The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-19 00:00:00

coil principle adopted by Sir WILLIAM
ARMSTRONG.

Such the men—such the guns now for
what was done in the presence of the
former by the agency of the latter. After some
nice little artillery practice—marvels of yesterday,
mere matters of course to-day—come we to the
first novel event of Tuesday, a shot fired from Sir.
WILLIAM ARMSTRONG'S 300 pounder, loaded with
a conical steel shot of 2991 b. weight, and fired with
451 b. of powder. "This tremendous missile," we are
told, "struck with a velocity of 1,298 feet per second,
full upon the centre of the 7-inch place, where it
was backed, driving in a circular piece of iron
10in. in diameter quite through the plate, bend-
ing in the whole plate itself to a depth of an inch
and a half, and buckling its ends outwards more
than an inch." Nor was this all. For it is added
by the same graphic eyewitness—" The massive
wrought iron girder which crosses the whole
back of the target horizontally was bent out and
broken in several places, as were also the inner ribs,
the 21 inch skin was bulged and cracked, the rivet
heads loosened, and many knocked off altogether.
The examination showed that the target, as a
target, had received a most serious shake, though,
from the wonderfully good quality of the iron, there
was little of actual fracture or cracking except in
the spot on which the shot itself had struck, where
the whole 7k-inch piece was driven in, and only
held in place apparently by the wooden backing.
Had the object struck been a ship's side, the
damage," we are assured, " would have caused a
most serious leakage, and one or two more
such rough visitations anywhere near about the
same spot would have sufficed to sink her
outright." Afterwards, however, came another
still more telling shot for Sir WILLIAM : a shot fired
from his three-hundred pounder, loaded with a cast
iron shell weighing 2861 b., and charged with 111 b.
of powder. A shot which, fired with the usual
451 b. charge, and striking full in the centre of the
olin. backed plate with a velocity of 1,330 ft. per
second, shattered its way completely through it,
leaving a rough round hole about 10in. in diameter.
Bursting in the inside, blowing the teak to minute
fragments, setting it on fire, and breaking off many
of the rivet-heads, this appalling missile it appears
ended by " tearing the inner skins of iron, 2' inches
thick, into rough shredded gaps, as if they had been
so much cardboard." What is the distinct and de-
liberate verdict pronounced, moreover, by the able
correspondent of our chief morning contemporary'
when, water having been procured and the fire
extinguished, the amount of destruction done could
really be examined into ? Why, he writes, "it was
seen at a glance that the question of the resistance
which our newest and strongest iron frigates would
be able to offer to:such ordnance was settled in the
most unpleasant manner. The
.strongest iron-clads
we have yet built or are building would as regards
ultimate destruction be almost as vulnerable as wood
to such artillery. Even now, backed up as the
target was with 2tin. of iron inside all, it was pene-
trated, broken and torn in such a manner as to
render the sinking of the ship that received the
blow a matter of certainty, while, had such a shell
struck the Warrior amidships near the waterline,
it must have blown such a hole in her side as
nothing could even have remained in action." And
as to the destructiveness of the flying storm of frag-
ments cast around it in action by one such discharge
from a 300-pounder Armstrong—well, let the fol-
lowing facts suffice very briefly but sufficiently to
show what that would be ! "By the side of
the target was a powerful partition of wooden
beams, and an examination of this after the shell
had exploded gave terrible proofs of its destruc-
tive powers. There was scarcely a square inch
of its whole sukface that was not deeply pene-
trated with fragments of the shell of all shapes and
sizes, from lib. weight or more to ragged particles as
minute as small shot. Men standing near where
this partition stood would not only have
been killed but torn to pieces." Altogether these
exploits of that pre-eminent Master of Ordnance
most felicitously named ARMSTRONG, may be re-
garded as constituting a very curious and startling
pendant to the discussion recently provoked in the
House of Commons by Mr. LINDSAY. A reminder
it certainly is that we should be wary, as well as
vigilant and energetic, as to our expenditure in
building war ships, whether of iron, or of heart-of-
oak iron-plated.
Tuesday's feats of arms at Shoeburyness have
clearly proved beyond a doubt that even now we
have got guns, before the stupendous fire of which
the mightiest of our iron-clad war-vessels must
uccumb within a few minutes. And, what is yet
more—we are, not so much, according to a well-
known phrase, at the beginning of the
end, as we are distinctly, but at the end
of the beginning. Sir WILLIAM ARMSTRONG
—not content with this awful 300-pounder
of his— has made—a 600-pounder, weighing
24 tons, throwing a rifled ball of 6001 b., or a
shell of 5901 b., to hold a 251 b. bursting charge of
gunpowder. A month mere, and in its turn, that 600-
pounder Armstrong will be tried at Shoeburyness.
Nay more—there is serious talk in scientific circles,
that before another year shall have elapsed, a veri-
table 1,000-pounder, upon the same principle, will
be in existence, and will be tried. If so— Faugh •a-
Ballagh !

The spell of inaction seems to have been cast over
the House of Commons this seseion. Reforms,
committees of inquiry, legislation on important
social questions, are all shuffled off or hushed up in
a very convenient fashion. A comfortable air of
do?ce far ?dente reigns over the Treasury Bench. If
it is proposed to interfere in America, we are told
that the time for action has not come ; if it is sug-
gested to raise a voice in behalf of Poland, we are
begged to leave it to the Government; if we turn
our attention homewards, and think it advisable to
to protect our lives and pockets from the kind
,
attentions of garotters, we are warned against
" panic legislation ;" if we express a wish
to redress the abuses of our Game Laws, the Home
Secretary, it is true, does not interfere, but the
landed interest steps in and puts an effectual drag
on the wheel. Yesterday it was the same, except-
ing that Sir G. aREY no longer troubled himself to
keep his promises. On a recent occasion when Mr.
BRADY proposed to introduce the Diseases Preven-
tion (Metropolis) Bill, Sir G. GREY said_he would
gladly consent to the introduction of such a measure.
Yesterday, however,when the hon. gentleman moved
the second reading, the Home Secretary took a very
different view of the question. The subject was,
be said, fraught with difficulty, and the result of
interference might be to prevent people using pub-
iic conveyances at all ! He suggested the employ-
ment of stretchers for the removal of those afflicted
with contagious disorders, and said it would be
much the easiest way to apply to the nearest police-
-1 elan to fetch one ! As if any family wishing to
remove a respectable servant suffering under small-
pox, typhus, or scarlet fever to the nearest hospital
would like to send her openly through the streets,
on a stretcher, perhaps in very inclement weather !
rhe real cure would be to make it compulsory on
parish authorities to have regular covered convey-
lances for this especial purpose. The expense would
be trifling indeed,
while the advantage to public
health would be very great.
At present, according
to the statiBtlca of the FeTet Hospital, the riot, i.