[100] The Weir River would enable assailants to reach the inner harbor and take the defenses in the rear. [101] Mr. Garrison, Secretary of War, again represented to Congress at its last session that changes in the 12-inch gun carriages are absolutely necessary to give them an elevation of 15 degrees. This matter has been so well established that all military engineers are unanimous both as to the urgent need for the change and the excellent result that will follow. [102] These are points lying south of the southern defenses of Boston Harbor, and so near them that modern siege guns planted there could fire into them at short range. [103] The primary harbor defense batteries (12-inch, 10-inch and 8-inch guns and 12-inch mortars) are not emplaced for anything except sea-ward fire, nor should they be. To use them against land attack would be only a matter of desperation, as in the case here described. As a matter of fact, they would be rather inefficient against smaller guns that are more mobile and durable. [104] “Firing at speed, the shots from a dozen guns shooting at successive intervals, would not have five seconds between them.” [105] The tremendous air-compression in fortifications during gun-action almost always tears out parts of the general installation even in mere target practice. If fire-control installation, wiring, telephone systems, etc., are efficient only to the minimum degree, and there is no adequate reserve supply of material for repairs, they are certain to break down in any attack that is pressed with vigor. An attacked harbor-work is subjected to the most terrible destructive attempts that humanity has been able to devise. [106] Long range investment with modern artillery serves the double purpose of commanding the ultimate target, and commanding all the territory in between, thus giving the artillerist possession of many miles of area. [107] Financial Statistics, Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1914. [108] In Brown versus the United States, the U. S. Supreme Court decreed that “war gives to the sovereign,” i.e. the conquering power, “full right to take the persons and confiscate the property of the enemy wherever found.--Humane mitigations may affect exercise of this right but cannot impair the right itself.” [109] “The so-called exemption of private property from capture or seizure on land may be called almost nominal.”--Rear-Admiral Stockton, Outlines of International Law. [110] Napoleon made Valencia pay $100,000 for the support of his army. Receipts were provided for originally when troops made requisitions, not necessarily to insure pay to the despoiled inhabitants, but merely to prevent unauthorized plundering. [111] A universally accepted form of military rule, and distinguished from merely martial law. [112] U. S. Census Bureau Report, 1914; also Boston City Manual.