The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-08 00:00:00

TEE ARMY.

The head-quarters of the Northumberland Ar-
tillery Militia, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Clement-
son, were inspected at Kinsale, Ireland, by Major-
Gen. Ridley on Monday. They paraded in heavy
marching order in the barrack-square. After a few
movements had been gone through and a minute
inspection made of the barracks, hospital, regi-
mental books, &c., he proceeded to Charles Fort
to witness their gun practice. At the conclusion
he addressed them, saying that he felt great
pleasure in inspecting them, and it was but
natural he should feel a peculiar interest in
it, being himself a Northumbrian. When
at Spike Island the other day, both Sir George
Brown and himself remarked what a fine body of
men they were, and he must say he never saw a
cleaner and more soldierlike body, and the practice
they had made that day was excellent. It reflected
great credit on Col. Clementson, the officers and
noncommissioned officers and the men themselves
showing what pains they had taken to become good
soldiers. He was afraid that the time was drawing
near when they would be disembodied, and he
should be very sorry indeed to lose them out of his
district, as he felt that her Majesty would lose the
services of an efficient regiment. The times were
looking very cloudy, but if the day arrived when
their services would be required by their country
he did not doubt but that every man would rally
to the call. The major left the fort under a salute
of guns from the battery.

ARMSTRONG CARRIAGES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—ln your leading article on the Armstrong
gun on the sth inst. you state that on only one
point is an improvement necessary. " The Arm-
strong carriage is excessively and needlessly heavy.
It is heavier than that of the old fieldpiece."
I venture to call your attention to the enclosed
extracts from the evidence given before the select
committee of the House of Commons on military
organisation, which appear to me to bear upon the
subject.—l am, your obedient servant,
A VOLUNTEER.

May 22, 1860, Capt. W. H. Gordon, C. 8., again
called in, and further examined.
6,093. Chairman—You are the principal military
storekeeper at Woolwich ?—Yes.
6,096. How many of the China(Armstrong) guns
were there P—Twelve.
6,098. Had they their carriages complete ?—Yes,
for foreign service.
6,100. HoW were the Chinese carriages?—The
Chinese carriages were of a different pattern from
the carriages which have since been introduced into
the service, the carriages that went to China being
with a bracket trail and the others being with a
block trail.
6,101. The Chinese carriages you consider not to
have been so complete as those which have been
more recently issued P—The recent pattern is cer-
tainly far superior to the pattern of those that
went to China.
6,102. Is that in consequence of any discovery
made since the issue to China ? I think not. The
Superintendent of the Carriage Department would
be better able than I am to answer that question ;
but I believe that he always considered that the
, block trail carriage was the best.
rune 1, 1860, Sir W. Armstrong examined.
7,391. Sir D. L. Evans—Has a complete decision
been made now with regard to the form of the new
carriages ?—Yes.
7,392. And they aro now in course of comple-
tion ?—Yes.
7,393. Do the artillery officers still ci;%."tinl2„e to
disapprove the formation of those carriages Zre
is no disagreement on the subject; in fact, ti ere
never has been any disagreement of any moment.
The only question was with regard to the carriages
that went to China. Colonel Tulloh (the Superin-
tendent of the Carriage Department) was always an
advocate for converting the existing block trail
carriages so as to make them available for the new
guns. All the experiments with my guns had been
carried on with bracket trail carriages. As a matter
of opinion, I stated that I thought those guns that
went to China ought to be mounted on carriages
which had actually been tried and found serviceable;
that, although it was possible the block trail car-
riages might prove superior to the others, it was at
that time a matter of experiment, and ought to be
reduced to a certainty before it was adopted. After
that experiments were carried on with block trails,
and the result has been that the block trail carriage
has been adopted.
7,394. 'What description of carriages have gone
down with the 12 guns that have been sent to
Aldershott P—The present service block trail car-
rine, as modifiecii