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criterion of insanity, and, in accordance with it, to exercise, the intervention, and on both sides of the military line a dispensing power over criminal justice. from Vera Cruz to Mexico, have occupied the villages in Greece and England are, we are sorry to say, arrayed in The Derbyshire magistrates allege that in the present the vicinity of that capital, and are in arms between hostile position. Instead of shaking hands, they have come instance this was done under false pretences, the oppor- Mexico and Vera Cruz. Near Vera Cruz the Mexican to spar, and although no blows have been struck, they have tunity of examining the prisoner having been obtained for guerillas operate with astonishing activity. To this state assumed an attitude of combative mistrust one to the other. England has declared that she must and will blow the professed object of farther inquiry, not of a definite of things, perhaps, we must ascribe the fact that the expejudgment. And this charge is not to be disposed of by dition, whose original movement from Mexico began on up the forts in the island of Corfu.. Greece says, we cannot Sir George Grey's belief that four gentlemen could not be the 22nd of October, has not been able to advance beyond prevent your blowing up the fortifications, for which the capable of duplicity or any unworthy conduct. Out of the im- Queretaro, although the French column has met with no Ionians paid at least a part, but we cannot be a consenting mense numbers of medical men it is not difficult to imagine resistance on the way. Its mobility may, therefore, be party. We cannot disgrace ourselves and depopularise some capable of sharp practice, or worse, and the magistracy estimated at the rate of less than two leagues a day. The King George, by becoming parties to an arrangement that is not without its weak members who would stoop to what French officers said that marching to the interior of Mexico gives us theisland disarmed and mortified. they might consider a pious fraud to save a forfeited life. was like stretching a ribbon till it breaks. The ribbon is The Greeks allege that they elected their monarch on the If the certificate had an obligatory force, how it was broken already. The line of communication from Vera understanding that the Ionian Islands were to be ceded to managed is a question which does not affect the ministerial Cruz is permanently interrupted in several points, and the them. They could not foresee this cession accompanied by action of the Home Office; but if, as now seems admitted, assaults of the guerillas often disturb its continuity. humiliating circumstances. They say they have been so it was an instrument wanting a weight to be borrowed It is curious to remark how the extent of the empire far tricked, and they must take care to right themselves. for it from a report diametrically opposite, the conduct of has been reduced since the French army marched to the They will sign no treaty by which the destruction of their the persons concerned must certainly be matter of legiti- interior. All the towns to which the intervention had forts and the neutralisation of the Islands are insisted on mate inquiry in order to ascertain the degree of deference been extended in the state of Puebla have been abandoned, In that case, quoth England, I must keep the islands. for their offices. and respect due to their judgment; and also their fitness with the sole exception of the capital. This is also the case with the towns and villages of the hot land to the That will only make your breach of promise more flagrant, And while this controversy is raging, what is the fact. south of Mexico, and with the important district of Pachuca. saith the Greek. Since you won't have the islands by the By this time an opinion must be formed in Bethlehem as to The Mexican troops, therefore, have re-conquered the only way in which we can part with them, we are deter- Townley's state of mind, and what is it? When we ask districts of Zacapoaibla and Zacatlan, in the State of Puebla, mined to keep them, quoth England, and keeping them this question we are aware of the bias, not unnatural, on the town of Tlalpan, nine miles from the city of Mexico, we shall preserve the fortifications intact. The work of the part of medical authorities in lunatic asylums; and of and make daily incursions through all the villages situated destruction has, therefore, not been proceeded with, and the farther element of error from the prisoner's simulation of in this valley. At those points where small detachments Great Britain is still saddled with the maintenance and the state which is to save his life. But, liable to error as have been left, the power of the intervention is nominal government of a very recalcitrant and oddly placed set of it may be, it would be well to have the opinion. and precarious, as it disappears at the approach of any one subjects. Stress has been laid on the fact that there is no commu- of the light guerillas which cross the country in all direcIn the midst of this, a very ably drawn up act of accu- tation of punishment, but only a respite of execution; but tions. This has been the case with Iguala, Tasco, San sation against England, for its malversation and mismanage- to all intents and purposes Townley's life is as much Felipedel Obraxe, and several other towns, which, although ment in the Ionian Islands, has been made by a French spared as if he had a pardon. He cannot be remitted nominally occupied by the troops of the intervention, are a gentleman named Le Normant, and printed in the Revue back to the position in which he stood when he was permanent source of supplies for the Mexican guerillas. In this the English are accused not certified insane. Taken from the foot of the gallows, he The elements seem to take part with the Mexicans, to merely of misrule and of abuses in their political adminis- cannot, after a lapse of time, be brought back to the foot of make the communications difficult between Mexico and Vera tration, but even in their fiscal and economical manage- the gallows. Public feeling would revolt against playing Cruz. The road is impassable at different points, and the ment of the islands it is affirmed that they have committed fast and loose with life. It would rule that there was a trains of waggons cause a delay of two or three days in going worse blunders in the Ionian Islands than the most retro- time for the word death, but the time has passed, humanity from Cordova to Orizaba, a distance of four or five leagues. grade government in Europe. Our boasted improvements forbidding the lengthening of the shadow of death. There The French army, therefore, has not secured its military are declared to be mere deceptions; our roads scarcely get never has been a postponed execution which has not been line, nor the possession of the towns that are set forth as half a mile out of the great town before they are lost in the regarded with horror. Virtually Townley has been subject to the intervention. The French are incessantly open country. Our export duties were as high and as rescued by letter of law against justice. alarmed by the incursions of the guerillas, and by the barbarous as those of Greece itself, or of Turkey, and our The Act of 1840 was probably framed only for prisoners hatred of the native population. When the expedition to system of taxation ground the poor and exempted the rich. under sentence of imprisonment, and there was no hard- the interior began to be carried into execution, it was We do not credit the truth or justice of this virulent ship nor cruelty in sending back to imprisonment a convict necessary to make large fortifications in Mexico, with the French impeachment. But some one competent to do so who had been for a time under treatment for insanity. object rather of restraining the inhabitants of the capital ought really to take the trouble to expose the fallacies and He underwent his appointed term of punishment, but not than of resisting the attacks from the outside. refute the errors of this calumnious accusation. In the the double, the protracted terror of it. And how revolting Revue des Deux Mondes it is addressed to the tribunal of is the idea of curing a man of madness in order to take his Europe. There should be some one, who would take life. Surely it would be less unmerciful to hang him in the trouble to reply. strait waistcoat.

des Deux Mondes.

THE DERBYSHIRE MAGISTRATES AND THE

HOME OFFICE.

THE FRENCH IN MEXICO.
(From a Correspondent.)

Mexico, Nov. 22, 1863.

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The guerillas have recently taken some mules belonging to the army that were grazing in the fields near the city. The journal of the French in Mexico called L'Estafette itself has declared the impotency of the intervention against this kind of war, and advises, as the only remedy, the colonization of the valley of Mexico by European immigrants. It is easy to see that the remedy does not correspond to the urgency of the evil.

The sad state of the garrison of Tampico will be known The ground taken by the Home Office, in the first letter in Europe through direct correspondence from that port. of reply to the remonstrance of the Derbyshire magistrates, I intend in this letter to be very chary of commentary. The yellow fever had never before made ravages like those was that Sir George Grey had no discretionary power after The mere report of the events that have taken place in which have now reduced the French garrison to one-half the receipt of the certificate of Townley's insanity, that the this country during the month of November will confirm of its original number. And besides the unhealthy climate, Act of 1840 was obligatory, and that the Home Secretary was the opinions you have expressed in regard to the political the port is actually besieged, and the Mexican guerillas bound to carry it into instant effect. If this was so, there and military character of the French intervention. I need are stationed even at the city gates.

was an end to all question about the conduct of the Home not dwell upon the spurious and irregular character of the The guerillas of Vera Cruz attack all the trains that Office; but in Mr Waddington's second reply to the magis- power established here, and called "the Regency," its trates' second letter it appears far from clear that the cer- absolute subordination to the chiefs of the French army, engineer, Mr Lyons, was mortally wounded, and Capcome out from that port. For one instance, the railway tificate was of a force allowing of no question, and making its want of principles, or better to say its disposition to tain Laugur and Lieutenant Crosne were killed. The Townley's respite and removal obligatory, for it is there abandon its own principles and adopt those of the foreign guerillas also, after several successful attacks against stated that the opinion of the Lunacy Commissioners that invader, and the consequent disgust among the most Tlalpan, have taken permanent possession of that town, Townley was not of sound mind gave additional weight intolerant of the clergy party, whose only remaining and the international authorities found in it were brought to the certificate, and precluded the Secretary of State duty is to execute, under the protection of the French out by them and shot. from supposing that four magistrates and two medical Emperor, the instructions brought from Rome by Archmen had without any probable ground obstructed the bishop Labastida. We have daily quarrels between the all those forming the Federal Republic, continue their own The States free from the invasion, that is to say, almost course of justice. Now if the certificate was of the force chief of the Mexican Church and the chief of the French military organization. Chihuahua and Durango have prefirst alleged it would want no additional weight, and expedition, witnessing the impotency of Almonte and his pared new contingents of troops. General Ortega is recruiteffect must at once have been given to it according to the colleagues to raise a ghost of political order. No good ing a new army with the utmost rapidity at Zacatecas, statute. But if, on the other hand, there was some dis- has come yet of their ridiculous efforts to make a false the nucleus of which will be the survivors of the defenders cretionary power, Sir George Grey may have felt free to show of strength by means of monarchical ceremonies, while of Puebla, who have arrived in great numbers at Zacatecas, consider whether the certificate was or was not an expres- the true limits of their empire hardly extend now beyond attracted by their brave and popular leader. The Governsion of opinion entitled to implicit deference and respect. the gates of the city of Mexico. A movement of the French ment of Guanaxuato increases the number of its National But any consideration of that sort would have been quite army began on the 22nd of October, and without opposing Guard, and even an insurrectionary movement seems to be superfluous, and indeed impertinent, if action upon the a serious resistance, the Government of San Luis has placed preparing among the Indian population. The victory of certificate had been imperatively obligatory. its troops in such a manner that they menace at once the By what process Sir George Grey transferred from the French army and all the places between Mexico and Zacapoaibla was gained by the Indians of those mountains, commanded by a kind of military prophet, whose influence report of the Lunacy Commissioners any opinion carrying Vera Cruz. Juarez, instead of concentrating all his troops among the Zacapoaibla highlanders has no bounds. weight to the account of the certificate, we are utterly at at San Luis, or on the road to the interior, to prevent the among the Zacapoaibla highlanders has no bounds. In speaking of the French defeats, that of Ozuloama a loss to divine. The Lunacy Commissioners found no advance of the expeditionary column, has divided his army must not pass unnoticed. You will find the official report delusion in Townley's mind, which, nevertheless, they did into several fractions, calculated to operate simultaneously among the enclosed documents, and by them you will see not think sound, but not so unsound as to make him irre- on the flanks and rear of the enemy. The brave General that the Mexicans took a large number of prisoners, and sponsible, and the verdict upon him erroneous, and they Diaz, who acquired a great reputation at the siege of all the French artillery and ammunition. emphatically pronounced the conviction just. How then, Puebla, has succeeded in making an admirable movement. in the name of wonder, could this judgment lend weight He started from Queretaro at the head of a large division, The army of the interior is commanded at present by to the certificate which declared the man mad and went and turning at a certain distance from Mexico, arrived in General Uraga, whose military skill contributed so much to the arrest of his sentence. An extreme opinion cannot the State of Puebla, where he was joined by another divi- to the good organization of the Liberal troops, which be strengthened by a modified opinion. Surely the opinion sion coming from Oafaen; so that at present he threatens finally defeated the reactionary army of Miramon.

that a thing comes up to a certain mark is not strengthened with an army of ten thousand men the towns occupied by Nothing can be more evident than the precarious situaby the opinion that it falls short of that mark. The the French in the States of Puebla and Vera Cruz. tion of the Government prematurely established in Mexico, recruiting sergeant's opinion that a man is six feet high is At the same time Colonel Ortega, appointed Governor and the irregular and humbling character of its relations not strengthened by the evidence that he is not short, but and Military Commander of the State of Puebla, left San with the chiefs of the expedition. For example, long not exceeding five feet nine. Luis with a light brigade. These troops must join those before General Forey returned to France, it was generally The Lunacy Commissioners gave their standard, the that General Nigrete organised at Zaçapoaibla, to the north said that he had received instructions to modify the policy definition of insanity as laid down by the judges. What of Puebla, and operate in concurrence with General Diaz, adopted by the French Commissioners. The first acts of the definition in the minds of the subscribers to the certi- manoeuvring on the north of the French lines of communi- General Bazaine sought from the Regency a law putting ficate may be we cannot pretend to divine; but this much cation. The rest of the army, under General Uraga, an end to the seizure of property belonging to the Liberals, is certain, that it is not the definition known to the law. remains in Salamanca, and will be in the rear of the French and declaring the validity of all rights in the Church property The Act of 1840 has, however, empowered any four gentle- if they intend to go beyond Queretaro. In the meantime sold by the Constitutional Government. The creatures of the men, two medical and two magisterial, to set up their own the guerillas that swarm around the places occupied by Regency did, therefore, humbly eat all the words they had

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intervention newspapers.

Correspondence.

THE METROPOLITAN OF CAPE TOWN AND
BISHOP COLENSO.

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spoken in their five years' battle as men of the reactionary when ordered into close confinement he was otherwise than party against these very principles. The French Emperor in perfect health. For thirty days and thirty nights was is their master, and they must lick their dirt from off his Lilley confined in a place that had been a stable, and the poor shoes. The required law, therefore, was issued, but at the man died in a den of very limited unventilated space, in the same time the Archbishop refused his signature as member hottest season of the year, when not a breath of wind was stirring. Mrs Lilley was in the last stage of consumption, of the Regency. He protested, he also devised with his Sir, The pretensions of Bishop Grey raise an issue of and also laboured under diarrhoea. It was the atmosphere colleagues a trick. In regard to the abandoned seizure, it vast importance to Englishmen generally, quite apart from that killed the man, that forced him to drink the brandy by was agreed to replace it with complete confiscation of the any consideration of the case of Bishop Colenso. The which his life was more probably prolonged than shortened. goods of all enemies of the intervention, under the pretext Guardian, with some little indiscreetness, has hastened to The unwholesome condition in which he was kept under the that they were responsible for damages caused by their resist- assert, that, although an appeal may lie on the mere question eye of a sentinel forced Lilley to obey the natural instinct of ance to Imperial authority. As for the rights based upon sale of jurisdiction, yet if this jurisdiction be affirmed, Bishop self-preservation. Dr Reid has told us (at page 38 of his of the Church property, a secret order was given to the Grey may deal finally with the case on its merits. In other book) that "Defective ventilation, reducing the power of judges not to hear any petition founded upon right of that words, he may depose the Bishop of Natal and declare his oxygenating the blood and of sustaining temperature, prosee vacant. He seeks only the confirmation of his authority duces a morbid condition which diminishes the relish and kind. This artifice exasperated General Bazaine, and after as Metropolitan, and then we shall see at the Southern power of digesting plain and wholesome food. Unnatural some bitter conferences, he obliged Almonte to make a extremity of Africa an ecclesiastical power as irresponsible stimuli, such as ardent spirits and opium, are required to more solemn and explicit declaration on the above-men- as that of the Pope. Bishop Grey will then be a judge, from excite the languid circulation, and make it feel, though only tioned points. He also sent General Neigre to the Depart- whose decisions in causes ecclesiastical there will be no appeal; temporarily, that vigour of circulation which gives animation ment of Finance, whence the law was to emanate, with and the same power will at once be wielded by all other and vivacity to the intellect as well as strength to the body." orders not to leave the place until the decree was pub- Colonial Metropolitans. While the Archbishop of Canter- Again, at page 13, he says: "When the air is of inferior lished. After its publication the Archbishop issued a bury must submit in England to be excommunicated by the quality, the respiration becomes uncomfortable, and oftenvehement protest, and the question becomes more and Bishop of Exeter, Bishop Cotton at Calcutta may summarily times anxious or oppressive, the strength begins to fail, the more difficult. In short, General Bazaine has forbidden deprive the Bishop of Madras or Bombay, and may, it would general tone of the system is depressed, the power of bodily seem, issue his mandamus to the Crown to nominate a suc- or mental exertion becomes impaired, the sleep anxious and Almonte and his colleagues to issue any decree until it cessor. The very notion of such a power, exercised by Colo- uncertain, and in extreme cases, when the air has been vitiated has been submitted for the previous approbation of the nial Bishops but not by the Primate of England, seems to a great extent, death rapidly ensues." French General-in-Chief. The spectacle of such degrada- utterly preposterous. Yet this is the power which Bishop Lilley did not die a natural death, and it was not until tion gives new heart and energy to the defenders of the Grey is stretching forth his hand to grasp, and which Bishop some time after the man had been buried, without an inquest invaded and insulted nation. They see the party of treason Wilberforce is straining every nerve to secure for him. on his body, that the lucky suggestion of drink as a cause of prostrate, and are doubly strong. Meanwhile the Court, which professes to be trying the death was impudently set forth to add insult to the injury Again, the Mexican race is insulted every day by the Bishop of Natal, is giving ample evidence of the peculiar that had been done to a man of known sobriety and honesty They have endeavoured to way in which ecclesiastics administer justice. The questions of character. Englishmen will be called upon to pay the put to Dr Bleek, who appeared simply to deny the jurisdic-expenses of the farce at Aldershott, and I, for one, think that recommend all the advantages of the Spanish system, tion of the Court, are worthy of the priests who presided at the Legislature will do well by their constituents to refuse to according to which the natives of this country were ex- the Congregation of the Index. Dean Douglas and Arch- sanction payment of the bill until even the inquiry into the cluded from all the public offices. The French paper deacon Bednall quietly insinuate that Dr Bleek must be cause of Lilley's death shall have been brought by a civil called L'Estafette has published several articles upon the worse than an infidel, while they profess utter ignorance of a charge of improper imprisonment before an English jury. subject. man who has been for years the friend of Sir George Grey, Hyde-park terrace. V. Among recent causes of grief to Mexico, few have pro-and employed by him in the library at Cape Town. Nor is duced so deep an impression as the death, I might almost the constitution of the Court less strange than their method Sir,-The admirable letter in last week's Examiner by a say murder, of General Comonfort. He was at once Minis- of proceeding. Bishop Grey, as holding the Queen's patent, non-commissioned officer, under the signature of "Chevron," ter of War and General-in-Chief of the Army of the Inte-sits in judgment on another Bishop who also holds the Queen's nearly exhausts the argument on the above-named scandal, rior. One of the bands commanded by Mejia attacked exercise of such power. Yet he summonses to his aid not no disparagement of the able treatment the subject has from patent,-the patent being the indispensable condition for the and certainly disposes most effectually of its iniquities. It is him when he went from San Luis to Queretaro accompa-merely the Bishop of Graham's Town, but Bishop Tozer time to time received in your columns to affirm that it has nied by a small escort, and after a struggle, in which (who could not come), and Bishop Twells, the two latter never yet been handled in a more lucid and masterly manner he was overpowered by numbers, he fell covered with being mere Bishops in partibus, without patents, and appointed than by your correspondent. But the question arises, after wounds. General Comonfort was respected, even by his in the avowed interest of Bishop Grey, with whose theologi- the astonishing award or fiat of the Commander-in-Chief, is political adversaries, for the magnanimity and cal and ecclesiastical views they were known entirely to agree. the matter to remain where he has placed it? I think it not rosity he had shown in the exercise of the supreme Unless their sitting as assessors is held to be a mere matter inappropriate, in reference to that question, to exclaim, When all his enemies fell into his hands he of form, their presence as judges would probably suffice at "thank God we have a House of Commons," where it may, left them free, and lavished upon them all kinds of favours. of the case are of inferior moment in the eyes of Bishop degree of emphasis, for it is one which nearly concerns the once to vitiate the whole proceeding. But the legal aspects and it is to be hoped will, be asked with some considerable But the mind of the Mexicans is yet uncrushed. Even the Grey and his assistant prosecutors. The Queen's patent res publica in a very ticklish yet paramount department of boys of the colleges at Queretaro have requested that the makes him Metropolitan of Cape Town; Bishop Grey loves its interests. I fear that all the military authorities, both in value of their annual prizes be applied to the expenses of the to speak of the Church of South Africa, of which the Queen's England and in India, concerned in getting up the late solemn war. Some old men have presented themselves, accom- patent knows nothing, and which the Court of Arches cannot farce at Aldershott, were and continue to be forgetful or inpanied by their children, asking to be sent to the army, recognise. This, however, is but a small hindrance. Dr different to the fact of our army being a volunteer force, and and bringing therefore, to their country, the contingent of Lushington has ruled that clergymen may hold, if they that being such, the history of the Crawley case, from its two generations. The women, always so ready to please, that it is possible for heathens to be saved. Dean addled egg at Mhow to its rotten apple at Aldershott, is by take part in every generous enterprise, share in the Douglas will not abide this decision. He "pretends to little no means of a nature to attract recruits. Is it supposed by general enthusiasm. Voluntary gifts are daily multiplied, judge he must maintain that "if his dictum is law, it is not not and, if justice to his memory be not vindicated, will not knowledge of law," but with all respect for that reputable these magnates that the treatment and fate of poor Lilley do and instances are known in which those who contribute theology." In the same spirit Dean Douglas maintains, in for long remain a standing topic of adverse commentary on large sums have concealed their names, to show that their the teeth of Dr Lushington's repeated assertions to the con- the chances of the common soldier in those resorts where the patriotism is entirely free from ostentation. trary, that " no error of any kind can find a place within the raw materials of our army are chiefly "prospected" for by The clergy also are represented by some honourable Book of God," and that "every charge of error in history, or the recruiting sergeant? For it were to deceive themselves exceptions in this general movement, and there are priests in any other matter, is a libel against that holy book." In to suppose that the classes in question will not argue from in Chihuahua and Zacatecas, who have made public speeches other words, the extravagant sayings of the Bishop of Man- the particular to the general in this affair, and realise the to excite the people to defend their independence, and who chester, Mr Burgon, and Dr Baylee are to be converted into conclusion that as was the result in the Crawley case, similar condemn the abuse of the name of Religion by the retrograde Church Law at Cape Town, when they have been openly dis- has been and will be that in every other instance where the avowed by the Judge of the Arches Court in England. rights of the common soldier or non-commissioned officer Church party, allied to the foreign enemy. There is no With such a system of procedure we cannot be surprised have been or shall be in one scale and the interests of his difference of classes in this general enthusiasm. at finding that the prosecutors have striven with fair success commanders in the other; the only thing to distinguish the The French agents seeking to produce disunion or grow to misrepresent those passages in Bishop Colenso's writings actual instance being the accident of its publicity. It is not another crop of treason for their profit, flatter Doblado on which they lay most stress. But when Dean Douglas too late to repair the mischief of such a damaging opinion by with the probability that France will hear his propositions imputes to the Bishop the opinion that God is absolute love, removing the grounds on which, in this transaction at least, in behalf of the liberal party. But he has answered by he imputes to him a faith which apparently was shared by St it rests. But no time should be lost in doing so. If at all it a new proclamation, in which he declares that he will John-when he goes on to affirm that Bishop Colenso repre- must be done both quickly and resolutely, without any resolutely support independence and constitutional govern-sents God as indifferent to evil, he asserts what any reader squeamish delicacy towards the sensitiveness of persons in of his Commentary on the Romans will see at once to be high places. We do not want the fierce invective of Burke The newspapers have lately published the note by which General Negrete answered the invitation made logical discussion; but, on the mere question of fact, I am and inflexibility will be required. The tricks and subterfalse. I am well aware that this is not the place for theo- as an aid to justice in the business, but some of his courage to him to join the intervention. They expected from anxious to call attention to this studied garbling of passages fuges of "office" are sometimes as detrimental to the public him an unworthy desertion, on account of his former which maintain just the contrary of that which they are service as its "insolence," and are not yet exhausted ad hoc; connection with the leaders of the reactionary party, but affirmed to mean. to employ a detestable phrase of the diplomatists. the result has proved that all the Mexican patriots, without Having some knowledge of the Cape and its affairs, I Would it be uncharitable to surmise that there is just the difference of political opinions, are determined to fight for could not but feel some suspicion of the evidence adduced by faintest possibility of a little resentment at civilian interthe independence of their country. the Court, as well as of its system of procedure. I could ference in this case underlying the tactics of the Horse

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I receive just now a copy of the Archbishop's pro- see that justice was not done to the extracts made from Guards in connexion with it? Cedant arma toga is probably test. You will find it among the enclosed documents. Bishop Colenso's published works; and the report of the a maxim of very doubtful authority in that quarter, and a I know also, by trustworthy information, that the Arch-proceedings in the Cape Argus led me further to doubt severe censor might not find it difficult to detect its opposite bishop has resigned the office of Regent. The resignation come by. My suspicions have been fully realised. The judicial conduct, of our military potentates at Whitehall whether the evidence of his written letters was honestly principle practically animating the conduct, and notably the has been admitted, but not one of the persons that have Bishop of Natal has told me that every one of the letters whenever the lay community becomes curious about the mysbeen invited to occupy the vacant post has accepted. cited were strictly private and confidential letters, beginning teries of their department. The moment is, I presume to The aforesaid protest can give you an idea of the symptoms with "My dear Brother," in place of the formal address, think, opportune for applying a correction to this amiable of dissolution that begin to be remarked in the provisional "My Lord." To attain his own ends, the Bishop of Cape professional weakness, if it exists, by reforming altogether government. Town has not scrupled to break a confidence which lay the preposterous anomalies of our military system in respect morality, at least, regards as sacred; and it is impossible for of its judicial attributes. However shocking to professional us to know whether the meaning of the letters is more fairly prejudices the declaration may be, civil legislation is (in this ord of comment on conduct such as this; and, with an intellectually efficient for the purpose. If the Aldershott given than that of the printed books. I will not add another country at least), I believe, both organically, morally, and apology for the length at which I have been obliged to write, hoax does not abundantly demonstrate the necessity of this

A FRIGHTFUL DEATH BY FIRE occurred last week. At a late hour on Thursday night Conductor Tapsell of the London Fire-escape Brigade, and who is stationed near St Clement's Church, Strand, received information that his services were required at a house in Hemlock court, near Lincoln's-inn fields. On arriving at the premises Tapsell found that a fire was smouldering in a room on the third floor, which was occupied by a widow named Hannah Smith. In consequence of the confined nature of the locality it was impossible to use the fire-escape, and as the door of the room was fastened, Tapsell mounted a table in a room underneath, and proceeded with his axe to

I am, &c.,

PRESBYTER ANGLICANUS.

THE ALDERSHOTT INQUIRY.

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reform, then here is an end of all proof and conviction. Let the truth be told, for in a matter of such moment it is the worst of policy to shirk it; the moment public indignation is roused against any flagrant abuse of high military authority to the extent of demanding redress, or the investigation cut away the flooring of the room, which was evidently on fire. A who killed him, and why was not an inquest held on his ment are immediately in the ascendant at head-quarters, the Did Sergeant-Major Lilley die a natural death? If not which must precede it, the instincts of jealousy and resentportion of this flooring was burning, and an opening was soon made, body? One axiom of English law is that if a keeper im- spirit of obstruction is invoked, and the utmost concession when to the horror of Tapsell, who was still using his axe, the dead body of the woman Smith, frightfully burned and blackened, fell properly confine a man, and the man dies from the nature of to the claims of justice that can be extorted from the departthrough the orifice on to his shoulders. The room which she occupied the confinement, it is felony. Another axiom is, that no man ment is a sham; paltering in a double sense with the name was wholly destitute of furniture, and it is presumed that the deceased, can justify an improper imprisonment even when it is impri- and nature of a "trial" by excluding or eluding the gravamen who had been drinking during the day, after the funeral of her only sonment by lawful authority. The Duke of Cambridge of the charge. If Sergeant Lilley had been guilty of a real child, by some means set her clothing on fire, and was incapable of admits that, up to the time of the arrest of Lilley, he was a military offence, is any boy or girl of those contributing to giving an alarm. man distinguished for sobriety, and it is not disputed that the Crawley Indemnity Fund (why does not the Colonel

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THE LITERARY EXAMINER.

exchange to a Regiment of Foot to signalize and requite such potent obligations to the Infantry ?), so utter a baby as to suppose he would have escaped the pinch of the matter against him, as by the complacent and politic arrangements of the Aldershott Court-Martial his commanding officer did. Without a doubt the administration of justice in the British army is unequal. Of course "discipline must be observed," and authority, when duly exercised, supported. But discipline is not promoted but impaired, and sometimes utterly destroyed by the abuse of that authority which is requisite To Mr Bergenroth and Mr Gairdner students of English" sacred institution more perverted than in England, where, to uphold it, and ought to be delegated for that end only. history are much indebted. The diplomatic relations" by the operation of feudal wardships, only men of humble For an example of this disorganizing tendency of regimental of England under Henry the Seventh, and so much of" birth were at liberty to choose their own wives." We despotism we need go no farther, I think, than the recent its domestic history as could be seen and understood by must not greatly blame kings and.queens for being no more records of the Inniskilling Dragoons. A system under which the shrewd ambassadors of Ferdinand and Isabella, were refined than most of their subjects, or for violating social such a series of barefaced but apparently privileged outrages admirably illustrated in Mr Bergenroth's first Calendar laws at that time hardly enacted. "Although their dison justice and common sense as this for-ever-notorious of Simancas Archives, published a year ago; while Mr "positions are somewhat licentious," writes a Venetian Crawley case has disclosed, is simply a mischievous tyranny, Gairdner has already, in the two volumes to which the one visitor in England, "I have never noticed any one, either not a wise and salutary organization of the military magistracy. before us is a welcome sequel, gathered a mass of interest-"at court or amongst the lower orders, to be in love; If anything, in addition to the self-stultification of the ing material to help in restoring to us the life of the "whereat one must necessarily conclude, either that the military hierarchy in the case of Captain Smales, the wrongs, same period. And few periods of our national life are in "English are the most discreet lovers in the world, or that as not atoned for, of Sergeant Lilley and the fiasco of the more need of a fresh elucidation. The rough centuries of "they are incapable of love. I say this of the men, for I Crawley Court-Martial, were required to complete the con- Plantagenet rule, full of hard fighting for fame or liberty," understand it is quite the contrary with the women, who demnation of these arbitrary and clumsy tribunals, it is at full of oppression and retaliation, are doubtless fairly, and "are very violent in their passions. Howbeit, the English hand in the extra-judicial sentence on Messrs Swindley, Fitz almost adequately, represented to us in the meagre monkish "keep a very jealous guard over their wives, though anySimon, and Turnbull, on account of the manner of their testi- chronicles that are our only sources of information. All" thing may be compensated in the end by the power of mony to the conscript judicial dummies at Aldershott. That 66 money." is the capital of the comely column. Well may you say that the fresh knowledge that can be gleaned on these subjects, such a sentence is "a violation (a very gross violation) of and not a little of it has been set forth in the series of Henry the Seventh, therefore, as regards his domestic the first principles of justice." Thus "bad begins, and publications of which this is the last, is well worth having history, was no worse than all but the noblest of his own worse remains behind," and injustice, like its twin-brother But it is very much more desirable that we should have generation and those immediately following it. In other falsehood, has to be sustained by its own progeny, until sound and minute information about the political and social respects he was very much superior to the majority. Mr justice or truth "puts its foot on" and makes an end of the changes which, beginning with the accession of the House of Gairdner does not over-praise him one whit in saying that brood. What subaltern, after such an example, will now Tudor, were nearly at the source of modern English his- "he was the very King of whom England then appeared feel himself safe in giving evidence against his superior tory, and in proportion to the scantiness of our former" to stand in need; pre-eminently fitted to command the officer? Nay, he may well feel that his impunity for doing information is the value of such new matter as Mr Gairdner" respect, if not the affections, of his subjects. Trained in so is quite hopeless, seeing that he can only expect the very brings to light. hesitation that springs from his inevitable reluctance to be "the school of adversity, he was not rash and violent, like At best our knowledge is but slight. "After all that I the Kings who preceded him, but prudent in his counsels construed to his ruin or disgrace. Fouquier Tinville never "have been able to collect," says Mr Gairdner, "I must" and moderate in his dealings. As far as possible, he contrived such a trap for his victims as this. Granted (but only for the argument) that the three officers in question" still own that the letters of Henry VII's reign are ex-"allowed the evils of an unquiet age peacefully to settle gave discreditable evidence; the analogy of practice in the "tremely scanty. The first ten years are almost anthemselves; yet one means he employed against them, Civil Courts tells us that when a witness conducts himself "absolute blank; the remaining fourteen only a slightno less merciful than effective. Rebellion was expiated, discreditably in the box (the effect on the jury apart) the degree more satisfactory. Of Henry himself or his "for the most part, not with bloodshed, but with money; judge punishes the offender with a reprimand, not with fine "ministers there is hardly a state paper in England, to" offences were dealt with as debts to the Crown. By this or imprisonment; or if there be cause to presume perjury tell us what was done or thought advisable at any "means the King's treasure was augmented, and the royal against him, directs a prosecution for that crime, but does not, and cannot, pass sentence for it without a trial; and he "juncture of this chequered reign." Private records do" authority was strengthened." The economy of Henry does in either case no more and no less than justice requires. tell us something; enough to show incidentally the nature the Seventh, condemned as parsimony by many, and cerThe dismissal, on the contrary, of the three officers from of the national growth at this period, and the wisdom with tainly leading in later years to some miserly conduct, was their regiment for the sin of giving unsatisfactory evidence which Henry encouraged it to the utmost. With these stray the salvation of England. For generations the wealth of evidence, I suppose, not so direct, unhesitating, and unques- lights we are just able to pick our way over the whole the nation,-its physical strength and mental energy, tionably truthful as that of the respectable witness Mills-ground, and get what we must hope to be a right view of much more than its mere gold,-had been squandered in goes far beyond censure, and is a sentence of forfeiture the subject. useless strife; and all the prudence of the English Solowithout trial for any offence. They are removed from the England was heartily sick of the Plantagenets before mon, as Bacon called him, was needed for staunching the Inniskillings to be placed-where? On half-pay, I presume, the first Tudor came to the throne. Richard the Third, national wounds and quickening the body politic. It for the rest of their lives; for, after so discrediting them, the Horse Guards will scarcely have the assurance to fob whose career is summed up by Sir Thomas More when he seems as if twenty-four more years of fighting would have them off in any other regiment, most marvellous" as is says that "with large gifts he got him unsteadfast friend- altogether ruined the country. Luckily Henry attained the "face" of that department. To be consistent, it must "ship, for which he was fain to pill and spoil in other the sovereignty, and the twenty-four years of his reign continue to be unjust. Quousque tandem ? Of course I places and get him steadfast hatred," only provoked to were occupied with wise and, in truth, liberal measures assume throughout that, in suspending these officers without the utmost a spirit of discontent that had been latent in for establishing peace and restoring healthy relations bringing them to trial, the letter of the supreme military many minds under the noblest of his forerunners, and among all classes of society. The lawless spirit of the authority was not transgressed; but I submit that the pos- that had grown strong during the miserable years of civil barons was checked, and they were encouraged to use their session of such an arbitrary irresponsible power is quite war in which he had learnt evil. It was no easy task, powers for the benefit instead of the destruction of others. alien to the spirit of our institutions, and has a magnificent however, for Henry to win favour with the nation, and The clergy, from being ringleaders in party contests, were tendency to degenerate into oppression. As the matter of poor Lilley's treatment under arrest is the way in which he did it entitles him to all and more than employed as peacemakers. Learning and literature were quite subordinate in judicial importance to that of the justice all the honour that posterity accords to him. encouraged. Trade was protected and promoted with as A large share of that honour is due, in the first instance, much tact and liberality of sentiment as could be expected of his colonel placing him in that situation, and keeping him there without trial far beyond the legal term, I think that to his mother. A widow and a parent, if we may credit of fifteenth-century economists. Mr Gairdner's last volume those who sympathise with the persecuted sergeant would do the statement of two witnesses, before she was fourteen, contains several illustrations of the care shown in mainwell to drop the inferior branch of the controversy; not Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was one of the noblest taining the rights of English merchants visiting foreign because their view of it cannot be sustained, but because it of noble English women. In making the first Tudor a lands, and in resisting the exorbitant taxes levied on affords their opponents a means of what the lawyers call worthy king, she helped much to make of England a great English goods in the countries that exported them. "avvidence." Mark the impetuosity of "Verax," in the nation. Praised by Fisher for her zeal in religious Times, to pounce upon "J.O." and fasten a quarrel with him England was still, however, in a lawless state. One of on this issue a false one on the original and vital merits of exercises, for the abstemiousness of her diet and the the case, and therefore eagerly seized by the veracious abet-roughness of her hair shirts, and for the piety which led the most interesting of the papers brought to light by Mr tors of injustice in order to mislead public attention from the her to forsake her third husband to enter a state of religion, Gairdner is a long exposure of the extortions and frauds real question; to which "Verax" gives so very wide an she is more highly to be esteemed for the good sense, right practised by two of the King's officers, named Uvedale offing in his cantankerous rejoinder that it is quite invisible feeling, and sound wisdom shown by her in worldly affairs. and Rawlyns, for three years previous to 1497. It is I am, &c., "She was a patroness of William Caxton," says Mr shown, among much else, how they had defrauded a parson Gairdner. "She translated from the French various books of twenty-six sheep; how one of their favourites, from "of piety and devotion. She was the first patroness of being not worth a groat, had quickly, and through no "the martyred Bishop Fisher, who was her confessor; merit of his own, come to be "as well appointed in his "and she endowed colleges and professorships, both at "house and as cleanly apparelled as any man of his degree;" "Oxford and Cambridge, where her name will not readily how, while levying excessive taxes upon others, they SURGEON TURNBULL and the CRAWLEY COURT-MARTIAL.-In his order dated from the Horse Guards, January 14th, the Commander"be forgotten. A faculty of planning and arranging, smuggled their own wools across the sea without paying in-Chief remarked upon the proceedings of the Crawley Court-martial, "which she had in no small degree, became, when the any duty at all. "There was a ship of Flanders upon the and commented in severe terms upon the conduct of several of the "occasion required it, high diplomacy and statesmanship, "sands in a great tempest, and four of the mariners came officers of the Inniskilling Dragoons. Amongst others referred to was yet it was called forth by maternal anxiety alone. "to land, and desired succour and help to save their goods. Surgeon Turnbull, who was the subject of the following paragraph: When the battle had been won, and Henry from an "Harry Uvedale with his servants came thither, and “Surgeon Turnbull, in like manner, has laid himself open to the "exile had become a King, her particular talent found" would suffer few or none to help them but such as hospital records will become the subject of further inquiry, and, "employment in the ordering of his household, making "pleased him; and so he saved the goods to his own use, should his explanations not prove satisfactory, most serious notice" arrangements for the Queen's lying-in, and for the "for the most part merchandize to the value of twenty must necessarily be taken of his proceedings; but, at all events, his "christening of the Royal children." These things, "pounds and above, as men said; and the four poor men A Committee of Inquiry has assembled at Chatham to examine into great and little, we know. We also know enough "departed with little or nothing about their bodies." the alleged erasures and alterations in the case books kept by Dr of her kindliness, cheerfulness, and other womanly "Also, there was one John Hill, a labourer, taken up on Turnbull. The committee consisted of General Eyre, commandant at virtues, to see in her the chief encourager of all that suspicion of felony, and was sent to the gaol of DorChatham, as President; Inspector-general Dr Logan, of Whitehall was best in Henry's character. "Unkind she would] "chester, and there fell sick and died. Harry Uvedale yard, and Inspector-general Dr Anderson, of Netley, as members."not be unto no creature," preached Fisher in her "took from his wife two kine with their calves, and a The report made by the committee has not transpired, but it is known funeral sermon, that Dr Turnbull was exonerated by the committee from all blame in nor forgetful of any kindness or service. "mare, and twenty sheep." reference to the matters under examination. The case books were "done to her before, which is no little part of very noble- About the more notable political frauds of these times found to have been unusually well kept as professional records. The "ness. She was not vengeable nor cruel." And as far as Mr Gairdner's volume gives probably nearly all the fresh Court of Inquiry was ordered to assemble again, and the second the rough necessities and the corrupting influences of the information that we can ever hope to have. As to inquiry has terminated with a result similar to that of the first. time permitted it, Henry seems to have been like her. By the Irish rebellion and Perkin Warbeck's work it is espenature he was merry and kind, a "sweet and well-savoured cially full. There is much also about Henry's projected THE GRIP OF THE BEAR.-The Breslau Gazette of Thursday face" giving evidence of the generous feelings that gave Crusade to the Holy Land, considered by Mr Gairdner to says: "A fresh convoy of 500 exiles left Warsaw yesterday by rail-light to it; and to the last his dealings with the troubled be a genuine outburst of religious feeling, honestly enterway. A new rescript orders that nobles and other citizens must pro-nation over which he came to rule were, for the age, tained "as a means of making some amends for the sins vide themselves with a special permission when they wish to go to a notably merciful. His faults, most of all those of his "of statesmanship," and we have nearly a hundred pages and Jews are subjected to the same formality, however small the The peasants home life, were faults of his time. The fresh discus- of valuable illustration of the state of things in Scotland The lawek. Among them was a German named Ludke."

Mr Gairdner's brief strictures on the conjugal relations of Elizabeth's father and grandfather. "The whole social "fabric of our own times is built upon domestic ties, and Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard" love is honoured as the foundation of all. But it was III and Henry VII. Edited by James Gairdner." not so then, and could not be, so long as celibacy was Vol. II. Published by the Authority of the Lords" thought specially pleasing to God. Love was then Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, under the "nothing but a passion; marriage only a lawful mode of Direction of the Master of the Rolls. Longmans. "indulging human weakness. And nowhere was the

there.

January 19, 1864.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.-" Galway" in our next.

P. W. F.

gravest censure. His conduct with reference to the entries in the

continuance in the Inniskilling Dragoons has become impossible."

distance of more than twelve miles from their homes.

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distance may be. The Russians have hanged four new gentemt lochsion of old topics which Mr Froude's new volumes up upon under the contemporary reign of James the Fourth.

Queen Elizabeth have provoked, gives further interest to whole collection forms as interesting and important a con

tribution to our historical literature as any of the earlier twenty-seven; that is to say, the best shooting had given an average
publications in the same most useful series of medieval
chronicles.

The Story of the Guns. By Sir J. Emerson Tennent,
K.C.S., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. Longman and Co.
[Second Notice.]

Following, without criticism, the narrative of this book, we left, last week, Mr Whitworth prepared, in March, 1855, to begin in the gallery erected by his residence near Manchester his experiments for discovery of the secret of a uniform accuracy of fire in soldiers' rifles.

direct his attention.

Finally, in reply to the inquiry whether (assuming that a rifle of of shots within a circle of twenty-seven inches mean radius, at 500 smaller bore than that now used should be adopted) any particular yards distance; but the Whitworth lodged an average of shots pattern arm has shown from experiment any superiority, or whether within a mean radius of four inches and a half from the same distance; the gun-trade should be invited to compete for the production of the thus obtaining a figure of merit of 43. At 800 yards its superiority best weapon? the Committee record their opinion that "although upwards. At 1,400 yards the Enfield shot so wildly that the record general adoption of a rifle of the reduced calibre of 0-451, they think was as 1 to 4, a proportion which it maintained at 1,000 yards and they have assigned the reasons above for not recommending the ceased to be kept; and at 1,800 yards the trials with it ceased it only just to Mr Whitworth to acknowledge the relative superiority altogether, whilst the Whitworth continued to exhibit its accuracy as of his small-bore rifle even as a military weapon over all the other rifles of similar calibre that have been under trial. And as the makers of have copied to the letter the three main elements of success adopted by Mr every small-bore rifle having any pretension to special accuracy, Whitworth, viz., diameter of bore, degree of spiral, and large proportion

before.

It was also specially dwelt upon in 1860 by General
Hay, the Chief of the Government School of Musketry at
Hythe, that

of rifling surface, it is not probable that any further modifications or
quasi improvements, that might result from the question being now
advantage."
thrown open to the gun-trade, would be attended with any practical

The Committee conclude their Report by declaring that "with the exception of the defect already noticed as to wear, and the difficulty the Committee are of opinion that the Whitworth rifle, taking all of obtaining ammunition suitable for the rifle as well as the service, other points into consideration, is superior to all other arms as yet produced, and that this superiority would be retained if Mr Whitworth could ensure all the arms being made with equal mechanical

perfection."

that, with the machinery used by Mr Whitworth, the rifle may be With regard to the last condition, it is only necessary to state reproduced to any imaginable extent, with an accuracy as undeviating as that with which the gold coinage of the kingdom is multiplied by the dies of the Mint.

There is a peculiarity about the Whitworth small bore rifles, which no other similar arms have yet exhibited; they not only give In commencing operations with the soldier's rifle in the new gallery, Mr Whitworth found himself subject to a conventional greater accuracy of firing but triple power of penetration. For special purposes any description of bullet can be used in them, from lead to limitation as to the range of his experiments, imposed by the special steel. The Whitworth rifle, with a bullet composed of one tenth of nature of their object. That object being ostensibly to discover the tin, penetrated through thirty-five planks, whereas the Enfield rifle true principle for the construction of a fire-arm for infantry-and (with which a soft bullet is necessary) only penetrated twelve. He Government having previously fixed the weight of the musket, (General Hay) had found that "at a range of 800 yards, the velocity including its charge, and its projectile, which (together with the added to the hardness of the bullet gave a power of penetration, in usual number of rounds of ammunition) a soldier could carry with the proportion of seventeen to four in favour of the Whitworth rifle. ease, and discharge without suffering from the recoil-it was to the Velocity might be taken as a certain test, cæteris paribus,' of discovery of improvement within these conditions that he was first to penetration. The penetration of the Whitworth rifle was enormous, and this in a military weapon was of the highest importance in firing through sand-bags, gabions, &c. The Whitworth projectile would penetrate a sandbag and a half: the Enfield only through one the other would only reach the middle of it. He thought the merits bag; the Whitworth projectile would go through a three feet gabion: The italics are the author's. Side by side, with efforts of the small bore had never been sufficiently understood. He for the improvement of the rifle, proceeded efforts also for was quite aware that small bores' had been made; and it had been the improvement of field guns. If they remained unimstated recently, that the small bore Enfield had beaten the small bore Whitworth; but nothing of the kind had ever taken place. Hitherto proved, the long range and accuracy of the small arms stood, and it was only by such discussions as these that the public guns of Lancaster and others were produced therefore in the subject, he did not hesitate to say, had been entirely misunder- would almost destroy the use of large artillery. The rifled could learn the real facts of the case. It was proper also to state, England, and in France the canons rayées, which first that the exact bore of the Whitworth rifle had been adopted at Enfield, without acknowledgment, that even the same twist had been proved their efficiency at Magenta and Solferino. given to the rifling-one turn in twenty inches-and therefore it would not be very remarkable if the same accuracy of fire was obtained. But he had shown that there were other things to be considered besides accuracy. Supposing, for instance, that the same accuracy of fire was obtained with the small bore Enfield as with the Whitworth rifle, there was still the fact of the penetration of the latter being two-thirds more than that of the former. Mr Whitworth had solved the problem he undertook; namely, how to project, to the best advantage, a given quantity of lead with a given quantity of gunpowder, and there was no gun in England, at this moment, which would fulfil that condition to the same extent as the Whitworth rifle."

Mr Whitworth began with a search for the best form of projectile. The conical had already been proved better than the spherical ball, but if the conical ball was lengthened it turned over on leaving the muzzle of the gun. This he at last considered to be attributable to the inadequate rotation incident to the system of slow rifling then adopted. In the Enfield musket the spiral rifling curve takes but one turn in seventy-eight inches round the interior of the barrel. Experiment showed him that a turn in twenty inches prevented the ball from capsizing, and gave it the required steadiness of flight.

Such confidence did he feel in the soundness of the principle thus successfully developed, that in his report of progress made to the Secretary for War in 1857, he declared his ascertained ability, by means of a system of polygonal rifling with a quick turn (which will presently be adverted to) to communicate with such velocity of rotation as effectually to control the tendency to "turn over" in projectiles of any length that might be required.

For ordinary service, however, the projectile which he has adopted, as most suitable for small arms, is a ball of a cylindro-conoidal form or shaped hexagonally, with rounded corners to fit the angles of the bore, with a conical front, and a length of three, or three and a half times its own diameter.

No demonstration could more clearly exhibit the correctness of the top, when spun, maintains its vertical position in defiance of the laws of theory on which all rifling depends. To use a familiar illustration, a gravity; because the velocity of its revolutions suffices to counteract the disturbing effect of inequality in its various particles and proportions, and to bring all into practical equilibrium. In like manner a bullet" discharged from a rifle, provided it be endued with sufficient velocity of rotation, has all its inequalities so equally distributed around its

axis as to enable it to pursue an even flight in the direction in which it is fired.

At Wimbledon, in 1860, the Queen fired the first shot from a Whitworth rifle, striking the bull's-eye only an a shot," says Sir Emerson Tennent, "which, considering inch and a half from the centre, at a distance of 400 yards, "that it was in the open air, is probably the most marvellous ever fired from a rifle." The Swiss riflemen laid aside their own rifles to use Whitworth's. But the War Office has not yet adopted an arm expressly designed for the public service. Upon this last subject Sir Emerson But in the effort to maintain this steady advance, a ball when Tennent represents so fairly and completely the official discharged has to contend with other difficulties besides those occa- pros and cons, and it is of such vital importance that the sioned by its own inequalities, either of consistency or of configuration. public should be thoroughly informed upon all sides of such Were it possible in practice, as it is imaginable in theory, to cast a spherical bullet so perfect in form that all points of its circumference a question, that, long as it is, we quote the whole sketch of would be equal radii from its centre, and so uniform in density that the grounds of hesitation in the War Office: no one particle should exceed the gravity of any other; still the probability is that it would exhibit an irregular flight, either from the influence of windage in the gun, the want of true lines in the barrel, or even the possibly unequal action of the forces engendered by the explosion of the powder.

arming the forces with the Enfield musket, and the inconvenience Of this, one explanation centres on the outlay already incurred in apprehended during the period of transition, pending its supercession by any other. As to the cost for altering the machinery at Enfield, so as to adapt it for the production of the Whitworth, it appears that To subdue and equalise these disturbing influences, resort is had to this can be done for a comparatively small sum; and that this once the rotation communicated by rifling; and this is capable of being effected, "the service muskets rifled on the Whitworth principle raised to a degree equalling and even 'exceeding the forward velocity could be manufactured at the same cost as the Enfield, the present of the bullet. "In some projectiles which I employ," says Mr quality of material and workmanship being the same." Whitworth, "the rotations are 60,000 a minute. In the motion of It, however, admits of little doubt that eventually these obstacles machinery 8,000 revolutions in a minute is extremely high; and will be overcome, and that ere long the British soldier will be considering the vis vica imparted to a projectile as represented by a animated by the consciousness of possessing an arm, the most perfect velocity of rotation of 60,000 revolutions, and the velocity of pro- that the science of his own country, combined with high mechanical gress of 60,000 feet per minute, the mind will be prepared to under- ability, can produce. Already the military advisers of the Minister stand how the resistance of thick armour plates of iron is overcome, of War, in a Report of the Committee on small-bore rifles, presented when such enormous velocities are brought to a sudden stand still!” to Parliament in 1863, have intimated their conviction that as the The upshot of Mr Whitworth's experiments was, in the tendency of the present system of musketry instruction is calculated first place, an improved system of rifling by converting the to produce ere long a very high standard of shooting throughout the army, the introduction of a weapon of long range and great precision entire inner surface of the barrel into something like a will naturally increase the general efficiency of infantry, and place it hexagon, leaving in the middle of each division of the plane in a position to keep down the fire of the new rifled artillery, which surface a small curved portion coincident with the original is one of the creations of our own day. circular bore of the gun, and rounding the angles, to contribute to the strength of the barrel. Besides this, the turn in the spiral was four times greater than in the Enfield rifle; the bore was one-fifth less in diameter, the projectile was elongated and capable of a mechanical fit, and to the whole there was applied a more refined process

of manufacture.

The idea of rifling artillery was far from being new; it had been tried in Germany more than a century before our time, and Robins, the accomplished inventor of the "ballistic pendulum" for deter mining the relative velocity of projectiles, experimented on rifled field-pieces in England so far back as 1745. M. Ponchara at Paris in 1819, and Montigny at Brussels in 1836, and again at St Petersburgh in 1836, had in succession renewed the attempt. Colonel Cavalli in Sardinia, and Baron Wahrendorf in Sweden, each carried on experiments in rifling, and combined with it inventions for breechloading; but the measure of their success was not attested by the practical adoption of any of their plans.

Colonel Treuille de Beaulieu made more than one effort between 1840 and 1852 to revive the subject in France, and at length, in 1854, Napoleon III., himself an authority on artillery, convinced by the directed the resumption of experiments on rifled cannon. Uniting in protraction of the operations before Sebastopol of the insufficiency of smooth-bore siege guns to meet the requirements of modern warfare, one piece various suggestions of previous inventors, amongst others of Baron Wahrendorf and Lieutenant Engstroem, some brass guns were grooved under the direction of Colonel Treuille de Beaulieu, and sent for immediate service to Algeria. With further improvements, suggested by their trial there, and afterwards in Cochin China, France was the first to possess herself of rifled field-guns, and the earliest opportunity for the display of their destructive forces was afforded by the Italian campaign of 1856. The guns there employed were rifled with six rounded grooves, and being capable of firing ordinary ammunition as well as elongated projectiles from long distances, they scattered the reserves of the Austrians, rolled back the charges of cavalry, and ploughed through squadrons at close quarters with case-shot and canister.

This result was the signal for a reconstruction of all the artillery of Europe. Impressed with its importance, England was the first of the great powers to follow the lead of France, and so rapid was her advance upon it, that specimens of her newly developed skill in the manufactory of rifled cannon, displayed at the Great Exhibition in London in 1862, called forth the unrestrained admiration of M. Fascinated by the beauty of the English guns, and passing the most Treuille de Beaulieu, who acted as the commissioner of France, cordial eulogium on the surpassing quality and splendour of their workmanship, "un luxe et une puissance d'outillage merveilleux," he accompanied his phrase by the consoling reflection that although no examples of French artillery were exhibited in competition with those of Armstrong and Whitworth, still its paramount influence was apparent, in these magnificent productions of its rivals.

The remark, however true, embodied only a part of the truth; for England, though thus suddenly stimulated to exertion, was impelled less by the performance of the "canons rayées" of France than by the recently developed powers of the rifle. The co-operation of artillery with infantry in the field rendered each a constituent element in our system of tactics; and the alteration which raised the qualities of the one necessitated a corresponding change in the other.

On the other hand, considerations which retard the adoption of a The large guns of which the manufacture had been small-bore rifle are set out in the Report of the Ordnance Select left in the hands of military men remained, according to Committee on systems of rifling for small arms, presented to Parliament in March 1863. These turn chiefly on the wear that takes place in the oldest precedents, rudely constructed, short in their consequence of the percussioning hammers being liable to break, and range, and uncertain of aim. They improved rapidly the nipples to be damaged by the force of the escaping gas. "The when the mechanical appliances of the day were at last bouching the nipple with platinum or copper, and by a very careful wear in the latter may, however, be prevented to a certain extent, by brought to bear upon their manufacture. The large rifled fitment of the nipple into its bed; but the Committee are satisfied, gun patented by Mr Lancaster in 1850, with an oval or Like many other theories which mechanical skill has reduced to from the experience they have had, that no amount of precaution is slightly elliptical bore, and increased rapidity in the twist practical realities, the idea of reduced bore and increased twist had likely to be effectual in preventing the very rapid wearing out of the of the spiral as it approached the muzzle, was used in the occurred to one other experimenter at least, before it was worked out small-bore rifle in this respect." Crimea. The first projectiles used were of wrought iron and adopted by Mr Whitworth. Both were recommended some years It appears, however, that the pieces tried on this occasion as without external fitting, and they were liable, since they before by General Jacob of Indian service; who, when in command Whitworth rifles were, in reality, made at Enfield, with the Whit- could not accommodate themselves to the increasing twist, of the Scinde Irregular Horse, conducted, at his own expense, a worth bore and rifling; and the evidences of premature wear were series of experiments on the rifle such as have seldom been undertaken ascribable not to the construction of the musket, but to the softness to burst the barrel. Having cited the different inventions even by the most enlightened governments. All suggested improve- of the material, a defect which would be obviated by the use of submitted to the Committee of 1858 on rifled cannon, and ments were tested by him under every conceivable shape, and homogeneous iron, with platina bouching for the nipples; the extra accepted for the present the narrowing of the issue to a hundreds of thousands of experiments recorded and classified. cost of which would be far more than repaid by the extra duration of question between the artillery of Sir W. Armstrong and the rifle. The Enfield with the Whitworth improvements is said to It should be added that Mr Whitworth introduced a be unserviceable after 1,500 rounds, but a rifle made by Mr Whit- of Mr Whitworth, the author discusses next the subject lubricating wad of tallow and wax between the powder worth, and used for deer-stalking by Mr Horatio Ross, showed no of material. How is the gunner to be furnished with a and the ball which, spread by the force and heat of the signs of decay after firing 7,000 rounds. Another exception taken by the Commissioners in this Report has of cast-iron, or of the bronze called gun-metal, which is gun which cannot burst? The old smooth-bore guns were explosion over the interior of the bore, made the fouling reference to the shape of the cartridge in use for the Whitworth rifle, residuum so loose as to be driven out by the next discharge. the increased length of which would render it liable to bre more uniformly strong, but not so hard. But cast and The principle thus laid down is said to be applicable to the soldier's pouch, and it would be inconvenient to load with." The unhammered iron is always more or less, through unequal ordnance of all sizes; it was said, indeed, by Mr Whit- objection to the cartridge has since been removed, whilst the other cooling, unequally porous. A cast-iron 32-pounder is worth that "the advantages to be secured appear to increase difficulty alleged, relative to the cost of the Whitworth rifle, which known to have fired 3,000 rounds at Sebastopol, the bore "with the increased proportions of the gun." the Committee have been given to understand would exceed that of remaining sound and smooth. the Enfield service musket by about fifteen shillings, is met by the But as a rule, large rifled The Whitworth rifle was first formally tried in competition with counter-statement of Mr Whitworth before alluded to. For these guns of cast-iron want strength and durability, and Prothe best Enfield muskets at Hythe, in April 1857, in the presence of reasons the Committee did not feel warranted in recommending the fessor Treadwell of Harvard University, has shown that the Minister of War, and a large assemblage of the most experienced introduction of a rifle of so small a bore as 0-451 inch, for the entire they cannot be adequately strengthened by addition to officers, including amongst others the Superintendent of the Enfield army; but they think that a partial issue of arms having such their thickness. Professor Treadwell advised hoops, and factory, and Generai Hay, the chief of the School of Musketry for superior precision would be attended with advantage; whether to be in 1855 Captain Blakely took out a patent for a method the Army. The success was surprising; in range and precision allotted to special regiments, or distributed among marksmen of it excelled the Government musket three to one. Up to that time known skill and coolness, being a question for higher authorities to of forming guns with an internal tube of cast-iron or steel, the best figure of merit obtained by any rifle, at home or abroad, was decide." in a case of wrought-iron or steel, and shrunk upon the

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cylinder. The first gun produced by him in 1854 stood him from the Royal factory, 6, 9, and 12-pounders, which, at the | and so much depended on the mode of putting it together, that it was 3,389 shots, a cast-iron one giving way after 351 rounds, request of the Government he rifled polygonally. These guns having represented to be unwise to get them in the open market, or to entrust a brass one after 479. The great Horsfall gun made by the been tried in succession by the military authorities at Shoeburyness, the manufacture to ordinary contractors. were each and all reported on favourably; and when Lord Hardinge, To this Company Sir William Armstrong furnished capital at a Mersey Company at Liverpool weighs more than twenty-accompanied by General Hay, the chief of the School of Musketry fixed interest, reserving to himself the right to join it in the event of four tons, and has a smooth bore thirteen inches in diameter, at Hythe, visited Manchester in the spring of 1856, to be present at his retirement from the public service. that at a range of 200 yards sent a spherical ball of 280 Mr Whitworth's trials with the new rifled musket, he was so struck Another contingency was also provided for ;-regarding the extent pounds weight crashing through five and a half inches of by its extraordinary performance that he expressed his wish that Mr of employment to be given by these contracts, as liable to fluctuation iron, and eighteen inches of teak, in the central plate of system of rifling which had proved so singularly successful in small the Government curtailing or withdrawing their orders, so as to leave Whitworth should proceed to apply to heavy ordnance the same and its continuance uncertain; it was stipulated that in the event of the Warrior target. The gun worked none the less for the works at Elswick either wholly or partially unproductive, comflaws, one of them thirteen inches long. In the course of two years Mr Whitworth, at the request of the pensation, not exceeding 85,000l., was to be paid in respect of so Government, rifled in all seven brass guns of different calibres; the much of the capital as might be invested with the previous sanction founderies. In each of these instances the system applied was the and General Peel were induced to assent, inasmuch as the guarantee blocks in every instance being provided for him from the Royal of the Secretary of State. To the latter condition the Earl of Derby same in 1856 and 1857 as that used by his firm at the present day; was only to be enforced in case of actual loss; such as might accrue the rifling and its pitch were almost alike, and the projectile was the in the event of a superior gun being discovered, or of Government same, with the exception that the rear has since been tapered in transferring the entire manufacture to Woolwich. General Peel also order to increase the range and steadiness of flight; whereas at first considered that the guarantee had reference to guns alone, and did and its excellence was the result of the same combination of condiit was carried parallel throughout. The gun was a muzzle-loader; not extend to the manufacture of projectiles. The Elswick Company was thus erected into a close and privileged tions which had already imparted surpassing excellence to the Whit-monopoly; but it was of course interdicted from making guns on the worth rifle. Armstrong principle for any party other than the Government; and of work ordered and in process of manufacture. the Government, on their side, consented to make advances on account

The narrative now reaches the story of the Armstrong gun. Its inventor practised as a lawyer till the age of 37, but his taste was for mechanics, and the success of his hydraulic crane caused him to relinquish his profession of the law, and to found, in conjunction with a few friends, the Elswick Engine Works. His earliest design for the use of forged-iron rifled field-guns was submitted to the Secretary for War in December 1854:

is rifled.

towards it.

It appears by the evidence taken by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Military Organisation in 1860, that at first, so much as 2007., afterwards reduced to 170l., was paid to Elswick for 12-pounder guns, which at Woolwich were made for 871. 3s. 5d., or nearly one half. Colonel Boxer, one of the chiefs at the Royal Factory at Woolwich, stated in 1862, before the Committee of the House of Commons on Ordnance, that the amount paid to the Elswick 292,8751., all of which could have been supplied at Woolwich without Company for shot and shells alone, between 1859 and 1862, was any difficulty for 195,5887. (including in that sum 27,9021. for buildings and machinery), so that the Government would have benefited to the extent of 97,2871., besides possessing itself of a working plant as its own for continuous service.

For guns during the same period, the amounts paid to Elswick are much larger, as may be inferred from the fact that Mr Anderson stated to the same Committee, that at Woolwich he had made in three years 575 110-pounders, at an average cost of 4241. 139. 1d.; whereas the Elswick Company supplied 109 of the same guna at 700% each, and 50 at 6507.

As the guarantee given by General Peel in 1859 was only to take effect in the event of actual loss in the manufacture of guns for the Government, the gain upon these transactions will no doubt modify any claim on that score by the Elswick Ordnance Company.

Of six guns which he was authorised by the Minister for War to construct, the first, a 3-pounder, was reported on in November 1855 taries of State, and in cordial co-operation with the War Department, Hitherto he had acted in friendly concert with successive Secreby the War Office Select Committee, who recommended further experiments on a larger scale. It was re-bored up to a 5-pounder, and but in the year 1858 a conjuncture arrived, the consequences of which Sir William Armstrong has recently retired from the fired at Shoeburyness with marked success both in accuracy and were calculated to change that confidential relation. official appointment of which Sir Emerson Tennent feels range. A second, an 18-pounder, was submitted for trial in 1858, and the results were so unexpected that Colonel Mitchell of the Royal the unarmed state of the country, hurried Government into so conferred upon him. The next chapter shows very Threatening outcry across the Channel and a sense of now no scruple in saying that it ought not to have been Artillery, in a special report, notwithstanding his scruples as to breech-loading, stated that this gun "appeared to afford a reasonable action for an increased national armament. What were to clearly its many and various disadvantages, and while there expectation that artillery might not only regain that influence in the be the guns? Colonel Lefroy, upon questions of artillery was a check put upon inventors by the establishment of a field, of which to a certain extent the recent improvement in small arms the confidential scientific adviser of the Secretary of State, rival inventor as the adviser of the Government, the country had deprived it, but that that influence might be materially increased." Lord Panmure, then at the head of the War Department, regarded the recommended the appointment of a special Committee on was paying heavily for Sir W. Armstrong's generosity new piece as "a most valuable contribution to our army, and the ex- rifled guns, and this was appointed by General Peel, in periments being conclusive as to the flight and accuracy of the projec- August, 1858, to ascertain the best form of gun both for tiles," he gave orders that three more guns should be prepared, a 12- garrison and field service. pounder and two 18-pounders, together with the necessary projectiles, to be handed over to the artillery to knock about, and be reported The Committee, having made few trials of the Whitworth upon as to their endurance of work, in comparison with our service gun, and those without giving Mr Whitworth himself an guns." With these, and with a 32-pounder and others of the same opportunity of being present, having visited the Elswick construction, trials were made, which towards the close of 1858 led to the adoption of the Armstrong gun for special service in the field. Works, and abstained from visiting the works at Manchester, in three months reported against five of the seven The Armstrong gun itself is thus described: guns it had professed to consider, damned Mr WhitThe earliest aim of its inventor was the production of a field-piece, worth's with faint praise, and recommended "the immeconstructed for loading at the breech, with mechanical appliances to "diate introduction of guns rifled on Mr Armstrong's facilitate the pointing of the gun and counteract the recoil. His first conception was to have elongated projectiles of lead, or lead "principle, for special service in the field." hardened by an admixture of antimony or tin; but discovering their On the decision being made known, Mr Armstrong was applied to, liability to distortion, he finally adopted a projectile of iron coated to state on what terms he would be ready to transfer his discoveries, with lead, to which rotation is imparted by its being forcibly driven and the patents which protected them, to her Majesty's Government. during the explosion into the numerous grooves with which the bore To this he replied by declining to negotiate on the basis of a purchase; but expressed his readiness to assign them unconditionally, being But as the substitution of a cylindrical bolt for a spherical ball, and desirous and preferring to make them a gift to her Majesty and her the force required to project it through a barrel slightly contracted successors, "without any pecuniary or other valuable consideration." towards the muzzle, involved the necessity of strengthening the gun A deed to that effect was accordingly executed on January 15, 1859, to enable it to resist the increased strain and impart the required thus completing what General Peel, in communicating the fact to the velocity-the attention of Sir William Armstrong was early directed Earl of Derby, described as "the handsomest offer ever made by a to the selection of a metal possessed of greater tenacity than that private individual to the Government." Mr Armstrong was paid by We are next told how "the sudden resolution to get of cast or ordinary wrought iron. Steel has nearly double the tensile grants from the Treasury, in reimbursement of all expenses attendant "rid altogether of Mr Whitworth and his experiments strength of the latter, and more than seven times that of cast iron; on his experiment between the years 1855 and 1859, when his gun" followed fast upon the Report of the Ordnance Committee but in the state of the manufacture as it then existed, it was con- was adopted. "in favour of the Armstrong gun." In reply to a letter sidered to be unreliable in a mass of sufficient size for large guns. But a difficulty arose on the very threshold; the gun, whatever its he was informed of the determination of the Secretary of Besides, both in it and in shear-steel, Sir William Armstrong was of excellence, was still incomplete, and no one but its inventor was opinion that the tenacity was always less in a lateral than in the competent to conduct the further experiments requisite to render the State "to discontinue further experiments with ordnance longitudinal direction; whereas lateral strength was the high essen- invention more perfect. It was, as Sir William Armstrong subse-"rifled on his principle." tial of a cannon. Reverting therefore to the practice adopted in quently said, "a special manufacture, known at that time only to making musk barrels of twisting bars of iron into spiral tubes and himself; and the Government, after they had obtained a grant of Commons' Committee of 1863, "the most distant idea of becoming a "He had not had previously," as he stated to the House of forging them, Sir William resorted to a similar process, but on a these inventions, had no means of putting them in practice, except manufacturer of rifled arms. I took it up," he said, "originally, greatly enlarged scale. In malleable iron when drawn into bars, the under his direction." Within three days, therefore, from the signa- solely because I was requested by the Government, but when I particles assume a fibrous form, somewhat resembling a bundle of ture of the deed by which he so generously made over his interest in received this letter from General Peel to inform me that no more threads strongly adhering to each other and possessing their chief the patents, be, on January 18th, 1859, addressed a further com- experiments were to be made with guns on my principle, I detertenacity in the direction of their length. Availing himself of this munication to the Secretary of State in which he made a suggestion mined at once to become a manufacturer and to prove that my system well-known property, he proceeded to coil iron bars of sufficient thick as to a return for his exertions, since he could not engage to give up was right. With respect to the rifle, it has already been shown that ness into cylinders, which he afterwards welded into solid hoops, by gratuitously all future as well as past inventions connected with the it was so; and I think it will soon be admitted that I was right with which "means the longitudinal strain of the slips becomes opposed to subject. His proposal was that he should give his future services, in the explosive force of the powder; and the weldings being transverse the capacity of a public officer, at an adequate salary, and with the regard to ordnance also." with the bore, have no important influence in lessening the strength title of Director of Rifled Ordnance. With regard to the He founded, therefore, a rifled ordnance factory at Manof the barrel." amount of that salary-I may fairly estimate the entire value of my chester. Sir Emerson Tennent then describes the WhitSteel being a harder substance than iron, and therefore more time, in a professional point of view, at 6,000l. per annum; and I worth gun, a tube of one piece of the strong 'homogeneous' adapted to form the surface of the bore and receive the rifling, be at should consider that fully half that time would be absorbed in per- iron-hooped by hydraulic pressure, a muzzle- or breechfirst applied it in the form of a tube for the inner lining; obtaining forming the duties of the supposed office. I would, therefore, the necessary strength by encircling it with welded hoops shrunk on propose 3,000l. a year, a proper amount to cover services and future loader uniform of bore, rifled upon the principle already with initial tension on the principle laid down by Treadwell, and inventions." applied to small arms, and fitted with elongated iron proadopted with more or less variation by others. He afterwards made This proposal of 3,000l. per annum, he modified by reducing it to jectiles. From the gun he passes to its remarkable perthe inner tube, as well as the external hoops, of coiled iron; but 2,000l. a year, with the understanding that retrospectively it was to formances upon the Southport shore in the spring of 1860. mature experience has demonstrated the superiority of steel. date backwards so as to include arrears for three years past, and In Sir William Armstrong's case, breech-loading instead of a matter prospectively that it was to endure for seven years to come. In Mr Whitworth having thus proved his right to a competiof choice became a matter of necessity as soon as he had decided on addition to his official duties, he was to remain at liberty to carry on tive trial, claimed it and had it accorded to him, but on rifling a lead-coated projectile by forcing it by a pressure equal to his private business at Elswick as heretofore, or any other in which official conditions that he considered incompatible with fair several tons into the grooves of the barrel, since in order to ensure he might think proper to engage. With these terms the Secretary for inquiry, and to which he declined to accede. its filling the bore it was indispensable to make the projectile of a War complied, convinced, he said, that to take his patents, without greater diameter than would enter the muzzle. The plan which he securing his services in the making of the gun, would be useless; The third part of Sir Emerson Tennent's most timely adopted was the attachment at the rear of the gun of a powerful and Mr Armstrong was accordingly appointed Engineer to the War and important book describes the rise of the iron navy, and screw, which, having a hole through the centre so as to render it a Department, on February 23, 1859, with an income of 2,000l. per the experiments made with the new artillery as to the prolongation of the bore, admits the introduction of the projectile annum, and travelling expenses not exceeding 8001. a year; his vulnerability of iron ships. Into the details of this we with a cartridge and greased wad; and these being deposited within, salary to be calculated retrospectively from 1856, as some compensa- need not enter. It is enough to record the issue to which a vent-piece with a mitred face, fitting a corresponding mitre at the tion for the labour and outlay he had incurred. end of the bore, is dropped into a recess, against which the great As his functions were to be consultative and directory, he was at they have come, an issue to which it is a particular object the same time provided with an Assistant, Mr Anderson, to take of this work to direct public attention.

screw exerts its pressure, and closes the breech.

In the earlier Armstrong guns it was necessary that the portion of charge of the practical department at Woolwich. The functions of Shortly after the startling events at Shoeburyness, at the close of the bore which was occupied by the projectile should be perfectly Mr Armstrong (who on his appointment received the honour of 1862, when contrary to general expectation the armour-plate of the clean, otherwise the shot would not enter freely, and water had to be Knighthood and the Companionship of the Bath), were defined in an Warrior' was not only pierced by Whitworth shot, but penetrated freely used in consequence; but in the guns now issued for service, official minute, by which he undertook to give his best attention to by Whitworth shell, her Majesty's Government came to the resolua slight alteration in the bore has enabled the greased wad to be maturing and perfecting his gun, and to conduct all experiments and tion to reopen the former settlement of 1858, so far as to authorise applied with perfect effect, in substitution for sponging-an expedient investigations for developing his system, and for the improvement of the institution of a series of trials to determine the relative excellence first adopted by Mr Whitworth, when trying his rifled brass guns at rifled ordnance generally and all patents taken out by him for of the Armstrong and Whitworth systems. These comparative Shoeburyness in 1859. these purposes were to be the property of the crown. He was to With respect to the vent-piece, Sir William Armstrong intimated furnish designs and drawings for guns, to visit the establishments for experiments are now about to commence. They will be conducted, not by the usual Ordnance Committee, composed exclusively of at an early period, that it is not expected to have the same durability making those designed by himself, and to direct the processes; but military and naval officers, but by another specially named, with as the gun; besides it obtains its name from its being made to without the responsibilities or duties of a resident superintendent. whom two scientific civilians have been associated, Mr John Penn contain the touch-hole, which being the most perishable part of all At a later period Sir William Armstrong received the further and Mr Pole, the former distinguished in the highest walks of his ordnance, it is better, rather than insert it in the body of the gun appointment of "Superintendent of the Royal Gun Factory" at Wool-profession as a mechanical engineer. The programme of tests to itself, to place it where it can easily be renewed. Two vent-pieces wich. which the guns are to be subjected will doubtless include every point are attached to each gun, so that if one of them be disabled, the Simultaneously with the transfer of his interest in his patents, a essential to determine all questions of construction, velocity, range, other is ready to replace it. contract of an important character was entered into for the manufac- and precision; rapidity of firing, powers of destruction, and length of The rifling of the Armstrong service gun consists of spiral grooves ture of his guns, by a private company upon highly advantageous endurance. The issue of this important contest will be watched by forming what is termed a "fluted bore." The number of grooves terms. This contract was made on the same day (January 15, 1859) the public with profound and unwonted interest-but the result, to he has varied from eight in the first 3-pounder to thirty-eight in the on which Sir William Armstrong signed the deed of assignment to whichever side victory may incline, must not be permitted again to 9-pounder field-gun, and seventy-six in the seven-inch bore, called a the crown; and the parties to it were the Secretary of State for War, close the gates against the honourable ambition of other aspirants. 100-pounder. Sir William Armstrong, and Sir William's partners, who formed what Sir William Armstrong and Mr Whitworth are but two out of those Having described Sir W. Armstrong's 'segment shell' has since been known as the Elswick Ordnance Company, in which clamouring for admission; others in due course of time will advance and his field carriage, the narrator of the Story of the they were joined at a later period by Captain Andrew Noble, of the their pretensions, and whatever be the result of the approaching trial, Royal Artillery, a gentleman whose services as Secretary to more whether it attest the superiority of the Armstrong gun, or point to Guns turns to the gun-making of Mr Whitworth: than one of the Select Committees on Ordnance had rendered him its supercession by the Whitworth; no judgment, as between them, Between the years 1854 and 1857, he was repeatedly solicited by thoroughly acquainted with the properties of the Armstrong gun. must preclude the just claims of other rivals to an equally dispasthe Commander-in-Chief and the Master-General of the Ordnance to The reason ostensibly assigned for creating this special establish- sionate scrutiny. extend his attention to artillery; and brass blocks were supplied to

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