The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-17 00:00:00

TELLERS,

is scarcely necessary to say it is hexagonal in sec-
tion, the corners being rounded off, and the interior
of the barrel may be generally described as being a
hollow polygonal spiral. The degree of twist de-
pends on the diameter of the bore, and is always
sufficiently rapid to compensate for any length of
shot which may be fired, on the principle established
by Mr. Whitworth, that unsteadiness in long pro-
jectiles may be counteracted by rapidity of rotation.
The guns are, of course, all made to load at the
breech. The first impression created is one of sur-
prise at the extreme simplicity of their construc-
tion, and at the consequent ease and certainty with
which they are worked, as will be apparent when
that operation is described.
As the guns arc all alike in every respect but
proportions of size, a description of one will suffice.
The piece may, in familiar terms, be said to consist
of a tube rifled throughout from muzzle to breech;
the breech is closed, when the gun is loaded, by a
cap, in shape something like the cap of a telescope.
The cap is fitted on the breech end of the tube,
which is screwed externally to receive it. It is
never wholly removed like the breech-piece of an
Armstrong, but turns and works in an iron hoop,
which is connected with a projection at the side of
the breech by a hinge-joint, on which it swivels
sideways. One great advantage of this plan of
construction is that it enables the whole length of
the barrel to be rifled, and thus every inch of it be-
comes effective as a gun, which is not the case
when a chamber or other breech-leading apparatus,
as in Armstrong's, for instance, occupies the breech
of the piece.

Supposing, then, the gun to have been fired, a
description of the operation of loading and dis-
charging will explain the construction and action
of the breech-loading apparatus. By turning a
handle fitted on the cap the latter is unscrewed
from the breech and turned back, and, being sup-
ported always by the hinged hoop, is, when open,
turned with it on one side, leaving the tube open
from end to end. The projectile is then placed in
the gun, the powder-cartridge is pushed in behind
it, the breech-cap is shut like a door into its place,
and, while the hinge supports it in a proper posi-
tion, three turns of the handle screw it on to the
end of the piece. It is, in fact, a breech on a hinged
hoop, which shuts and then screws on. The
touchhole is fixed in the centre of the breech cap
at the back, and is, therefore, in line with the axis
of the piece. The gun is, therefore, fired by the
ordinary friction tube, and, though no trial of speed
has been made, it can, we think, be fired rather
more quickly than Armstrong's. Before referring
to the shape of the projectile and the cartridge, it
may bens well to state that all Whitworth's guns
are made of a mass of homogeneous iron, bored out
of the solid piece. The larger guns, such as 80-
pounders, are strengthened by wrought iron hoops,
forced on by hydraulic pressure. Self-acting ran
chinery is employed in making all the guns, and the
operation is thus cheaper and more economical than
forging.
One of the most important and distinctive features
in Mr. Whitworth's system of rifling relates to his
projectiles. These are simple, uncoated, hard metal
bolts, made of various shapes, according to the pur-
poses for which they arc employed. They aro made
by self-acting machinery, and are so shaped that
their bearing sum faces fit the interior of the barrel,
and it may be said that the riflirg, therefore, is done
by machinery in the workshop, mat not by the ex-
plosion in the gush
For firing through soft substances and into ma-
sonry tubular projectiles are employed ; for piercing
thick plates of wrought iron flat-fronted projectiles,
made of homogeneous iron, are used. We believe
that a series of experiments are shortly to be made
at Chatham by the direction of the Admiralty with
the view of testing the powers of the Whitworth
projectile in penetrating wrought iron plates.
It remains to say a few words as to the cartridge
used by Mr. Whitworth. For ordinary practice,
and where length of range is important, the fore
part of the projectile is made to taper slightly, the
front being rounded off, and the rear part is made
nearly to c3rrespond with the fere with regard to
the degree of taper, but its end is flattened, and
sometimes slightly hollowed out. The importance
of establishing a proper relation as to shape and
relative weights of the fore and hind part of a pro-
jectile is apparent from the fact that a projectile
which is so made gives an increased range of more
than 25 per cent. as compared with one with a si-
milarly shaped front and the ordinary cylindrical
rear.

This increase of range is due entirely to the shape
of the projectile, as the charges and other condi-
tions of firing are exactly alike, and may be said
to be obtained by applying to projectiles moving
through the air the proper principles of construc-
tion, exactly as a ship constructed with proper lines
to facilitate her passage through the water attains
the greatest speed.
The powder is contained in cases or cartridges
made of tin-plate, which arc shaped to fit the rifled
interior of the barrel. The base of the powder car-
tridge is pierced centrally, and its orifice corres-
ponds to the touchhole made in the breech-cap, so
that the flash from the fusee reaches the powder.
The front of the cartridge is closed with a wad or
cake of lubricating substance. This wad forms
another important feature in the Whitworth sys-
tem, as it effectively distributes the lubricating
substance over the interior surface of the gun, and
obviates all necessity of sponging out the barrel.
After the piece is fired the powder-cartridge case
remains in the gun, and when the breech-piece is
unscrewed and swung aside the case is withdrawn,
and with it the fouling deposits left by the explo-
sion of the powder.
Thus much for the general principles of the gun.
It only remains now to show the results which they
achieved,
.Southport, a small and not very well favoured
watering-place, about midway between Manchester
and Liverpool, was the spot selected for the trial of
the guns, and it would be difficult in all England
to find another better suited to the purpose. The
whole coast-line for about 20 or 30 miles is a per-
fect dead level of muddy sand—a cheerios howling
wilderness. Nothing bigger than a wrecked star-
fish or derelict mussel occurs to Lreak the fiat
monotony for miles, saving always when above
high-water mark the wind has harried and chased
the sand into small hillocks, the abrupt little peaks
and crumbling sides of which are fringed with a thin
and sickly weed called " star grass." The weather
during the last two days has done much to enhance
the naturally uninviting aspect of this place; the
shore as the tide recedes is thinly coated over with
• plashy ice, and the snow, though disdaining to

merely external, for to a practised eye both weapons
display the same careful workmanship in essentials,
and the same perfection of manufacturing skill.
At the first glance it is difficult to realise the
fact that the 3-pounder—the long, thin tube, like
a telescope on wheels, and only weighing 2081 b.—
can really be one of the most formidable engines
which the science of modern warfare has produced
—a terrible weapon, capable, with a charge of
powder not very much greater than is used ia
large duck gun, of dealing almost certain death at
a distance of five miles. As compared NNith the
bluff, thick, fiat-muzzled service gun of a year ago,
both Armstrong's and Whitworth's guns seem
almost to be animated by an instinct or intelligence
of their own ; and nothing would more forcibly
illustrate the triumph of mind over natter than to
see the cumbrous mass of iron now called a 68-
pounder placed side by side with a Whitworth 3-
pounder tube, capable of destroying its ponderous
antagonist at a distance of 10,000 yards ! The
first experiment was made with the 80.ponnder, in
order to show the revolving motion given to the
projectile by the increase in the pitch or turn of the
rifling. For this purpose the gun was loaded with
only 8 ounces of powder and one long conical shot
of 901 b. weight. With any other cannon such an
insignificant explosive charge would have failed to
move the long mass of iron placed over it. With
the Whitworth gun, however, the ponderous shot
was expelled at a low velocity with a peculiar
roaring hum, which was due to the revolution on

its own axis as it ploughed through the air, falling
at a distance of about 700 yards from the spot. On
striking the earth it ricochetted to a considerable
elevation at right angles with its line of flight, fall-
ing towards the sea amid a shower of sand and

water scattered high into the air.
The firing with the 12-pounder field gun was
then commenced. The range, as at Shoeburyness,
was marked out by tall thin poles placed 1,000
yards apart for a total distance of 10,000 yards
(about six miles), having short sticks placed in the
road at every 100 yards between the chief poles.
The day was fine, and, though rather dull at the
commencement, cleared up towards 1 o'clock. Still,

for the immense distance to which the range is ex-
tended, it was difficult to see anything at all beyond
the pole which indicated 4,000 yards, though, as
each was fixed in a precise line behind the other, the
gun had only to be laid with a proper degree of ele-
vation to reach the most distant point. With the
12-pounder, however, no experiments have yet been
made expressly to teat the range, and yesterday a
six-feet target with a two-feet bull's-eye was
hoisted at 1,000 yards, to show the accuracy of its
fire. Two shots were allowed to lay the gun and
find the range, the second of which passed between
the target and the pole which held it. Of the eight
which were then fired all went through the target
within a space of four feet square, and two through
the bull's-eye, which, from the place where the gun
was fired, looked scarcely bigger than a man's hand.
Iu this result there was nothing astonishing to
those who have seen the Armstrong fired, or even
the very best practice made now and then with
smooth-bored field artillery. The charge was 28
ounces of powder, the service charge for an ordinary
gun of the same calibre being 56 ounces. With the
28 ounces, however, the force and velocity of the
shot seemed enormous; the flight was low, the
ricochet very great, and nearly always to the right,
in the direction of the pitch of the rifling. One
shot, after passing through the target, first grazed
the sand at 2,200 yards, then again at 3,000, after
which it went on ricochetting along the shore,
touching it every 200 or 300 yards, until it buried
itself 5,600 yards from the place where it was dis-
charged. The elevation of the gun was 1 deg. 28
min., at which the recoil was very little, the explo-
sion much less than that of an ordinary field-piece,
and the noise occasioned by the flight of the shot
comparatively very slight. One man served the
gun with the utmost ease, withdrawing with screw
nippers the tin cartridge case from the breech after
each shot. No sponging or cleaning of any kind
took place, and though, of course, the smut of the
powder was in the barrel, the gun was, to all prac-
tical intents and purposes, as clean after the firing
was over as when it first commenced. There was
no heating worthy of notice either at the breech
or muzzle. The screw-piece of the breech scarcely
ran with the ease which it should have done, but
these drawbacks should not enter into considera-

lion just now, as yesterday the guns were tried
almost for the first time, and especially with the
view of finding out a working deficiency. The
very slight stiffness of the screw simply arose
from the fact that the little lever handle used to
work it was too short, and was not weighted at the
end as the lever handle of the Armstrong is. It is
hardly necessary to say that these are mere matters
of detail in finish, which can only be ascertained
by practice, and which, when known, are remedied
in an hour. Another matter which requires altera-
tion relates to the copper fuse friction tube, which,
when the gun goes off, is, as with all guns, blown
out of the touchhole in the breech. In these guns,
however, as we have shown, from their peculiar
construction, the touchhole is in the middle of the
back of the breech, so the copper tube is ejected
backwards in a line with the gun with considerable
force. This inconvenience Mr. Whitworth is pre•
paring to remedy by a means of catching the tube
as it is blown out. When 10 rounds had been fired,
with the results we have stated, from the 12-
pounder gun, the light 3 pounder was run forward
by two men, and practice was commenced at the
pole at 4,000 yards, or very nearly two miles and
a-half distant. This range is constantly attained
by the 68 and long 32 pounders in the service,
when they get an elevation of some 25 or 30 de-
grees, and are charged with 10 or 161 b. of powder.
The range of 4,000 yards, under these circum-
stances, is, as we have said, often attained ; but
practice at a mark at such a distance is never
heard of. The length of Whitworth's 12. pounder,
we should have mentioned, is about 6 feet ;
its bore nearly 3 inches ; and the pitch or turn
of the rifling the same as that of all his light
guns, namely—one complete turn in 40 inches;
or, roughly speaking, the shot makes nearly
two complete revolutions on its axis before it leaves
the gin. The bore of the 3 pounder is about 11
inches diameter ; its rifling, of course, is at the same
pitch, but the length of the gun being shorter—
about 5 feet 2 inches—the shotis not turned so
much before it leaves.' Practice, then, with this
3 pounder commenced with 10 degrees elevation at
4,000 yards, thii charge being only seven ounces and
a half of powder. The working features of the gun

The several answers of Lord John Russell last
night in the House of Commons explain perfectly
the present position of affairs with respect to
the annexation of Savoy. The Foreign Secretary
sufficiently indicated the grave state of the
question, and the tone of leis replies was au
earnest that no effort will be spared by the
British Cabinet to prevent so wanton a wrong
as the dismemberment of the Sardinian Monarchy.
Lord John Russell stated that communications
had passed between the British and Sardinian
Governments, that the former had inquired
whether there was an engagement or inten-
tion to cede Savoy to France, and that the
answer had been generally that there was no
engagement on the subject, and that Sardinia
had no intention to cede Savoy. So far the infor-
mation given to the house was perfectly satisfac-
tory. It seemed clear that, whatever discussions
may have taken place on this subject before and
since the. war, King Victor Emmanuel had never
consented to relinquish his most ancient
province, and that he will now resist both tempta-
tions and menaces, from whatever quarter they may
come. The continuation of Lord John Russell's
remarks was, however, calculated to excite anxiety,
and it called up Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald. Lord
John Russell, in answer to a question concerning
the neutrality of Switzerland, spoke of what the
Government intended to do " in case of annexation,"
and observed that he had been afraid Switzerland,
induced by the offer of certain districts, would
favour annexation, but was happy to assure the
house that such fears had proved groundless. As
from these remarks it was evident that annexation
was really imminent, Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald put
a further question, and then the whole truth came
out. In fact Sardinia has not agreed to cede Savoy,
and does not wish or intend to do so, but the French
Emperor has demanded Savoy as the price of his
consent to the annexation of the Italian Duchies
and the Romagna to the dominions of Victor Em-
manuel. "It has," said Lord Jolm. Russell, "to
my knowledge been communicated to the Govern-
ment of Turin that if the kingdom of Sardinia were
aggrandised to any considerable extent by the
annexation of Central Italy, France would think
that her frontier leas not secure without the an-
nexation of at least some part of Savoy."
Such, then, is the latest development of the
Italian Question. The Emperor of the French, in
whose strange character the two opposing qualities
of vigour and vacillation seem to meet, is now,
at the eleventh hour, endeavouring to throw
difficulties in the way of that Italian union
to which he had apparently given his consent. It
is plain that the demand for a part of Savoy is as
much intended to dissuade the King from extend-
ing his dominions southward as to induce him to
give France the French slopes of the Alps. The
demand is, in fact, a return to the policy upon
which the Emperor entered in May last, when Prince
Napoleon was sent to Tuscany to head the revolu-
tion. Then it was scarcely concealed, though it
has been vehemently denied since, that the plan
was to establish a kingdom in Central Italy under
the sceptre ef the Prince whose marriage had
united the Houses of France and Sardinia. Events
marched, however, too quickly for the fortunes of
the Prince. Both war and revolution left him far
behind. Austria was driven from Lombardy in a
few weeks, and before the French division, with
the now Tuscan levies, could be brought into the
field. There was no opportunity for them to show
their valour against the Austrians, for the Aus-
trians were swept away before Piince Napoleon
had time to reach the Mincio. The Emperor
seems then to have abandoned his earlier scheme,
and to have made peace with as little thought
for his cousin as for his ally. Thus the scheme
for an independent kingdom of Etruria would have
perished had the people been as passive and as
submissive to the despotism of potentates as 60
years ago. But the Tuscans and their brethren
had tasted independence, and were not inclined to
give it up even to please the liberator of Lom-
bardy. They determined on annexation to Sar-
dinia, and have been since as hostile to the forma-
tion of a separate kingdom as to the restoration of
their former Sovereigns.
The world had thought within the last few
months that the French Emperor had made up his
mind to accept the annexation to Sardinia, and that
the renewed alliance with England was a pledge of
this wise policy. But it is one of the shoricomingi
of a despotic Governmept that so much is left to a
single mind, which thd habit of irresponsibility is
apt to make capricious. The French Emperor has
seemingly sacrificed everything to the policy which
England has had the credit of initiating. He has
declared to the Viennese Court that he will not re-
store the Italian Sovereigns, nor allow Austrian
troops to enter the rebellious territory. He has
thus exposed himself to the charge of violating the
Treaty of Zurich, and the press of Austria and
Southern Germany has been pouring forth invec-
tives against him for the last three months as a
traitor. Tken he has broken utterly and irrevo-
cably with the Pope. He has sanctioned a pamhh-
let containing political doctrines which no Protes-
tant statesman hat ventured to propound ; he has
enforced the submission of the French priesthood
with a high band, forbidding the publication of
episcopal manifestoes and suppressing. the most
notorious organ of the clergy. English politi-
cians may be excused for believing that all this
portended the acceptance of Italian nationality, for
they cannot conceive how a ruler should take so
much trouble and expose himself to so muchuch obloquy
without having finally made up his nd.
Now, however, after having declared that the
people of Central Italy
shall not be interfered with,
and having thuse,aclu.leseed in the annexation of
Sardinia, their country to Napoleon comes forward
and tells Victor Emmanuel at what a price he must
purchase tho permission to accept the sovereignty
which is tendered to him. So preposterous a pre-
• tence as that put forth by the French Government
for the annexation of Savoy has probably never
come under the notice of Europe. France, with a
standing army of 600,000 men, with a powerful
fleet, with a system of railways constructed ex-
, pressly with &view to the carriage of troops, with