The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-29 00:00:00

SIR JOHN BURGOYNE AND THE
ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT.

The following letters have been addressed to the
Editor of the Times :

Sir,--The columns of the Tines are hardly at any tim•
the most fitting place for the discussion of a scientific
question relating to the attack of fortified places, and cer-
tainly are not so in the instance where reference to plans
and diagrams is absolutely necessary for a right under-
standing of the subject in dispute. If, however, your cor•
respondent, "Gurwoodiensis," will refer to Choumara's
celebrated treaties on fortification, at page 371, with
plate 5, I think he will find it pretty clearly explained
bow the English failed in taking Burgos. It is there also
shown that, had they battered the masonry keep and
enfilades, the one rampart towards the town from St.
Micbael's•mount, the place must have surrendered in a
few days. Instead of this, they attacked the three lines
of earthworks towards the country, and for this neither
the materiel nor the time at their disposal was
sufficient, and it became, in consequence, strategically
necessary to raise the siege and forego the fruits of a
hard-fought campaign•
I decline to submit to the dictum that the laudatory
expressions of a general despatch are to be considered a
final judgment on the merit of an officer, especially when
the question is more regarding his subsequent career than
the particular instance to which the quoted despatch
refers.

I believe I am correct in stating that Sir John Bur•
goyne first commanded the Engineers in chief at Burgos,
and subsequently at St. Sebastian, only on the death of
Sir Richard Fletcher. r
- am, of course, aware that he
was present at Ciudad Rodrigo and Eadajoz, but only in
a subordinate capacity.

OMICUON.

Sir,—ln the Times of yesterday you inserted a letter,
signed "Omicron," referring " to the siege operations
and disasters at Burgos, where Sir John -131irgoyne was
chief engineer, and to disasters of a similar nature which
now present themselves at Sebastopol, which, after an
interval of 42 years, ought to have been foreseen and
provided against.", . .

This letter, Sir (among a variety of others which have
recently appeared in your valuable columns), contains
facts connected with our Ordnance Department deserving
of the attention of our Government if a successful ter.
ruination to the present war is contemplated, as, while
our affairs at home and abroad are conducted by some
heads of departments upwards of, and others bordering
on, 70 years of age, we must expect all operations con-
nected with that war to be retarded by ideas equally an-
tiquated, owing, as your correspondent justly observes,
to " those veterans having, during the last 40 years'
peace, resisted every improvement in military science as
a personal insult to their superior knowledge and expe-
rience, having been able, in consequence of their posi-
tion, to keep things pretty much as they were at the
end of our last continental war—pre-eminently what
is termed in official parlance safe men,' never
troubling the Minister for money to make scientific ex-
periments. For every inventor buckets of water are
substituted and administered in the blandest manner
possible," &c. _ _

Complaints of this nature, Sir, have been reiterated
by the press ever since the commencement of the pre•
sent war, without making any apparent impression on
Government, and even in the House of Counnons last
week Mr. Williams (the member, I presume, for Lam.
beth) was reported as having noticed letters from
the Crimea inserted in your paper, complaining of
the great loss of life occasioned at Inkerman and
subsequent engagements by the defective percussion
caps issued to our men by the Ordnance Depart.
merit, which would not explode in wet weather, while it
was proved that waterproof caps had been offered to
that department, and rejected by the committee at Wool•
with afLr a trial of 24 hours' immersion in water, and
Lund as perfect as possible—those now in use at the
Crimea having been tried also, after immersion, and all
found to fail ; nevertheless, they were selected in pro-
fit Lance, and the consequences have Lean desciibed by an
etlicer of the 19th ReEr,tinerit, referred to under the head
of " percussion caps," in a letter in the Times of the Bth
inst., in which the writer emphatically declares that
the parties in ques'ion should be made responsible for
the lives of our brave fellows thus needlessly thrown
away."

Another fact alluded to by Mr. Williams in the
Horse of Commons had reference to an improvement in,
tie destructive powers of our weapons, which would
have the effect in certain cases of enabling 100 men to
do more execution in action than 500 nice as at pre-
sent armed, thus virtually augmenting in the ratio of
400 per cent, our effective forces in the field, with a cor-
responding saving of expense to the country ; but,
although the practicability of this proposition was sup-
ported by the opinions of some of our principal gun-
makers, the wet blanket was thrown en it by this Wool-
wich committee, and even a trial, which would not have
cost 1001., objected to, although it might have been the
means of saving millions of our mone,y and thousands of
lives of our brave troops.
When such facts, sir, were thus publicly mentioned
in Parliament, and not even denied by any member on
behalf of the Government, it is high time to have such
proceedings inquired into by a committee of the House
of Commons, as it is evident that this war is conducted
iu a manner to call forth the just expressions of disap-
probation so powerfully put forth in your column.
within the last few days, "and the noblest army Eng-
land ever sent from our shores sacrificd to the grossest
mismanagement, incompetency, official indifference sued
aristocratio hauteur," ,

When this view of the case is justified and confirmed
by so many letters from the seat of war, and more par-
ticularly by one which appears in your columns of this
day from an officlr of the Royals, apparently in common d
of a brigade, I trust that you will persevere in your
efforts until effectual remedies are applied to these evils,
and the honour of the nation and the safety of the cause
in which we embarked with our not leas -brave, but
more provident, allies triumphantly insured, as these
are not times for misapplications of the compliments of
the season in unmerited quarters.
Brighton, Deo. 27.

Ali/ICUS CIIILIA.

Sir,—As it seems desirable that anything tending to
illustrate Sir John Burgoyne's qualifications for direct-
ing the operations in the Crimea should be made known,
I beg leave to relate the following passage in his past
history, the facts of which are within my own know-
ledge :—A few years ago, when there was much
discussion and negotiation going on respecting Cap-
tain Warren's destructive projectile, for revealing the
secret of which an enormous sum was demanded of the
Government, a barrister of the Inner Temple, of con-
siderable scientific attainments is chemistry, and who
had devoted some of his leisure hours to the sub-
ject of explosive balls, wrote to the Board of Ordnance
to say that, as it seemed probable, from the negotiations
carried on with Captain Warner, that the Government
deemed the acquisition of some such secret desirable,
he had discovered a method of making projectiles of
this description of enormously explosive power ; that
from their shape, as compared with Captain Warner's,
they were far more certain in their operation ;
and that if the Board of Ordnance, after investigation,
thought the secret worth having, they were wel-
Icome
to it for nothing. A reply was received in duo
time, requesting the gentleman who made this offer to
meet some member's of the Board at Woolwich on a
certain day, when an opportunity would he given him
of explaining his plan. Accordingly, he went down to
Woolwich, and was introduced to the board, at the
head of which sat Sir John Burgoyne. He proceeded
to explain to Sir John the methocrof making the explo-
sive material, and also the advantages of his shell, as
he believed, over that of Captain Warner's. One of
these advantagr.s consisted in the fact that his shell
was spherical, while Captain Warner's was shaped some-
thing like a pear ; and all gunners were well aware of
the impossibility of firing any projectile of this latter
shape so as to hit even the largest mark with any-
thing like certainty ; whereas his shell, being a spLere,
could be fired with the tame certainty as any ordinary
shell. Then, again, the explosion of the material in-
redo depended upon a certain amount of pressure caus-
ing friction, being occasioned by the shell striking and
being flattened against its mark. Now, it was by no
rin,ans certain that in a body shaped like a pear the ue--
cessary amount of pressure wuuld be caused by its shape
being altered in striking against the mark, for it was
'qUite possible that its capacity might be enlarged, in-
stead of being diminished, by an alteration of its shape,
while a spherical body was the only one of which it was
certain that if you changed the form you necessarily
dioiinislied the capacity, and so caused pressure and
friction to act upon the material enclosed in it. This
last reason seemed utterly beyond the comprehensiou of
Sir John Burgoyne. This eminent scientific engineer
could not be brought to understand the simple truth
that a sphere was the only body of which, if
the form was, altered, the capacity was necessarily
diminished. The gentleman of whom I write laboured
for some time t• explain it to him upon simple mathe-
matical principles, but all to no purpose. Sir John could
not see it, and evidently thought the whole thing a great
mystery, quite beyond the province of military engineers
and heads of the Board of Ordnance. He consequently
ended the interview in true official style, telling
this gentleman that, if he thought fit to make some of
the shells at his own expense, the Board would interpose
no obstacle to their being tried on the practising ground
at Woolwich ; but the Board cuuid not undertake to
bear any portion of the expense.
The inventor very naturally replied that be was not
an operative chemist, and had no means of making the
shells, nor any inducement to incur expense for such
an object, inasmuch as, if the Government thought the
invention worth trying, he offered it to them for no-
thing ; that the expense would be very trifling in
any of the Government laboratories, or ammunition
manufactories, and the loss not worth mentioning,
even if the whole thing turned out a failure ; and
that, if the Board thought fit to undertake the
experiment, he would superintend it, and render every
assistance in his power gratuitously. This, however,
Sir John Burgoyne declined—true to his "safe" prin-
ciples of "throwing a bucket of cold 'water over every
of " never troubling the Minister for any
scientific experiments." I have read, as you
:my;
:o.vidineanet,ofron,
perceive,
grad
the letter of "Omicron" in the Times of
think that perhaps the facts stated shove
may tend to throw some additional light on Sir John
Burgoyne's character as a military commander and
engineer.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, 6
Dec. 28. • E. S.

CIIINNEL ISLANDS.—The committee appointed by the
states to consider the recommendation of Government to
assimilate the Jersey laws as to shipwreck and salvage
with those of England met on Friday, and appointed a
sub-committee to prepare a bill for that purpose, in coo*
formity with the act of Parliament and order in counal