The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-27 00:00:00

shell constantly penetrated, while, as might be ex-
pected, the rough iron segments of the Armstrong
i shell as constantly and signally failed to do so. In
making the fragments of the shell and its bullets or
segments ricochet upwards from the ground the
Boxer shrapnel again had a clear advantage, the
dense spherical bullets glancing easily from the
earth, while the rough iron segments of the Arm-
strong cut into the ground and soon stopped them-
selves. So also in trials for accidental bursting too
soon in front of troops the Boxer shell again had a
clear advantage—an advantage, however, which
must be considered in connexion with the following
qualifying statement—ln exploding his shell at
short distances in front of troops, or the targets
which represented them, Colonel Boxer used his
large charge of 12 drachms in order to get the
greatest effect from the pieces of his broken case.
At the long distances he used the light charge in
order to get the greatest effect from his bullets shot
out of the case. When this alteration of charges in
shells which were supposed to burst too soon acci-
dentally came to the knowledge of Sir William he
at once protested against it, and demanded fresh
trials, or, at all events, that a note should be lips
pended to the results, showing that varying charges
had been used to accomplish them. The Committee,
after long deliberation, have, however, decided that
in future varying charges must not be used, and
that experiments shall be made with the high and
low charged Boxer shell from Mr. Whitworth's gun,
and if the results given by the different charges are
material, a note to that effect is to be appended to
the returns of the Whitworth shell practice made
by such means. It is the opinion of many that
these gun trials should not have been conducted at
the same time with the trial of the new and expe-
rimental shell of Colonel Boxer; but we confess we
cannot regret anything which has brought to light
a missile likely to be so valuable to the service and
the country as Colonel Boxer's shell promises to
become. With common shell—that is, a thin case
of cast iron, filled with powder, lit from the front
by a percussion or time fuse, the Whitworth gun
was very distinctly beaten by both of Sir William's.
Mr. Whitworth, to a certain extent, frankly admits
this victory, and explains it clearly enough by say-
ing that an error of judgment was committed in
making the common shell half a diameter too long,
which has, to a certain degree, spoilt its shooting.
We give this explanation or excuse as we gave Sir
William's about the steel tube of his breech-loader
not expanding under the explosion of high proof i
charges, as it is said it would have done had the '
whole tube been of wrought coiled iron. Bat while,
for the satisfaction of the competitors, we make '
their apologies public, it must not be forgotten that '
they are excuses to which both the public and the '
committee will wisely turn a deaf ear, and look to '
results alone. Both competitors had the most ample '
time to mature their preparations and elaborate 4
their weapons to the utmost, and by those which
they have now at last put forward they must -be 1
content to stand or fall.

After the trials with common shell were over
each competitor was allowed to fire
shell after his
rounded with dummy figu.res and with empty
limbers in the rear.
Tan this contest the Arm-
strong shunt gungained a marked superiority.
The practice with the 70 pounder has now ad-
vanced to a stage at which the experiments
against the iron plated Warrior target have com-
menced. The trials with the large guns, if we
may so far miscall the 70 pounders, which have
ied up to these armour plate experiments, have
included the first stages of firing for range and
accuracy, daring which both the shunt and the
Whitworth were as nearly as possible equal in ac-
curacy, though at 3,000 yards range the Whitworth
had an advantage of nearly 200 yards. A breech
loader of Sir William's, not on the old vent-piece
system but one more recently invented, which opens
the breech at the side with sliding wedges, was
included in these trials; but we may dismiss the
performances of this piece altogether, as it was on
Friday very wisely withdrawn from competition.
Thus, as far as we yet know, the second system of
breech loading for large guns Liss for the present
been given up by Sir William. The trials against
the Warrior target took place on Thursday and
Friday, and in this competition a decisive victory
was looked forward to for the Whitworth gun,
which from the very small diameter of its shot
has generally been found most effective for at
leest penetrating the armour plates if it did not
damage them much. Contrary to all expectation,
however, at this contest Sir William's shunt gun
achieved a decisive victory over the Whitworth,
both with shut and shell, beating it in the ratio of
at least two to one. The length to which this notice
has extended precludes our giving the details on
this occasion; bat we shall take the earliest oppor-
tunity of referring fully to this great stage of the
competition which is likely to be the most decisive,
as it is beyond all question the most important, of I
them all,