The Express.
London, England, 1862-11-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 18, 1862.

result' at which we may at present arrive will be
merely provisional The triumph of guns of new
material and new form may, we know not how
soon, be reversed by the disoovery of new armour
and of a new type of vessel. But we cannot
wholly suspend our preparatious for naval warfare
pending such inquiries, and we must be content to
make the best of our present knowledge,
while admitting that it is imperfect and may
be found hereafter fallacious. We shall
not, therefore, lose our time, but rather
employ it to the best advantage, in endeavouring
to ascertain exactly the practical amount and value
of Mr. WHITWORTH'S present success, crediting
him at the same time, as his success has entitled
him to claim, with the power to effect some
further advances in the same direction beyond
what we have as yet had actual experience of.
Now the importance of the results of last week I
may be taken as residing in the fact that Mr. Wnrr-
wows has shown that no existing vessel is to be
deemed invulnerable, and has so far restored us
to the position we were in when our wooden
walla were the ramparts behind which our victories
were gained. These wooden walls we have been,
it is true, forced to abandon, not because they were
permeable to shot, but because they were pene-
trable by the modern horizontal shell firing. But'
when the Emperor of the FRENCH ascertained
by actual experiment, that four inches of iron
would not only keep out spherical shell (which
even hall-inch iron would do), but would keep out
shot also, we were forced to follow his lead,
because it seemed obvious that a vessel which
could turn every shot fired at her,wss a match for
a whole fleet of vessels which might, one after the
other, be sunk by her broadsides. At the
same time, in consenting thus to alter the
whole character of our navy, we have sacrificed
many of our former advantages. We have been
forced to build vessels of such prodigious size and
draught of water (for without size the weight of
iron could not be carried), that we have scarce a
dock in which they could be repaired, while there
is scarce an enemy's harbour which they could
approach, and even on the high seas their unwieldi-
nous would have made them of comparatively
little service against smaller and more active ships.
From the horns of this dilemma Mr. Wurrworern
has for the present rescued us. His guns on
board the lightest vessel which can carry them will
find their way to the vital points in their gigantic
adversaries. We may now cease to emulate
the Gloire, since our one-inch iron gunboats can
plant their steel-headed darts in the Gloire's four-
inch sides with equal destructiveness and with far
greater certainty than she can reply. Instead of
spending half a million on a single frigate, we
may now at the same price have half a dozen fri-
gates of far greater powers of service to us and of
terror to our adversaries.
It is quite true that we must still, and for ever,
abandon wood. But we must not allow ourselves
to be carried away with the idea that because
Mr. WHITWORTH has succeeded in driving shell
even into iron vessels, he has made every iron vessel
which can thus be penetrated as incapable of being
fought as a wooden ship now is. The cast-iron
spherical shell, containing a heavy bursting charge
of powder, broke up, after making its entrance,
into innumerable fragments, which were scattered
with violence through the ship, killing and maim-
ing by tens and twenties, and at the same time
the explosion set the vessel on fire. Mr. WHIT-
WORTH'S new shells are of wrought iron, they are
elongated, the fore part is solid, and the bursting
charge, which is very small, is lodged in a small
cavity, hollowed near the back. All these are
apparently unavoidable conditions of his success ;
for he needs great weight, high velocity, and tough
iron to force a passage through the opposing plates,
and a large cavity for the bursting charge would
either involve a diminution of weight or an in-
crease in the length, and consequently a diminu-
tion in the velocity of the shell, while cast iron
would break into splinters without penetrating
or even exploding. But the inevitable result will
be to render the missile much lees harmful.
Wrought iron will rot fly into pieces at the explo-
sion as cast iron does ; it will rather open up like
a burst gun-barrel, or at most separate into two
or three fragments. The heavy forepart of the
shot will receive little additional destructive power
from the few pounds of gunpowder inflamed behind
it, the back part may very probably in general, as
happened actually on one oecas4on on Thursday,
be driven inrocuously out through the hole by
which it entered. And while thus suffering infi-
nitely less from the splinters, iron ships will have
the additions' safety that they will be um; •rflammab?e.
For it may certainly be assumed that Mr. WHIT-
WORTH will at least succeed in abolishing the teak
backing, and in establ;shing the principle which
many eminent shipbuilders have advocated on
other grounds, that an iron ship should be built of
iron without any intermixture of wood in her

construction.
The conclusion to which these considerations
leads, that when we reach a thickness of iron
which will merely serve to keep out cast-iron
shells, or at least shells with very large bursting
charges, we shall probably find that we have reached
the limits of the useful thickness of iron plates.
A greater thickness will of course make penetration
more difficult ; but Mr. WHITWORTH has proved
that it cannot be made impossible, and the inconve-
niences of very thick plates will probably be found
toou:,weigh theirsmallcomparative advantage. But
it is at least clear that while the Ordnance pushes
its efforts to make an invincible gun, the Admiralty
ought now to desist from the attempt at absolute
invulnerability, and seek only to discover the con-
ditions of most serviceable defence. Le:,
us ascertain by copious experiment the
effect in the way of splinters and of fragmen„i
produced by the Whitworth shell on one-inch, two-
inch, and three-inch iron, and let us be content to
adopt whatever may be the minimum thickness
which s'aall put our sailors in no greater peril
than they joyfully faced when solid shot tore
through oaken planking. Thus much we need not,
if the Admiralty choose, he long in having placed
beyond doubt. Relieved from its search after the
impossible, it might, even before Parliament
meets, be prepared to lay before it results on
which it might with some confidence vote the
moderate sums required to give us, in • fuller
degree than we have for many a year possessed, a
navy fit to go anywhere and do anything.

TIM WARD Or LANOBOURNS—A meeting of the
friends of Mr. Howard, of Leadenhell.market, was held
yesiteubsy, at the London Tavern, with the view of signing
a requtsitioa for that gentleman to allow himself to be put
in nomination as a candidate for the gown of alderman for
Langbourne ward. Mr. Howard. who has been twenty
years a common councilman, presented himself by special
request, and in a brief speech signified his readiness, in the
event of receiving a requisition containing not less than fifty
signatures, to offer himself as a candidate, with the inten-
tion, if successful, of retiring from the largest commission
business in the trade, the better to attend to his aldermanic
duties.
M. BLONDIN.—To-night a novel and interesting
entertainment will be launched at St. James's Hall. M.
Bloodin has been engaged by Mr. J. Russell, to give a
series of evening performances on the high and low rope,
when those who have not seen this eminent gymnast in a
comparatively small are., will be better able to judge of
his merits. To vary the entertainment, a concert will be
given, supported by several popul►r vocalists, land the ex-
cellent band al the Coldstream Guards.