The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

in:elm—lt is but a few weeks ago that the whole
country was resounding with lamentations over the
decline of England's influence. Not only foreign
critics▪ but native statesmen declared that the moral
weight of this country in the affairs of the world
was absolutely lost, and that in turning our back
upon the Danes we had taken farewell of our
nati▪
onal greatness, Mr. Roebuck, however, is by
no means of that opinion, and his estimate of the
case is all the more valuable because it comes from
a hostile witness. He, as he has told us, would
rather, for his own part, have gone to war. He
would have taken up the cause of the Danes; but,
though that question was decided against his views'
he thinks not only that it was decided conformably
with the general opinion of the public, but that
the decision did us no harm whatever. So far is he
from regarding our " influence" as lost that he is
overpowered with the contemplation of its present
magnitude and extent. He thinks it almost " teme-
rity" in a man to seek a seat in an Assembly so
powerful as the English House of Commons—an
Assembly which, by its political teaching and all-
pervading influence, affects the destinies of mankind
and the civilisation of the world. Looking back at
his own career, he is astonished at his presumption
in entering Parliament ; and he certainly seems to
believe that Parliament was never greater, or, upon
the whole, wiser than it is now. He regards it as a
body intrusted with a deposit of inestimable price,
and therefore necessarily circumspect and even
timid in its measures ; but he claims for it the credit
of impressing the world by its principles and its
action. We may take it for granted, then, that Mr.
Roebuck is not dissatisfied with the results of our
pacific policy ; but the speeches at Sheffield on
Thursday evening did present a fresh illustration
of the feeling which that policy excited, It is
curious to see how earnestly even now people are
reasoning with themselves about the European
duties of England, and how they ask each other
whether we have not been apathetic or pusillani-
mous in declining the other day to go to war, as we
should have done in past times. Mr Roebuck him..
self remarked that as far as domestic politics went
we were all of one mind. There may be two parties,
but there is practically only one policy between
them. "We are all Liberals," says Mr Roebuck,
"every man of us." But, nevertheless, there is not
a public meeting in any part of the country at
which the Danish question or the American ques-
tion is not brought up and debated over again. It
was so at Sheffield, and it is so everywhere. Fight-
ing has been so much our habit, and seems so truly
our nature, that we cannot easily reconcile ourselves
to sitting out while the war is going on. Yet the
Americana themselves are giving us a pretty im-
pressive lesson at this moment. After three years
of the bloodiest and most costly war ever known
they are gradually resolving to do what they might
have done at the beginning R ithout any war at all.
They talk of ceasing to fight, and coming to terms
by negotiation and parley. That is the meaning of
the " armistice and convention," which it is now
thought even Mr Lincoln will be induced to approve.
Yet, if it would have been true wisdom in the Ame-
ricans not to go to war, was it not wisdom in us to
keep out of the quarrel ? There is really something
very singular in this popular fear that we may have
been too peaceful, and wanting in public spirit.
Why, it is but ten years since we went to war with
Russia on a purely European question. It is only
seven years since we put forth our whole strength
to preserve a great dependency more than 10,000
miles off. It is only two years since we actually
drew the sword in defence of an international right,
and only sheathed it again when that right was ac-
knowledged and respected. How often is it ex-
pected that we should go to war to keep our credit
up ? We were fighting up to the year 1861. Could
not we, without losing character, decline to fightin
1864? Do three years make eo long and enervating
a period of peace ? It seems to us that these popular
misgivings indicate as genuine and vital a war
spirit in She country as anybody need desire. Sir
F. Crosee(ley approved our non-Intervention, and his
own speech gave evidence of the difficulty, not to
say impossibility, of interference as far as America
is concerned. In the Danish question we had at
least this facility of action, that if we event to
war we should know on which side to fight.
Nobody desired to help the Prussians. But in
the American case there was a party which would
rather have helped the North than the South, and
would have struck in for the Federals if we were
to strike it at all. How was that difficulty to be
overcome? Here, at this Sheffield banquet, was one
eminent speaker ail for the North, while another
was well known to he all for the South. How could
such views have been reconciled ? As it turns out,
we have not been ruined by the loss of American
cotton, and if neither Federals nor Confederates are
exactly satisfied with our neutrality we must look
for a more favourable estimate of our conduct by
and by. At any rate we have escaped the difficulty,
and done neither ourselves nor anybody else any
harm. We do not suppose that Mr. Roebuck's views
will pass unchallenged. Optimists are always few
in number, and it requires, indeed, a philosophical,
if not a partial, eye to see things as Mr. Roebuck
sees them. Not but what there is truth in his views,
only it is a truth which will not satisfy everybody.
He has now told us that he—a known Liberal, an
old Reformer, and a politician of advanced opinions
—is so impressed, and, as it were, overborne by what
he thinks the grandeur, prosperity, power, and in..
fluence of this country, that he is almost ready to
accept inaction for the future rather than run the
risk of injuring so magnificent a fabric. The House
of Commons he looks at as commanding such respect
iatn
may
ay exercisingwel well
bea
ws uecdh a powerat the
re
stphoant ai b
iml
taine
swhoa
cecnetpetrss.
But how, then, could Reform improve such a state
of things as this P Have we not, as a nation, arrived
at such a pitch of greatness and happiness that our
duty is now not so much to go on as to hold fast ;
not so much to get more as to keep what we have
got ? That is the kind of question which arises out
thingsof Nlr
which my
.Roebucka's reflections, and it is a view of
be curiously contrasted with the
views of Mr. Bright, That gentleman told us can-
didly, in one of his speeches last autumn, that if he
had. nothing to find fault with we should not hear
him speak at all. He is all for looking forward,
without troubling himself to look back. He thinks
not of what is done, but of what there remains to
do, and busies himself exclusively with that. Mr.
Roebuck's gaze is in the opposite direction. " Take
care of what you have got," says he; " no nation
ever had such a treasure of prosperity and gran.
deur." That is very true, and it is quite as well
that we should be now and then reminded of it.
We are always more ready to think of what we want
than of what we have, and Mr. Roebuck does his
countrymen good service by telling them occasion-
allp how much they have really got to lose.
DAILY NEWS.—Caution in the adoption of new
armaments was as marked a characteristic in the
Duke of Wellington's method as a statesman as it
was in his generalship. When he filled the office
of Master-General of the Ordnance he saw so much
of immature invention in the arms and appliances
of the soldier that his prejudices in favour of the
rough old weapon with which he and his steadfast
troops won 'Waterloo was rather confirmed then
weakened, and we find him opposing the introduc-
tion of the rifle long after its powers were being
made available in tho French army. And yet that
old " brown Bess," generally of Brummagem ex-
traction, was well known to fire away the weight of
a man's body in bullets for every soldier killed ; so
bad an arm was it that it could not be better de-
scribed than by the name " gaspipe," which the
Yankees, in their humorous phraseology, gave to
the same useless weapon they were obliged to begin
to fight with. The duke, no doubt, carried his aver.
sion to changes too far in refusing his sanction till
1852, when the Crimean war was threatening on
the horizon; and perhaps if the Enfield rifle had
been the sole weapon of our army then, Lord Raglan
would not have bad to resort to the almost lucky
chance of getting a couple of guns to bear upon the
dense columns of Russian infantry at the Alma,
However, the French army was no better armed
than our own, although they had the advantage
of all the knowledge acquired by those officers who
had been experimenting for ten years and more. It
was the Chasseurs only who carried the earabine a
tzge, and this was a rifle soon found so defective as
to be superseded by the Minie now in use. So that
this cautious acceptance of a new arm by the two
best equipped armies of Europe was recommended
by soldiers of experience in the field ; and that it was
necessary was afterwards shown when, the Enfield
rifle having been made the universal arm of the ser-
vice, it was found that on one important occasion in
India the ammunition could not be used in conse-
quence of some irregularity in the size of the cart-
ridges. This was precisely the kind of fault which
was suspected in supplanting a rude but never-
failing weapon with one so nice in all its require-
ments as the modern rifle. All practical soldiers
look with a certain amount of distrust upon the set
experiments of the practice ground, where every-
thing is arranged deliberately and with every ad..
vantage in favour of the weapon, and where the
arm is handled not by a rough soldier, but by an
export. Now, all these facts have a bearing upon
the important change from muzzle-loading rifles to
breech-loaders, which has now been decided upon
by tho War Department upon the advice of a spe-
cial committee, who have taken all the evidence to
be obtained in reference to the use of breech-loading
rifles in actual service, as in the American war and
in the late Dane-German campaign. It must be
remarked, however, of the evidence given by diffe-
rent officers, that it was by no means so decidedly
in favour of the breech-loader as the sole firearm of
the service as to warrant the immediate and general
adoption of the arm which Earl de Grey is said to

have determined upon. Colonel Gallwey, R,E.,
and Captain Alderson, R.A., specially sent to ob•
serve the armament employed in the American war,
report great difference of opinion as to the value of
the breech-loader, and that it is but scantily used tn
the armies, the American officers rather recommend-
ing that it should be only partially employed by'
flank companies in a regiment. The Prussian
needle...rifle, so much spoken of in connection with
the taking of Dybbol, is certainly not much eulo-
gised by those who saw it in use, though it is ads
mitted to be less liable to be put out of order than
the muzzle-loader ; but the Austrians had tried and
discarded it. Tried in our own cavalry and in-
fantry the breech-loaders of Mr. Weetley Richards,
of Mr, Sharpe, of Mr. Terry, have all been favour-
ably reported of, and in some cases commanding
officers have ventured to recommend the general
adoption of a breechloader. On the other hand, we
have officers stating that it would be attended with
great waste of ammunition, from the facility with
which the soldier could load and fire ; and this, of
course, would mean that little execution would be
done, because aiming with the breech-loader is quite
as necessary as with the muzzle-loader. On review-•
ing the different opinions, however, we arrive at cu..
tain evident advantages which inherently belong ta.
the breech-loader. These are, greatly increased
rapidity of fire, easy loading without a ramrod—
which is a point of very great value, as a man might
often be in such a position that to use the ramrod
wouid be simply impossible—and the capability of
firing without the use of percussion caps. This last
gives another great advantage, and, although it
might not belong to every method of breech-loading
yet it seems to be one which should not be lost sight
of in selecting the kind to be adopted into the ser-
vice. A man may lose his supply of caps when he
has a pouch full of cartridges, and would, of course,
then be a very useless rifleman. The abolition of
the ramrod and the percussion cap not only sirepli.
fies the use of the weapon to a most important ex.
tent but in point of economy it would be a conside-
ration, and no doubt would go far towards meeting
the cost of converting the present Enfields into
efficient breech-loaders, as proposed to the gun-
making trade in competition, and which we have
already seen can be readily accomplished by the
Mont Storm and some other methods. There can
be no question as to the necessity for a breech-loader
rifle to put our army on equal terms with others,
and the feasibility of converting the Enfields into
efficient breech loaders; the chief difficulty hitherto
has tbeen to obtain a cartridge suitable in every
respect for military purposes. The Ordnance Select
Committee will have to exercise the closest scrutiny
upon this point. In the French service we hear the
Cent Gerdes are armed with a breech-loader using
a metallic cartridge that carries its own igniting
material, which the Emperor Napoleon, himself no
bad judge in such matters, has pronounced the
solution of the problem of a military breech-loader.
The result of Earl de Grey's invitation to the
gunmakers of England will, we have not the least
doubt, be that more than one will be found to an-
swer all the requisites. But having got our breech-
loader, the far more important question to be decided
is. whether it should be made the only arm of the
infantry ? It must not be overlooked that in adopt-
ing the breech-loader we sacrifice one great power
of the rifle—long range, which is only to be got by
the muzzle loader. That is to say, according to all
the breech-loaders made as yet; if they can be per-
fected up to the standard of the Whitworth large
bore, for example, then the defect would be sup-
plied. The value of a modern rifle is, that it can.
kill at 2,000 yards or more; and with telescopic
sights, in the hands of first-rate marksmen, a single
company armed with it would be able to silence a
battery of artillery. The same advantage of range
would enable troops armed with such rifles to strike
the first blow, and in a very effective manner. It
is perfectly true that the tendency of modern war.
fare is to return to the old method of close quarters,
as a consequence of the use of long range weapons ;
but the converse of this tendency is that the range
of both artillery and small arms will be increased,
so as to give an advantage to that side which can,
first commence the work of destruction. The
breech loader would undoubtedly be an admirable
weapon at close quarters, as well as at from 1,000 to
500 yards; but while a column was getting within
this distance of the enemy it might be very severely
dealt with by riflemen armed with heavy, long-
range rifles. With all submission to the profes.
sional authorities, we think that, so far from dimi.
nishing the range of our rifles, we should increase
it, and arm a certain proportion of a regiment with
weapons of much greater power than the Enfield,
or any yet employed. This—with probably the
employment of small and extremely light artillery,
one pounders or even less—would seem to be one of
the innovations we have to contemplate in addition
to breechloaders.