The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-09-23 00:00:00

OUR ENGINES OF WAR.

When General Peel was at the head of the
War Department, under the Derby Adminis-
tration, he, with the sanction of his colleagues,
took Sir William Armstrong under his especial
patronage. A compact was entered into to
make him the gun-founder of the country. Nor
was he to be easily deprived of this privilege.
Special provision was made in the agreement,
that should any succeeding government give
their patronage, under a certain number of years,
to any other gunmaker, the country should be
mulct in heavy damages. While, therefore, the
cold shoulder has been given to every other
inventor of ordnance, Sir William Armstrong
has been allowed every facility for making
experiments—experiments which, while they
have for the most part turned out utter failures,
have cost the country, it is said, the enormous
sum of three millions of money! He cannot
make a breech-loading gun to be of say service
beyond a 12-pounder. He has been obliged to
admit that the old 95-cwt. 8-inch smooth-
bored navy gun can do more than his rifled 110-
pounder.. He has been obliged to own himself
beaten by a 68-pounder. He tried a gun of 150
lbs. calibre, a muzzle-loader and smooth-bored.
It was partially successful, but burst! "But,"
says Sir William, "I can throw shells beautifully
with my 12-pounder field pieces. To be sure
they have no penetration, but when they burst,
they will break windows and men's heads I"
While so mach waste of time and money has
been thus going on in trying experiments with
guns which were long ago condemned by nume-
rous parties well able to judge of their merits,
the great Mersey 300-pounder has been
allowed to lie in the mud wholly neglected—
regarded more by the authorities as a curious
piece of lumber than as a deadly engine of war.
At length it has been tried, and with the most
perfect success. Build any ship you may for
sea-going purposes, and this enormous engine
can belch forth a shot so propelled as to knock
the armour-plates of such ships to pieces.
The Warrior or the Black Prince, broad-
side on to a fort with a couple of
such guns at half-a-mile distance, would be
knocked into smithereens. The target of which
the great Armstrong gun only injured the outer
plates and burst, was smashed to pieces like
glass by its ponderous shot. Nor was the only
successful experiment at Shoeburyness on
Tuesday. Every shot fired from the Whitworth
guns was a condemnation of the favour and
support which Sir William Armstrong has re-
ceived. Mr. Whitworth has proved that he can
make 12-pounders throw shells which have the
power to penetrate any armour-plated gunboat
yet built; while his 70-pounders, if adapted to
our navy, would, in an engagement with France,
either blow up or send La Gloire or any ship in
the French navy very soon to the bottom of the
sea. The Times, which has ever been the
champion of Sir William Armstrong, after de-
tailing the success of the Boreal and Whit-
worth guns, proposes a compromise between
Whitworth and Armstrong. What for? The
former is to adopt the latter's breech, and the
latter is to adopt the former's rifling. Unfortu-
nately for this remarkable proposition, Arm-
strong has admitted his breech to be a failure
for heavy guns. The Whitworth gun has been
proved to be a success on every point where the
Armstrong has failed. How, then, can any
comparison exist or compromise be made be-
tween the two? Not all the puffing in to
world can alter the fact that Whitworth's in-
vention is the most valuable, and fraught with
more important results than any yet discovered;
nor persuade the public that the Armstrong
monopoly can be continued without great loss
to the country.