The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-25 00:00:00

will rest on theunexcluded particles, as if floating on quick-
silver. With similar devotion to accuracy, Mr Whitworth,
in the search for a means of determining dimensions with
precision, oonstructel a machine, so accurately and deli-
cately made as to measure objects which differ even by the
millionth part of an inch—a division so minute as to be per-
ceptible only by touch after it ceased to be discernible by the
eye. So nice is the adjustment that in using it an inch of
steel can be held to be an inch, only so long as the ther-
mometer stands at 62 deg, the slightest excess of tempera-
ture; and the stanaard yard, a square bar of steel, when
placed in the machine is so expanded by the slightest touch
of the finger as to show an appreciable lengthening even
under the iefiluetlce of the infinitesimal amount of heat
thlis imparted."

It was after England and the continental nations gene-
rally had awakened to the censciousness of the deficiencies
of the old regulation musket, the Minie rifle, the invention
of a French noncommissioned officer, attracted universal
attention, and Lord Harding°, after has ing consulted with
MrWestley Richards, Mr Pure dey and other celebrated gun
makers, introduced the Enfield rifle. After various experi-
ments it was diecovered that although the guns were made
upon the same pattern and in all respects alike, no two
were alike in their performance or properties. In
this strait Lord Liardinge had recourse to Mr 'Whitworth
in 1853, requesting him to construct machinery which
would enable the workmen to produce guns which should
be practically as well as theoretically similar. From this
date Mr Whitworth commenced to study the science of
gunnery, with what results his success with the rifle
musket, and his armour piercing projectile can bear wit-
ness. It is a curious fact that the three greatest construc-
tors of artillery in this country, none of them belong pro-
fessionally to the business. It is true that Mr Whitworth,
as a mechanical engineer, when devoting himself to the
construction of wrought iron artillery, was, to a certain
extent, in his element, but as regards Sir William Arm-
strong and Captain Blakely, they were unquestionably
amateurs. It is not our intention to follow Sir E. Tennent
through his protracted review of the details of each step in
the progress of the inventions and experiments of the last
five years. To those who are really interested in the sub-
ject, we would rather recommend the perusal of the work
itself, The impartial observer cannot fail, when he exa-
mines the question carefully, to agree with the author, that
much valuable time has been lost, and a vast sum of money
recklessly expended, through the prejudice and profsssional
etiquette of the Ordnance Select Committee. It is no fault
of Sir William Armstrong that the committee rejected
the claims of all other competitors, because they
were desirous of experimenting upon his guns alone.
Although SirW, Armstrong was placed in a situation of great
delicacy, not to say embarrassment, as a member of the
committee when the productions of other inventors were
being considered, not a breath of suspicion has ever fallen
upon him of using his position to the detriment of other
inventors. Sir W. Armstrong, on the contrary, no sooner
saw the position in which he stood. then he disarmed
censure by cancelling his engagement with the Govern-
ment, and throwing up his appointment in the Ordnance
Department. Independently of all higher considerations
we believe that his confidence in the excellence of his own
gun led him rather to court than to shun competition.
With the other members of the committee it was however
far different. Captain Scot says in his evidence before the
committee of the House of Commons in 1863, that it is his
opinion that the determination to make some plan of Sir
William Armstrong's succeed, caused the Ordnance Select
Committee to reject or delay all the plans of other inven-
tors. Again, the Duke of Somerset, in his evidence before
the same committee, reluctantly attests the distrust enter-
tained by inventors generally of the decision of the select
' committee, and says that " many of the inventors used to
come to him at the Admiralty, because they did not like the
Ordnance Committee at the War-office. And as an illus-
tration of the difficulties interposed by the system, his
grace goes on to state that after witnessing the performance
of the Whitworth gun, when it penetrated the armour
plates of the Trusty, and " could have sunk her," he says,
" with one or two shots," he felt desirous to have some of
these guns manufactured, and obtained the concurrence of
Lord Herbert, who was then Secretary for War; but the
Ordnance Select Committee not having tried or approved of
Mr Whitworth's mode of rifling, his attempt was defeated."
Five years have passed since the first committee was ap-
pointed to investigate the relative claims of inventors for
the production of suitable artillery for our army and navy.
In 1858 Sir W. Armstrong produced a serviceable light
field piece. In 1864 a Select Ordnance Committee have
commenced in earnest to test the relative merits of heavy
guns rifled upon the system adopted in the French canon
rays, and those advocated by Mr Lancaster and Comman-
der Scot—while another committee is still engaged in a
protracted series of trials of the 'Whitworth and Armstrong
70-pounders. We trust that the energy thus at last dis-
played may be carried on until a satisfactory result be at-
tained. But, why have these long years ,been allowed to
pass by and no progress made, when as yet we are unpro-
vided with efficient guns for the navy. The answer is
simply, because the Ordnance Select Committees, like all
other Government institutions must do every thing en
regle, and it requires public opinion and Parliamentary
pressure to move them from the beaten track—and if Sir
B. Tennent has in any way promoted the investigation of
this matter by the publication of " The Story of the Guns"
his labours have not been in vain.

Illacaulay'a History of England. People's Edition.
Part IX, Longman and Co.

The most ambitious of the literary achievements
of Lord Macitulay, though by no means to our
thinking his masterpiece, is still being most effectu-
ally popularized by means of this excellent cheap
edition of it in a periodical form. Five more of
these shilling monthly parts Will complete it. And
the work will then take its place upon the bookshelves of
the multitude at large, side by side with the companion
edition of those Critical and Historical Essays of Lord
Macaulay's by which his great reputation is most secure
of being perpetuated. A supplementary volume, if not
even two supplementary volumes, might then extend
the round half dozen, made up by those two volumes of the
"Essays" and by these four of the "History" to a seTenth,
perhaps even an eighth, volume, comprising the
cellaueous" writings the "Lays," and the " Speeches."
Already, indeed, the Messrs. Longman have done nobly
by the reputation of the greatest of all English Frose
Writers, and by that vast multitude of his educated fellow-
countrymen by whom his resplendent genius is so fully
appreciated—the Messrs. Longman have done nobly, we say,
both by the great Author and his numerous readers, by the
variety of editions in which his works have already, thanks
to them, been issued from the press editions, cheap and
costly, 16mo„ 8vo„ 4t0., cloth, calf and morocco.

Le Correspondent. No. 105. Charles Douniol.

As usual, there is apparent in the contents of this
always able and often brilliant periodical an espe-
cial regard on the part of the presiding redacteur,
the one entrusted by the management, that is, with
the responsibility of selection, there is still here
apparent on his part, an especial regard alike to the indivi•
dual interest of the themes descanted upon and to their
diversity when grouped together. The present livraison,
for example, netting forth with a comprehensive and lumi-
nous chapter, by Francois Lenormant, upon Prince Couza
and the Danubian Principalities, comprises within it
besides articles as various as—one by L. Villerme on Rural
Economy— a masterly contribution by Louis Joubert on
Ireland—a very curious,anexceptionally curious, critical sut -
voy of the Classical Poets of China—Sauveur Jacquemond's
nouvelle of Menichino, and the Abbe Blampignon's sympa-
thetic review of the Count da Falloux charming gathering
together of the exquisite correspondence between Madame
Swetchine and the Pere Lacordaire, There are several
other papers in the number, not here particularised—papers
entitled respectively Jean Reboul, Lea Evenements de Tunis,
Lea Vierges do Verdun with Melanges Souvenirs du Govern-
ment Parliamentaire—this last mentioned by the Count de
Menialivet—to say nothing of four minor literary criti-
cisms of a miscellaneous character, and the customary
monthly record of contemporary events. As the penulti-
mate contribution of the livraison, there is, moreover, it
should be here especially mentioned, a rapid bat compre-
hensive glance at the probable attractions of the forthcom-
ing Second Congress at Mechlin, otherwise Malines.

ECCENTRIC MONUMENT IN THE SAVOY CHURCH,
as described by "K.' in the Atheneum.—lt is to
be feared that there has perished in this church a monu-
ment, with an epitaph that has often amused me. The
monument, which was rather sumptuous, was erected about
1716, in honour of a merchant, whose name I forget. The
sole statement et the epitaph was, that ho had bequeathed
£5 to the poor of the Savoy Precinct, and a like sum to the
poor of the parish of St. Mary.le-Strand, while at the side,
and occupying about half the breadth of the marble, the
money was expressed in figures, just as in a page of a ledger
with lines single and double, perpendicular and, at the bot-
tom, horizontal ; the whole being summed up, and in each
line two cyphers for shillings and one for pence. The
epitaph concluded, " which sum was duly paid by his exe-
cutors," Though there was nothing hero intentionally
ludicrous, yet there yvas much to wake a reader, even in
time of service, inwardly smile, The contrast between the
pomp of the monument and the smallness of the bequest
which, and nothing else, it commemorated, and which it
must far have exceeded in cost; the mercantile accuracy of
the figured statement, with its eight lines and thirteen
figures, and the express addition of what is usually left to
be understood,that the bequest was paid, formed altogethet
an example of simple quaintness, which it were a pity to
allow to pass into complete oblivion.
PROGRESS OP SOUTH AUSTRALIA.—The public
revenue of South Australia in the year ending the
31st of March, 1865, amounted to £694,545, an increase of
£133,515 over the previous year, but £35,000 of the increase
appears to be due to a change in the mode of making up the
accounts. The exponditure of the year was £675,465, an in-
crease of £36,312, the chief increase being in immigration
charges.
The exports of colonial produce from South Ans•
tralia in the first auarter of 1864 reached the unprecedented
amount of more than £1,000,000, nearly hall of it being in
cereal-3,