The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-01 00:00:00

me your address I'll smash your dirty mouth to-
morrow, when there are no women to protect you."
I was told that the scene in the supper room beg-
gared description. The doors were opened to the
entire crowd, and in two minutes the rooms were
packed to suffocation. To eat was impossible.
But to stir up the temper and destroy dresses was
the rule. The long trails of rich material suf-
fered at every step. While trying to get to the
supper room I felt for some time under my feet
what seemed to be a soft carpet. I found, in a
few minutes, that it was the trail of a lady some
distance in advance. What guys women can make
of themselves when they try. I saw some youthful
female donkeys with their heads plastered over
with white powder and pomatum, as if their dear
little selves had terminated in an apple dumpling.
When at last tired and disgusted we sought the
dressing rooms for our wraps, I found that we
were pinned to the place for two days. Fortu-
nately, after invading the ladies' dressing-room,
very improperly, 1 found their cloak;, and then I
ascended for mine. I found a crew actually fight-
ing in the ball above. At the bolo in the don' of
the cloak-room an idiotic face made mouths at us,
in the most exasperating manner. [[lcre there is a
hole in theballad, how it occurred we cannot tell, but
we give the fragments as we find them.] " Not your
old white hat." " Yes, my old white hat, and with it
my overcoat. It is lamentable that the rebels did not
take this d--d town and burn it to ashes. They
showed their spite by not doing so. It is an in-
fernal sinkhole of iniquity, depending for its miser-
able existence on the Government." I left the
venerable philosopher lamenting. What an extra-
ordinary fact it was that he lost his old white hat.
I had an idea, in common with the pensive public,
that it could not be lost. I believe he c•)uld not sell

it if he were to try. He could not give it or throw
it away, and here it was lost in a cloak room. This
event inipre3sed me deeply. I went home in the
col I, without bat or overcoat, in the bitter cold ;
but I ruminated, I marvelled and wondered, and
all last night I dreamed that the venerable Horace
was a ferry boat and I steered him. Lost his old
white hat !

THE REPORT TO THE SENATE ON
ORDN,INCE.

On the 15th ult. the Joint Committee on Ord-
nance, appointed 30th March, 1867, presented the
report of their investigation on the purchases, con-
tracts, and experiments of the Ordnance Depart-
ment. This document will be read with interest in
Europe, where it will excite surprise—first, because
it repudiates emphatically what is supposed to be an
American theory tenaciously held, that the most
effective projectile is a huge spherical mass of iron
thrown with a low velocity to rack as opposed to
what is known as the punching process ; next, be-
cause it deals with the scientific corps of the United
States in a way that no committee of another nation
would dare to do with a trained professional branch
of its own service. The Report, in allusion to the
struggle between attack and defence, between guns
and armour, asserts that the large guns of all na-
tions have failed in a greater or lesser degree, and
in a manner which has tended to complicate the
problem. One gun has fired over 2,000 rounds,
while another precisely similar has exploded almost
at once ; and those of the strongest material when
tested often prove the weakest. The 30-pounder
is the largest rifled gun which has exhibited even
comparatively good endurance in America, and the
result is no better in Europe. After discussing
briefly the systems of the great inventors, the Com-
mittee conclude that none are successful in prevent-
ing bursting or in attaining uniform reliance. Al-
though the guns introduced into the United States
service have been tested beyond question as to their
endurance all failed when tried in actual service.
Twenty-two large guns only were mounted at a
time on Morris Island, yet fifty burst during the
siege, being upwards of twice the number mounted
in the fort. All the Parrott's guns of the fleet used
against Fort Fisher burst, and forty-five persons
were killed anl wounded by five of these explosions,
while only eleven fell before the enemy's fire. This
is considered conclusive proof that the system of
testing is defective ; and the Committee do not
hesitate to condemn it as valueless, showing nothing
of the gun's ability to do the work required in war.
The real conditions existing in battle have never
been truly copied. Heavy charges have been fired
as well as numerous, but slowly, so that the gun had
time to cool, while in action rapid firing is neces-
sary. It is the heat produced by quick firing which,
by adding its expansive force to the bore, aids the
powder in effecting a rupture. "If the force with
which metals contract when cooled is shown to be
so potent, as to break the gun from the inside when
cooled from the interior, it can be seen that if the
gun be in a state of tension, which has the tendency
to compress the metal of the interior and extend the
exterior, the heat afterwards communicated to the
surface of the bore by the burning powder or by fric-
tion of the moving charge would assist the pressure
of th 3 powder to break the gun, especially if the gun
should be fired a number of rounds in quick suc-
cession." This force should not be overlooked
when it has been known to break huge blocks of
iron spontaneously, as was the case with a large
mass of wrought iron prepared by Mr. Mallet in
England, by the mere force of contraction from the
centre towards the exterior as the mass cooled ; and
it may be the means of determining how the
stronger material is more liable to burst than the
weaker, and why the accidents most frequently
occur during battle. The following extract is given
from the report of the Chief of the Ordnance of
the Navy :—" Opinions differ quite as widely in re-
gard to the preferable mode of developing ordnance
power, whether it shall be by smooth or rifled bores,
by loading at breech or muzzle, made from iron,
cast or wrought, or from steel, solid or in con-
nected parts. The relation of mass to velocity is
also unsettled. In fact, the question involves the
necessity of going back to fundamental principles,
and starting thence by well-conducted experiments."
On this the Congressional Committee make these
severe comments :—" It therefore appears that,
notwithstanding a series of elaborate experiments,
extending over a long period of years, and the
practical experience of our recent war, the ordnance
officers of the Government have not yet determined
upon even the fundamental principles of their art,
and possess no positive knowledge of the problem
they have so long sought to solve. Mechanics is
an exact science, and ignorance of that branch of
it involved in the construction of guns would seem
to show either want of knowledge of its principles,
failure to understand their application, or superfici-
ality of investigation, surprising in men whose minds
have been from boyhood trained in the direction of
a specialty." Later in the report this is again re-
ferred to. Indeed it is necessary to give the remarks
in the words of the Committee, for in attempting to
summarize them we might be accused of exaggeration.
"The fact that the ordnance officers of the Go-
vernment find it necessary, at this late day, to re-
turn to the rudiments of their art and begin their
experiments anew, as stated in the report of the
Chief of the Ordnance of the Navy, shows a defect
in the system upon which experiments have hereto-
fore been conducted, and in the organizttion of the
ordnance departments, calling for a remedy. The
difficulty appears to have been fld vo- ; first, the
ordnance officers, knowing their 't*
post ions secure to
them for life, have not felt the I •
ncentive to exertion
and improvement which stn •
nulates men not in Go-
vernment employment, and they have become at-
tached to routine and to
corps, jealous of innovations and new ideas, and
slow to adopt improvements. An illustration of
this is found in the f aet that the late war was
fought with muzzle-loading guns (with the excep-
tion of carbines for cavalry), although a variety of
excellent breech-loaders were urged upon the at-
tention of the Government constantly ; and the
honour was reserved for Prussia, with a weapon
inferior to many American inventions, to demon-
strate the immeasurable superiority of breech-load-
ing guns. In the second place, these officers, edu
cited to a specialty, and proud of their positions,
come to look upon themselves as possessing all the
knowledge extant upon the subject of ordnance,
and regard citizen inventors and mechanics who
offer improvements in arms as ignorant and de-
signing persons, and pretentious innovators, who

have no claim to consideration. Instead of encourag-

ing the inventive talent of the country these officers

seem to have constantly discouraged it, and many
complaints of improper and oppressive treatment
have been laid before the committee by persons who
have sought to draw the attention of the pro-

per authorities to what were supposed to be vital
principles connected with their art. Another diffi-
culty that has retarded progress in the science of
ordnance has been the fact that prominent officers
have been inventors of arms, and have possessed
sufficient influence to secure the adoption and re-
tention in service of their inventions, frequently

without due regard to the question of real merit,

and to the prejudice of other and better devices
brought forward by citizens, or developed in other
countries. A further difficulty, calling for a remedy,
lies in the want of co-operation b,..tween the War
and Navy Bureaus. Great diversity exists iu the

practice of the two branches of the service respect-
ing the arms adopted, and the manner c.f proving,

mounting, and using the same. The calibre, models,
chambers. and ammunition of the navy guns differ

entirely from tho=e i❑ 113 C in the army. For example,
the navy 12-pounder boat howitzer has a calibre of
3.4 inches, while the army 12-pounder guns are of
the calibres of 3, 3.2, 3.67, and 3.8 inches. The
chamber of the navy gun is of parabolic form, while
the army gun has a eyeloidal chamber, or none at

The models of the two guns are entirely diffe-
rent, so that neither could be used on the carriage

of the other; the army guns being furnished with
trunnions, and the navy gun having, in some cases,
the loop and loop-bolt of the old carronade. The
system of sighting is also different. A gunner in
one arm of the service, without special instruction,
could not use a gun belonging to the other ; one
being graduated to.seconds of time of the flight of
the shot, and the other to degrees of eleva-
tion. The Navy has 8,9, 11, and 13-inch smooth-
bores, while the Army guns are of the calibres of 6,
8, 10, and 12 inches. In the guns of the two
branches of the servica there is no uniformity, in
either rifle or smooth-bore, in the 20 calibres
adopted below the calibre of the 32-pounders. It
is impossible to use Navy ammunition in an Army
gun or Army ammunition in a Navy gun. Co-ope-
ration between the Army and Navy while in active
service is thus greatly restricted, and in some cases
has been entirely prevented. Offensive operations
on the part of a joint expedition of the two might
be brought to an end by the want of projectiles for
the land forces, while the ships of the Navy might
have a surplus of the very articles required, but
which could not be used by the land forces. Not
a single advantage is claimed for this lack of uni-
formity, while the disadvantages are very numerous
and apparent. It has grown out of the fact that
officers in the two branches of the service have
succeeded in securing the adoption of their own
inventions, and the rivalry existing between them
has prevented fair competitive trials of the various
devices and systems advocated by each, neither
being willing to admit the merit of the other's in-
ventions, or to utilize the knowledge gained either
by their successes or their failures. The experi-
ments, being duplicated on account of this jealousy,
have been, necessarily, needlessly expensive. A
further increased expense results, in time of war,
from maintaining two separate organizations fJr
the procurement of arms. The two Ordnance De
partments are brought into competition with each
other in the matter of contracts and purchases of war
material from the private workshops and factories
of the country, thus putting the Government
in the attitude of bidding against itself."
The conclusions of the Committee are that no fur-
ther purchases of heavy guns should be made for
the present--that the Rodman system is defective
as well as the Dahlgren ; that the real cause of
heavy guns bursting should be determined by ex-
periments, inventors encouraged, efficient harbour
defences adopted, no naval or military officer be
permitted to take out a patent for articles required
in the service, and that the Ordnance Department
of the service be abolished, the duties being handed
over to the Artillery. The necessity of a change
the Committee consider to be shown by the fact
that the country has a vast coast line to defend, a
great navy without a rifled gun of large calibre,
and a corps of ordnance officers who have " failed
to discover a remedy for the failure of the guns,
or to master the rudiments of the science in which
they have been trained at the public expense." Ap-
propriations are asked for to purchase over 1,900
guns for the forts, of a kind shown to be inferior
in range and penetration to the guns of Foreign
Powers, and unreliable as to endurance. " The ex-
perience of all nations goes to prove that the most
effective way of developing ordnance power is by
rifled guns. To return to smooth-bores, throwing
huge spherical masses of iron with low velocities,
is to disregard all modern progress in the science of
gunnery, and to return to the arms in use two cen-
turies ago. Furthermore, the advisability of using
guns of such great size is very doubtful, for the
slowness with which they can be handled and fired
makes them less effective than smaller guns deliver-
ing a more rapid fire. Two hundred of the guns
required it is proposed shall be Rodman 12-inch
rifles, notwithstanding all of that class of guns
heretofore procured for the army or navy and sub-
jected to test have either burst disastrousl3 before
the lowest reasonable test has been completed, or
have given such indications of failing, after a few
rounds, as to be considered unsafe." Perhaps no
other portion of the Report will create more sur-
prise than this last extract. In England experi-
ments were expressly instituted at Shoeburyness to
test the smooth-bore Rodman throwing a heavy
spherical shot at a low velocity. " Wait !" ex-
claimed a noble lord on the ground to an officer of
the Royal Engineers, " till the Rodman is brought
into play." They were testing at the time some
chilled projectiles, and were on the tiptoe of ex-
pectation to see how the target would be demo-
lished by the heavy shot from the American smooth-
bore. "Why," said the Engineer officer, " it was like
throwing cricket balls at it ; they had little more ef-
fect." Notwithstanding, it was supposed that Ame-
ricans would obstinately adhere to their racking
system, but this Report will effectually demolish
any such supposition. It was possible that having
finished their war they might throw the subject
aside, and pay no further attention to it, but those
who calculated that they would adhere to a system
proved to be faulty, with their
.attentien fairly di-
rected to the matter, have very little knowledge of
the national character, and their erroneous impres-
sion will by this Report be somewhat removed.

[ADVERTtssußwi'.] Dyspepsia (Indigestion), Constipation.
Debility, Consumption, and all nervons, bilious, stomach, a, a
liver complaints in every sage, are only aggravated and acce'e-
rated by drugs of every description, but perfectly curable by Du
Barry's health.restoring Revalento, Arabica Food, as proved by
thousands o: cases which had bean considered hopeless, such as
—cough. as..bma, also diarrhoea, htemorrhoids, liver complaints,
flatulency, nervousness, biliousness, fevers, sore throats, diphthe-
ria, catarrhs, Colds, influenza, noises in the head and ears, rheu-
matism, gout, impurities, eruptions, hysteria, neuralgia, irrita-
bility, aleeplessners, acidity, palpitation, heartburn, headache,
debility, dropsy, cramps, spasms, nausea, and sickness, even in
pregnancy or at sea, sinking fits, bronchitis, scrofula, tightness
of the chest; pains at the pit of the stomach and between the
shoulders, &c. We quote a few:—The Pope's health restored by
Du Barry's Food. Cure No. 68 413—" Rome, July 12, 1866—The
health of the Holy Father is excellent, especially since, abandon-
ing a'l other remedies, he has confined himself entirely to Da
Da.ry's ":',evalenta Arabica Food, o; which he consumes a plate-
ful at every meal. It has produced a surprisingly beneficial
effect on his health, and his Holiness cannot praise this excellent
food too highly.—From the "Gazette du Midi," July 25. Cure
No. 46,270 -Mr. James Roberts, timber merchant, of Frimley,
Surrey, of thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver
derangement and partial deafness. Cure No. I,77l—Lord Stuart
de reties, Load-Lieut. of Waterford, of many years' dyspepsia.
No. 0-3,832—" Fifty years' indescribable agony from dyspepsia,
nervousness, asthma. cough, constipation, flatulency, spasms,
sickness, and vomiting.—Maria Joly." Important Caution.--
Beware of the many unsavoury and more than sloppy imitations
to which, without authority, Baron Liebig's name is most auda-
ciously attached.
In tins, at ls. 11d.; 1 lb. 2s. ed.: 2 lbs. 4s. 6d.; 51b8. 118.; 12 lbs,
225. ; 4 lbs, 40s, —Also Du BARRY'S REYALENTA. ARABICA CHOCO-
LATE POWDER is packed in tin canisters; for 12 cups at 25., for 24
cups at 3s. 6d., for 48 cups at 60., for 288 cups at 50s, foe 576 egg
at 558.—being about one penny ?ar cup. The 30s. and 555. tate
are sent free of carriage in England on receipt of Post Office
Order. - BARRY no' BARRY and Co., No. 77, Regent-street. Lon
don; and all Grocers and Chemists.