The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-20 00:00:00

LONDOtV, THURSDAY, JAN. 20, 1870.

!OME doubt yet remains as to the extent of the
disaster which has befallen the British ironclad
Hercules; but the mildest version of the news is
serious. One account states that " the guns"
—meaning all the guns of that new and
costly vessel were disabled during prac-
tice by the shot employed in loading them.
Whilst cruising between Lisbon and Gibraltar the
Hercules tried her heavy 18-ton guns with conical
chilled projectiles, and the result was that the shot
broke in pieces before leaving the bore, the arm itself
being seriously injured. Another version
states that only one gun was so damaged, leaving
the details of the disaster unquestioned. This occur-
rence is at best but a melancholy issue to the lengthy
and expensive experiments which ended in the
adoption of the Palliser chilled shot. It had been
hoped that the missile called after its inventor
combined those qualities which had so long
been sought in a projectile destined to be employed
against armour plates. What was wanted was a
shot hard enough to pierce an iron plate, and yet
sufficiently tough to resist the concussion with the
object aimed at. Captain PALLISEIt'S chilled iron
projectiles were very cheap and hard enough
to penetrate armour - plating; and though
the metal of which they were composed was
brittle, the inventor obviated that defect by
shaping the head in a peculiar manner. It is to he
feared, however, that the adoption of this missile as
the regular service shot, although only decided upon
with extreme caution, was premature. On board
the Hercules the chilled shot destroyed themselves
and the piece from which they were fired. Of course
it would be hazardous to draw very general con-
clusions from this one catastrophe. It yet
remains to be seen whether the present
alarming accident is merely an exceptional
case, or whether it is likely to be of
common occurrence. It will also be a question
whether the 18-ton Woolwich gun only is
liable to this peculiar defect. But it is, unhappily,
true that the Palliser shot is very brittle, and that
its inherent defect has been remedied only
by an artificial expedient. This instance of
self-destruction is far from an unnatural event, and
there is but too much reason to fear that the disaster
will he so often repeated as to completely vitiate the
projectile for systematic use. In that case the regular
service shot of the British navy will become useless,
and a new one must be sought. Even if it should
happen that the 18-ton gun is most liable to
such failures, it follows that the great
weapons with which all our large ironclads are
armed are entirely inoffensive. Lastly, this unfor-
tunate occurrence has again raised the question—
which ought to have been settled long be-
fore—whether the Palliser shot, though effec-
tive in piercing plates when fired in a direct
line, is equally efficient when the object is struck in
an oblique direction. The prospect at present is not
a cheering one. We have blissfully taken the
PALLISER missile into our confidence, and adopted it
as the ordinary shot of the service. If its failure
be confirmed, the costly experiments at Shoe-
buryness go for nothing, our stock of
chilled shot becomes worthless, and much
precious time will have been irretrievably wa.st-d.
More than this, the only projectile which can claim
to compete with the Palliser as an instrument for
piercing steel plates is that of Mr. WHITWORTH. Of
this shot the best accounts are given, but it is made
of steel, and the permanent increase of expense if it
replace Captain PALLISER's invention must be enor-
mous. The next bulletin from the Channel Fleet
will be especially interesting

THE two great emigration societies are setting up
a very formidable organisation for the removal of our
surplus population. They are raising large funds, and
their members are of such influence, and of so many
different schools politics and religion, that
we may reasonably xpect a great impetus to the
movement from their exertions. Mr. GOSCHEN, too,
has recognised, as a private individual, the impor-
tance of emigration by offering ten shillings towards
the expenses of every emigrant sent out by the
British and Colonial Society to the number of 2,000.
It is clear that the movement is becoming a national
one. The question of its expediency may now be
considered settled ; it remains only to decide how
the transfer of our starving population to
a less heavily-burdened land had best be
effected. To this end the suggestion made
by the Daily News on behalf of "co-operative
emigration" is well worth considering, not only by
the emigrants themselves, but by the societies. In
place of despatching isolated and independent indivi-
duals, why not send out an organised community—a
complete, moveable town ? At present emigrants
disperse on landing in the Now World, and each goes
his own way. Surely it would be infinitely prefer-
able on many accounts that a number of persons of
different occupations should agree to settle down in
one place. Take a batch of agricultural labourers, a
few carpenters, tailors, and other artisans, one school-
master, and, if the "religions difficulty" could be
got over, a minister, and forward them, with their
tools, to some eligible spot in the wilderness. Any
colony or the United States would be delighted
to receive such an increase to its national
family. At present every emigrant needs
special attention from the authorities across
the Atlantic ; under the co-operative system a
hundred persons, say, could be comfortably estab-
lished with one exercise of supervision. For the
emigrants themselves some of the most ob-
jectionable trials which now attend removal
to a strange land would be overcome.
They could help and encourage each other.
There would be society for all, instead of
the dismal loneliness for each which now besets the
settler on the edge of the desert. The Rob-
inson Crusoe necessity of every man'e attempt-
ing all trades
_and becoming . efficient in none