The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-04 00:00:00

UST.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The great lesson to be learnt by military,
men from the present war in Germany is the irre-
sistible superiority of breech-loading rifles in action.
The Austrian army in Bohemia was supposed to be
numerically stronger than:the Prussian, it contained
a far larger proportion of veteran soldiers and pro-
bably of scientific officers, it was commanded by a
man second in reputation to uo General in Europe,
it was fighting on the defensive for a cause which,
as against the invaders, is a good one, and in a
country of which the population is loyal to the House
of Hapsburg, and yet it has been gradually driven
back, with a loss estimated by the Prussians at
30,000 or 40,000 men, and is now said to be greatly
dispirited by the series of reverses which it has sus-
tained. It was for some time supposed that
" strategical reasons" of an unexplained and myste-
rious nature might have induced Marshal Benedek
to fall back, point by point, towards a position
selected by himself for a general engagement. This
supposition is no longer tenable. It is altogether in-
credible that such a resistance as was offered by the
Austrians at Skalicz, Trautenau, and Munchengratz
was a feint, after all, or that Gitschin was allowed
to be stormed, and Prince Frederick Charles to
effect a junction with the Crown Prince, in the
hope of drawing the enemy to the battle-ground be-
tween Koniggratz and Josephstadt, where nothing
but a decisive victory could avail Austria, and where
a crushing defeat might open to the Prussians a way
to Vienna. In these sanguinary conflicts, the Aus-
trian troops fought obstinately and well, but they
were fairly beaten, and they were beaten, according
to all the accounts that have reached us, by the
more rapid fire of the Prussian infantry. From
first to last it is the needle-gun that has apparently
carried the day, and the needle-gun is simply a
breech-loading rifle of very indifferent quality.
In principle, as well as in construction, it is not
to be compared with several breech-loading rifles
manufactured by English makers ; but, imperfect
as it is, it has proved quite good enough to secure
victory for the Prussians in almost every encounter.
If we refer to the letter of our correspondent at the
head-quarters of the first Prussian army, we find
ample proofs of its extraordinary effect. It was
this which mainly enabled the Prussians to force the
passage of the bridge over the Iser at Podoll, be-
tween Turnau and Munchengratz. The Austrians
had occupied the village through which the road
passes towards the bridge, and commanded all the
approaches from windows and barricades thrown up
across the street. But the Prussian riflemen " fired
about three times before the Austrians, armed only
with muzzle-loading rifles, were able to reply."
This more than compensated for any disadvantage
in numbers or position, and the Austrians seem to
have been completely overmatched. "In the street
the Austrian soldiers, huddled together and encum-
bered with clumsy ramrods, were unable to load with
ease, and could return no adequate fire to that of
the Prussians, while these, from the advantage of a
better arm, poured their quick volleys into an al-
most defenceless crowd." It was the same at the
railway bridge, about two hundred yards distant,
where a like struggle was going on simultaneously.
" Here, too," says our correspondent, " the needle-
gun showed its advantage over the old-fashioned
weapons of the Austrians, for the latter fell in the
proportion of six to one Prussian." At last, the
former retreated, leaving most, if not all, of their
killed and wounded on the field, and it was found
that not only was the number of Austrian dead much
greater, but that in the hospitals " the proportion of
wounded Austrians to wounded Prussians was as five
to one." These are startling results, and yet they are
no more than any one unfettered by military preju-
dices would have anticipated. There may be still some
lingering doubts among old hands as to whether a
breech-loader shoots as " hard"—in other words,
carries :quite as far—as a muzzle-loader, but the
better opinion is that if held straight it is fully equal
to its awkward rival in this respect, while no one
ever ventured to doubt that it does much greater
execution. Now, a battle strongly resembles a
battue, with this difference, that coolness and self-
possession are far rarer and of far more importance.
If sportsmen are often flurried by the difficulty of
loading fast enough while birds are getting up on
all sides, how can young soldiers be expected to keep
their heads clear and their hands steady in the pro-
cess of ramming down while they are themselves
under fire ? From this point of view, another re-
mark made by our correspondent with the Prussian
army deserves serious consideration. It is not only
in rapidity of discharge and in safety of loading,
that breech-loading rifles surpass muzzle-loaders,
but also in the average direction of aim. " A man
with a musket on the nipple of which he has to
place a cap naturally raises the muzzle in the air,
and in the hurry and excitement of action often
forgets to lower it, and only sends his bullet over
the heads of the opposite ranks, while the soldier
armed with a breech-loading musket keeps his
muzzle down, and if in haste he fires it off without
raising the butt to his shoulder, his shot still takes
effect, though often low ; and a proof of this is that
very many of the Austrian prisoners are wounded
in the legs." The only objection, indeed, which is
urged against the breech-loading system for weapons
to be used in war is one that answers itself. It is
said that regiments would fire away their ammuni-
tion so fast that it would be impossible to keep
them supplied. This is as much as to say that
soldiers must be exposed to the certainty of being
mown down by enemies firing three shots to their
one because otherwise ammunition might be wasted,
and the means of transport must be increased. It
might be sufficient to reply that in the Prussian
army these obstacles are not found insu-
perable, but where common sense is decisive of a
question it seems needless to invoke experience.
Without experience, however, no reform involving
considerable expense is likely to find favour with
heads of departments in this country. It is on this
ground that we have invited attention to the experi-
ments which have lately been tried on the largest
scale in real warfare, and we now most heartily re-
present the urgent necessity of profiting by them.
It was but last month that Marshal Benedek encou-
raged his troops to despise the alleged superiority
of Prussian firearms, and to rely on the bayonet,
and we already see the consequence. Every one
knows that bayonets are seldom actually crossed ;
when they are crossed, it by no means follows that
those who carry the worst rifles will give the most
vigorous thrust, and before they are crossed it is
certain that rapidity of fire will tell fatally. With
these facts before us not a day should be lost in arm-
ing our own infantry with breech-loaders of the
best available pattern. There is no official in the
War Department who would himself think of usinc,
a muzzle-loader in cover shooting, if he had the op-
tion of a breech-loader, or who would like to con-
front with the former an enemy provided with the
latter. Then, why delay to place the better weapon
in the hands of our army ? The smaller the force
we maintain as compared with our neighbours, and
the greater the difficulty we experience in recruiting
it, the more essential it is that we should forthwith
appropriate an improvement which multiplies its
effective strength, and makes one man, under cer-
tain circumstances, a match for two or three.
Whether the single breech-loader, or some repeat-
ing rifle, like that of Spencer's, adopted in the United
States, would on the whole be more serviceable, is
a matter to be discussed by professional connois-
seurs. Spencer's rifle is a " seven-shooter," and all
seven charges are put in at once into a chamber in
the stock, but as the breech must be opened after
each shot to get rid of the empty cartridge, it is
possible that very little time is gained and some risk
of derangement incurred by this additional compli-
cation. Such points may safely be left to the judg-
ment of scientific officers, but the expediency of sub-
stituting breech-loaders for muzzle-loaders is another
affair. Scientific officers will never succeed, bby
themselves, in forcing the change upon the authori-
ties, and the only power capable of doing so is the
power of public opinion.
POST. —The grand Reform demonstration of Tra-
falgar-square has passed off without any broken
heads, and without any broken windows. The
orators had it all their own way. There was no
one to contradict them. When their fuglemen led
off the groans for the Tories, and the .cheers for
" Bright and Gladstone," no one ventured to raise
an antagonistic cry. Sam Weller's advice to Mr.
Pickwick —" to shout with the loudest mob"—was
faithfully adhered to by all present. If dirty boys,
noisy roughs, and bellowing agitators constituted a
grand demonstration in favour of Reform, and
against Lord Derby's Government, then the matter
does not admit of any further discussion. Trafal-
gar-square becomes the head centre of Government,
and Messrs. Potter and Beales are the representa-
tives of the British Constitution. But it is not be-
cause this meeting has passed off so quietly that we
at all wish to see it repeated, and before the present
Government change their places in the house it
would be well for some member to insist on Sir
George Grey declaring more distinctly than he has
hitherto done what he considers to be the precise
law with respect tothese political manifestations.
He informed the house the other night that no meet-
ing could be legally held within one mile from the
Houses of Parliament, with the object of petition-
ing Parliament; but did he mean to infer that any
other meeting is legal? Thus the whole peace of a
large district is to be disturbed by a riotous mob ex-
pressing their opinion of the conduct of members
who hold different views to their own, and these mem-
hers arc to consider themselves sufficiently fortunate
if their houses are not attacked and their bones not
broken. We must say there is something very unsa-
tisfactory and even ungenerous in Sir George Grey's
not supporting Sir Richard Mayne in his resolution
not to permit any meeting at all. It is scarcely
fair that the odium of vindicating the law