The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-24 00:00:00

condemned to be converted, if that be possible, into
some sort of available gun tor the service. Yet here
we find the War Department ordering these mon-
ster guns, and again adopting an untried system,
involving endless and indefinite expenditure in the
working. The practice-ground and school of guns
nery established at Shoeburyness, on a scale of such
nasgaitude and expense to the country, must be pat
to very little use if they do not ensure a complete
and exhaustive ordeal for every kind of gun pro'
posed for the service. It is not to be a grand field
for displaying the triumphs of ingenuity in artil-
lery, for showing that enormous guns can be made
upon the coiled-iron principle nearly as large as the
American monsters of cast-iron, or for performing
those absurd iron target experiments which the
Admiralty always contrives to make when the ship
they refer to cannot possibly be altered or even
modified according to the result. Indeed, it re•
quires no great penetration to see •that the War
Department does not exercise that control over
the experiments carried on at Shoeburyness, ander
the auspices of the Ordnance Select Committee,
which should be maintained. The Minister of War,
in obedience to Parliament, appoints a special
Committee, to examine and report upon the
Armstrong and Whitworth guns; and the
are
questions involved in this inquiry
certainly of no less importance than the
total reconstruction of the artillery of the army
and navy. The committee are of unquestioned com:
petence, they have accomplished the greater part of
their task, and there is every reason to expect re
suits of an importance equal to the contemplated
expenditure of some £50,000 or more; but before
the report of this committee can be known on any
part of the inquiry, and before the completion 0
the investigation, the Ordnance Select Committee
pursue a course of their own, having no reference
whatever to that laid down for the Special Commit'
tee. Take, for example, the trial of the 70 pounder
proposed as suitable for broadside guns against iron
plates. While the Special Committee test these
guns at every range up to 800 yards, to ascertalh,
their power, with shot and shell, using the full
charges, the Ordnance Select Committee are per
forming, according to their particular theories, with
the
guns of large calibre, fired with half charges, at
short range of 200 yards. Flow both these methods
of experimenting can be right we are at a lees to
understand, and yet the War Department is
neces:
Fierily, under the advice of the Ordnance Select
Committee, bound to act upon the results which
that body obtains. The 600 pounder is tried in
every way but the right one, and orders givee. t°.
make the gun, but not at Woolwich, as it requirte"
special machinery. The heavy smooth bores, in the
same way, after having passed the sham trial, ere
adopted ; and the shunt rifling plan is also adopted
as the only means of theconvertin now old breech
loaders of the service. All this time the War De'
partment are awaiting the deeision of their own
committee, not only as to which of the two opposite
systems of artillery is the best for the service, °tie
of which is the shunt plan already decided upon 6.0
largely for these converted guns, but which guli-15
the strongest and cheapest in construction. 1 k %,'"el10
,r
the whole subject is still anything but clear,
as to the systems of rifling, the projectile, or thee
construction of the gun—while, in addition to tb,.
Armstrong and Whitworth systems, we know that
there are Mr Lancaster, Capt. Scott, Col. Blakely,
and Mr Mackay all claiming superiority for their
guns, and Capt. Palliser showing the War Depart'
went how to convert old condemned cast-iron gone
into good serviceable rifled ordnance at a very
trifling cost—we say that it would be far better to
commit the condemned breech loaders with all
decent regret to the Campo Santo of Woolwich than
to arm the Navy with patched up failures.