The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-27 00:00:00

that the price of the 12-poun r =arid 4P poUnder,',
Armstrong guns was £l2O ane2Bs-lesPeetivejy.
In spite. of all these rebuffs—in spits of Lord
Hhr-
bert's declaration, founded on the China despatches,
that "we had the best gun in the world"—in apite
of the testimony to its efficiency and value given on
every public occasion by the Commander-in, Chief of
the expedition—in spite of Major Hay's published
letter to myself, which I subjoin,* the Mechanics'
Magazine insinuated, and still insinuates, that
the Government " suppressed" the truth ; that
Major Hay's despatch had been written in the
sense they had affirmed, and that Government in-
fluence was used to prevent China officers from
speaking. In their number of the 18th ult. I find
this strange statement, the disingenuousness of
which is quite monstrous :—" Mr. Baring, the
Under-Secretary for War, in his elaborate speech
on the War Estimates, showed that each Armstrong
gun had cost on an average £2,160, thus proving
that we were sufficiently guarded in our state-
ments." I feel slow to impute animus to anybody
far less to a journal which represents mechanicians,
but I am compelled to speak strongly about mis-
statements so deliberate and so repeated.
From such attacks as these I appeal to common
sense. Vague and groundless insinuations, thrown
out by random writers, who may, for anything I
know, be unscrupulous as well as misinformed,
should not be allowed to excite public alarm. It is
said that there ought to be a Committee of Inquiry.
lesn have no objection, though no prima lam case
against the gun exists at all. But let it be remem-
bered that a Committee of Inquiry is, and always
has been, sitting on my gun. The Committee ap-
' pointed by Government to superintend and control
all matters relating to ordnance have their atten-
tion continually devoted to it in every detail. All
the facts I have mentioned above are known 'to
them: Supposing then, that I were dishonest
enough to wish to conceal anything from the pub- •
`lic—supposing that two successive Governments,
and their Ministers WM?, werp weak enough to
have been throughout misled—surely no one in his
senses will believe that this Ordnance Select Com-
mittee, and those many scientific officers who aro
engaged in daily practice and experiment with the
gun, and who are bound to report to Government
their experience of it, are so deluded and so infa-
tuated as to concur in foisting an inefficient weapon
on the country.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
, London, Nov. 25. W. G. ARMSTRONG.

* " 2, Coates-crescent, Edinburgh, 25th March, 1861.
" Dear Sir William,—lt was not my intention to have
taken any notice of the article which appeared in ;the
Mechanics' Magazine of the Ist of March, headed ' The
Armstrong Gun,' it being so utterly at variance with the
substance of my actual reports.
" But my attention having been called to an article in the
Morning Post (22d March), copied from the Mechanics'
Magazine of the previous week, commenting on the speech
made by Mr. Baring when laying the Army Estimates be-
fore the house, in which the writer in the boldest way
challenges the production of my report to substantiate, 1
imagine, his former statement, I am induced to write to
you, in order that you may, should you deem it necessary,
contradict in any way the statements contained in those
articles.

" The Armstrong guns in China rendered the most valu-
able service, being always in the most efficient and service-
able condition, although put to very severe tests. They
were never withdrawn from action and their places sup-
plied by others ; on the contrary, the Armstrong guns were
invariably the first to be ordered up when artillery was re-
quired. At Tongchow, on the 14th of August, and again on
the 21st, at the capture of the Upper North Taku Fort, the
Armstrong batteries were firing over the heads of our in-
fantry in advance, and the guns never ceased firing in con-
sequence of any casualty to our men—quite the reverse ;
those guns continued firing while the infantry advanced to
storm the enemy's works. It would have been most sur-
prising if slight alterations had not suggested themselves
in both guns and ammunition, considering that they were
being tried for the first time, and that they were most

jealously watched by all.
"In fact, from the instructions I received before leaving
England, it was my duty to point out the slightest defect.
This I did, and I was glad to observe, in a recent visit to
the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, that these defects had all
been remedied in a manner which experiments had proved
to be most suuessful; and I now feel confident that the
British Artillery have the first gun, with the most perfect
ammunition, in the world.—l am, yours very faithfully,
"R. J. Hai, Brevet-Major Royal Artillery,
Late Assistant-Adjutant General, Royal Artillery
„ Sce."

riA.IIV CIA L BEFOrtzuß IN FRANCE.
(From the Now!, Market Review )
Scoff as we may at the play (if we choose to re-
gard it so) which has been enacted at Paris, the
French Emperor has given hiE people a privilege
which they have never yet possessed under the pre-
sent regime, and which they never enjoyed in its
entirety under the rule of the majority of its pre-
decessors—we mean the right of having the expen-
diture of the Government controlled by the Legis-
lature, We do not doubt that this part of the new
Imperial programme will be carried out, and that
the era of " supplemental credits" is at end. Now
this is very important. As long as there were
" supplemental credits," the whole proceeding of
submitting the Budget to the Legislature was a
mere farce. The Chambers, let us say, voted the
Budget, perhaps with a few amendments of suffi-
cient importance to satisfy their amour propre.
But the farcical part of the affair was that when the
Budget was voted, it did not accomplish what a
British Budget does, since it did not limit the
expenditure of the Government in the least. At
the point where the Budget ended, the Government
expenditure was really only beginning. Each
Minister applied not to the Legislature, but to the
Emperor for a few millions more, and_his Majesty
gave a draft for the amount under his own Imperial
decree. If the money was not in the Treasury, he
could always issue more floating debt, or, where
this plan failed, it was easy to raise a loan in the
Rentes, and the precise manner in which the money
was expended was never suffered to appear. This
is the secret of the £40,000,000 deficit. The Legis-
lature was thus completely jockeyed out of all con-
trol over the finances, and the State machine rattled
away at its own pace on the road to insolvency.
Raving made now a solemn promise to the
French nation that the system of supplemental cre-
dits shall be abolished, and that the Government
expenditure shall really pass in review before the
Chambers, the Emperor cannot afford to go back
from his word, or retrace his steps. He is too shrewd
a politician to attempt to do so. We have a strong
suspicion he has given a greater boon than he in-
tended. He means, perhaps, to strengthen his
financial position by having his expenditure " re-
gularised" by the vote of the Chambers, and he
trusts that the influence of his Government will
always be sufficient to secure an immense majority
of his nominees in those halls. We doubt this.
Hitherto, the Lower House has had no power. Men Hitherto,
of character and ability had, there,foarse,alirttullee,tewmepre-
ut this may now
ataptaitohnettoicefnotrerthiet.
saCmoensrteiatsuoenn.cießs
be altered. Have our readers reflected upon the
importance of the functions discharged by an as-
sembly to which is delegated the task of controlling
the finances of a nation ? Is not money the sinews
of war? Is not the command enjoyed by our
House of Commons over the national purse-strings
the real source of all the control which it has over
the policy of Government ? The Crown nominally
makes peace and declares war, but its prerogative
is merely nominal, for what can the Crown do
unless the representatives of the people vote the
needful supplies ? The French people have not yet
arrived at this constitutional regime, but When,
through their representatives, they possess them-
selves of even a partial control over the financci,,
they will acquire an influence over the general
policy of the Empire such as they never.possessed
before. We can look forward an magine fiercer
contests at future elections, an donasng phalanx
of deputies pledged to reforms he financial policy of
the Government, to enema agpeace and progress,
opw.pcese
can
nr ainindagaignger,eisnsTancto,npublie neighbouringopinion
aSnt ad tet so.
entering
into the councils and moulding the policy
of the French Government in a degree never known
Yet since Napoleon 111. seized the sceptre. We
entertain a far from faint hope that, under the force
of financial distress, the Emperor has, without
meaning to do so, virtually given his people a con-
stitutional
require
another Bill ofc Rights, ghlest,astuctho
Sovereignsaws r ite s wt i
fromll
advance
hereafter
r ea ft e
them.r
And be it remembered that, as
in years, it is generally found that they become
indisposed to rash and 'venturesome courses.