The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-20 00:00:00

THE ThVENTION OF THE IJIINIE RIFLE.

The enclosed communication from Lord Partmure is
respectfully submitted to the Editor of The Sun for
publication. I am, Sir, yours respectfully,
WILLIAM GREENER.
Aston New Town, Birmingham, Dec. 18.

" War Department, Dec. 17.
" Sir,—Adyerting to your memorial, dated the 19th of
June last, and to the correspondence which has taken place
relative to your claim for remuneration in respect to your
ha.ving been the inventor of what is termed the expansive
principle in rifled bullets as now used in her Majesty's ser-
vice, I am directed to transmit to you the enclosed extract
from a report of the ' Ordnance Select Committee' on the
subject, from which you will observe that, although the
principle which 3-• i advocated in the year 1836 is considered
to be substaitially the same as that upon which recent
improvements have been founded, their adoption is not
considered to have been due to your communication of
that period.

"Lord f'anmure being, however, desirous of rewarding
the ingenuity displayed in the first suggestion of the prin-
ciple of expansion, as applied to bullets, I have now the
pleasure of acquainting you that, in consideration of the
facts established before the Ordnance Select Committee, his
Lordship has, with the concurrence of the Lords Commis-
sioners of her Majesty's Treasury, sanctioned the submis-
sion to Parliament of an award of 1,0001. to you in the army
estimates of 1857-8, as a public recognition of your priority
in bringing this invention before the War Department.
"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

" To Mr. William Greener,
"Aston New Town, Birmingham."

"F. PEEL.

"Extract from a report of the Ordnance. Select Committee
on Mr. Greener's claim to the invention of the Minie
bullet, dated the 28th of August and the 4th of Sep-
tember, 1856.
"The committee, having attentively considered the
whole of the correspondence and discussed the different
points connected with this subject at their meetings on
the 28th of August and the 4th of September, have agreed
on the following report :
" ' The records of the committee furnish no information
as to the shape of the bullet used in the experiments carried
on at Newcastle in the year 1836. Mr. Greener states that
it was an oval shaped bullet, but, whether oval or spherical,
it appears, as far as the committee can judge from their
records, that Mr. Greener was the first to propose and an-
ticipate the principle of expanding the ball, which since has
been so successfully applied.
," 'lt does not appear that in 1836, or again in 1842
(when Mr. Greener was before the committee), that the
committee were made fully acquainted with the form of
projectile proposed or the principle involved ; but Mr.
Greener has referred to a letter written by him to the
Times newspaper, Dec. 25, 1841 (copy enclosed), which
bears ample evidence of his having, at all events, at that
time been quite aware of the principle now in general use;
and if any reward is considered due for the contribution
to a discovery without bringing it to a practical result the
committee consider Mr. Greener entitled to a reward.' "

MEETING OF EUROPEAN MAGISTRATES.

(From Punch.)
At a special adjourned meeting of European magis-
trates, held iu the Conference-room, Paris,
Alexander Romanoff, aged 3g, was placed at the bar,
charged with forgery and attempted burglary.
The magistrates decided to take each case separately.
Cowley, a detective officer, resident in Paris, proved
that the prisoner had recently been engaged in a dispute
with some of his neighbours as to a right of way, and, the
same being referred to arbitration, the prisoner had con-
trived that false maps should be produced before the arbi-
trators, and by this means had obtained an award entirely
opposed to the spirit of the agreement under which the
reference had been made.
Tho prisoner said that he had nothing to do with the
forgery, but that if people wore fools enough to be led
astray in that manner, he saw no reason for not profiting
by their folly.
The Magistrates made some severe and contemptuous re
marks upon the conduct of the arbitrators in question,
who, knowing that they were dealing with an avowedly
dishonest person, ought to have been doubly careful. The
Bench, although morally convinced of the guilty know-
ledge and intention of the prisoner, did not think that the
evidence would warrant a conviction.
In the second case,
Lyons, a valuable officer, whose duties are chiefly on
board ship, proved that the prisoner had upon several
occasions tried to break into premises called Serpents' Isle,
the possession of which had been taken from him by sen-
tence of law, but which he was very eager to get hold of
again, He, the officer, had received information on the
subject, and in consequexce had taken precautions which
had enabled him to baffle the repeated attempts of the pri-
soner;The prisonerbut hehad
saidr that he had been entirely eason to think they would be renewed.
misunder-
stood. He had noticed with regret that the gas lamp on
the premises in question was out of repair ; and he had
gone in the kindest manner, knowing something of brass
work—(a laugh)—to put it right. He complained of ill-
usage by the officer, who had incited some sailors to kick
him out of doors.

The Magistrates asked whether there was any evidence
;o character ?

Clarendon, policeman, said that there was not much
known against the prisoner, except that he was an asso-
ciate and friend of several foreign thieves. His father
had been a notoriously bad character, but it had been
hoped that the son would have taken warning. He could
not plead distress, because to his, the officer's knowledge,
the prisoner had a crown given him only the other day.
13n,)1, detective in the Austrian service, said that the pri-
soner was a most dangerous neighbour, and was always
blocking up a water-course, harbouring rogues, or poach-
ing, and these had been the habits of his family for many
years.

Persigny, a French detective, said that the prisoner had
been trying to become intimate with a distinguished family
in Paris, evidently with ulterior designs. He had also en-
deavoured to bring about a quarrel between neighbour:,
but had been defeated by the good sense on both sides.
The Magistrates, after a brief conference, said that they
had hoped that they were to hear no more of the prisoner, who
had, as appeared on record, been severely punished in the
preceding year. They had given consideration to all the
circumstances, and had decided that he should have one
more chance of becoming an honest man. They should not
convict him in the forgery case, but he must give up pos-
session of the property thereby acquired, and he must be
bound over to keep the peace in the second case. They
hoped that this extreme leniency would have its effect, but
they warned him that should he appear again at this bar
their course would be one of unmitigated severity.
The prisoner professed his thankfulness, and was led out
Singing a Russian hymn. •

THE LATE GALES Last summer the Elder Brethren
of the Trinity-house. erected on the Rundle Stone at
considerable expense an iron beacon and mast, sur-
mounted by a ball fixed about 30 feet from the base.
During the recent severe gales probably about the 7th
inst., the whole fabric disappeared. The Mopus buoy
in Mount's Bay has also been drifted out of its place,
and instructions were in consequence sent to Mr.
Ditchen, the Trinity agent in Pl mouth to visit the
locality in the Diligence cutter! The ,Moras buoy
has been replaeed, and as a temporary measure
a buoy has been moored 50 or 60 fathoms south-weAt
of the Rundle Stone. The depth is from 18 to 20
fathoms; and a boat in charge of Mr. Hoppen, the
mate, was first placed her as a mark. When he at-
tempted to pull up the boat's grapnel it fouled, as if
a ship's mast and rigging were in the way, and this
continued so within five or six fathoms of the surface.
It is conjectured that some ill-fated ship ran against
the rock, knocked down the beacon, and then ran off
and foundered. The Rundle or Runnel Stone, a small
rock about four yards long and two broad, lies oily
a mile south of the western point of Cornwall, near the
Land's-end, where the immense power of the tides and
the heavy ground swell of the Atlantic make it a most
dangerous obstacle to navigation. In the winter 011854,
during a fog, a French brig and two English schooner,
were lost on it ; their crews were saved. The only
lbeacon at that time was a cone-shaped buoy,