The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 4, 1860.

SPAIN AND MOROG'CO.

The mail steamer Ripon, arrived at Southamp-
ton, brings us advices from Morocco, via Gibraltar,

,o the 26th ult.

Accounts from Tetuan of that date state that pre-
vious to the movement of the Spanish army on the
23d towards the intrenched position of the Moors
orders were issued to embark the siege train of the
army and the baggage of the Commander-En-Chief
on board the Princesa de Asturias steam-frigate,
bearing the flag of Admiral Bustillos, and other
war steamers, for conveyance to within a league on
this side of Tangier, where the train was to be
landed.

The men•of--war were then to proceed to the Bay
of Tangier for the purpose of making a combined
simultaneous attack by land and sea on that city.
The subsequent signing of the peace, however, pre-
vented this arrangement being carried into execu-
tion. The baggage was again landed on the 2Gth
at Port Martin. The sea was so rough that many
of the launches belonging to the transports engaged
in landing provisions, &c., were upset by the heavy
surf, and an immense amount, of property is said to
have been lost.

It is stated that in the action of the 23d the Moors
stood the Spanish bayonet charge with undaunted
valour. The Catalonian volunteers, whose effective
strength was 250 men, are said to have had 200
men put.hors de combat. _ _

Upwards of 200 troops, wounded in the engage-
ment of the 23d, were landed at the Orange
Grove on the 26th. They were conveyed to
the San Roque hospitals. Fifteen of the wounded
soldiers died on the passage previously to the
steamers reaching the Spanish coast. Another batch
of wounded reached Algeciras on the morning of
the 27th, others having been conveyed to Cadiz
and Malaga.
The whole of the Spanish men-of-war, including
the Princesa de Asturias steam frigate, having Ad-
miral Bustillos's flag, as well as the fleet of steam
and other transports that were off Tetuan, had,
owing to the strong east wind, gone to the Puente
Mayorga for shelter.
The Gibraltar Chronicle of the 28th ult. says:—

" The gratifying intelligence given in yesterday's
number regarding the preliminaries of peace having
been signed by Muley Abbas and the General-in-
Chief of the Spanish army of operations in Africa,
thus putting an end to further effusion of human
blood, is fully corroborated by a letter received after
the hour of publication, written by a trustworthy
officer who was present with his corps at the san-
guinary battles of the 23d inst. It is dated from
the camp near the Fondue, March 25, 12 o'clock
noon, and is as follows .

"' I have to thank the Almighty for having
spared me once more, after the bloody battle fought
the day before yesterday. Our losses have been
great, very great ! It is believed that they must
have amounted to at least 1,500 men between killed
and wounded. The loss of the Moors is estimated
at nearly 5,000. We yesterday rested while the
Moors presented themselves to have a parley ; and
to-day, at last, peace has been made. At the hour
I am writing the General-in-Chief notifies the
happy event to the whole army. It is believed that
we shall very soon return to Spain.'
" We glean the following particulars from a pri-
vate letter, dated Tetuan, March 24, 8 a.m.:—
"' The state of the roads between the port of
Martin and Tetuan was very unsafe, and the people
were afraid of their lives, as only 4,000 men re-
mained to garrison the positions from the beach to
the town. It was given as positive in Tetuan that
the loss of the Spaniards in the battle of the 23d
was estimated at upwards of 2,000. The writer
believes they could not be less, judging by the very
large numbers of wounded that he saw continually
breught in. The Catalonian volunteers are said to
have had only 40 men left intact out of their num-
ber. The Madrid Light Infantry suffered very
severe losses. The Biscayan volunteers were also en-
gaged, and had a great number killed and wounded.
The First and Second Commandants of the Catalo-
nians were wounded, but whether severely or
slightly is not stated. The civil population, by an
order from the Spanish authorities, were prohibited
leaving the town."
The Algeciras ligja Suelta gives the following
details of the battle of the 23d :
" The Moors, posted on the heights of Gualdras,
were the first to open a terrific fire upon our troops,
who attacked them with unequalled boldness. The
enemy kept firm, bravely defending his camp for
several hours. General Echague advanced with the
first corps, flanked by General Rios's division, whose
forces jointly sustained the brunt of the combat,
while General Ros de Olano occupied the centre,
and General Prim the other flank.

" In the meantime the Moors had dared to make
a movement, endeavouring to surprise or to turn the
flank of General Rio's division, but they attacked
him rashly, and all was in vain, their efforts being
thwarted at the point of the bayonet by our brave
soldiers, though inflicting some severe losses on the
battalions more exposed to the fire of the enemy.
The heights were successively taken, and there
were moments of a pell-mell and confusion in which
bayonets and gumias crossed. We caused them an
awful and very considerable carnage.

" General Prim's division twice took a douar
which was most tenaciously defended by the enemy,
until the General ordered it to be set on fire.

" In one of the charges made by the Cuirassiers
of El Principe their commander, Senor Pujada, was
killed.

" The Moors commenced retreating, but, being
harassed by Generals Echague's and Prim's divi-
sions, they took to flight.
" The battalions which have suffered most are the
Tarifa and Madrid, and the Saragossa Regiment."
The lloja also publishes the following from the
Minister of the Interior :

" Camp of Gualdras,March 25, 1 p.m.

" Yesterday the envoys of Muley Abbas again
presented themselves as the bearers of a letter, in
which earnest desires for peace were manifested,
and demanding an interview, which was acceded
to on condition that the propositions already sent
should be accepted, and that the hour of meeting be
notified by half-past 6 on the following morning,
for at that hour the troops would be on the march.
The emissaries did not keep us waiting long ; the
tents were already struck, and the troops ready to
move, when news was received that the Caliph
would come to the interview when S and 9 o'clock
in the morning ; this actually took place, and he
was received in a tent pitched at a distance of 600
paces from our advanced posts.
" March 25, 2 p.m.—The preliminaries of peace
and the celebration of an armistice having been
signed today, the army proceeds to station itself
within the line of Buseja's Bridge, which is the
divisory one—a position easily and quickly assisted
and provisioned."
Accounts from Mazagan to the 23d ult. state
that the commercial transactions between the
Moors in the country and the townspeople con-
tinued pretty steady, notwithstanding the unsettled
state of the interior, where great effervescence
among the wild tribes was spoken of. Wool and
hides find their way into the market of the town,
where there seemed to be a good demand for these
articles. The prohibition of the export of wheat,
decreed by the Moorish Government on account of
the war with Spain, continued in full force ; but
the grain purchased and stored by foreign agents
previous to this order was allowed free course. The
Diana, Lombard master, was in port, expecting to
tloade a
ar
g cargooes
of of wool. Other vessels expected,
h which, consisting of wool, skins,
&c., were ready for shipment. About the middle
of the month one of the Emperor's youngest brothers,
named Muley Dris, about 22 years of age, paid a
flying visit to Mazagan, accompanied by a strong
escort of cavalry, well mounted and equipped ; and,

after going through some evolutions in presence
of the people of the town and taking some rest,
the Prince paid a visit to Mr. Redman in town,
and then proceeded with his escort to that gen-
tleman's country residence, where he took up his
quarters.

THE WHITWO.RTIT AND ARMSTBONG

GUNS.

Since the conclusion of Mr.Whitworth's valuable
experiments at Southport a tabular summary of the
result of each trial of the 3, 12, and 80-pomaders, at
different degrees of elevation has been carefully
prepared. This table shows such marvellous results
to have been obtained with each description of ord-
nance, both has regards range and accuracy, that we
give it to our readers in extenso, in order that they
may see that our first estimate of the great power
of the Whitworth gun has been already borne out
by these results.

The table is as follows.;—
Summary of Experiments with 111 r. Whitworth's Rifled
Cannon at Southport, showing the Mean Range and De-
viation of all the Shots fired nt each experiment.

A. B. C. D.
Calibre Eleva- No. of Lough Lateral
Date. of gun. tion. shots Range. tudinal Devia-
tired. Dev. tion.
Feb Deg. Yards. Yards. Yards.
22 3-pounder 3 10 1,579 12 •52
15 .. 10 6 4,174 27 1•17
16 .. .. 5 4,190 87 5'5
23 .. 10 3,842 48 3•23
15 .. 20 4 6,793 56 4'83
.. 16 .. 4 6,960 69 8.58
22 .. 5 6,647 100 7•4
22 .. .. 4 6,421 94 4'25
23 .. 11 6,663 33 3•83
..
15 .. 35 4 9,015 96 10'92
16 .. 5 9,580 81 19'33
..
22 12 pounder 2 5 1,247 21 •85
16 • - . 5 I.lli. . 2,324 11 1•57
22 • • ' .. ' 'IU '2.336 16 108
23 .. .. 10 2,219 22 2•09
21 _ 7 _4
3,049 17 •5
2 t .. . . 4 3,098 9 •54
16 .. 10 6 4,027 50 3•31
23 • • .. ,10 3,774 37 3'l
15 SO-pounder 5 2 2,575 36 2•33
2 2,574 30 1•06
23 • • 7 4 3,493 8 •58
16 10 2 4,700 30 •5
• •
22 • • 4 4,409 50 517
• •
Column A shows the number of shots fired at each expert-

Column A shows the n_ fiber of shots fired at each experi-
ment, B shows their average range in yards, C shows their
average longitudinal, and D their average lateral deviation
from a centr.d point, according to the system adopted at
nythe.
All these experiments, be it remembered, were
conducted from first to last by amateur gunners,
without accident or delay of any kind, and during
the prevalence of wind and weather both about the
most unfavourable that could well be imagined for
obtaining good average results of range alone. As
these successes appear to have excited the attention
of engineers and scientific artillerists throughout
Europe, and, above all, of the many supporters of
the
that Armstrong principle for rifled cannon, we feel
sere
will be interested in our again
o u r readers
referring to this subject.
Since the great success of the Whitworth gun
was first published in this journal, that gentleman
has continued to demonstrate the scientific prin-
ciples on which his ordnance are constructed by
eliciting from fresh experiments a regularly pro-
gressive increase of range and accuracy. Mr. Sid-
ney Herbert has, therefore, stated in the House
that as the Whitworth guns had exceeded the Arm;
strong in range, and very nearly, as far as could be
judged from the rough experiments, equalled it in
accuracy, the Government were prepared to take
the usual steps to give both a competitive trial at
ShoGburyness. This very fair decision of the War-
office has given rise to some dissatisfaction among
many, of the supporters of the Armstrong gun,
who allege that Mr. -Whitworth has only ob-
tained greater range by reducing the diameter of
his projectile, and of course, therefore, the bore
of the cannon itself; quite forgetting that, as
long as that gentleman can prove that a great
improvement is brought about by the adoption of
certain principles, the public mid the military
authorities will care very little whether the
principles themselves are new or old. By Mr.
Whitworth's plan of reducing the diameter of
the shot, and therefore the bore of the gun, he
contends that not only are the range and accuracy
increased, but the gun itself can be constructed
of the same relative strength of metal though nearly
two-thirds lighter than the ordinary brass guns.
The value of this reduction in weight, by allowing
fewer horses and fewer men to manceuvre heavier
guns at greater speed, must be apparent to any one,
more especially to those who have seen what a very
little way the largest transports in the service go
towards transporting two or three ordinary field
batteries, with their present complement of 21 wag-
gons and carriages, 250 horses, and some 250 men.
The celebrated three-pounder gun of Whitworth,
with carriage and limber complete, could be brought
into action and manceuvred and served with the
utmcst rapidity by two horses and two men only.
In this respect, however, the Whitworth gun has
no acivantage over that of Armstrong ; on the con-
trary, as far as we have seen, the Armstrong large
guns tre much lighter. It has been stated as a
kind of objection to the almost astounding results
both fer range and accuracy which Mr. Whitworth
obtained at Southport with such small charges of
powder, that Sir William Armstrong had only con-
structed his ordnance with a view to securing ac-
curacy, and that had he chosen to construct a gun
for range alone he would have distanced Mr. Whit-
worth is that respect. In the articles which ap-
peared in the Times on the manufacture of the
Armstrong gun, we pointed out the futility of the
difference which is sometimes sought to be drawn
between the terms " long range" and " great accu-
racy," *ten in truth they mean one and the same
thing. Guns are only made with one object, which
is, after nll, thnt of throwing their shot in the
straightest line, and it therefore of necessity follows
that the gun which can send its shot furthest in a
straight line secures the greatest accuracy by attain-
ing the greatest range. To suppose that any ord-
nance can be made for long range and not attain
certain accuracy also is to suppose it possible thafthe
more a shot deviates from a straight line, the greater
will be the distance it can eventually accomplish,—
a proposition which we think few will venture
to support. Sir William Armstrong himself, how-
ever, is far too experienced a gunner to have sug-
gested this difference between range and accuracy
which has been so hastily advanced by some of his
many admirers. He states that beyond a certain
distance range for general purposes has no practical
value, and that as for artillerymen firing in the
field
gud
ai at
eh
teni b
objects fiveut eye, ye
theirmiles
to they
might as well fire
at the moon. It is not only a question of which
shot goes furthest, but what the shot effects when
it does reach the mark. The formation of his gun,
he states, has not been his chief or only object,
which, in fact, has been as much directed to invent-
ing the most destructive projectile.
he has been
t the attain-
ment mT To esl
leecau rteo tghiiN e aulpl -itmo pa ocr
et
ra
tnati
no be jxe
teetn,
of an immense range, and increase the diame-
ter of his gun in order to enable it to carry the
Armstrong shell, which for terrible destructiveness
deserves to be almost more celebrated than the gun
itself. Thus he states that as yet no fair comparison
can be drawn between the results he has achieved
while trying only for destructive effect, and the re-
sults obtained by a gun which was merely fired for

range.
The real test as to their merits both he and Mr.
Whitworth very justly maintain can only be got
by putting the two guns side by side, and trying
them under similar conditions for range, accuracy,
and above all for destructive effect. It has been
suggested that there is room in the service for both
the Armstrong and Whitworth guns, as each wea-
pon has it's peculiar attributes and its peculiar sup-
porters. This, however, is taking a view of the
case in which we think neither the public nor the
War-office is at all likely to agree. Sir "William

Armstrong claims to have constructed his gun on
certain fundamental princ;ples ; these Mr. Whit-
worth disregards, and forms his gun as unlike Sir
William's in principle as two guns can well be.

Now, both these ordnance cannot be right, and
whichever comes out of the trials at uhoeburyness
triumphantly—whether it be the Whitworth or
Sir William's—that is the gun to be eventually
adopted in both services as soon as is consistent
with the present immense demand for rifled ord-
nance of almost any kind.

Each gun, as we have said, is so essentially diffe-
rent in its principles, that, except that they are
both guns, and both breech-loaders, there is no
other point, of similarity between them. The Arm-
strong is made of coils of wrought iron joined into
one tube, the pitch of its rifling is one turn in 10
feet, azd its rifling itself is 38 fine sharp grooves.
The breech is formed by a long chamber fitting on
to the end of the gun, into which works a power-
ful hollow screw, which, when screwed up, jams
the breech-piece, which is dropped before it, into
the end of the tube, and so makes the perfect gun.
The conical shot is, of course, compound—that is,
coated at the shoulder and base with rings of lead,
to enable the soft metal to take the rifling. These
rings of lead are expensive as compared with iron,
and difficult to fix, and the shot must be driven
through the hollow screw into the breech of the
gun with care, or accidents would be likely to
happen which might spoil the rifling of the gun.
The friction on the shot in taking the rifling is
enormous, and to this the recoil of the gun was at
one time supposed to be due. But this was a mis-
take, for, allowing for the difference of weight be-
tween guns and projectiles, the recoil of all ord-
nance must be in mechanical proportion to the ye-
locity with which the shot leaves the gun. That
the friction on the shot, however, is very great may.
'ae judged from the fact that we have ourselves seen
an Armstrong glin, from the muzzle of which no't
only the rifling, but the metal of the barrel itself
had been stripped out in places like so much paper.
The Armstrong shell, as a tremendous engine of
warfare, is never likely to be surpassed in destruc-
tiveness, though, we should think, it can be
adapted to be used from rifled breech-loading can-
non of all kinds. This, however, remains to be
seen. The Whitworth gun, as distinguished from
the Armstrong, is bored from one solid cylinder
of homogeneous iron, a metal, which, in our humble
judgment, we take to be only another term for
soft tough steel. There is no rifling as is generally
understood by the term ha the bore, which is a
plain hexagon, making one complete turn, which
varies with the diameter of the gun. Thus there
is one turn in about eight feet in the largest
guns (from 50 to 120 pounders), one com-
plete turn in five feet in the medium sized
ordnance (12 or 32 pounders), and one complete
turn in three feet four inches in the small guns, or
from 3to 12 pounders. All the guns above 18-
' pounders are hooped round with rings of iron forced
on by hydraulic pressure—an additional strength
which is apparently not required, and which in
weight gives the Armstrong guns of the same cali-
bres a most important advantage. The breech-
loading arrangement is a hinge at the end of the
gun supporting a hoop of iron, in which is the
breech or cap which screws on to the end of the
piece, according to the way in which we have so
often described it to our readers already. The shot
is of cast iron, and in form precisely like a ninepin,
with its thickest part at the middle pared off to fit
with mechanical precision the hexagonal sides of
the bore. Thus the projectile has a bearing surface
on the whole of the barrel, and runs freely in or '
out of the gun, so that in case of an enemy's shot
striking the breech and jamming the screw, or other
injury to it, the gun could be used a muzzle-loader
with the same facility as an ordinary smooth-bore
field-piece. We need scarcely say that this is not
the case with the Armstrong, anything happening
to the arrangement of the breech at once rendering
the gun useless till another breech is fitted on at
the factories at Elswick or Woolwich. No exertion
of force which could be applied to the gun in the
field would get the shot down the barrel of the
Armstrong; and nothing short of the pressure of
several tons would suffice to overcome the friction
which is offered by the double rings of lead to the
exit of the shot at the muzzle. With the Whit-
worth gun there is no chamber for the reception of
shot and powder, and no rings—an advantage of
the utmost importance. The Armstrong chamber
adds to the length of the gun, without being
rifled or assisting in impelling the shot in any
way. With the Whitworth the gun is rifled
throughout its entire length from end to end, and
every inch is used to aid the flight and give
rotation to the projectile. From the chamber
in the Armstrong being of a certain size, it
follows that only shot of a certain length can be
used. In the Whitworth, on the contrary, it is con-
tended that shots of any length, or a charge of
powder of any strength, can be used indifferently.
Thus the three,l2, and 80 pounders are, in fact, only
guns of the calibre we mention as long as they are
required to throw a distance of sor 5 miles. Re-
duce this enormous range to the distance at which
long-range guns are generally used—say 3,000
yards—and the length of the projectiles of these
ordnance may be more than doubled, the three-
pounder used for 91b. shot, the 12-pounder for 321 b.,
and the 80-pounder for a shot of even 2001 b. In
naval warfare great weight must be attached to
these advantages. Twelve-pounder boat guns could
be used as 12-pounders or 36-pounders, according
to the distance at which they chose to engage,
while ships could double-shot or even treble-shot
their broadside guns as they closed with an enemy.
The only limit, in fact, to the number of shots with
which the Whitworth can be loaded when engaged
at close quarters is the limit to the strength of the
powder to eject them. Thus, in the course of the
experiments tried to ascertain this fact, it was
found that the three-pounder got rid of 10 shots
placed one over another at one discharge, but failed
to eject 11, when all the powder in the charge
burnt out like a squib through the touchhole, leav-
ing the shots in the gun. In the course of the same
experiments Mr. Whitworth fired from a common
howitzer a projectile 10 diameters long, and also
fired a small cannon, 22 inches long, with the pitch
of its rifling making one complete turn in every
inch ; in fact, the inside of this latter barrel was a
perfect screw. Yet the projectile from this had
an extraordinary amount of penetration. This fact
is so difficult to believe till one sees the rapidity with
which the hexagonal shot glides down the most
rapid turn of rifling that one of our contemporaries
has actually given credence to the monstrous canard
that the Whitworth cast-iron shots have been
crushed to fragments by the rifling, and " come forth
from the gun in a state of powder !" As the
Armstrong is now used without Sponging out, Mr.
Whitworth's advantage in this respect has been
neutralised. As regards cost the Armstrong is now
being manufactured for as low as £lO3 per gun.
The cost of the Whitworth is at present quite double
this amount, though it might be reduced to as
low as or even slightly lower than the cost of the
Armstrong if the barrel were manufactured of tubes
of rolled bar iron, instead of the homogeneous
metal, which is very expensive, and certainly for
all practical purposes of gunnery is not stronger,
we believe, than the wrought iron of Armstrong,
or even stronger than the extraordinary wrought
iron now making for guns at the Mersey Steel-
works at £l9 a ton. If in the trials of the two
guns et Shoeburyness the Whitworth is found•to
be the best, and is ordered to be adopted, and its
tube made on the wrought-iron plan which the
Government use with the Armstrong, the only
cost, it is stated, of altering the machinery at
Elswick and Woolwich to suit the new manufacture
would be some £5 or £lO for a new form of cutter
for the boring, or rather the hexagonal rifling.
Not another part of the machinery need be
altered or even made to move faster or slower,
though much of it might be disused altogether.
Very many of the supporters of the Armstrong
allege that it is useless adopting every improve-