The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-30 00:00:00

THE SUN LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 30, 1863,

TH E 0 XFOIt I)
', OXFORD STREET.
Will be performed Selections from the following Operas :

LA CIRCASSIENNE, MARTHA, and
MASANIELLO.

Supported by Miss Russell, Miss Townley, Miss Ellison,
Messrs. Albert, Green, Bernardi, Finish, Kimberley, and
W. Evans, with full band and chorus.
Conducted by Mr. Jonghmans.
Drew Dean's Flute Solos
Master Sanders, the Juvenile Vocalist.
UNSWORTH, the modern Demosthenes.
Eugene, W. ARTHUR J
. Hand BERTutchenson,
RAND.e and th mat vellous
The HALL has been newly Decorated and Ventilated, and
is now one of the most Beautiful in the Metropolis.

CANTEINE AR B URTS R
GAY
LLERY.HALL AND,
F
The Last Week of the Marvellous ARTHUR and
BERTRAND, the Two Fren‘ h Clowns.
ARTHUR LLOYD'S buriesburlesque D.
rama, arranged expressly
fo
SAM COLLINS, with new Songs.
UNSWORTH, the celebrated Stump Orator.
EUGENE, and TAYLOR.
GRAND SELECTIO CAlfrom OPERAS, GLEES, and
TATAS.
Principal Artistes—Miss Russell, Miss Townley ; Mr. Green,
Signor Bernardi, and Signor Tivoli.
EVERY EVENING will be produced, with all the new
()mac/a, EFFECTS, and by permission of J. H. Pepper,
Esq., THE GHOST, Medium, Mr. A. Silvester.

ROYAL ALHAMBBA PALACE
ak. The
MAORI WARRIOR CHIEFS will me their RE-
APPEARANCE THIS EVENING.

OYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. The
1A) RISARELIS, EVERY EVENING during the Week.

OYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. The
1_ I; FAIRY FOUNTAIN EVERY EVENING, at Ten
o'clock.

YAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT
INSTITUTION
(Incorporated by Royal Charter).
PATRONESS—Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen.
PRESIDENT—Vice-Admiral the Duke of Northumberland,
K.G., F.R.S.
CRATRMAN—Thos. Baring, Esq., M.P., F.R.S., V.P.
DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN—Thomas Chapman, Esq., F.R.S., V.P.
APPEAL.
The Committee of Management have to state that, since
he beginning of the year 1860, the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution has expended £32,000 on various Lifeboat Estab-
lishments on the Coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
The number of lives saved by the Life-boats of the
Society, and other means, since its formation, is 12,800;
for which services 82 Gold Medals, 718 Silver Medals, and
£16,480 in cash have been paid in rewards. The Institu-
tion has also expended £67,(00 on Life-boats, Life-boat
Transporting-carriages, and Boat-houses.
The Committee desire to express their grateful eanse of
the generous support which they have received from the
British public during the past few years, a support which
has enabled them to establish their present magnificent fleet
of 123 Lifeboats on the shores of the United Kingdom.
Deeply sensible, however, of the great responsibility that
rests on them to maintain their fleet in a thoroughly efficient
state, and its Crews practised in the management of their
boats, whi h can only be effected by a large and permanent
annual income, they earnestly appeal to all classes of their
countrymen to aid them in upholding and perpetuating so
great and truly national a work.
The Committee gratefully acknowledge the following con-
tributions:—

Her Majesty the Queen
Campbell, the Hon. Mrs. G. ..
-

£ s. d
.. annual 50 0 0
.. annual 5 0 0

Clerk, Colonel, B.A. • •
_. • • . .. annual 1 1 0
Coutts and Co., Messrs., Bankers .. .. annual 10 0 0
Currie, Wm., Esq. • • • • .. .. 4th don.lo 0 0
Erle, Lord hief Astice .. • • . • don. in 10 0
Fanshawe, Vice-Admiral Sir A., K.C.B. .. 2d don. 25 0 0
Fenwick, G. J.. Esq., cost of a Lifeboat and Tran-

sporting Carriage • • • • • • • • • • 250 0 0
Harvey, Rev. G. G. and Mrs. .. don. 30 0
Martin, Sir Henry, Bart. .. .. .. 7th don. 10 0 0
Moore, Rev. G. B. • • • • • • • • don. 15 15 0
Smith, Mrs. George, Greenwich .. 3 0 0
Stirling, Col. Sir Anthony, .• annual 2 0 0
Thomas, Lady, Weston-super-Mare, collected by her
Ladyship „ -
_

.6 16 0

- - -
Willoughby d'Eresby, Lord .. .. .. annual 50 0
Donations and Annual Subscriptions will be thankfully re-
eived by
the Bankers of the Institution, Messrs. Willis,
Percival, and Co., 76, Lombard-street; Messrs. Coutts and
Co., 59, Strand; Messrs. Berries, Farquhar, and Co., 16, St.
James's-street, London -,by ail the Collectors of Customs
and Bankers in the UnitedKingdOm ;
and by the Secretary
Richard Lewis. Esq., at the Office of the Institution, 14,
John-otrect, Adelphi, London, W.C.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

PosT.—Her Majesty has, with her usual good
feeling and good taste, addressed a letter, through
Sir Charles Phipps, to the Mayor of Birmingham, on
the subject of the recent accident to thts female rope-
dancer at Aston-park, which_will be read with sa-
tisfa

i e,
eot
the
beht
yye thv
patensrne
oreny- nv
epee
ra before
hase.
mfgTo, eeantSovereign
possessed,
ae
fiethibotiyi s
0,
at
thsye cae l
ph presentrr gea
u
ofittaecerletiusaocopntrilicitude which she constantly manifests in the
welfare of her subjects. It is in the recollection of
the public that, on the occasion of some festivities
at Aston-park, in the outskirts of Birmingham,
about ten days since, awomen
considerable
afiedaetrsaholef Bheloignhdtin
fromthe
upon a o
ground.p e met
with a most
suspended
The ar
rope
p ae
was rotten, and, having snapped across, the un-
fortunate performer fell and was instantane-
ously killed. The casualty was rendered still more
shocking by the circumstance that the woman was
at the time in an advanced state of
Notwithstanding, however, the occurrence of this
terrible calamity the committee engaged in the con-
duct of the festivities did not think
r
shocking death whilst endeavouring to emulate
proper to bring
them to a close, nor did the spectators consider them-
selves bound in common decency to desist from the
amusements in which they were engaged. The pro-
gramme of the evening was strictly carried out, and
a volley of fireworks terminated an entertainment
in the coarse of which a human creature was with-
out a moment's notice hurried into the presence of
her Creator. This catastrophe, the remote causes
which produced it,and the conduct of the spectators
after its occurrence, form the theme of her Majesty's
letter. Writing by command of her Majesty, Col.
Phipps expresses the horror with which she heard
"that one of her subjects had been sacrificed to the
gratification of the demoralising taste unfortunately
prevalent for exhibitions attended with the greatest
danger to the performers." e We are willing to be-
lieve that in this estimate of the character of the
amusements to which she refers her Majesty will
command the assent of every right-thinking person
in the kingdom. The Queen is peculiarly fitted not
only to express a just opinion of the tendency of
these amusements, but to check their further de-
velopment by the example which she affords for the
imitation of others. In the columns of this journal,
and in those of others, the attention of the public
has been frequently directed to the growing taste
for exhibitions whose sole attraction consists in
the danger which is entailed upon the perfor-
mers. The subject has been canvassed in Parlia-
ment, and proposals have been made to prohibit,
by legislative enactment, performances equally
perilous to those engaged in them and degrading
to the spectators. But this is a free country, and,
if people like to risk their necks, it is urged that
the Legislature would not be justified in prevent-
ing them. Now, there is one way by which this
growing perversion of public taste can be checked,
and that way her Majesty has adopted. As a
woman, she has expressed her personal feelings of
horror at the late catastrophe; and, as an exalted
lady, she has pronounced the exhibitions which are
attended with such casualties to be revolting to
humanity and demoralising to 'public taste.
Her Majesty noticed with great appropri-
ateness the convincing proof afforded on the
occasion of the fête at Aston - park that exhibi-
tions of the kind which she condemned had the
at T ht ao te
oper
toionfu
ew at
the
eshownv
ei na
tt
hh
ee
hdielcairsiitoyn,
effect of deadening the finer sentiments of human
nature.arr ive
and the sports of the occasion after an event so
melancholy." We know by experience how much
fashion has to do with determining the nature of
public amusements, and through the Queen's letter
we believe that those which, on account of their
perilous nature, have been so frequently condemned,
have now received their death-blow. As a kind-
hearted woman, her Majesty deprecates the en-
couragement of exhibitions which are fraught with
danger to the performers; as a Queen, she protests
against the lives of her subjects being needlessly
sacrificed ; and as one who, by her high taste, is
entitled to direct and control public taste, she con-
demns a practice whose effects are proved to be
grossly demoralising. There is an amusing simpli-
city in the reply of the Mayor of Birmingham which
cannot fail to arrest attention. That dignitary ape
pears to have thought that her Majesty's sole object
in addressing him was to reprove him for having
failed in his duties in permitting an exhibition which
resulted in loss of life. He hastens to assure her
Majesty that no one laments more than he does the
accident which has taken place, or regrets more sin-
cerely the introduction into Birmingham of "a bar-
barous species of amusement," which, he apologeti-
cally adds, " has become popular in the metropolis."
So anxious is he to convince the Queen of his zeal,
that he alludes to a previous occasion on which,
though " not empowered by law to interfere," he
did interpose in preventing a similar exhibition
with success, and not obscurely hints that, for the
future, he will not hesitate, even though Aston-
park is beyond his jurisdiction, to prevent the pos-
sible repetition of such a scene as that witnessed
ten days since. The intensely personal view
which the worthy Mayor takes of her Majesty's
letter, and the idea which was evidently upper-
most in his mind, that it never would have been
addressed to him had not his name appeared in
the list of the patrons of the fete, may well excite
a smile. By the public the letter will be regarded
in a different light. It will be accepted as one more
proof of the warm interest which her Majesty takes
in the occupations of her subjects ; and we enter-
tain a sincere conviction that it will exercise no
trifling influence in checking the further develop-
ment of a form of public taste which is eminently
discreditable to the age in which we live.
TIMES.-0f all the States of Europe there is no
one the movements of which are so difficult to calcu-
late aright, as the Empire of Austria. It possesses,
like most States in which public opinion has had the
opportunity of developing itself, two antagonistic
parties ;—there is a Liberal and Constitutional
party, which is for the moment in the ascendant ;
there is a feudal and reactionary party, which
is for the moment depressed and overborne.
Men form different judgments as to the future
career of Austria, according as they fall into the
hands of one or the other of these sections of opinion.
On the one side, Austria is represented as true at
heart to the good old cause of divine right and the
solidarity of monarchs against nations ; on the other
hand, we are told that her Court is determined to act
in accordance with her institutions, and that the days
of arbitrary government and despotic alliances have
passed never to return. We ourselves gave the ex-
ample of a similar vacillation of policy and sentiment
during the reign of Charles 11. when we were the allies
or the adversaries of the liberties of Europe, just as one
party or the other might gain the ascendant in the
Royal Councils. When the recent note on the affairs
of Poland was laid before the Government of the Em-
peror of Russia it became exceedingly
important for
him to ascertain what were the real intentions of Ans.
triain joining the Western Powers. The Russian Mini-
ster at Vienna is said to have reported to his Court
M.
_de
Bmosta a favourablyhieefel l
it oo
tnh thise eo t subject.
unusual e Probablyrr
persons whose feelings and predilections were iden-
tical with his own; at any rate, he is said to haveh
received assurances from the quarter to which
.e
applied which left no doubt on his mind that Austria
orof consulting
was resolved to take the first opportunity that
should be offered of showing her good will towards
her ancient friend and ally. Without some such as-
surance it is surmised that Russia would never have
ventured to address the Western Powers in the tone
which she saw fit to use. The Russian Minister
must have believed that by setting aside the Treaty
of Vienna, refusing to grant an European Congress,
and referring everything to a kind of family council,
in which Austria should have a seat and a voice, he
had effectually separated the alliance and enabled
himself to flout the Western Powers with impunity.
No scheme could be better laid, if, indeed, it could
ever be worth the while of a country like Russia to
make for herself an opportunity of spurning well
meant advice, and of covering those who offered it
with discredit and contumely, The scheme was well
laid, but it has failed, and failed, owing, it must be
said, to the honourable, sincere, and straightfor-
ward conduct of the Austrian Government. Rising
entirely superior to the feeling on which Russia
doubtless relied—to jealousy at the interference of
the Western Powers with a matter so delicate as
the affairs of Poland—rising superior to the cajole-
ries and menaces with which he has been alternately
plied by Russian diplomacy, the Emperor of Austria
has announced, in unmistakeable language, his in-
tention to stand firmly by France and England in
their demand of justice to Poland. We have good
reason to hope that this convincing proof that
Austria has thrown in her lot with the cause of
progress in Europe has not been lost on the Emperor
of Russia. Ever since the attitude of neutrality as-
sumed by Austria at the time of the Crimean war
the press and the diplomatic agents of Russia have
been breathing vengeance
against her for so signal
and notorious an act of ingratitude. And yet it has
come to pass that instead of gratifying her wrath
Russia finds herself compelled to sue for the good

offices of Austria, and to sue in vain. We believe that
no time has been lost in modifying and qualifying,
by all the arts of which a subtle and unscrupulous
diplomacy disposes, the disagreeable effect pro-
duced by the reply of Prince Gortschakoff upon
the Western Powers. If this be so, we have
escaped a great pun, and have to thank the
Austrian Cabinet for extricating us from a dilemma
in which our own imprudence and the arrogance
of Russia had placid us. We had said that an
unfavourable reply from Russia would leave this
country little choice between disgrace or war, and
the answer of Prince Gattschakoff more than realised
oar prediction. It is to the firmness and good
sense of Austria, and by no means to the wisdom of
our own counsels, that we owo the prospect we
enjoy of being relieved from an unfortunate dilemma
which seemed perpetually pressing for a solution of
a nature which we were not disposed to give. We
shall sincerely rejoice if these anticipations be
realised, and shall accordingly hail the accession
of Austria as a supporter of the cause of humanity
and good government throughout the world. But
while Austria is thus shaking off the shackles of
her old traditions, and doing the highest honour
to the new form of government which she has
adopted, we look in vain for any symptoms of a
similar spirit in the other Monarch on whose
head has descended the other third part of the ter-
rible responsibility of the partition of Poland. If
we owe to Austria the probability of an escape from
an European war, it is undoubtedly due to the
King of Prussia that the possibility of such a war
ever existed. Had the King of Prussia been in any
degree true to the solemn engagements towards
his own people to which he has bound himself by
oath, had he respected the constitution of his
country, the feelings of his subjects, the interests of
his Crown, the independence of his kingdom, or
the dictates of humanity, the present dreadful civil
war which is desolating Poland would have been
long ago stayed, and those questions which are
now left to the adjudication of the torch and the
sword would have been decided by calm and im-
partial mediation. It is the heavy lot of the
people of Prussia not only to be deprived by arbi-
trary violence of their own liberty, but to be made
an unwilling and reluctant means of trampling
down and overthrowing the liberties of others. The
insurrection of Poland was the fruit of deliberate
and intolerable provocation, of an act which con-
verted a process ostensibly designed for the recruit-
ing of the army into a cruel proscription of all that
was best and bravest in the land. The Government
of Russia would never have ventured on an act of
such outrageous and preposterous tyranny if it had
not calculated with a most perfect certainty on the
support of that nation the whole territory of which
is interposed between Russia and the Western
Powers. The Emperor well knew that he might
count on the support, the countenance, and, if ne-
cessary, the armed intervention of the army which
is at the absolute disposal of the King and aristo-
cracy of Prussia, to put down any effort for Polish
freedom. He was well aware that the feeble mon-
arch and the petty aristocracy who have taken in
hand the subjugation of the Prussian nation dreaded
nothing so much as the contagion of liberty, and
would be ready to employ the whole usurped power
of the nation to prevent the rise of anything like
a liberal or constitutional spirit in the north-east of
Europe. Nor has the Emperor of Russia any rea-
son to repent of the confidence which he has reposed
in his Prussian brother. The telegraph informs us
that the paper which has succeeded to the circula-
tion and to the political principles of the Krcutz
Zeitung, as the organ of absolutism and feudality,
considers it urgently important for the policy of
Prussia to seek a better understanding with Aus-
tria, and especially with England, Russia alone is
neither an entirely sufficient nor a reliable ally.
Things must have gone far, indeed, when exhorta-
tions to the Government to retrace its steps are
heard from such a quarter. The remonstrant news-
paper probably perceives that the King is acting
too strenuously on the principles of his own party
for the interest of those principles themselves. In
the present conjuncture a little less zeal and a little
more dissimulation would probably serve the cause
better. The warning does not come too soon. The
King of Prussia has broken definitively with his
own subjects, he is entirely isolated in Europe, and
be retains his present position by the forbearance of
those Powers whom he has irritated.
DAILY NEWS.—After such a disclosure of appal-
ling facts as the Indian Sanitary Report has given
us, there should naturally be no delay in considering
the recommendations of the Commissioners in re-
gard to a remedy of the disease and mortality. The
admirable regulations of October, 1859, for which
the country is indebted to Sidney
.Herbert, and the
whole constitution of our military sanitary system,
owed their origin to the dismal proof we had had
that the medical service is not only inadequate to
the work of preserving the health of the array, but
wholly inappropriate to it. Dr. Sutherland's testi-
mony to this fact, in the evidence before us, is very
impressive. Being asked what he meant by there
being no sanitary service in India, while there were
medical men with every regiment, he showed that
the care of health is a wholly different thing from
the cure of disease ; and that the ablest and most
accomplished physicians and surgeons had no edu-
cation on sanitary matters, till the recent regulation
required of medical officers that they should have
gone through a course of sanitary instruction at
Chatham. Again, the medical officers of a regiment
have
anywhere else. They may do their best for their
no power to establish a system in India, or
own men ; but their nearest neighbours, or their
next successors, may be subject to all the causes of
sickness and mortality, without any body .being
able to help it. Again, the doctors have quite as
much to do in their own department as they can
manage,
and more extensive sort of work. Finally, the
without undertaking a wholly different
treatment of the causes of disease and death must
be as general as the causes themselves ; and this can
be done only by aspecial
most
s t
with the care of the public health and armed
with authority to provide all the conditions of it.
"say,
m The public health," 'we
experiencenis tradt i n ,
informants charged.
, after the Commis-
sioners and (heir
In India, even more than elsewhere, it is impos-
sible to take separate care of the health of the civil
and military sections of society. There may be
some purely military arrangements, such as the oc-
cupation and amusement of soldiers in barracks,
desirable with a view to health ; but the great epi-
demics to which the special mortality of India is
due arise from mischiefs under which natives and
Europeans, civilians and soldiers, suffer together ;
and these evils can be dealt with only by a special
administration, furnished with large powers and
an
indisputable authority. Such works as draining
districts of land, bringing water from remote high-
lands, suppressing and interdicting the atrocious
nuisances of the. bazaars, superintending river works,
and the building of towns as well as barracks, in-
specting the public food, registering deaths and their
causes, and many other regulations needful to the
general health, are beyond the scope of any authority
but that ofa department, and are not divisible be-
tween
theinterests of the civil and military popu-
lation. There must, then, be a Sanitary Departmdnt
for India ; and this once resolved on, the department
ought to be made as good as the most liberal wis-
dom can make it. It is scarcely conceivable that
objections will be made on the ground of expense.
The most thorough and well-paid organisation that
could be created could not absorb a tithe of the cost
we are sustaining by the loss of trained soldiers,
valued at £lO each; and by the loss of the service
of many more lying sick in hospital, for the most
part recoverable only so far as to be sent home in-
valided, and (most costly of all) by desertion. If,
of the 20,000 annual desertions from the British
army, nearly all would in a few years be prevented
by practicable improvements in the soldier's lot—by
his being made healthier, happier, and more intel-
ligent, and by a better class of citizens being there-
by attracted to the military calling—the saving
would pay for a dozen sanitary administrations. As
for the cost of such public works as the new depart-
ment would at once require and institute—the new
buildings, drains, aqueducts, &c.—the means are
ready. Sir C. Trevelyan's budget showed us how pro •
minent an object beneficial public works are in the
policy of the Indian statesmen who are conducting
the rapid progression of our great dependency ; and
we may safely rely on the needful funds being
forthcoming whenever the department about to
come into existence is ready with its estimates.
What, then, should this department be ? This is the
last and most weighty recommendation of the Com-
mission? No one Commission could undertake, to
any effectual purpose, the care of the health of a
public consisting of one hundred and fifty millions
of persons. Moreover, the conditions of health vary
considerably in different parts of so vast a region
as that of our Indian empire. It is proposed, there-
fore, that there shall be a Commission for each Pre-
sidency ; and certainly each Presidency will give
any department quite enough to do in superintend-
ing the whole sanitary economy of stations and
bazaurs, the improvement of towns and purification
of the country, and the constant collection of know-
ledge,A and reporting of it for the public benefite. s
e
w hav
for the constitution of these Commissions,

good guidance in the excellent operation of the one
we have at the head of the army at home. The
civil element must be represented, and the military ;
the sanitary and the medical ; the engineering;
and, we hope we may add, the statistical ; the latter
being of essential importance to the advancement of
medical science, and to the formation of sanitary
arrangements for the generations to come. A body
of trained sanitary physicians would be connected
with the Commission, as would, no doubti a suffi
cient force of engineers familiar with the works re-
quisite for sanitary objects. It is obvious, however,
that such Commissions cannot go to work inexperi-
enced and unaided. Men, chosen for their familiarity
with India, could hardly know anything of the pra2.-
tical working of our military direction at home; and
again, if accomplished members are chosen from home
they would have everything to learn of the Indian
conditions of their work. The proper course clearly
is to introduce an Indian element into the depart-
ment at home, which may learn what is already
known and done, and guide the Indian Commis-
sions till they have gained experience enough to
judge and act for themselves. The recommendation
is that two officers of the Indian Government shall
be 'associated with our War-office Commission at
home, in order to render available for India such
knowledge and such methods as have been already
acquired and instituted. The delay of five months
in the presentation of this Report and Evidence is
much to be lamented, when it is considered that,
by due punctuality in the production of the Blue
Book, any needful modifications of the laws, and
the appointment of the new Commissions, and the
addition to the existing one, and -the new regula-
tions, and a very necessary plan for the registra-
tion of deaths and of the causes of death in the
chief cities of India (to be extended in time over
the whole country) might have occupied the atten-
tion and obtained by this time the cheerful recog-
nition of Parliament. There can be no doubt that
the recommendations will be carried out in one way
or another. The essential now is, that they shall
be carried out in the true spirit, without damage
from the hostility, tyranny, ignorance, apathy. or
jobbing tendencies of Court, Horse-Guards, Minis-
ter, or any adverse influence whatever.

THE ARMSTRONG GUNS.

A very important parliamentary paper has been
issued respecting the arrangements between the
Government and Sir William Armstrong for the in.
troduction of his artillery into the naval and mili-
tary services. The select committee appointed to
inquire into the expenditure incurred since the be-
ginning of 1858 on improved ordnance, whether
obtained by contract or manufactured in the Go-
vernment founderies, have presented a report dated
July 23, 1883. They state that the Armstrong gun
was first brought to the notice of the Government in
December, 1854, when the Duke of Newcastle (then
Secretary of State for War) gave Sir W. Armstrong
(then Mr. Armstrong) an order for a number of his
guns, not exceeding six, for trial. A three-pounder
was delivered in July, 1855, when Mr. Armstrong
forwarded a detailed report of the experiments he
had made. The subject was referred to the Ord-
nance select committee, whose report, though quali-
fied, was in the main favourable to the gun, and
who desired to make further experiments. The gun
was re-bored up to a 5-pounder, and in December,
1856, was tried in the presence of Col. Eardley
Wilmot (superintendent, Royal Gun Factory), near
Newcastle, who reported, Dec. 30, 1856, that at
1,500 and 2,000 yards the gun had made remarkably
good practice. In January, 1857, a second gun was
ordered, to correspond as nearly as possible with the
service 9-pounder field gun. Experiments were
made with an 18-pounder in competition with a
service 32-pounder gun. The result was so satisfac-
tory that Lord Panmure said—" I am clearly of
opinion that this is a most valuable contribution to
our army. For all purposes of projection and accu-
racy of flight of the projectiles, the experiments are
conclusive. Further experiments should be made.''
In 1858 the attention of General Peel, Secretary of
State for War, was directed to the circumstance that
we were behind other countries in not having any
rifled ordnance for field serrice. He accordingly
called upon Col. Lefroy, his scientific adviser, for a
report on all the experiments that had been tried on
rifled ordnance ; and, in accordance with the recom-
mendation of that report, appointed a special com-
mittee to advise him as to the best rifled gun for
field service. This special committee came to the
conclusion that it was not expedient to incur the
expense of trying further experiments with any ex-
cept those of Messrs. Whitworth and Armstrong.
The experiments with the Whitworth gun were not
of as extended a character as those with the Arm-
strong. At that time Mr. Whitworth had not any
gun of his own construction, nor did he propose any
system of constructing guns. The committee ap-
pointed to investigate the question recommended the
Armstrong as the field gun of the service. A gua-
rantee was given to Sir W. Armstrong that he should
not be a loser by the expenditure of £12,000 on a
plant sufficient to enable him to turn out 100 guns a
year. This guarantee was afterwards increased ; but
Lord Derby, in a letter addressed to General Peel
on the 18th of December, 1858, said that he should
rather doubt the expediency—in the present infancy
of the invention, and when, doubtless, time and ex-
perience will both suggest improvements and pro-
duce economy in manufacture—of pressing for the
immediate supply of a large number of guns, of the
first type and at the highest rate. He also sug-
gested that the first orders should be confined
chiefly, if not exclusively, to that class of guns, say
32-pounders, of which we have had sufficient proof,
and that we should defer any order for heavier guns
till they had been rather more tested. On the 15th
of January, 1859, Sir W. Armstrong assigned his
interest in all patents for, and improvements in, the
manufacture of ordnance to the Government. In
order to obtain as soon as possible a supply of Arm-
strong guns, it was decided to enter into arrange-
ments with a company set up at Elswick for the
manufacture of Armstrong guns and projectiles. A
guarantee was given to this company
to secure them
against loss by the erection of buildings and machi-
tghuens to be provided
machi-
nery, The Government undertook to keep them in
full work, but kept in its own hands the power of
engagementeeeesieeeofn
the
ee
spearriceellrteocifueiroilllng
a larger -
terminatingpenecom-
pensation. t
ien h
. Thet e
t i n
number
a
t
first anticipated,Armstrong
by Lord Derby's Government was increased, first
than
to £50,000 and then to £60,000. After Gen. Peel
of
left
eo
affie
ec
de
pressure Lord
forerb Herbert, r
guns,t, in O c
raised. , 1859,the guarantee to owing guarantee o
t given
voi h
dd
e
werei
its final amount of £85,000. This agreement was
terminated in April of this year, and £85,000 has
been paid to the company. Lord De Grey states
that value of over £19,000 in plant
andstores has
been received. This would make the amount paid
as compensation about £65,000. In the winter
of 1858-59, the Board of Admiralty, acting upon
the advice of Capt. Hewlett, RN • ~ of her Majesty's
ship Excellent, gunnery ship at Portsmouth, de-
cided upon the introduction
into the navy for boat
service ; and in the summer
of 1859, the same officer
having urged the im-
portance of introducing into the navy larger
calibres of Armstrong of guns, the Board
Ad-
miralty requested the Secretary of State for War,
as
in the strongest manner, to supply them, with
little delay as possible, with a large number of
40-pounder and 70-pounder Armstrong guns. At
the same time careful and exteneive experiments
fe system of
were carried on to test whether any sa
strengthening cast-iron guns could be found, or
whether and better, speedier, or cheaper system of
than that proposed
existed
constructing rifled guns
by W. Armstrong, None
such having been found
within the period for inquiry, the Armstrong sys-
tem was completely adopted by the Government.
On September 24, 1859, a committee, of which Sir
William Armstrong was a member, approved of the
pattern of the Armstrong 40-pounder for naval ser-
vice. The system was first extended to the 110
Oalibre on the 14th October, 1859. The political
necessities of the day appear to have been so urgent
as not to allow time for maturing the design pre-
vious to its manufacture. In consequence of the
pressure which existed at that time the first 100 of