CONTINGENT, something casual or uncertain, that may or may not happen. _The_ CONTINGENT _bill_ of a regiment, is an account of extra charges, which depend on the accidental situation or circumstances, which may attend any regiment in its due course of service. See RECRUITING. CONTRABAND, this term is applicable to various foreign commodities which are either totally prohibited by the laws, or are subject to severe penalties and heavy duties. CONTRAMURE, in fortification, is a wall built before another partition wall to strengthen it, so that it may receive no damage from the adjacent buildings. CONTRAVALLATION, in military art, implies a line formed in the same manner as the line of circumvallation, to defend the besiegers against the enterprises of the garrison: so that the army, forming a siege, lies between the lines of circumvallation and contravallation. The trench of this is towards the town, at the foot of the parapet, and is never made but when the garrison is numerous enough to harrass and interrupt the besiegers by sallies. This line is constructed in the rear of the camp, and by the same rule as the line of circumvallation, with this difference, that as it is only intended to resist a body of troops much inferior to a force which might attack the circumvallation, so its parapet is not made so thick, nor the ditch so wide and deep; 6 feet is sufficient for the 1st, and the ditch 8 feet broad, and 5 feet deep. Amongst the ancients this line was very common, but their garrisons were much stronger than ours; for, as the inhabitants of towns were then almost the only soldiers, there were commonly as many troops to defend a place, as there were inhabitants in it. The lines of circumvallation and contravallation are very ancient, examples of them being found in histories of the remotest antiquity. The author of the military history of _Louis le Grand_ pretends however, that _Cæsar_ was the first inventor of them; but it appears from the chevalier de Folard’s treatise on the method of attack and defence of places, used by the ancients, how little foundation there is for this opinion. This author asserts with great probability on his side, that these lines are as ancient as the time in which towns were first surrounded with walls, or, in other words, were fortified. CONTREBANDE, _Fr._ See CONTRABAND. _Faire la_ CONTREBANDE, _Fr._ to smuggle. CONTREBANDIER, _Fr._ a smuggler. CONTRE-_Forts_, _Fr._ Brick-work which is added to the revetement of a rampart on the side of the terre-pleine, and which is equal to its height. Contre-forts are used to support the body of earth with which the rampart is formed. They are likewise practised in the revetements of counterscarps, in gorges and demi-gorges, &c. The latter are constructed upon a less scale than the former. It has been suggested by an able engineer in the French service, to unite contre-forts, and consequently to strengthen them, by means of arches.