The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-19 00:00:00

nothing for the War Office. Several were
present at the meeting of the Favre Demon-
stration Committee, and declared their inten-
tion to take part in the " turn out." Other ,
matters were discussed at this meeting—including
the conduct of the wretched British Ministry for not
protesting against the bombardment of Paris. The
chairman declared that if the English Government
desired to find a right precedent, they could have
referred to the protest raised by the Council of
Neutral Nations, in 1848, when Radetsky was about
to bombard Milan, That protest, which was
headed by the, representative of England, saved
Milan ; and surely what had proved effectual in the
case of an Italian city would have been equally suc-
cessful with respect to the capital of France. It
was a disgrace to the English Government that Air.
Odo Russell had not protested against the bombard-
ment when he was at Versailles. Our departments,
were " Bismareked." Mr. Salomona read the
Government Circular to the Volunteers, and
declared that the Government could not pre-
H;ent the men from attending, for they paid
for their uniforms themselves. The meeting was ad-
dressed by three volunteers, who announced their
intention of being present at the Fevre demonstra-
tion, and said they would relinquish their rights of
English citizenship. On the suggestion of Mr.
Odger it was resolved to hold a meeting in Trafalgar
Square, next Monday, in sympathy with France,
and as a protest against the policy of the Govern-
ment respecting the bombardment of Paris.
A. resolution was carried unanimously expressive of

The

the deep regret of the meeting that the Governmen
should have interfered with the Volunteers, and en.

treating the Volunteers themselves to disregard the
prohibition. It is a great pity that the working men
should commit themselves thus. The German

leaders have a perfect right to bombard Paris—
lamentable as the result may be, just as much as any
other fortified city.

FIELD ARTILLERY.
An interesting lecture has been given by Lieutenar.

Jones, Royal Artillery, at Woolwich, on the " Future
Armament of our Field Artillery." Having remarked
that the controversy respecting the merits of muzzle-
loaders and breechloaders had been decided in favour
of the former, he addressed himself to the question
of metal. Bronze had been adopted as the fieldagun for
India, but it had been sliewn by recent experiments to '
be quite unserviceable. Steel was too brittle when
used by itself, being likely to burst. England had
no steel gun with the exception of the seven-pounder
mountain howitzer, known as the Abyssinian gun.
Wrought iron did not possess the requisite hardness
when used alone, but the very best construction
,
would be found to be a steel barrel strengthened
with wrought-iron coils. There never had been an
instance of these guns bursting from lair usage.
The chief argument employed in favour of bronze
guns was economy; but the saving of a few thousand
pounds should not call for the conversion of a whole
armament. The lecturer believed that the English
artillery was the best in the world in the material
an I mode of manufacture. The field-guns should be
made more serviceable, however, and he thought the
IG-pound shell gun just made in the arsenal could
suppl 3 the present want. Every campaign intro-
duced a larger projectile, and the present war had
the same tendency.

He's