and Grangemouth. The fisheries of herring, white fish, and salmon are all of great economical importance, not only giving employment to a considerable local population, but attracting English and even foreign fishermen. The traffic between the two sides of the firth has been an object of legislation since 1467. Both the principal ferries—that between North and South Queensferry, and that between Granton and Burntisland—are now in the hands of the North British Railway Company. In connexion with their system they have undertaken to construct a magnificent viaduct across the firth, the foundation stone of which was laid on the 30th of September 1878. Thomas Bouch, the engineer entrusted with the enterprise, has practically revived a plan proposed as early as 1818 by James Anderson. The bridge is to cross a little to the east of the present line of traffic between North and South Queensferry, advantage being taken of the small island of Inchgarvie, which lies about mid channel. Its most striking features will be two spans of 1600 feet, constructed on the suspension principle, at a height of 150 feet above high water of spring tides. In order to secure sufficient stability against the lateral pressure of the winds, which sometimes blow with great violence in the firth, these central portions will be split into two branches, each about 14 feet wide, which will lie 100 feet apart, but be bound together by horizontal braces. Both the great spans will be laid on a dead level, but the shoreward sections will have gradients of about one in 77 and one in 80. The total cost is estimated at £1,250,000, and it is expected that the works will be completed in 1882.
