The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-01 00:00:00

CORPORAL PEAKE AND THE QUEEN'S

PRIZE.
On Saturday a telegram was received by the autho-
rities of the National Rifle Association from Corporal
l'eake, announcing his intention to institute legal
proceedings for the recovery of the Queen's Prize.
The evidence upon which the council strived at their
decision is summarised by The Times which remarks
that some confusion still prevails in the public mind as
to the actual cause which led to his disqualification
for receiving the Queen's Prize. It is frequently
asserted, for instance, that his error lay in having loaded
with a powder flask instead of with a cartridge,
, whereas there never was any question of a powder
flask in the case. The point involved was one easy to
comprehend, theugh difficult to explain, for the very
formation of the bullet issued to Corporal Peake carries
us three or four years back into forgotten contro-
versies between the council and Mr. Whitworth. Itmay
be remembered, perhaps, that among Mr. Whitworth's
inventions there was ne for replacing the mechanically-
fitting scraping-rod the use of which had been for-
bidden, by transferring the scraper from the end of the
rod to the base of the bullet itself. This idea was
developed and improved upon by making the scraper
double and by introducing between the metal plates a
thin layer of some lubricating substance. The Whit-
worth bullets used in the late competition for the
Q ,cen's Prize, all had when issued to the marksmen,
this solid base half scraper, half wad, attached to
them ; and the intentimi, of course, was that all
should load and fire under conditions of equality. At
best, in a mechanically fitting cartridge of this kind Lord Winchilsea has published in The Times a version of
pointed out by his tioordM.ihlt;pmintr;ime.
the lubricating power could be but small and thheiephoezmatottritlhatetefdanilt•-
nal.urally the great heat tended to dry and harden
the wad Ltteeen those two pieces of metal. A Morley's original text have disappeared. When the critics
real lubricating wad, on the other hand, would igt7 itilegVot Vhieti:eli`jcdom"Zrol'ira rrir
certaidy improve the shooting of the very same dating from the Temple, and using the initial. of "W. V. 1.1.,4
wean. This being the state of things, witnesses is confident that Ur. Morley's poem is not Milton's on one

The Select Committee appionted to report on the 3larricil
Women's Property Bill state that they are of opinion that a
change in the law of this country, with reference both to
the property and earnings of married women, is necessary.
It does not, however, appear to the committee to be necessaly
to make any alteration hi the liability of a husband to
maintain his wife in consequence of such a change in the law
withregard to the property of married women. Other questions
of importance, it is added, arise in settling the details of an
Act of Parliament on the subject, relating principally to the
liability of mothers to support their children, and to the
rights of married women to make contracts; lad for want
of time and opportunity to enter into a full investigation of
these matters, the committee recommend the appointment
if a Select Committee in the next session of Parliament for
further enquiry.