The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-10 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

continued his inspec-
On Saturday Major.-Gen. Stransham, the Inspec-
atoidr-eG-deen-ecraaml
camp
cßaopyt a. lTlNrlaavrei
ruse, s' accompanied by his
tion of the Chatham division of Royal Marines
Light Infantry, in which he has been occupied
several days. The chief point of inspection to which
the Inspector-General directed his attention on
Saturday was the rifle firing of the officers and mpn,
for the purpose of ascertaining what progress had
been made by the several companies since the last
official returns sent up from the battalion. In order
to obtain this, 50 non-commissioned officers and men
were selected by the Maj op General indiscriminately
from the companies composing the division, and
these were marched: to the butts at St. Mare's,
where the entire morning was devoted to the p4c-
tice of the men thus selected, in firing at long and
short ranges, and in file and volley firing, under the
direction of Major Rodney, the musketry instructor.
The practice made by the men at the various ranges
was in the highest degree satisfactory. So pleased
was Major-Gen. Stransham with the accuracy at-
tained by several of the men that he rewarded a
few of them with money on the ground. The in-
spection of the Chatham division, which has been
exceedingly rigid, will be brought to a close to-day,
and to-morrow Major-Gen. Stransham will, it is
understood, commence the inspection of the Royal
Marine depot battalion at Deal.
The Highland Rifle Militia, cdmmanded by Lieut.-
Col. Ross, of Cromarty, have been ordered to as-
semble on the 15th April for 21 days' training.

THE ADVANTAGES OF RIFLED

ORDNANCE.

Major Owen, professor of artillery at Woolwich,
delivered a lecture at the Royal United Service In-
stitution on Friday, on "The motion of projectiles
fired from rifled ordnance, and the advantages ob-
tained by the employment of such prices." He ex-
plained, in the first place, the different effects
produced by the resistance of the air to the motion
of round shot and of elongated projectiles, As
round shot present a greater surface to the air than
such projectiles of the same weight, the velocity
with which they are fired becomes more quickly
retarded, and this retardation increases in greater
proportion with the increase of velocity. For this
reason a round shot that is fired with an initial
velocity of 1,600 feet in a second is reduced at a
distance of about 600 yards to the same velocity as
an elongated shot of the same weight that is pro-
pelled from a rifled gun at the rate of 1,200 feet in
a second. The continued greater resistance of the
air to the progress of the round shot diminishes its
velocity at longer ranges to less than that of the
projectile, and the latter is consequently propelled
much further than the round shot, though the latter
was fired with greater initial velocity, by means of
a larger charge. To enable the elongated projectile
to possess this advantage it is necessary that it
should be propelled in such manner as to continue
to present its end, or smaller surface, to the air
throughout the course of its flight, and this is done
by. giving a rapid rotatory motion on its longest
axis, by rifling the cannon. The notion commonly
entertained that an elongated projectile will main-
tain a position parallel to that with which it is fired
was shown by Major Owen to apply only to pro-
jectiles fired at low velocities and without rapid
rotation on their longer axes. To illustrate this a
wooden cylinder, shaped like an ordinary projectile,
gun,it. The gun was
rotary motion
having
r obpeeelnl e
previously from
springgiven
to
pointed upwards at a considerable angle, and the
ighta position
projectile wasseen
parallelto to
that
maintain in the course of its
fl of
the elevated gun,
but it kept that position steadily. The mimic
pro-
jectile was then propelled without having had ro-
tary motion given to it, when it was seen to move
through the air in tehsveeenlstoactmiht eye pa onsdi t io n ; b
with
ut,
rapid instead
srtoetaad
of being steady as before, it wabbled. The resist-
ance. offered by the
pariervetnotstihtefropmrotjuerentiilneg,
shorter axis. This effect, as
smallest surface to the
rwo uh ne nd
1 ntra ienoosdnivs,irtnciongat causes
tws
power,ienistghi t
ogtnor eapiantrid
foundPmi projectile
well as the regulation of the direction of the pro-
jectile in its descent, depend also in some degree on
the position of the centre of gravity. If it be placed
near
e n
descends too per•
-
ppractice to be best
to place the centre of gravity near the middle of
the projectile. Major Owen illustrated the effects
d itehnel
arl forey, partan d it the
is
of the resistance of the air, and of the velocity of
rotation on projectiles, by means of a gyroscope,
against which a strong blast was directed, to imi-
tate the effect of the air's resistance. By this in-
genious apparatus the influence of the resistance
when a projectile is moving with different degrees
of velocity, and when propelled with the flat or
with the rounded end foremost, were exhibited.
Major Owen stated that the results of numerous
experiments with projectiles of various forms had
proved that those with oval-shaped end, meet with
less resistance in their flight thre-
• • the air than
those with conical or with s."' -dgh
er
....
rence is also observed ir: enical ends. A diffe-
. the e direction of the projec-
tile when the rota L
Amy motion is given from left to
right, or the c"-Jatrary ; for in the one case the pro-
jectile swe;fves towards the right, and in the other
towail'34s the left. Major Owen pointed out the ad-
vantages of rifled ordnance under various circum-
stances, which consists principally in obtaining 4

" 53, Marine-parade, Brighton, March 4, 1862.
" Dear Robertson,—Your letter, dated Feb. 28, 1862,
and addressed to London, only reached me here this day.
During the period I held command of the 4th Dragoon
Guards—from 1848 until 1859—1 always found you atten-
tive to your regimental duties, and I was satisfied with the
grooming and condition of your horses and the internal
economy of your troop.—Believe me, yours truly,
(Signed) " EDWARD U. HODGE; Colonel.
"Captain Robertson, 4th Dragoon Guards."
Captain Robertson then read a statement, sum-
ming up the evidence which had been given. He
stated that the language of Colonel Dickson when
he was recalled was of a character with the lan-
guage he used in October, 1860. Captain Henry's
statement that he (Captain Robertson) refined to
meet Colonel Dickson in October, unless he (Col.
Dickson) lodged the price of his commission, was
quite untrue, and be left Captain Henry 10 the op-
probrium which he so justly merited, and which he
would receive at the hands of every officer and
gentleman. He then called attention to the charges
on which he was tried, and maintained that he had
submitted the matter between him and Col. Dick-
son to the higher military authorities. He con-
tended that the evidence of the riding-master was
strongly in his favour, as showing that he had
been treated in a manner most unusual with a cap-
tain of his standing, or indeed with an officer at all.
As regarded the order that he should attend morn-
ing and evening stables, he arraigned it as part of
the series of persecutions to which he was subjected,
with the object of forcing him to resign. These acts
were done for a particular object, the best test of
which was the evidence of Colonel Bentinck, and
the contradictions to ;which he had exposed him-
self as to the withdrawal of the subaltern from his
troop on the line of march from Birmingham. He
left it to the Court to judge of the intention of
Colonel Bentinck in doing so. After referring to
the " round robin " affair, and deducing from it the
same reason, he presented a brief summary of the
several transactions which had been detailed at con-
siderable length in the course of the trial, and in
conclusion he submitted that he did everything he
could to obtain redress from Colonel Dickson ; that
he carried out the suggestions of those on whose
advice he had acted.
The prosecutor then stated that he would produce
evidence to impugn the statementa, of some of the
witnesses for the defence.
Captain Bragge, 4th Dragoon Guards, was then
called and examined by the prosecutor with refer-
ence to the period at which the prisoner exercised
with the back-board. He stated that to the best of
his belief it was about April, and not in July or
August, as alleged by the prisoner's witnesses,
The prisoner then read a statement to the effect
that he should be permitted to cross-examine the
witness with respect to certain matters, with the
view of testing his credibility.
The room was cleared to consider the matter, and
was not reopened for an hour and a half. When
the public were admitted,
The President announced the decision of the
Court to be that the proposed line of examination
could not be allowed, and they expressed their sur-
prise at the observations of the prisoner, seeing that
they had allowed him every latitude in his defence.
The prosecutor handed in a protest that the cross-
examination of the witness should be confined to
the evidence already before the Court, or matters
bearing upon the charges against the prisoner.
The prisoner expressed his thanks to the Court
for their perfect impartiality.
Captain John Arthur Bragge, 4th Dragoon
Guards, was then sworn and examined by the pro-
secutor. Do you remember being in the ride, and
seeing Captain Robertson riding with the back-
board 9—Yes.

Was it exclusively an officers' ride P—To the
best of my belief it was,
Can you fix the date of that occasion positively
or approximately P—lt was about last April.
What fixes that in your memory P—l returned
from leave about March 14, and shortly after that
we began to ride, and that was in the month of
April. I know this from one of the early rides,
because we rode with bridoons.
Was the weather warm at that time P—l think
so. _ _

Did Mr. Childe ride with the backstick on that
occasion P—He did. _ _ _

When did you go away from head-quarters at
Birmingham ?—About the 14th June.
When did you return ?—About the 10th or 12th
of September.
How did you know the ride was with the bri-
doons P—l remember it was. __ _

Captain Robertson here handed in a question
which the President, on reading, said could not be
put to the witness. Captain Robertson was at
liberty to put questions touching points raised on
the direct examination, but he could not put ques-

tions that had for their object the shaking' of the
credibility of the witness.
Captain Robertson then read a protest against
the question being rejected. It was in effect that
by the general law of the land, by which courts-
martial were bound, he was not limited in his cross-
examination of a witness to the evidence given by
him in his examination in chief. If such a rule
were established- the result would be that sometimes
a witness might be brought up and only asked
about very trivial and isolated matters, while at
the same time he might be possessed of informa-
tion injurious to the party calling him, which
should necessarily be elicited by the prisoner for
the advancement of truth and justice, and he would
also submit that he had not pretermitted any op-
portunity of asking any question, as the witness
had not been previously brought up for examina-
tion for the prosecution. He further submitted
that he was entitled to put the question for the
purpose of testing the accuracy of the witness.
Since the commencement of this inquiry he
(Captain Robertson) and his legal advisers had
endeavoured to act in every way that would appear
to be agreeable to the wishes of the Court, and cer-
tainly they had frequently withdrawn questions
when they saw the Court had the slightest difficulty
about admitting them, although they had no doubt
that they were admissible in point of law. This
was a matter of the greatest importance to him, and
he begged to say that this was only one of a series
of quesions which he intended to put on matters
relevant to the question ilt, issue and the evidence
given. He therefore begged the Court to come to
a decision as to the reception or rejection of the
question; and if they rejected it he begged that it
might be recorded.
The court was then cleared to consider the matter.