The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-02 00:00:00

THE SON. LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, 00110 BER 2, 1803,

THE, POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From, the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
NEAR WARSAW, Sept. 26.

The th rowing of the so-called Orsini shell, the
Sacking of the Zamoyski house and a palace, the ex-
aerperatical of the inhabitants of Warsaw, the savage
attitude of the Russian soldiers, and the possible
consequences of this species of collision between
Russians and Poles in the, Polish capital, are still
almost the only subjects of conversation among
Poles. Of the 300 persons arrested in the two im-
mense buildings belonging to Count Zamoyski, one
of which is inhabited by the Count's family, a few
have now been set at liberty. Among the number
is Prince Thaddeus Lubomirski, President of the
Benevolent Society of Warsaw, and author of seve-
ral highly esteemed works on the early history of
Poland. The Prince was engaged in preparing a
new Edition of Dimas-a
—better known by his
latinised name of Dlugossius, and by the Latin
equivalent for his name, Longinus—and had in his
possession all the most celebrated manuscript copies
of the work, These manuscripts, independently of
their literary importance, as having been made
directly from the original, were magnificent speci-
mens of illuminated writing, and invaluable as
heirlooms to the families from whose libraries
Prince Lubornirski had borrowed them. They
were of no use to the Russian soldiers, who could
neither make them into papirosses nor into
valuep.pe
lights. Could they have understood
their
r and ul-
timately might of course have kept them h:° ctk 'their le-
gitimate have sold them for large sum-
gitimate owners; but as it
that they must
is, no trace can be found
of them, and it appears certain
glorious bonfire the
have been consumed in the g i
flames of which were fed by C
which the best numismatic collection
ancient coins and
°Pn's piano, and into
in Poland was
thrown. A whole
medals, whole libraryme n usteum of ancient manuscripts, and
instrument the favourite
of one of the most graceful
and poetical of composers, afforded such a variety of
materials for destruction as barbarians have seldom
been fortunate enough to meet with in two ordinary
dwelling-11°n"•
s• Chopin 's piano had become the
property of his
sister, whose husband is now in the
citadel. The numismatic collection belonged to
Prince Lubomirski, whose suite of apartments has
been completely emptied of all its literary and
artie tic treasures,.
Count Andre w Zamoyski's two sons are strictly
confined in the citadel. The Count himself, as every
one knows, has been in exile since the time when
he was convicted of intending to present an address
which he tie d been specially requested to draw up
and present by the Grand Duke Constantine. The
papers of the Agricultural Society, of which Count
Zamoys ki was President, have been destroyed. So
also ha ve those of the Vistula Steamboat Company,
which was founded by Count Zamoyski, and of
which, since his exile, the affairs have been carried
on 'under the general superintendence of his son,
Count Sranielas. A large sum, in bank notes and
other securities, was taken or somehow lost during
sacking of the Zamoyski palace. The notes and
bills are supposed to have escaped the flames, for
the numbers are advertised in the 'Warsaw papers
and payment of them stopped--by whose authority
does not appear. The value of the two vast edifices
confiscated, welch cover an immense spaceof ground
in the very heart of the city, and contained 2,000
residents (1,500 in the " house" and 500 in the
" palace") is estimated at 8,000,000 Polish florins,
or, in ''Snglish money, £200,000.
Ano then great loser by the sacking of the Zamoy-
ski house is Professor Kowalewski, whose losses
will not be felt by himself alone. Professor Kowa-
lewski was one of the most learned Orientalists cf
the day, and the manuscripts of which he has been
plundered, and which in all probability shared the
fate of the Dlugosz histories, are said to have been
of the highest importance. Almost every man of
distinction in Poland has been exiled or imprisoned
for proving himself a Pole, and the eminently Polish
part of Kowalowski's life began when he was'quite
a child. He waa one of the companions and inti-
mate friends of the poet Mickiewicz at the Univer-
sity of I%'ilna, and with Mickiewicz was arrested
and thrown into prison, charged with belonging to
-a society formed by the students for the maintenance
of the Polish language and literature. In the drama
in which Mickiewicz has portrayed the sufferings
.of the Mina students, under the mild government
of Alexander 1., the young Kowalewski figures as
" Joseph"—his Christian name, When Mickiewicz
was sent to the Crimea and began to write bis Cri-
mean sonnets, Kowalewski was exiled to the ex-
treme east of the Russian Empire and applied him-
self to the study of the Siberian languages. He
was then entrusted by the Russian Government
with a mission to China, and was afterwards ap-
pointed to a professorship at the University of
Kazan, where the Oriental languages are specially
cultivated. When the University of 'Warsaw, after
having remained closed foe 30 years, was reconsti-
tuted and reopened in accordance with the plan
presented to the Empenor by the Marquis Wielo-
polsk
ki and recommended for adoption by the Grand
Constantine,Due the Russian Government cer-
tainly did its beat to collect at "Warsaw the most
eminent Polish, professors until that time attached
to the various Universities of Russia. The Russian
Goveriament'a attempts at good, however, are never
successful, tdeobably because it hes no real faith in
r
them, and, überefore, cannot persevere in carrying
them out. It could bring together a few learned
men in 'Warsaw for the instruction of the Polish
youth, %it it could not desist from irritating the
Polish -population in general until it had at last
prod aced a general feeling of exasperation, in
the midst of which it was nest to impossible to in-
trod ace reforms in themselves highly beneficial.
All that has resulted from the arrival of Kowalesv-
sk;. in Warsaw has been the destruction of his valu-
able manuscripts and books.

Great havoc was also made in the suites of rooms
occupied by the Countess Potocka, M. Jakoulowski,
one of the marshals of the nobility, Dr. Rosenblum,
and M. Barcinski, one of the directors of the Vistula
Steamboat Company. The whole of the library of
the Zamoyski palace was burnt, and pictures, pianos,
and generally whatever objects of
looking-glasses,
furniture, decoration, or art that the soldiers were
-unable to carry away were thrown out of window
and the fragments heaped together and set on fire.
The flames rose so high that the firemen of the town
East en ed with the engines towards the scene of
endiarism, but were not allowed to approach.
Besides arson, the defenders of order and property
indulged largely in robbery, the favourite objects
of %%ft being plate, jewelry, fare, tea, sugar loaves,
and. °I course wine, brandy, and cigars. The most
COITIT vale—
l" booty was to be hand in the various
szlialiPsov'sai whichhouse
the- whole of the ground floor of the
or the k
Russian
is let out. Here the brigands
army found all they wanted, ready
to hand, and
ds th's the grocer's, the
confectioner's, attil:thge°l -i
into, and thewine-dealer's' were broken
fortunate trades-
men stolen al):013ar at.tY of the unfortunate
of the more or
lin: to the momentary desires
if some in their intoxicated soldiery; for,
with jewelery, all seerewQrk of plunder began
to have ended with gin. A
hideous sort of banquet took
fore it was abandoned for tplace in the house be-
not have been astonishin. night, and it would
l
had concluded with a general this feast of Vandals
owing no doubt to the eenes°n•filgr*ltiQa• It was
cientiotta
which the house had been manner in
that this otherwise most stripped R
'I all •
Probable c„ furniture
avoided. Among the shopkeepera whiltit u 22 was
the general pilloge a jeweller, natui,d°l-" toost
mentioned. The poor man was ruobebriod:fa'afisiPoo)d to
to the value of 30,000 roubles.
have suffered violence at the hands
se who
were robbing him ; hut, however this may have
been, he was thrown into such a state of esett,:e
as to bring on an attack of apoplexy, from ;lite
tlif'd the satne night. I have not yet seen any one
vllo can corrohorate of his own knowledge the re-
Fr:r!s circulated as to personal outrages committed
-Jr3n men, and worse still upon women, living in
the upper part of the house, which from the first to
the filth floor was divided into suites of apartments.
It is not very probable, however, that the 300 per-
sons arrested and taken to the citadel were con-
ducted there with any ceremony.
The Russian cfffiers are said to have led their
srAdiers gallantly to the attack of the defenceless

property and to have taken a full share of the spoil.
If so, whatever the social acquirements of some of
these gentlemen may be, it may be said that despot-
ism in Russia, however much it may "soften the
manners," developer at the same time a considera-
ble amount of actual ferocity. In any case the
assault and the pillage were expressly ordered and
directed, and, accordingly, it is not the soldiers
alone who ought to be held responsible for the
atrocities that were committed. After the shells
had been thrown and the pistol-shot fired, a
quarter of an hour elapsed before General Berg
sent back Gen. Bebutoff with soldiers despatched
for the express purpose of robbingtwohoses in
the vicinity of which the murderous outrageu(for
such undoubtedly it was)
but neither of which was the
hads eecenbeonf
thcoemo
mutirtatgede,
eithNerotchoinnegeivwettad,
planned, or put in
nor the place from wthoichit w
execution.as
thrown or fired from the house belonging to, but
not occupied by, the Zamoy ski family, and the Rus-
sians know perfectly well that the Zamoyski palace
is the very last place from which it could be sup-
posed
that an attempt at assassination would bemade. Indeed, it is not pretended that it was made
from the latter building, only it is said now that the
two buildings form but one, and as this happens to
be a simple untruth, an edict has been published
ostensibly with a view to future occurrences, but in
reality to give a semblance of legality to the flag-
rant wrong that has already been perpetrated. First
the Official Journal calls houses which stand apart,
and have no sort of connexion with one another,
except through the proprietor, " the united houses ;"
and then the director of the police, perceiving that
the falsehood of the Official Journal must soon be
exposed, issues an order which makes proprietors of
houses equally responsible with actual occupiers for
whatever breaches of an improvised law may be
committed within them. It would look strange in
Europe (and will have a curious appearance as it is)
that Count Zamoyski, living in Paris, should be held
responsible and deprived of the greater part of his
fortune, in consequence of an offence having been
committed in the neighbourhood of houses belong-
, ing to him in Warsaw; so to put as good a face as
possible on the matter it is suddenly arranged that
the punishment already inflicted upon him shall be
made right and proper by a " posterior" order,
framed as far as possible to suit the particular cir-
cumstances of his case. The police order in ques-
tion is as follows :

" To the Chief Police Master of Warsaw.—The recent
outrages and assassinations have shown that the proprietors
of houses, inmates, and inhabitants in general of this town
not only do not assist the Government in seizing the crimi-
nals, but even facilitate their flight or screen them from the
search of the police. I, therefore make known for the in-
formation of the public, by explicit order of the superior
authority :

" 1. That in case of an attempt being made on the life of
any person in the street, and the perpetrator not being
caught, those who may have Witnessed the attempt without
rendering all possible help towards catching the criminal
will be punished 'with all the rigour of martial law.
"2. If the criminal, after having committed the act of
assassination, or after only attempting it, takes refuge in a
house and is not seized there by the proprietor or the inmates,
the house will be immediately sequestrated, without indem-
nity, for the use of the army, and the inmates ejected.
"3. In case of assassination, or attempt at assassination,
committed in a house or courtyard, if the perpetrator of the
act be not se zed and delivered up by the proprietor or the
inmates, then the proprietor as well as the inhabitants will
be subjected to the utmost rigour of martial law, and the
house, with everything in it, be delivered up to the military.
"4. The same liability will be incurred by the proprietors
and inmates of every house, if an act of assassination, or at-
tempt at assassination be committed in or from it, either by
shooting or otherwise.

" Major. General LEWSZYN.
" Warsaw, September 10 (22), 18G3."
I now give the official account of the outrage
ecrually committed as inserted in the journals of
Warsaw :

" The day before yesterday, at 6 o'clock, when his Excel-
lency, Commander-in-Chief, Aide-de-Camp General, Count
Berg, performing the functions of Lieutenant, deigned to
pass along the street of the Cracow suburb, attended only by
one officer and eight Cossacks of the Kuban, as he was in
front of the united houses of Count Zamoyski a shot was
fired, while a• the same time several Orsini shells and a case
filled with explosive substances were thrown. The paletot
of his Excellency was pierced, and one Cossack, two carriage
horses, and seven Cossack horses wounded. The united
houses were immediately surrounded, the lodgers taken out,
the male lodgers arrested, the furniture thrown out and
burnt. As it was found that some of the lodgers had their
things packed up it was supposed that they must have
known beforehand of the attempt on General Berg's life.
The said houses were immediately given up for ever to the
administration of the army.

The supposition" that because a few persons in
a house containing 1,500 inmates had their things
pecked up those persons muet therefore have known
that an attempt was going to be made on General
Berg's life is certainly creditable to Russian inge-
nuity. As to errors in statement. I have already
explained that what the Official Journal calls the
" united houses" are not united at all, but are quite
apart. Each, moreover, presents an extensive front,
so that if a shell had been thrown from one it would
be difficult to " suppose" that it had been thrown
from the other. " His Excellency's paletot," more-
over (which the official journalist seems to have re-
garded as something much more important than the
wounded Cossack or even the wounded carriage
horses), was pierced horizontally and in such a man-
ner that the shot which passed through it must have
been fired, not from any of the apartments in the
house, but on an exact level and from the pavement.
It is said, in fact, that the attack was made from the
pavement in front of an empty building facing the
Zemoyski palace; but the empty building being
already Government property could not be confis-
cated, and being without furniture could not be
sacked. The sacking of the Zamoyski house lasted
from 6 p.m. until 10, Then, all that had not been
' carried away or thrown out of window and burnt
was left for the rightful owners. Probably not
much jewellery remained. The Chopin piano had
already been destroyed, and Professor Kowalewski
is now advertising for his Oriintal manuscripts in
case they should have escaped the flames. The fate
of books, manuscripts, pictures, and literary and
artistic treasures of all kinds in Poland has not
changed much for the last century. The library
founded by the Zaluskis was plundered by the
agents of that superior woman —the admiration of
the writers of the period—Catherine the Great; and
its contents form now the chief part of the Imperial
library of St. Petersburg. There was renewed book
stealing in 1830 under Nicholas, who was not over
fond of literature. Now mere robbety of books has
come to an end in Russian Poland, and literary
arson has taken its place.
The most learned historian of modern Poland was
consulted the other day as to the materials existing
in the country for a life of Sobieski. Szainocha
(who from excessive study has lost hat sight) could
only dictate in reply that abundant materials for
such a work had existed in the ancient libraries of
Warsaw and Cracow, but that, those libraries having
been plundered at various periods, the places richest
in documents relating to the great Polish hero were
not St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Berlin. This let-
ter, addressed to a distinguished Preach Professor,
was written without bitterness, and set forth the
simple truth. What will Kowalewski say now if he
is consulted as to the result of his five and thirty
years' studies in Kazan, in the too familiar Siberia,
on the confines of China, and in Pekin itself ? The
Russian Government exiles a boy of genius from
"%Vilna to the far east of its empire. The boy, find-
ing that his fate is in strange lands, studies those
lands and their languages. The Russian Govern-
men
t f
with a passing
gleam of intelligence, pardons
him, turns his
is talent to account, and finally offers
hits a professorship in the capital 3I his native coun-
try, when it is toe late, to make
it understood that if for thirty years it has pro-
scribed all public instruction of a superior kind
t
in Poland, it has become t
alive to its error at last,
knowledge among those-em • J it had until that
and at last wishes really ,o promote the diffusion of
time sought to rtqlnee to a stet° of ignorance and
a
Patll3'' IC-ewalew6l:i, comic Irrm the east, could
scarcely
' he
have thoughthad rolcht.(l the west when
arrived in Warsaw. "I 3 this
some part of
he
Asia ?" poor Si and captive, ex-
erakowski, wounded
ex-
claimed when the sergeant of the detachment that
was conducting him his
to headquarters asked
officer if, in ease of a sudden attack, ho should kill
the prisoners. Asia is made responsible by the
Poles for a great deal of barbarism which is, unfor-
tunately, almost as much European it is Asiatic;
as
but Kowalewthi, as an " orient 1. t " a lb must really

have found himself at home in Warsaw. All that
he could have missed there was peace and the op-
portunity of pursuing his studies without getting
his papers burned.
The notion of burning Chopin's piano is, I sup-
pose, not particularly Oriental. Ono significant
thing in the work of destruction was, that no port-
able articles of value were sacrificed. The children
of Holy Russia did not allow their divine rage to go
nb beyond obnedpcoecrkt
pocketed
endlimits,
conveniently
enndi
ei
nt
twl
yaa was onlyrri whate
daway could
that
the avengers of disturbed order devoted to the
flames.

The Government of Warsaw and of all Poland is
now entirely in the hands of the Russians—in fact,
of the Russian soldiers and police. But on every
inch of ground not occupied by the Russian sol-
diers and police there the National Government
rules and is implicitly obeyed. Is it " terrorism,"
as the Russians pretend, that makes this Govern-
ment so powerful ? I think not, and lam sure that
there is less cause for alarm in a camp of insurgents
than at the present moment in the streets of War-
saw. The last of the Poles hare now abandoned,
or been forced to leave, their official posts. M.
Ostrowski, a relation of the Marquis Wielopolski,
has been replaced in the Ministry of the Interior by
General Roznow. The successor of Count Sigismund
Wielopolski, as President of the Town, is General
Witkowski. General Roznow and General Witkow-
ski were both members of the Inquisitorial Commis-
sion of the Warsaw citadel. It is said that General
Roz Radowski, formerly chief police master of War-
saw, is to be made Civil Governor.
The police have issued an order forbidding per-
sons to enter private houses where they do not re-
side, and cautioning house porters against allowing
this order to be contravened. They have at the
same time deigned to command that no one who
enters a refreshment house or tavern shall remain
there for more than ten minutes. I mention these
curious facts for the benefit of visitors to Warsaw
who may have letters of introduction to present, or
who may be in the habit of devoting not less than a
quarter of an hour to luncheon.

The truth about the reported " insurrection" in the
Ukraine is that there has been no political move-
ment whatever in that province, no talk about
hetman, and no manifestation, direct or indirect, in
favour of Poland. But the peasants have risen by
thousands; and my informant, who has arrived in
Cracow from the disturbed districts, just before I
left that city, estimates at six thousand the number
who showed themselves ready to resist the Russian
Government in his immediate neighbourhood. The
cause of the rising is simple, but formidable. I sae'
" is," because it still exists, though for a time it may
be inactive. What is now called the Ukraine, it
must be remembered, is not the Russian or Little
Russian province to the east of the Dnieper, the
country of Mezeppa and the wild horse, but the pro-
vince to the west of the Dnieper which remained
Polish until the second partition and which at presen t
is styled in official language the Government of Kieft.-
The Russian orLittle Russian or Ruthenian peasantry
of the Ukraine have never, since the massacre of
the haydamaks in 1768, been suspected by the Rus-
sian Government of liking the Poles. But they ills°
do not like paying rent either to Poles or Russians
for land which their fathers once held as freemen ;
and it is the rent question, or rather the land-tax
question, which has brought them into conflict with
the Russian troops. The Russian Government'
some weeks since, declared the peasants of the
Ukraine free proprietors, but at the same time put
I tax upon their land and called upon them to pay
into the hands of the Government the arrears of
rent or °brok due to their former landlords. The
peasants would do nothing of the kind. They
let it
be clearly understood that they would pay no one,
and though force was employed against them, and
though after the disturbances were at an end, seve-
ral chiefs of villages were severely flogged, yet the
peasants gained their point. They have not Pal""
they will not pay, and the Whole question is pat $34"
until October, when still they will not pay. Here
is a clear case in which the Russian Government
ability has
set the peasants against itself, and with the
it has lately shown in ruling Poland there is no say-
ing whether it may not ultimately contrive to gein
their enmity as a class. The peasants, like the in-
tervening Powers, will move if they find their own
interests threatened, but not otherwise; and if such
a movement should take place at all it will
probably
become general. Insurgents will tell you that in the
Palatinates, where the peasants are most favourably
disposed towards them (as, for instance, in those of
Lublin, Elerisch, and Plock), the reply invariably
given when they are asked to join the insurrection
ie, " Wo must see what they do in the neatvillage;
if they join, we don't mind joining, but not
In the same way the peasants in any given
Province
are likely to claim the absolute property of their
land, independent of all taxes and dues, if such a
claim is made by the peasants, their
neighbours ;
i
indeeds
and if any one province takes up arras the
on
question, nothing is more likely, nothing
certain, than that the adjacent provinces
will follow
its example. It will be interesting to see whet the
Russian Government will do with the Peasants of
the Ukraine after the October quarter. All that can
be said at the present moment is that after playing
with socialist weapons throughout Poland it has
contrived in one
province at least
to cut its own
fingers.

However, if the Russian Government
cannot get
the money it wants from the peasants of the Ukraine
and is afraid to press for it, it makes no ceremony
with the proprietors either of that province or
nary taxes have at last been
of the contiguous one of Volhynia. The ordi-
paid everywhere in
Poland, except in the Kingdom where they are
now being levied by execution. 'The special!war-
tax of 10 per cent. on income is being demanded in
the south-eastern provinces, and those proprietors
who do not pay up forthwith (which very few are
able to do) have soldiers them and
quartered on
their property sold. The so-called tax of 10 per
cent. may be a tax of 20 or 30 per cent., for it is
fixed in an arbitrary manner, and it is not every
proprietor of the south-eastern provinces who can
go to Kieff to complain of an overcharge. Accord-
ing to the terms of the Published order, persons
considering themselves unduly taxed might appeal
within three weeks; but I know of cases in which
proprietors have been exorbitantly over-taxed, and
allowed only a few days for making the payment
demanded, without the alternative of execution,
and without any possibility whatever of appeal.
This tax is, in fact, a henry fine laid upon the
Polish proprietors to punish them for the; part they
have taken in the insurrection, and so to cripple
them as to render it impossible for them to aid it
any longer by money Contribution. Many of the
Volhynian landowners have already had their
crops and cattle seized, and as the Government de-
mands from every one se much as it pleases, it will
of course succeed in ruining a great number of Polish
subjects. Such a proceeding seems strange even from
a financial point of view, but Russia probably thinks
that unless she impoverishes and exhausts Poland
she may one of these days lose it. Under Nicholas
the great idea was to suppress education through-
out the country. The chief notion now is to waste
and confiscate property ; and it is probably quite
true that if all the Poles were lamentably ignorant
and lamentably poor they would not give Russia
nearly so much trouble as they do at present.

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AMERICAN HEAVY ORDNANCE.

(From the Mechanics' Magazine.)

The construction of heavy ordnance suited to meet all the
requirements of practical warfare, presents one of the most
difficult problems which task the inventive powers of the
men of the 19th century, The solution of any question de-
ponds on the accurate understanding of everything con-
nected with it ; and even comparative ignorance of any one
division of a subject must materially invalidate the results
obtained by calculation or experiments from the rest. We
know a great deal about the strength of materials, the ac-
tion of gunpowder, the flight of projectiles, and the exi-
gencies of actual service; but we do not yet know enough,
and as a result, we have failed in the construction of excep-
tional guns. We do not possess at the present raomet,t a
single gun capable of throwing a shot over 100 lb. weight,
which is thoroughly reliable, or on which we could depend
for half an hour in action. Not only the manufacture, but
the working of large guns, even of the simplest form, is at-
tended with difficulties of the gravest kind. And these
obstacles to the general introduction of heavy ordnance, are
increased a hundredfold by complicated breech-loading ma-
chinery, deemed indispensable, obtained at a vast expense,
and usually found wanting in the day of trial. The largest
guns ever used are at present to be found in the American
navy. We referred last week to some of the practical de-
tails of the manufacture; and the subject is so important,
that we willingly return to it, believing as we do that in-
formation concerning it is of very great importance as a
guide to our future proceedings.
The breech-loadingprinciple is generally ignored through-
out the States. A few small guns on Whitworth or Arm-
stroag's principle, or something analogous, may, it is true,
be found in both the contending armies. Our American
friends do not believe in them, however, and eschew them
when they can obtain anything else. The favourite naval
guns are Parrott's and Dahlgren's ; the latter are pretty
well known. The most usual size is the Bin shell gun, with
a length of bore of 100.3 in; weight, 63cwt. These guns,
Placed Oft above the level of the water, throw a shell 1,776
yards at sdeg elevation, with 91b of powder. Much less is
known of the Parrott guns; and as they are beyond dispute
the best in the American navy, we do not hesitate to give
our readers some information regarding them, on the accu-
racy of which we can implicitly rely.
The Parrott guns are usually made of the sizes, 100, 200,
and 300. pounders. The first has a bore 6.4 in in diameter)
and 130 in long. The usual weight of this arm is 9,7001 b.
The charge consists of 10lb of powder, and a conical projec-
tile weighing 100 lb. The rifling consists of ten grooves,
one-tenth of an inch deep, and exactly an inch wide. The
lands and grooves are, as a principle, made as nearly as
possible of the same width, no matter what the dimensions
of the gun. The 200-pounder weighs nearly 8 tons, is
136 in long, Bin bore, throwing a 1501 b to 1751 b shot with
161 b of powder. The bore is rifled with eleven grooves,
similar in every respect to those of the 100 •pounder. The
3i 3:0
long, pounderand
Tlo h gun weighs over 11 tons, has a bore 144
n
throws a 2501 b shoe with 251 b of powder; 14
grooves. List of the grooves is rather slow, being—
iThe
e
being—
in the 100-pounder, one turn in 181 t; in the 290-pounder,
one turn in 23ft. We cannot state the precise twist of the
largest Parrott guns ; but we believe it to be the same as
that employed in the 200-pounder. The range of the
100-pounder is five miles, with 38 deg. of elevation, and the
service charge.

The Parrott shot is a conical projectile, with rather a
sharp head. It fits the chase of the gun pretty accurately,
resting on the lands. A dove-tail groove is turned in the
hinder end of the shot, about 2in wide and rather more
than an inch deep towards the forward end. Into this
groove is cast a ring of soft brass. The surface of the
groove is " pecked" or roughened all over, so that the ring
—which is just the size of the bore of the gun—cannot
turn on the shot. The explosion of the charge " upsets"
the brass ring into the shallow grooves, imparting a motion
of rotation to the shot. Any effect similar to " leading" is
of course impossible, and the gun is in consequence loaded
with as much ease as a smooth-bore, while the brass sabot
effectually precludes windage—being upset so thoroughly
as to fit the bore mathematically, without any injurious
friction. To this, doubtless, the vast range of the gun,
with small charges, is directly attributable. Parrott
ordnance is invariably constructed of cast iron,
usually on the "Rodman" principle, already referred to
in our previous number, strengthened with a reinforce,
composed of a single lap welded wrought-iron ring, extend-
ing from the breech to within a foot of the trunnions. It
must be remembered that the gun is not cut away to receive
the reinforce, which is shrunk on hot, turned and finished
al % erwards. Ordinary percussion fuses have been hitherto
used for the shells. The great success of those guns, the fa-
cility with which they are leaded, their vast range and great
accuracy, entitle them to a first rank as a military or naval
weapon, and demonstrate clearly, that enormous charges of
powder are quite unnecessary to the performance of a rifled
cannon, when the proper conditions, regulating the flight of
the projectile and its passage through the bore of the gun,
are carefully observed. The employment of large quantities
of powder is simply a clumsy expedient to counteract the
evils resulting from' an improper system of rifling and a
faulty construction of shot. Large cannon never can succeed
while the powder burned at each discharge is as much as
one-third or one-fourth of the weight of the projectile. So
thoroughly imbued with this conviction are American artil-
lerists that they have initiated some very remarkable expe-
riments, with a view to concentrate the force of reduced
charges of powder on the projectile pith a proportionate
diminution of the strain on the gun. A 7-inch gun
was loaded with the full charge of powder, made up in a
cartridge 6 inches in diameter, so prepared, that when
placed in the gun a clear space of half an inch remained
all round, between its circumference and the
chase. The
shot was then rammed close home on the cartridge, and the
gun discharged with the following remarkable result. The
initial velocity of the shot remained precisely the same, as
though discharged in the ordinary way,
while the strain on
the gun was reduced nearly one-half as evinced by the pres-
sure plug at the breech I Repetition has only confirmed
the truth of the result obtained by the first experiment. The
air cushion left between the powder and the bore,apparently
protects the gun from the percussive force of the exploding
powder, to which the shot is, of course, fully exposed. The
entire phenomena afford a remarkable confirmation of the
truth of the views expressed by Mr. Lynch Thomas on the
action of exploding gunpowder. We
have no doubt that the
conduction of a similar series of experiments in this country
would be fraught with the best results. After all, our Go-
vernment has done little or nothing to determine the best
form for a gun externally, on the real action of the gun-
powder exploded within it. All the information we have
on these subjects is due, in a primary degree, to private in-
dividuals; those having authority confining their attention
almost exclusively in the rifling, the shot, and the mode of
loading, while the resisting powers of the gun have either
been left to chance, or sought for in the use of better mate-
rial, almost without regard to its proper disttibution. Dahl-
gren literally took a diagram of the forces developed
within his first guns by drilling a number of small holes
in a continuous line from breech to muzzle, in the
side of a gun. Each:of these holes was fitted with a pistol
barrel or tube, screwed in, of such length that the distances
from the bora of the cannon to the ends of the tubes wore
all precisely alike. These tubes were each loaded with a
single ball, which, on the discharge of the cannon, was ex-
pelled with a force proportionate to the pressure of the gases
at each part of the length of the gun. This force was mea-
sured by the depth to which the pistol balls penetrated an
oak screen suitably placed to receive them. In one experi-
ment the force was found to equal
3,0001 b on the square
inch close to the muzzle of an 8-inch gun with the service
charge of powder and shot. The great efficiency to which
American ordnance has attained is certainly due to a care-
fully conducted series of experiments, commenced years ago
and continued to the present moment. The admirable sim-
plicity of the service guns renders them thoroughly reliable,
while the cost of their manufacture is extremely moderate.
Quitting the subject of rifled guns, we find much to.inte-
rest in the colossal smooth bores which perform their duties
on the decks of the Monitor. These guns are 13ft long in
the bore, and carry a 15i
11 spherical shot, called solid, but
really containing a cavity
4in in diameter, which secures
the solidity of the iron surrounding it by equalising its con-
traction. These projectiles weigh 4251 b. The service
charge of cannon powder is 351 b only, but cake powder is
sometimes employed in 50Ih charges. 15in shells weigh
3501 b. The initial velocity
of shot thrown from these guns
seldom exceeds I,oooft Per second; in consequence, they
are far more terrible in name than in reality. The turrets
in which they are placed are built up of a large number of
superimposed iron plates, seldom more than lin thick each.
The concussion of heavy shot striking them occasionally
drives the nuts off the bolts which bind the plates together,
killing or wounding those within the turret as effectually as
so much shot, The 15-in suns are mounted on a heavy
wooden carriage, much
carriage used in our navy. The wheels run on a kind. of
railway, mounted on two powerful balks of timber, which
moss the turret diametrically, or nearly so. The forward.
pair of wheels are fitted with gearing, and the gun is run
like the old-fashioned 68-pounder
out, or rather forward, h
motion by suitable winch handles.
Th© port is rather high,
of
but only 16in wide, so that the muzzle of the gun. does not
mim isentaken by. causing.
the tAuru-ryetawcaolul.pil
in puttingfrm t
contacthi this u
at any time protrude, but is run right up,
iron box, rectangular in section,
and preserves. the men
e
run forward. This prevents noise,
andtwhi et with
aboutturret insidet3o aft long,
o of
revolve.
from concussion. Between the sleepers on which the gun
travels are bolted several loneitudinal timbers, s. ide by side.
contains the muzzle of the gun when
From the under part of the carriage a number of long plates
of boiler iron depend, passing betwePrt the titrtbers. A power-
ful ;crew, worked by a hand-wheel at the side of the carriage,
is arranged to compress these plates on the timbers to an.y,
any extent deemed neceesary. The friction producedi
so great, that the recoil of the gun permits of exact.bl
being easily arrested in Oft. regula-
tion,
of cast iron, reinforced with a single wrought
of
All things considered, the introduction ot ordnae ice of
this size into our military or naval operations does. not. seem
advisable, the Parrott 10-in, gun being superior. in e very
respect. A 200-pounder shot, moving with a high initial
The guns are. irrvaria y
velocity, is capable of smash ng
any iron plate at short range
which can ever be fitted to a ship's side, and the weight of
both the gun and the shot is fully as much R 5 we can man-
age at sea under existing circumstances.

The Habeas Corpus in America.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, SEPT. 17.
(Before Judge Betts.)
MATTER OP JOHN BALDINGEE.
This was a writ of habeas corpus directed to Gen. Canby,

requiring him to produce Baldinger, who was held at Go-
vernor's Island for trial by a court martial as a deserter.
On Monday the prisoner was produced in court. General
Canby made return that Baldinger, in October, 1862, duly
enlisted and was mustered into the service of the United
States, as a private in 173 d Regiment of New York Volun-
teers, for the term of three years; that he deserted the ser-
vice, was arrested by a provost• marshal, and committed for
trial by court-martial ; and that he now held the prisoner
by authority of the United States as a deserter. The peti-
tioner filed a traverse to the return, denying all the allega-
tions of the return except the fact of the imprisonment.
Testimony was taken, and the matter stood over till Wed-
nesday morning. The proofs in the case were that the pri-
soner was merely received by the recruiting officer as a sub-
stitute for a regularly enlisted man ; that the officer received
250 dols. for effecting the exchange; and that the prisoner
was in a fit of intoxication at the time. There was evidence
that when the prisoner recovered from his debauch he re-
turned to his business as a mechanic, and was not interfered
with until August last, when he was arrested as a deserter
and confined on Governor's Island. On Tuesday the procla-
mation of the President, suspending the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus, was issued.
Mr. S. J. Glassey, who appeared for Gen. Canby, urged
that the proclamation operated to destroy the power of all
the courts of law to institute or entertain any proceeding of
habeas corpus in this and all similar cases, and that the lan-
guage of the proclamation covered not only cases where the
writ might be applied for, but where it had already been is-
sued. He would not deny that in some cases, as perhaps in
this, the rule worked hardship, but that the proclamation,
being the law of the land, must operate in this as in other
cases. _ _

Mr. J. F. Walton, for the petitioner, insisted that in
any event the delay of the Court should not prejudice the
suitor, and that the prisoner should be discharged nunc pro
tune; that rights acquired before the proclamation issued
were not divested; that the Act of March 3, 1863, autho-
rizing the proclamation, gave no such power ; that such
was not the true construction, but that the suspension of
the writ operated prospectively; and further, that the pro-
clamation did not touch this case either in letter or spirit,
because :-1. A statue is never construed to act retrospec-
tively, unless such a construction is unavoidable ("Berley
v. Rampacher," 5 Duo-, 188 ; "Dash v. Van Sleeck," 7
Johns, 477; "Johnson v. Burrell," 2 Hill, 238). The
proclamation cannot have any greater force than a statute to
the same effect. It is familiar law that a statute taking
away a common law right is to be strictly construed,
especially when the liberty of the citizen is restricted
(" Looker v. Holcombe," 4 Bing, 183, and many other
cases). 2. Because the proclamation suspends "the privi-
leges of the writ," not proceedings upon writs already
issued, and upon no fair construction can this be deemed to
annul proceedings already commenced. He further claimed
that, on the undisputed tacts of the case, Baldinger was not
held as one of the persons mentioned in the proclamation,
but under an arrangement which did not make him in any
way amenable to martial law.
His Honour Judge Betts, after suggesting various ques-
tions to counsel, intimated that he would receive further
points and authorities on each side during the evening, and
render his decision.

The following points were put in on behalf of the Govern.
ment

The (mly question that is now before the Court is, whether

this proclamation has the effect of preventing further pro-
ceedings in cases where the writ was served before the issue
of the proclamation.
1. What is meant by the privilege of the writ ? Clearly

the prisoner's right to be brought before the Court to have
the cause of his confinement stated, to have the judgment
of the Court as to the sufficiency of the cause, and to be re-

'eased if it was not in law sufficient.

These are the rights expressly secured to the subject by
the statutes of England, which were adopted as a part of the
common law by the several States, and which are compre-
hended in the term " privilege of the writ," as used in the
National Constitution (_Ex parte Watkins, 3 Pet., 201) ; in
the reasoning of Judge Hall, in Benedict's case, p. 22,
where he speaks of the right to be discharged where no suffi-
cient cause for detention is shown as an essential part of the
"benefits" of the writ, the word "benefits" being evidently
used as synonymous with "privilege;" also in Mr. Binney's
pamphlet on habeas corpus (Introductory, p. 5, and also pp,
6, 10, 11, &c.) ; also by Chiet Justice Taney in Merryman's
case (American .1. Reg., July, 1861) ; also Mr. Wharton's
pamphlet (N. 2, pp. 9, 10) ; also opinion of Attorney-
General (pp. 9, 10, 11).
Additional authorities might be cited if time permitted,
but it is believed the above are sufficient.

2. The proclamation is not retroactive. It does not affect
the validity of proceedings taken before its issue. It simply
"suspends," stays further proceedings. These prisoners are
in the hands of the military authorities. The Court cannot
proceed further. They must remain in custody as they were
when the writ issued.
3. It is no argument to say that " vested rights " are im-
paired in these cases by the application of the proclamation
to them, and that as an act in derogation of common law
rights it must be strictly construed.
The right of all persons restrained to have the writ, and to
have all the privileges and benefits which follow its issue, is
vested and perfect by law. The right of a man restrained
to have the writ issued on his behalf is as perfect as is that
of him who has obtained the writ to be heard and relieved
under it.

The proclamation is "in derogation" of the common law
rights of both and equally. Both must submit to the hard-
ship which a great public emergency brings upon them.
4. There is no ambiguity in the proclamation, the Act of
Congress which authorises, or the provision of the Constitu-
tion which in the contemplated emergency directs it.
. .

A rebellion existing, and the public safety requiring it, the
President is bound to suspend the privilege of the writ. He
has done so.
That great hardships are inflicted upon individuals is un-
deniable. They are but a small portion of the sufferings en-
tailed upon the nation by the rebellion,which seeks to destroy
it entirely.
Farther proceedings upon the writ therefore must be sus-
pended, and the party be left in custody.

DECISION OF THE COURT.
At the opening of the court this morning,
Judge Betts rendered his decision in the case. He said
he had not prepared any written opinion, because he had
thought it best not to have any delay in the matter; and,
moreover, if it were desired to have the principles of the case
carried to the Supreme Court for review, proceedings had
better be originated in the Circuit Court, from which they
could be taken up more readily. His Honour proceeded to
pronounce his decision substantially as follows :
" The great question in the case is whether the Court can
act in this matter at all after the recent proclamation of the
President. That depends upon the question whether the
President has the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus,
and, if he has that power, whether he has exercised it.
There has been some argument of counsel as to whether the
writ of habeas corpus should be considered as a privilege or
not. However it is to be considered, it amounts to this—
that the party in whose favour it is issued is to have certain
relief, and that is that he is to have his case examined unless
he is held by other competent authority. In this case it is
claimed by Baldinger that he is wrongfully kept in the
United States forces. On the other side it is claimed that
he had entered that service as a soldier, and is rightfully
held now as a deserter; and the question is whether he has
the right to show on this proceeding that he never was
legally in the service of the United States, and is not there-
fore bound to remain there till the expiration of his term ;
and whether the Court is competent to enter into that in-

quiry. To preclude that inquiry the officers point to the
proclamation of the President suspending the writ. Now,
whether this power of suspension belongs to the authority
of the President as the Executive and Commander-in-Chief,
or whether it is derived from tho Act of Congress, is imma-
terial. The act certainly does not diminish his authority,
and if the power inherent in his being head of the Govern-
ment is not sufficient to warrant his staying the proceedings
of the Courts under the writ, then that power is to be found
in the act. It cannot be said that the Government cannot
make a rule that every citizen shall be hold to serve his
country in time of danger. It seems to have been argued
that the Government can never hold an infant to military
service. But I do not agree to that. I think the Govern-
ment can call every man into the field if necessary. The
manner of it may be a subject of discussion. But that our
Government has the authority to do it can no more be denied
than that authority can be denied to every other government
in the world. Moreover, a peculiarity of the case is that in
our form of government we have all consented to the exercise
of this power over our persons. And even though the action
of Government may seem to be extreme, yet it is by the con-
sent of each one of us that Government acts, as much as if
each one of us had been a member of the convention which
made the Constitution and the congress that made the law.
When a people say, ' We will form a government, and will
give it extreme power over us,' each individual is bound by
its acts as much as if he had signed an agreement. It can-
not be said that this power is forced upon him. The next
question is whether the government has the right to take
from the citizen the power of inquiring into the exercise of
this power over him. The government has the right to
defend its own existence, and when it is necessary it may
say to all, ' You shall not prevent or embarrass the action
of the government in the exercise of this high power by any
form of legal action.' It may say, ' Each man must come
forward to help to defend the national life,' and he cannot
interpose the objection that he is not lawfully called upon,
or that he is called on to do more than his neighbour. It
is enough that ho is called on by the government and is
within its reach. We impose the same authority in
other matters. We supersede all action on the part of
corporations at once by legal proceedings. We stop the
proceedings of individuals by injunction. We send an
injunction from ono Court to another, stopping it,il action as
much as by physical force. No one thinks that such things
cannot be done, if it is necessary tor the time being. And
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus is only saying
that the Court shall not open for such proceeding; the writ
is defunct for the purpose of interposing such objections,
and no Court shall act in reference to such cases. In this

case the General commanding here returns to the Court
that this man is retained as a deserter, having been enlisted
as a soldier in the army, and that he is retained to be tried
for that offence. Who shall try him for it ? Shall we say
that this Court shall step in with this writ and take him
out of the hands of the Court before which he stands, and
which has prima facie the right to try him for such an
offence ? He is not to be tried there by aliens or foreigners.
He is to be tried before the same men, sitting as a court-
martial, that might sit as a jury to try him. He is declared
by the law to be amenable to court-martial, and he is in
the custody of the United States to be subject to trial by
court-martial, as he would be if he was held by any other
form of judicial action. If he had been seized by every
Court in the country he would not any more be held for
trial than now. This Court cannot step in and take him
out of the authority of the Court that must try him. You
say that he is not in confinement under any process. But
it is not necessary to have any written or printed process.
It is enough to say that he is in the custody of the law, ap-
prehended by the neck, as used to be the case under the old
civil law. This Court is constituted for one purpose ; the
military Court for another ; and when the party is held
before a military Court ho is as much before a tribunal as
if he was before this Court. And he must be tried before
the tribunal which tries such offences as he is alleged to
have committed. This is all that this suspension of the writ
amounts to. The proclamation says that the case cannot
proceed before this tribunal. When the man is held for such
offences, this Court cannot inquire into it. It is out of its
jurisdiction. The condition of things will not allow such
a trial as belongs to peaceful times, but the party must be
tried before the military tribunal which has charge of the
case, I see nothing, therefore, which makes it proper for this
Court to go into the inquiry whether this man enlisted.
The return is that he is held for trial as a deserter, and that
makes the case as much before another tribunal as if he
were held by the judicial power of France or England.
My judgment is that the proclamation makes it out of the
power of the Court to inquire further into these pro-
ceedings.
Mr. Walton, for the prisoner, said he desired to raise the
point also that the return said that the man was held under
the authority of the United States, while the proclamation,
by its terms, applied only to persons held under the autho-
rity of the President of the United States, and also that the
return was not sworn to as was required.
Mr. GLASSEY, for the Government, said he thought that
the certificate of a sworn officer was as good as a sworn re-
turn, but if the matter was to go further he would put in a
sworn return. He added that he understood that an ap-
plication was to be made to General Dix in this matter, and
he would say that the man would remain here a few days
to allow such an application.
Judge Betts announced that the principles which he had
stated would govern him as well in cases of application far
writs of habeas corpus as in those where the writs had been
already issued.