The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-17 00:00:00

COGNAC

IjINAHAN'S LL WHISKY v.
BRANDY.
This celebrated Old IRlBii WHISKY rivals the finest
FRENCH BRANDY,
It i Pure, Mild, Mellow, Delicious, and very Wholesome.
Sold in Bottles, 3s. Bd., at the Retail Houses in London ; by
the Agents in the principal towns in England ; or wholesale
at

8, GREAT WINDMILL-STREET, W.
Observe the Red Seal, Pink Label, and Cork branded
"Kinahan's LL Whisky."

THE best TROUSERS for vntlerien to wear
are those mad by ELSTOB, of (10, New Bond-street
They are neither so low in price as to necessitate their being
carelessly put together, nor so dear as to gain only the
wealthy purchasers. "In medio tutisimus ibis."
ELSTOB'S TROUSERS, TWENTY-ONE SHILLINGS

PkR PAIR.

THE TEA ESTABLISHMENT, 4 and 5.
King William-street, City, will be CLOSED on
SATURDAY, the 26th instant.

RIDGWAY & CO.

BANKRUPTCY AND COMPOSITIONS.-
Mr. WETHERFIELD. Solicitor, 35, Moorgate-street,
City, PRACTISES in COURT, and effects PRIVATE
ARRANGEMENTS with creditors, without publicity.
Charges, the lowest possible, payable by instalments. Coun-
try cases economically conducted.
N.B.—DEBTS recovered on commission, free of law costs.
Divorce and Probate business conducted at moderate ex-
pense.

NO CURE NO PAY.—The Pre-eminent success
attending the use of KERSIIAW'S VOLTAIC
FLEXIBLE BELT, novel in principle and action, in the
cure of nervous and muscular affections, admits of its sale
being made dependent upon verified efficacy. A new Belt can
be had on trial for a month, free of charge, for rheumatism,
neuralgia, sciatica, epilepsy, nervous debility, paralysis,
lumbago, tic doloureux, bronchial cough, asthma, spasms,
sprains, indigestiop, inactive liver, &c. By the mild continu-
ous electric current evolved, exhausted vital ener2y is euec-
tually restored. Prices, Is. to 15s. each ; for extreme cases,
according to size and power. Testimonials sent free. —Depot,
11, Crooked-lane, King William-street, City.

LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—During the recent
heavy gales some of the boats of the Royal National
Lifeboat Institution have been instrumental in rescuing the
crews of the following wrecked vessels :—Schooner Theophi-
lus, of Aberdeen, 5 men ; barque Tamworth, of Norway, 17;
schooner Northern Lights, of Preston, 4 ; pilot boat, of St.
Ives, 7 ; schooner Arlon, of Workington, 4 ; schooner Gipsy,
of Drogheda, 4 ; smack Saucy Jack, of Inverness, 1 ; barque
Marietta, of Lisbon, 1 ; fishing boat, of Filey, 2 ; Tenby
fishing boat, 3 ; and barque Providence, of Dantzic, 7. Total
lives saved, 55. The lifeboats also assisted in bringing safely
into port, with their crews, consisting of 29 men, the Italian
brig Camoglino, the schooner Sir Colin Campbell, of Whitby,
the schooner Guilia, of Palermo, and the ketch Snip, of Am-
sterdam. The lifeboats also went off in reply to signals of
distress on fourteen oceasions, but their services were not
ultimately required. The amount of reward p ,id for all
these services was £216.

The Committee of the Institution earnestly AP PEAL to the
public for ASSIsTANuE to enable them to meet the con-
tinued heavy demands on the Society's 125 lileb iat estab-
lishments. Contributions are received by all the Lon,ion
and country bankers ; and by the Secretary, Richard Lewis,
Req., at the Institution, 14, Jt.hn-street, Adelphi, London.

AMERICAN ARTILLERY.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)

RICHMOND, Nov. 14.
It is far from flattering to the national vanity of an Eng
lishman to be told that the artillery of his country is behind
the requirements of the present age, and that in two and a
half years of exasperated warfare America has outstripped
Europe as regards the size, power, and efficiency of her
cannon. It has been my fortune, however, to hear this
language employed and these opinions expressed on many
occasions during the last two years, both in the Northern
and Southern States; and it must be avowed that in some
instances the spokesmen have been the very highest autho-
rities upon the subject. of artillery that this continent can
boast. When there is such a coincidence of opinion among
men who are certainly not yet surpassed in knowledge of
their subjects by any of their rivals, it would seem high
time that England should satisfy herself as to the faith that
is in her, and should fearlessly ascertain the truth, at what-
ever cost or risk. It is very possible that the actual re-
sults of the experiments at Shoeburyness and elsewhere in
England are unknown in this country; but I will repeat
what seem to be the radical objections entertained on this
side of the Atlantic to the Armstrong and Whitworth guns.
In the first place, there is universal disbelief in the strength
of breech-loadi❑g cannun. Secondly, there is a gene•
ral ajection to the rapid twist of the rifling in the rifled
ordnance of England. I have mentioned in a previous letter
that the rifling of the Brooke gun is very gradual, consist-
ing of one complete turn in 401 t,, or one-fourth of a turn in
each gun of loft. When the Armstrong gun was first intro-
duced it was publicly stated in evidence in England that the
resistance to the egress of the shot offered by the circuitous
twist is equal to a weight of one ton and a half, and that,con-
' sequontly, when the shot leaves the gun its initial velocity is,
as is well known, very low. If, in order to increase this velo.-
city, the charge of powder be augmented, the grooves wear
very rapidly, and the gun becomes useless. It seems to be
believed by Commander Brooke and Admiral Dahlgren
that all the advantages of rifling can be gained by a more
gradual twist, and a greater length of service elicited from
the gun, Be this as it may, there can be no question that,
so far as heavy rifled ordnance are concerned, the two great
successes of this war are the Brooke and Parrott guns. And
it is with reference to the enormously superior powers of
these guns beyond those possessed by the English 68-
pounder or B.inch smooth bore that the great error of Eng-
lish opinion seems to be entertained. How far the Brooke
and Parrot guns outstrip the Armstrong and Whitworth,
their rifled competitors in Europe, it is impossible for me to
say; but by turning to the 10th volume of the professional
papers of the Royal Engineers, published at Woolwich in
1861, it will be obvious that an immense stride has been
made since the essay from the pen of Sir John Burgoyne—
the then highest authority in England—which that vo-
lume contains, was written. Taking far his text the breach-
ing of a martello tower at Eastbourne by three Armstrong
guns, and the siege operations conducted by the Prussian
Government at Juliers (between Aix-la-Chapelle and Co-
logne), Sir John Burgoyne points out the superiority, with
a view to breaching a fort, of rifled ordnance at a range of
1,000 yards, as compared with the smootli-bore and sphe-
rical projectiles. Sir John says :--" Up to a range of
1,000 yards (and probably further trials will carry it some
hundreds of yards beyond) rifled ordnance has been aster •
tamed to give the velocity and precision of practice re-
quired to effect breaches, whereas with the spherical mis-
siles 609 or 700 yards may be deemed their utmost practical
limits." It was little foreseen by Sir John Bur-
goyne that, scarcely two years from the publica-
tion at these words, a fort would be breached by rifled ord-
nance, not at a range of 1,000 yards, and possibly a few
hundred yards beyond, but from a distance of VI miles. In
reference to the practice against the Martello tower Sir John
observes :—" Trials were subsequently made to breach a
similar tower from smooth bored 68 and 32 pounders at the
same range of 1,032 yards, and the result may be deemed
altogether a failure, both accuracy of fire and velocity of the
missiles being quite deficient for such a range. At 500, or
perhaps 6.;0 yards, the superiority of the rifled ordnance
would have been very little, if any." The guns employed
against the tower in question were three Armstrong breech-
loaders, described as follows :-1. An 82-pounder of 6
inches calibre ; charge for shot, 101 b ; for shell, 91b. 2. A
7-inch howitzer, throwing 100 lb shells; charge, 91b. 3. A
40-pounder of 4.75 inches calibre, No. 101; charge, 51b.

At the conclusion of the second day's practice, after
about 160 projectiles from these three guns had taken effect,
the tower was reduced to a heap of ruins. But inasmuch
as Sir John speaks vaguely of the possible effect of the fire
of rifled ordnance at a greater range, it may be doubted
whether the Armstrong gun would be effective against
masonry at more than 2,000 yards. Here, however, we
have Fort Sumter breached by the Parrott gun at a distance
of more than 4,000 yards. It cannot but ba desirable that
the attention of England should be drawn to these startling
developments, and that she should not suffer herself to bs
lulled into a fancied security, and to live a fool's paradise,
because she has lavished millions upon the Armstrong
gun.

But if as regards breaching practice the superiority of
the rifled ordnance over smooth-bores is manifestly
established, I believe that this superiority will be still more
marked when both are tried against iron-plating. There
appears to be in England, and especially among naval
officers, a very general idea that at a short range there is
no gun so formidable against iron plates as the old 68-
pounder or 8-inch smooth-bore. I am not at liberty
to mention the exact result gained by Captain
Brooke's trials against the target with his own gun, but it
will be sufficient to state that in my belief they would
astonish Europe. It is imagined in England that because
only one of the Monitors off Charleston has hitherto been
sunk, the Confederate guns cannot be very formidable. That
this is not the belief of the Felerals is evinced by the very
wide berth which their iron-clad vessels give to the Confe-
derate batteries. A vast deal of nonsense has been written
by the correspondents of Northern journals about the Mo-
intsitogrusnasp‘pvreoraecdhiisnulgowunittheidn)
alnoOd yards (\c.refrFil(igrtthSeninar
fiterre.(b, eTfokree
truth really is that no Monitor has ever approached nearer
to Forts Sumter, Moultrie, or Johnson than 900 yards, ex-
cept the Keokuk, which came within 700 yards, and was
sunk. It is asked, " "lave you any gun in England which
could sink the Keokuk at that distance ?" This question
must be answered in England itselt. Nothing is more
certain than that the 68-pounder could not attempt such a
feat. When the wreck of the Keokuk was examined it was
found that, in addition to the Brooke bolt which sunk her,
three shots from the 10-inch smooth-bore had riddled her
tt
hu
ar rne tt
htherloou-ginhchan through.
smd
otohth.ubogrh. 3agTaionsutsieronanpylathtiinnggisasmcoafflieedr
at on this continent. commander Brooke is of opinion that

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