The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-31 00:00:00

THE SHRAPNEL SHELL.

The following is the petition of Mr. Henry Needham
Scrope Shrapnel (son of the late General Shrapnel, the
inventor of the Shrapnel Shell), presented to the House
of Commons on the 14th of May, by Mr. T. S. Dun-
combe:—
" The humble petition of Henry Needham Scrope
Shrapnel, of Midway Manor House, near Bradford,
in the county of Wilts, now residing at Lodge,
Gosport, in the county of Wants, Esq., late of her
Majesty's 3d Regiment of Foot Guai d 4, now Cap-
tain in the 2d Regiment of
Somerset Militia,
" Showeth,—That your petitioner is the eldest son
and heir-at-law of the late Lieutenant-General Shrapnel,
the inventor of the celebrated Shrapnel shell.
"That General Shrapnel, the father of your petitioner,
entered the Royal Artillery on the 9th of July, 1779, at
the age of twenty-one, and was ordered abroad, where
he distinguished himself. That he served in Newfound-
land in 178082, where he was thanked in public orders
by Colonel Sir Robert Pringle, for a quick method of
fixing an B.inch howitzer, whereby much good service
was rendered.
" That your petitioner's father served at Gibraltar
and in Holland, and the seige of Dunkirk, under Sir
William Congreve; subsequently to Swan Island, Bar-
badoes, St. Vincent's, Dominica, Antigua, and various
other places abroad, at all of which he acquitted him-
self with credit.

"That the father of your petitioner was also the in-
ventor of the tangient slide, which has brought our
artillery to its present perfection, by the accuracy with
which the range can by its means be ascertaitc d; met is
now generally in use both in the artillery of army and
navy.

"-That General Shrapnel, your petitioner's father,
was likewise the proposer of hollow shot.
" That the Shrapnel shell, invented by your peti-
tioner's father, is a discovery allowed by the most illus.
trious of the British commanders to have contributed
greatly towards most of the splendid victories gained by
the British troops on the continent of Europe and East
Indies during the last forty years and upwards, and that
the effect of the shell has been to extend the destructive
power of musketry, and with much greater effect.
" That General Shrapnel, your petitioner's father,
had the honour of making experiments before his late
Majesty Bing George the Third and great number of
officers.

" Its importance to the nation being admitted by his
Grace the Duke of Wellington and other distinguished
military and naval officers.
"In Portugal, the campaign of 1808, the Board of
Ordnance in August supplied Col. Robe with the shell,
who thus expresses himself:—' Your shot is the ad-
miration of the whole army; I should not do my duty
to the service were I not to attribute our good fortune
to the use of that weapon. I told Sir Arthur Wellesley
I meant to write you, and asked if it may be with his
concurrence. His answer ,was, you may say anything
you please; you cannot say too much.'
" That the decisive advantages from the use of the
shell, which in those splendid achievements distin-
guished the British arms—the storming of Gusnee, at
the battle of the Kyber Pass, Jellalabad, during the
Burmese war, and Affghanistan—arersfully testified by
those distinguished officers, Lord Keane, Sir A. Camp-
bell, Sir W. Nott, Major. General Pollock, Sir Robert
Sale, Lord Gough, and Sir Harry Smith.
" That your petitioner is fully persuaded that the
applicability of his late father, General Shrapnel's, in-
vention to all the purposes of marine warfare, has like-
wise been fully established.
" That your petitioner's father, during a period of
nearly fifty years, in bringing by long services of scientific
experiments the invention to perfection, is prepared to
show that his late father expended upwards of sixteen
thousand three hundred and sixty pounds. Your peti-
tioner's father never received a grant of public money,
although other individuals who have deserved well of
their country have invariably had their services acknow-
ledged, and with commensurate honours and rewards,
and those who have used this new weapon have titles,
honours, rewards.
" That General Shrapnel, your petitioner's late father,
mentioned the well-known fact, as your petitioner is
prepared to prove—that so fully sensible was the late
Emperor Napoleon of the immense value and importance
of the Shrapnel shell, in the various operations of war,
that in the month of September, 1813, he caused a com-
munication through a confidential quarter to be made to
your petitioner's father, intimating that a certain large
sum of one million pounds sterling should be placed to
your petitioner's father's account if he would disclose
the secret of the invention—a proposal he, your peti-
tioner's father, indignantly rejected.
"That in 1814, after repeated urgent representations to
the Government, a pension of one thousand two hundred
pounds, in lieu of three hundred and sixty-five pounds
per annum, which was previously allowed to your peti-
tioner's father for improvement in artillery, was tarilly
granted to your petitioner's father ; therefore, only in
amount eight hundred and thirty-five pounds, the three
hundred and sixty-five pounds being withdrawn.
" The first time your petitioner's father felt this,
your petitioner believes, was in regard of a claim of five
thousand pounds which your petitioner's father had on
the Honourable East India Company, the amount of
settled per tentage upon shells with which the Company
had been furnished, of which sum, as also all tutur.
emolument, your petitioner's father was deprived. except
a small annuity of two hundred pounds per annum.
" The 9th of October, 1806, Major Cunningham, the
East India Company's inspector, intimated officially to
your petitioner's late father that it was proposed to grant
him ten per cent. on the amount of all shells, which the
major suggested, a plan for continuing the benefit to the
general's heir upon the general's decease ; but this ar
rangement was not afterwards carried out and com-
pleted, by which the general lost an income of several
thousands per annum, and all this by the Ordnance
Board of the day.
"It appears that the East India Company for the term
of seven years was to all ,w your petitioner's late father
twenty-five pounds per 1,000 shells supplied or to be
supplied ; but this, through the Board of Ordnanee, was
discontinued.
" The Duke of Wellington, for national policy,
deemed that the invention of the shell should not be
made public—suggesting that a patent should be taken
out, without entering up the specification. The East
India directors succeeded in getting what they required;
but the new founder, not understanding the niceties at-
tending the manufacture of the shell, unu.ual num-
bers of the shell burst, and in consequence they (the
Company) returned to your petitioner's late father and
the Carron Company.
" When 200,000 shells had been supplied to the East

India Company your petitioner's late father applied for
payment of the per centage, amounting to five thousand
pounds, which was refused, and the Board of Ordnance
denied, though the Company admitted, the original con-
tract ; and the Board denied your petitioner's late
father, in a despotic style, the power to restrict them, as
your petitioner's father had been granted a pension for
the same.l
" Thus was the East India Company's claim settled at
once—not according to reason and justice, which was
unhappily the case a few years ago by high-minded
authority—by cancelling a debt of five thousand pounds.
" That the injurious contraction put on the increased
pension of eight hundred and thirty-five pounds—not one
thousand two hundred pounds—has been the cause of
the East India Company withdrawing their payments to
your petitioner's late father, though Atigust 9th, 1816,
they ordered a supply of 52,000 and 84,000, offering the
usual per centage, amounting to three thousand four
hundred pounds, with reduced per centage, your peti-
tioner's late father did not accede to.
" The pension seems to have shut out your petitioner's
late father, and deprived him of appointments which he,
your petitioner's father, by his rank and lengthened
services and seniority would have been entitled to, of
treble the amount.

Your petitioner's late father addressed Sir Ilus4ey
Vivian, 'Master-General of Ordnance, stating that the
pension of one thousand two hundred pounds was in lieu
of several grants, and in reply draws the inference that
the one thousand two hundred a year, being in lieu of
several other sums, could never be considered as one
thousand two hundred pounds for shells.
" Your petitioner, on behalf of his father, asserts
that, had he made no invention, he would have succeeded
to an income of one thousand and sixty-two pnulids.
without being previously an inspector of arrillery, of
which your petitioner's father had an assurance, arid
which is only one hundred and thirty-,cven riuno..
short of the pension of one thousand tw o hundrts:
pounds ; and yet his income was considerallq k=s that,
the other commandants : so by the pension of 1,2001..
and a bar to promotion 1,0621., 137/. lOs , your peti-
tioner's late father's rank, standing, and long ser',ices
of upwards of half a century.
" That your petitioner'. late father, during his 62
years' service, obtained an income equal to the other
commandants, though not one of them ever invented any
invention ever heard of ; and he, your petitioner's lair
father, would, as a matter of course, rec, ive not only

, . .
appointments to seniority, but ample income, and by
which your petitioner's late father would have saved
sixteen thousand three hundred and sixty pounds for the
benefit of his family.
" That your petitioner's late father suffered the fol-
lowing act of grievous injustice ;—Your petitioner's late
father was a senior in the artillery branch of the service
to Lord Bloomfield by two years ; and it is a well-
known rule that no officer in artillery should be put
over the head of a superior officer, yet in consequence of
Lord Bloomfield being an aide to George the Fourth was
appointed in 1823 ; and Lord Bloomfield succeeded Sir
John NPLeod of :the horse battalion, which placed him,
Lord Bloomfield, at the head of that distinguished branch
of the profession, where your petitioner's late father
should have been ; and, in consequence, a loss of four
thousand seven hundred pounds to your petitioner's
father, and was also deprived of the additional pay
betvveen the horse and foot artillery of four thousand and
twenty-seven pounds five shillings to the day of his
death. Yet Lord Bloomfield bears testimony to your 1
petitioner's late father's superior abilities and science ;
and furthor adds, ' Your royal shell contains one hun-
dred and si,Nty-six carbine balls—those thrown with the
its value to thesm
. " Let tilt united voices
velocity of one thousand feet a second; think of the
destruction, and shudder.'
years on th© of the army and navy speak
ailnievsetntorand his country of the Shrapnel
shell ; the
millions
or per-tentage for so many
honourable
of shells which have been manu-
factured for the
East India Company errable Board of Ordnance and
and when your petitioner's late of forty years ; and
would have
himself
a'csiervicee
Government the secret, foreseesfather communicated to
but which patent,
acted, would have legally secured" they
wa'as t4)a
loss
as advised by Earl Moira ; and itt
and claims like the foregoing that a pension, said .
one thousand two hundred a year,
to your peti;inner's late father, General Shrapnel; ofss
and sixty-five pounds per annum.
V4rrbet'
ere, hundredtherefor',
is the ample reward to which his
oncev ti Duke obf Wellington so generously and frankly
three'