The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-10 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

IRON SHIPS AND ORDNANCE. ,

STARTLING

-THE CARE

• • (no* WO OWN

r.)

PARIB. WEDIIZSDAT Eviimia.

The late reduction of the army to the extent of
32,000 men was obtained with great difficulty, and,
as I am given to understand, not without a threat
of resignation by M. Fould. Some people suppose
that court secrets are so high and mighty in their
nature that they never can be known to common
men—except, indeed, after the lapse of a great
many years, when the publication of the memoirs
of a minister or a mistress reveals to the world the

The Times of this morning gives the results of
some experiments tried at Shoeburyness on Tuesday after-
noon, which ►ppear to falsify the deductions which bad
been made from the recent engagement between the Mar-
riimac and the Monitor. Sir William Armstrong it seems
has made a 300 pounder on his own principle of wrought-
iron coils. This gun is about 14 feet in length, its weight
is 12 tons, and its diameter at the muzzle 101 inches. It
hu not been rifled, and therefore during the experiments
of Tuesday it only threw round solid shot of 1561 b.
weight. If rifled for the Armstrong shot, which
is about two and a half times the length of its
diameter, it would be a 300-pounder. This gun,
unrifled and with plain solid shot, was tried
against the great champion of heavy weights which
has hitherto come off victorious in all encounters—the

perplexities and weaknesses of sovereigns. Modern
experience, however, proves that few state secrets
rd any importance are very well kept. Ministers
will talk among themselves and to their secretaries
and intimate friends, and as a story runs it soon
comes to be forgotten that it was to "go no
further." I have just heard the following story,
for the absolute truth of which it is in the nature
of things impossible to vouch for, but which,
nevertheless, I believe. It is well known that the
choice of the budget committee indicates a very
strong feeling on the part of the Corps Legislatif
against the proposed salt and sugar taxes, and a
determination to press the government to make
such reductions in the expenditure as may enable
K Fould to dispense with them. M. Schneider,
a vice-president of the chamber, who is the presi-
dent of the budget committee, proposed to demand
an audience of the Emperor, to entreat him to re-
nounce these taxes, and as the only means of doing
so to reduce the army considerably. K Fould,
hearing of IL Schneidees intention, told the Em-
peror that it was most des;mble to take the wind
out of his sails by reducing the army at once, and
thus avoiding a delicate discussion. The minister
asked for a reduction of 60,000 men, and remindod
his Majesty that some such measure of economy
was as good as promised when he took office in
November last. To this the Emperor replied that
he had then hoped that the affairs of Rome would
take • better turn, but as things stood he
did not see the possibility of reducing his
army. It was at this point of the conversa-
tion that M. Fould hinted at resignation. The ,
Emperor at once said that he could not spars
him, and after a few moments' reflection offered
by way of compromise to dismiss 30,030 men.
K Fould consented to remain in office with that
concession, but rejoined that it was not enough to
enable him give up a single franc of his budget,
because the Mexican expedition was turning out
much more costly than had been anticipated. Thus
the matter stands. M. Schneider will very likely
seek his audience after all, for the salt and sugar
duties still remain a great stumbling-block. The
deputies wish to serve and oblige the Emperor,
but many of them doubt even his power to get
them re-elected if they vote those obnoxious
taxes.

redoubtable Warrior target. His Royal Highness
the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Saner-
set, the Duke of Sutherland, Lard Clarence
Paget, Admiral Grey, Commodore Drummond, Captain
Sir J. D. Hay, Captain • Hewlett, Captain Yelverton, ?dr.
Fairbaira, eeo., Mr. laird, Mr. Sammie, Sir William Ann-
' strong, and other noblemen and gentlemen connected with
the War-office and Admiralty, or interested in the nooses
of artillery or iron ships, were present ; 'though, on the
whole, the attendance was small, and the experiments
were conducted with unusual privacy. The great introit
_ _ . . . .

. -
was concentrated on the effect of the first shot. With
the high speed which oar Warriors are known to
possess, and therefore the quickness with which
they can steam past batteries or iron ships, It was
reasoned that it was next to impowible in • running fight
that they could be hit twice in the same place. If the
target kept out one shot, there was every hope of a ship
keeping out aIL The fist shot, • 16fipounder, was fired
with • charge of 401 b. of powder, at • distance of 200
yards. This solved all doubts. With an 'associable
crash that mingled fearfully with the report of the gun,
the spot struck upon • comparatively uninjured plate, shat-
tering the iron mass before it into little crumbs of metal,
splintering the teak into fibres literally as smell as pins, and,
though not Fusing quite through the side, yet bulging and
rending the inner skin of the ship in a way that would have
rendered it almost impassible to stop the leakage. The se-
cond shot (still with • 40th. charge) struck close by the side
of the first, making the previous damage tenfold worse, if
possible. To those who did not actually see the experi-
ment it would be difficult to describe the manner in which
the iron opposite the alas was broken into minute frag-
ments like gleam ; how the teak was 13 utterly disiategrated
that it more resembled tangles of fine twine then ems the
remains of woodwork ; and how, above all, the inner iron
skin: was ripped into gaps like torn paper. These two
shots were " quite conclusive as to the paw of the
gun. Had they struck an iron frigate at the water
line, no means could have prevented her from sink-
ing in half an hour." Still, however, the shot bad
not gone completely through the side, which it was the
great objects of the experiments to accomplish. The charge
of powder was, therefore, increased from 401 b. to 601 b., and
the gun levelled at the uppermost plate of the target,
which had been left untouched in previous tests. On this
plate a white spot was painted to guide the artillerymen,
and so true was their aim—so exactly was the centre of the
mark struck—that every vestige of the point was obliterated.
With this increased charge the shot paned, not only through
armour piste, and Jena skin, but buried itself in the
massive timbers that support the target, and even lessened
the blacks el peas by what the whole is beaked
up. Had it been the side of the Warrior 'gaud which
this missile was directed, it would not only have gone
, through the side, but nearly through the opposite side as
well. Another white mark was then made on the lowest

Although private marriages are, as a general
rule, impossible in France' owing to the stringent
provisions of the code with regard to the publica-
tion of banns, I am enabled to announce a marriage
of some importance which, for reasons with which
I am too imperfectly acquainted to speak of, was
celebrated several days ago, and has somehow °el
other been kept from the knowledge of the public.
Captain Montauban, the son of Count Palikao)
Aim hereditary dotation remains still in nubibua,
owing to the extraordinary obstinacy of the Corps
L.gialatif, was lately married at the church of St.'
Bulpice to a daughter of M. Hanemann, the pre-
fect of the Seine. The church doors were closed
during the ceremony, and means have been found
to make the newspapers understand that for their
own safety this particular marriage must be struck
out of the lists which they daily publish.
The Archbishop of Toulouse, Mgr. Julien-
Florian-Felix Despres—the prelate whose inten-
tion to celebrate the massaere of 4,000 protestant.
by a jubilee is now the theme of universal indig-
nation in France—has publicly announced his inten-
tion to go to Rome—the Emperor's prohibition
notwithstanding, and hie circular letter plainly
indicates that not the canonisation of the Japan
martyrs, but the glorification of the Pope's temporal
power, is the object of his journey. Allthe bishops'
who are going to Rome have given notice of their
intentions to the Minister of Public Worship, but
have not thought it worth while to ask his per-
miasion. It would seem at present that the Em-
peror connives at the contempt of the injunction
which he thought fit to publish in the Moniteur a
short time ago.
There has been little change at the Bourse. The
Bente fell 10c. for cash, closing at 69fr. 800., and
left off for account at yesterday's price, 69fr. 900.
Mobilier rose 2fr. 500., and the Italian Loan 15c.
Railways were firm ; Orleans rose 10fr. (thus re-
covering partially the fall of the last few days),
Lyons, 7fr. 500. ; Western, sfr. ; and the other
lines from 2fr. to Mr.
A critic in the Opinion Nationale thus modestly
and cleverly declines the responsibility of pro-
nouncing any positive judgment upon the merits
or demerits of M. Victor Hugo's new, and already
famous, work, " Les Misdrables :"
• • • And new, after this analysis, it is, I suppose,
my duty to put my foot upon these two volumes, and
making myself taller by all their height, to say, in .nests
of authority, whether Victor Hugo has successfully com-
bined art with morality, and in what measure ; 'beam
probability is sufficiently kept in view, whether the ammo-
ten are human, whether the language is not strained, who.
tber it is • book which a mother can give her daughter to
sod, whether all the rules taught by tradition and our cies.
steel models have been duly observed, whether the author's
bate is always irreproachable, whether he is a materialist
or a spiritualist, a pagan or a Christian ; whether he sup-
ports the principle of liberty or the principle of authority,
for how many reasons, seven, eight, or nice, the work is or
is not fins, and to what class of the beaut,te it belongs ;
and, in short, to sot, by virtue of my rank of critic, sal
a literary registrar of births, and reoord for the
information of posterity whether this bantling is
born living or dead. But I at not do this.
I will not do it, in the first place, because out of the ten
volumes of which the work is to consist, only the first two
have appeared. I will not do it, because I believe Victor
Hugo to be one of those 'rattan who have their contem-
poraries for witnesses, but posterity alone for their judge.
I will not do it, bemuse, HI were at the foot of Montßlanc
seeing the mountain for the first time, I should be thinking
of other things than maiming the height of it with my
umbrella.

plate of the target, and again the artillerymen hit it with
the same marvellous precision and with the same result
The shot went through everything, and " even the toadied
believers in the invulnerability of our present ironsides were
obliged to teem that spinet such artillery, at such tangs,
theft plates and sides were almost as penetrable as wooden
ships are sow to the plain old-fashioned bag i's. Of
course after such decisive result+, no further experhsenes
were tried ; indeed, they could not be, as the 156potrader
evidently thought it bad done enough work for the day,
and at the last discharge recoiled so much as to get off
its wooden platform and imbed the hind wheels of its
carriage in the stiff yet watery clay, for the production of
which in the :argent quantities at the shortest notice
Shoeburyness stands unrivalled. But quite enough had
been accomplished, and Admiralty officials and armour
shipbuilders could only admit to each other in a kind of
confidential dismay, that artillery had at last proved too
much for them, and that if invulnerable ship. were to be
esestructed they must begin de novo. It was clear
to all tied the Warrior would not stand the
hied elms* against the new gun, even unrifled. • •
We Iwo mei* reached the limit* of the thickness of iron
plates which ma-going vessels can carry with safety. There
la precticeily no limit to the size of the coiled wrought-iron
gam. Today a 156-pounder wins—a month hence and the
name gun will be a tided 300-ponsder, lied a 600-pounder
may be ready before Midsummer; but with thicker than
nix-inch armour plates no sea-going vessel ma be coated.
The Americans are now making two wrooplit-iroo guns,
unrifled, each to throw In eleven-hundred pound shot.
When we got such results with a plain 156-pounder, what
may aot the Federah expect to accomplish with gigantic
ordnance of this desoriptaon ? Armour plaice a foot thick
would be destroyed by the blow of a wrought-iron eleven
hundred pound shot fired at short range."
Sir W. G. Armstrong, writing on the relative manta of
tided and smooth guns, says, both theory and practice
show that the battering effect at close quarters is pretty
per* proportionate to the quantity a powder mot, and
that very little is either gained or lost by rifling the gun
or ramming the weight of the projectile. These observa-
tions, however, apply only to very short ranges. The
spherical shot, meeting with greater atmospheric ordinance
in Metros to its weight, loses velocity so mach more rapidly
than the elongated shot, that at the distance of only 670
yards the two projectile* move with aqua veloci-
ties. Harm, at that point, the force of the 1101 b.
shot will exceed that of the 681 b. shot in the pro-
=the weight, or as 110 to 68. As the distanos
the superiority of the heavier shot is further aug-
mented, and at 2,509 yards the rifted projectile strikes
with fully four times' the effect of the 68-pounder.
shot. The rifled gun has also enormous superiority
over the smooth bore in the destructive effect of its shells.
"I can see bat little advantage in the smooth-bore
over the Mad gun, unless it be that the spherical
projectile, being lighter, is more readily bandied,
and that the gun itself, not being subjected to the
excessive strain incident to the use of elongated projectiles,
can be more easily constructed." Judging the American
ordnance by the results of the late naval conflict, we moat
conclude that it is inferior in penetrating effect to ours, for
defensive structures closely resembling those applied to the
Merrimac and Monitor, both in thickness and construction,
have, in obi at Shoeburyness, readily yielded to
the fire both of 68-pounds and 110-pounder guns.
" Yet," writes Sir William, " though I consider our 110.
pounder, weighing 81 cwt., to be amply sufficient for firing
shells, it must be conceded that neither it nor the 68-
pouoder smooth-bon, weighing WS cwt., nor any other gun
as yet in the service Mikis or other countries, is sullloieotly
powerful to operate with effect 'picot ships protected
like the Warrior. It is not by piercing small clean-cut
holes with steel shot that we can hope to destroy or ilia-
, able such a ship. To act with proper effect, we must knock
large holes in the side, and render the interior
1 tin from splinters. We now know that a gun of
12 has weight, fired with a charge of Stine. of powder,
will bleak through the side of the Warrior, the strongest
ship afloat. Against suco a gun the extemporised Monitor
and Millinffie would be little better than timber shiclr
the eandien shot, in passing through the armour,
tale a thismand pieces, and would act like shrapnel on the
seem within. But we must be prepared for vowels
g than these—stronger even than the Warrior, and
stleZe ,r therefore, go on increasiog the size of our
guns until we reach some practical limit. The weight of
such guns, however objectionable, must be accepted as a
necensity, and ships must be adapted for their reception.
The mechanical problem of working monster guns at sea
seems already well nigh solved by Captain Cole's method ;
but if difficulties yet remain, we may rest assured that they
are of a nature to be overcome by engineering skilL"

The War-office order (relative to the exposition
of articles of industry and talent from Woolwich Arsenal,
manufactured for the Great Exhibition), which has at
sundry times been issued, recalled, and modified, has It is understood that the Admiralty on Tuesday
Mem been received es at bet issued, permitting the whole contracted with Mears. &muds, for the construction of one
of the articles prepaid to be exhibited without reser- of the cupola iron ships-of-war, under the invention of
vation, including the bowleg and rifling instruments, the Cowper of which the Monitor b an
unfinished sections of the Armstrong guns, &c. A device imperfect imitation. The price is to be 441. 15a per tan,
war yesterday nut in wood. tanned " b'nni wood," the including everything, mad the vessel is to be ready far
hardest species used is the carrier, Istablishinent, to launching on the sled of February next, and to be delivered
demonstrate the capabilities of live band oe oodles* saw. fit for sea on tie Li of June following.

, -- ---
It represents in am Own the rose, shamrock, and thistle, Two days' discussion in the Dublin corporation
surmounted by the crown, and underneath me the words, on the claims el Dr. Cullen's University to a charter
"IEO7II Centel* Department, Woolwich Mersa*" It resulted on Tomday in a division of the town commell, Mow.
will be forwarded to the Exhibition. ing twenty-sight in favour of an appeal to government and
Messrs. W. S. Uncial", and Co. have placed the tee ee the ether aids. Of the moray gear were pro.
Iron screw eteemsaipTyasmouth,of 1,650 to", on the berth testants who have always supported the liberal party. It
ha the Rebelehle of British f:ielumbte, to an from the was noticed with Nome surprise by the premotere of the
keen Docks ca the Mth of next month. movement that the yo to[ Ireland Roman catholic members
Io January Ist the Federal government had ex- of the corporation absented themselves hem the division,
pended four millions sterling in the parches. of Smarm% though present at the greater part of the diecandon.