The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-15 00:00:00

more easily but more rapidly than the Brunswick rifle;
and doubtless particularly so at night. I have known a
solitary instance or two where the ball has required consi-
derable force (from the cartridge having been carelessly_
handled) to drive it home, but I never saw it jammed. If
the ball, which should be placed about half its length in
the muzzle, is pushed in too far, the cartridge paper will
not break off, as it should do, clean from the ball, and
grains of powder, if any remain in the paper, are liable to
get between the ball and the barrel, but certainly not be-
tween the paper and the ball. The cone of the ball is
fitted tightly into the bottom of that portion of the cart-
ridge which contains the powder, in it cup, strongly formed
and lined with paper, by which the ball and powder are
perfectly and securely separated.
With regard to the comparative accuracy and range of
the Minie rifle, I b give the particulars of a trial
beg to
which took place at hitstable, between two Horse Ar-
tillery six-pounders and a Minie rifle by Mr. Yonge, Rifle
Brigade, a fair and good, though by no means a practised
shot.

Two six-pounders fired 10 rounds between them, at a
barrel floating in the water, and calculated at 600 yards.
A SIX-POUNDER FIRES FIVE SHOT TO A MINIE'S THREg
AND A HALF THE ROUND.—The Minie rifle fired in the
same time (one minute and twenty seconds) three rounds,
and was again loaded when time " was up," which the
guns were not. The guns did not strike the barrel at all,
some shots being good, others very wide, even to falling
200 yards short.
The Minie struck the barrel once, placed its other two
shots within two feet on each side 'of the barrel, and the
fourth shot discharged, though not counted in the trial,
struck the barrel. All this from the shoulder.
I have now, I believe, replied to all the questions his
lordship pressed on me, and have only to notice the two
last points in your letter. Firstly—
DETERTOBATION.—Froui first firing the ammunition in
our pouches and replacing with the new issue, I am only
enabled to speak of ammunition that has been in the
pouch for about a year. 1 have examined it carefully ;
there is not the slightest deterioration, the powder, perfect
to a grain, stands the test of rubbing on white paper
without staining it (which, were it in the slightest degree
injured, would have a very different showing), whilst the
folds of paper which envelope or closely enfold the ball,
are as moist with the tallow as the day on which it was
sent out.
GREASE.—You will see by the foregoing that the neces-
sity for this is obviated in forming the Minie cartridge.
I have yet to give the weight of 60 rounds of Minie ball•
cartridge, and 60 rounds of spherical.
lbs. oz. drs.
Minie, 60 rounds 6 15 0
Musket, 60 rounds
I have the honour to be, &c.,
W. NOECOTT, ajor, Rifle Brigade.
SECOND BATTALION RIFLE BRIGADE.—Return showing
the practice made with the Minie and Brunswick rifles ; 10
rounds per man, half of which was fired from the shoulder.
MINIE AT 300 YARDS.—Number of men who put in—
Over half, averaging 7 each, 33 ; under half but over three,
averaging 4 6-14ths each, 14; under three, averaging 2t
each, 12. Total, 59.
MINIE AT 400 YARDS.—Number of men who put in—
Over half, averaging 6 7-15ths each, 15; under half, but
over three, averaging 4 19-27ths each, 27; under three,
averaging 2i each, 32. Total, 74.
BRUNSWICK AT FROM 15) to 200 YARDS.--Number of
men who put in—Over half, averaging 6 1-10th each, 6;
under half, but over three, averaging 4 5-14ths email, 14;
under three, averaging 2 17-50ths each. Total, 70.
Un-ited Serriee Magazine.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

It probably occurs to few of the visitors to the Britisk
Museum to inquire what that establishment really is.
We do not mean as to its material form and aspect,
which is patent enough—cold, classical, huge, and not
very significant—but as to the soul which animates the
vast mass, and which, infused as it were throughout
the whole, constitutes its vital and active principle.
People occasionally hear of this or that treasure or rare
volume being offered to the Museum, or being purchased
by the Museum ; hut as for any distinct idea of what the
entity so designated really is, few persons, perhaps, care
to know much more than that the stony allegorical ladies
and gentlemen, standing out against the blue paint over
the portico, are not the Museum. Yet it is not the less
a fact that the British Museum has an executive, and
that it is administered on similar principles to those
which have been so eminently successful in the parallel
institution of the National Gallery. The Museum and
the Gallery are each governed by a body of amateur and
unpaid trustees. To institute a directory of this sort
used to be a favourite device of John Bull. Like many
rich and clever people, the country was afraid of being
taken in. Loth to believe that a paid servant would do
other than make a job of his place, it never entered into
our heads that we should ruin our housekeeping, and,
indeed, get no service at all, if we trusted only to ama-
teur butlers and dilettante footmen. We could not con-
ceive it possible that a salaried director of pictures and
fine arts, or the salaried curator of a museum, would acton
any higher principle towards his employers than that of
purchasing with a view to a private per tentage. We sup-
posed if we put these great national establishments under
the control of the great officers of State—men above sus-
picion, and above temptation—we should be sure to get
the thing well done. They, we argued, will only have
an eye to the common good—under their administration,
peculation, jobbing, favouritism, will be impossible. We
shall have our institutions managed on the loftiest prin-
ciples of public virtue, disinterested patriotism, pure
zeal and integrity ; and, above all, ws shall get the work
done for nothing.

And so the British Museum was inaugurated ; and its
government was committed to a body of forty-eight
noblemen and gentlemen, nearly one-half of whom were
selected on the eminently judicious ground that they
were, beyond a doubt, the busiest men in England.
The problem being, to give a public institution an effec-
tive executive, we pitched, first of all, ou the following
twenty-three persons, as being peculiarly possessed
of the requisite leisure for their duties— as men of
lettered ease, whose thoughts and time could be exclu-
sively spent in devising rules for the management, and
superintending the purchases, of an establishment so
multifarious that it is itself an encyclopaedia :
Archbishop of Oanterhury Lord Steward
Lord Chancellor Lord Chamberlain
President of Council Three Secretaries of State
First Lord of Treasury Bishop of Loudon
Lord Privy Seal Attorney-General
Chancellor of the Exchequer Solicitor-General
Chief Justice of Queen's And Presidents of the Revel
Bench Society, College of Phy-
Master of tho Bolls sicians, Society of Anti.
Chief Justice of Common queries, and Royal Aca.
Pleas dewy.
First Lord of A.duliralty

And her Majesty was to appoint a twenty-fourth trustee,
but this nomination trusteeship is, and long has been,
vacant. Here is one-half of the executive. Nine other
trustees represent special benefactors—founders' kin
trustees—on the principle, we suppose, that a taste in art
must necessarily descend like a physical conformation,
and that the Towneleys and Elgins of all time must as
infallibly develop a taste for old broken statues as certain
families propagate a squint or red hair. These 33 offi-
cial and family trustees complete the mystic number of
48 by electing 15 other members ; the individuals at pre-
sent being :
Earl of Aberdeen

Duke of Sutherland

Duke of Rutland Sir R. Inglis _
Marquis of Lansdowne Mr. IL Hallam
Mr. W. R. Hamilton Mr. Macaulay
Dean of Westminster Dean of St. Paul's
Sir D. Duudas Sir P. Egerton
Mr. Goulburn Lord Seymour
Sir Roderick Murchison.

It would be difficult to imagine a body more happily
constructed for failure than an executive thus constituted.
It is simply impossible that it should ever work. Nor
does its practice differ from its theory—the planet, when
found, verifies the calculations made about it.
As to the official gentlemen, we can only say that, if
their other and higher functions.
they did attend to the British Museum, they would
Just
tt
thinkw o
fullYf neglect
an Archbishop Of Canterbury pottering for
hours over a Roman pot—of a Lord Chancellor quitting
his court and woolsack to discuss the propriety of pur-
2:ingrare lot of Pacctim—or the Chancellor of the
a
csheguer abandoning his bills for'bullce—or the Presi-
dent of the College of Physicians neglecting his patients
for the charms of a Dinornis. It is not teo much to say
that, of the official and family trustees, not one ever
does, can, or should bestow one hour per annum on the
Museum.

But the 33 officials have doubtless selected 11 ad-
mirable coadjutors. Here we shall have the cream of
the cream—the very highest representatives of English
literature, art, and taste, and science. Even if this
could be said of all the fifteen elected notables—which
we are far from saying—this is the very reason which
ought to disqualify them for this particular office. They,
too, are busy men—official men—active men—reen with
their own pursuits, callings, duties, and tastes, which
do not leave them a moment's leisure. They are either
statesmen or placemen—men of official rank, commis-
sioners, or writers and authors by profession, engaged
with learned societies or with engrossing pursuits. Look
over the list, and it will be found that, from one cause or
other, out of the fifteen working trustees, not more than
five at the outside can ever be depended upon for a leisure
hour from one year's end to another. Those five are,
let us suppose, Mr. Hamilton, Sir D. Dundas, Sir R.
Inglis, the Duke of Sutherland, and Lord Seymour.
But the duke is a confirmed invalid ; so we are reduced
to four. And of these four, what with religious so-
cieties and other avocations, the time of the veteran Sir

R. Inglis—especially with the representation of the
University ou his hands—has been pretty well filled.
Sir D. Dundas has only recently been relieved from an
arduous official post. Consequentl7, it comes to pass
that the whole practical government of the British
Museum centres in two individuals—Mr. Hamilton and
Lord Seymour. Mr. Hamilton has A taste—that for
Greek antiquities. Lord Seymour is a very excellent
man of business ; but we aro not aware that he possesses
that encyclopedic range of scientific, artistic, and anti-
quarian lore which his gigantic task requires.
We have now answered the question, what is the
British Museum ? And the public, who want their at-
tention drawn to this preliminary and elementary in-
quiry, may fora time be left to ponder upon the chances
of a great national institution being fairly dealt with,
which, for all practical purposes, is under the manage-
' meat of Lord Seymour and Mr. W. It. Hamilton. Of
course, if their colleagues have attended, and do attend,
to the duties of their office, we shall, before we say any-
thing further on the management of the Museum, be
glad to publish the minutes of the meetings and attend-
ances of the trustees—say, during the last twelve
months.—lllorning Chronicle.

OPENING OF THE NEW STREET TO ST. PAUL'S.—In
order to expedite the opening of this important thorough.
fare, the men engaged in the construction of the sewer
between Old Change and the Cathedral-yard were kept
employed throughout the whole of yesterday. From
the great elevation of the ground at this point, the sewer
has to be sunk an immense depth—it is said 70 feet from
the surface. The Ist of May is now t3pokeu of as the
time of the opening.