The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-04 00:00:00

THE ARMSTRONG GUN AND THE WAR,

The Debats publishes an article of severa.
columns on the subject of the Armstrong
cannon, explaining its peculiar advantages,
and the effect which the introduction
of such tremendous weapons of destruction is likely
to produce in actual warfare. Referring to the
present hostilities, and th 3 employment of rifled
cannon in Italy our contemporary
.makes the fol-
lowing observations :—" The Austrian army, after
having made against Piedmont an offensive move-
ment, the reason of which is still difficult to com-
prehend, now appears to be preparing to execute
what has been called the plan of General Hess—
that is to say to retire before the allied forces—
and to wait—either before or after a grand battle
—in the strong positions which art and nature
have prepared for it on the line of the
Mincio. The persons who have studied
this subject are aware that the strength
of those positions principally depends on four large
fortresses—Brescia, Peschiera, Verona, and Mantua,
which in fact, in 1848, saved the army of Marshal
Radetski. But what was true in 1848 may not be
so at the present time, and it would probably be a
great mistake to consider those four fortified places
as so many Sebastopols, likely to withstand for
several months all our eforts against them. We
had no rifled cannon before Sebastopol, and conse-
quently were compelled in the attack on that place
to follow the old traditions of the artillery and
engineers. Rifled canon do not, certainly, autho-
rize us to imagine that these fortresses will fall be-
fore them like the walls of Jericho before the
trumpets of the Israelites ; but their long
range allows us to think that, in order to
render those places untenable by the enemy,
they afford us means on which we could not have
calculated six months ago. Let us admit that our
guns will not carry to the distance of eight kilo-
metres (five English miles), indicated by Sir W.
Armstrong, and that their projectiles will not reach
further than six kilometres, that is certainly a very
modest pretension, and is, we think, what will
happen when we shall be on the line of the Mincio,
and before Verona and Mantua. Instead of wasting
time in making regular approaches, nothing will be
more easy than to find, within a range of from
4,000 to 4,500 metres from the place, a number of
positions either in woods or clumps of trees, or
farm-houses, or garden walls behind which a certain
number of rifled cannon might be placed, in-
visible, and sheltered from the enemy's fire,
and from which the shells, directed, not
against the ramparts, but against the interior of the
place, would soon render it untenable. Ten bat-
teries of artillery, firing. 20 shots an hour, would
throw into the place during a night of only eight
hours 9,600 incendiary projectiles which would
cause frightful losses. It would be for the besieg-
ing force, master of the field, a question of supply
and nothing more ; for even were the enemy in pos-
session of guns of long range, what advantageous
use could they make of them during the night
against an invisible artillery having the power of
frequently changing position, and in small groups
almost impossible to be discovered during the day
at a distance of more than a league ? It was nearly
this method which succeeded so well at Sweaborg,
where the allies, however, had no rifled cannon, and
where 20 steam gunboats destroyed with their
shells one of the largest naval arsenals of Russia
without themselves being touched by one of the
thousands of shot which were fired at them from the
enemy's batteries. The mobility of the gunboat took
the place of the advantage now given by the long
range. The new artillery has rendered this system
practicable, and it has ratified the new axiom of the
art of war, that henceforth fortified places, like
towns on the sea coast, can no longer be usefully pro-
tected except by armies masters of the country, or
by fleets in the offing. We have remarked that in
an Austrian bulletin of the combat of Montebello,
the writer, after having rendered justice to the ex-
cellence of the French infantry, declares our artil-
lery to be inferior. We regard this declaration
more as a ruse de guerre than as a truth. We
imagine that the object of it was to tranquilize the
Austrian army, unprovided as it is with long-range
guns, as to the effect of the new guns, the renown
of which has doubtless reached the soldiers of the
) Emperor Francis Joseph, and we leave it to our
1 artillerymen to prove to the enemy that the re-
nown either of their courage or of the power of
1., their weapons has not been exaggerated."
Le,

NEW ADELPHI THEATRE.—Her Majesty, the
Prince Consort, the Princess Alice,Princess Helena, Coun-
tess of Cstledon, the Hon. Miss Cathcart, Earl Verulam,
Lord Colville, and the Hon. Captain Dudley de Ros visited
the above theatre last evening.
SUICIDE AT THE LIVERPOOL WORKHOUSE.—
Margaret Williams, an inmate of the Liverpool workhouse,
destroyed her life on Thursday by precipitating herself
from a window four stories high. Since her admission (on
the 23d April) she has been in low spirits, chiefly on ac-
count of the condition of her husband, who is at present a
prisoner in Kirkdale gaol, charged with an assault uponhis
female child, eight years of age.
THE POLICE OF LlVERPOOL.—Yesterday (Fri-
day) about 400 of the Liverpool police underwent a preli-
minary drill by Major Greig, the head constable, previous
to their general inspection by Colonel Woodford. The re-
mainder are to be drilled to. day (Saturday). Several mem-
bers of the watch committee, as well as some military men,
were present, and the evolutions were unanimously praised.
It was remarked that if the police were armed with rifles
they would form about the most effective rifle corps the
town could possess.
A WEALTHY PAUPER.—A woman named Janet
Brown, who for a considerable time had been receiving
parochial relief, died about a fortnight ago at St. Ninians.
On searching her house a pass-book was found in which
there was credit to the extent of £lOO. On a further search
there were found bank receipts to the extent of £lBO and
£l6 lodged in a bank in town—in all £296. The proper
authorities have, of course, taken cognisance of the matter.
—North British Daily Mail.
BROTHERHOOD UNBROTHERLY.—A Chippenham
correspondent of the Wiltshire Independent discloses to the
world the " freedom" of action enjoyed by some of England's
sons sons of toil, whose employers possess political opinions,l
riance with their own. He says :—" Amongst tjheLr
ends
who dined with our worthy representative,
mosts
Es q , on
intelligent Tuesday last,and
el
eNvVeerrea
workmen.number
TMhoer,
They
W.
foktt,
heirafter oed
ploy at the foundry on that day at feoruermen
management of the men. The following
ob-
taining permission to do so from thef moaning
whgsi,xot hdtoae'rkef
uosmestkee)nde,
discharged.
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ttheiro number)g
rwe
ne nt
at
st
tonvn,
iosrb
Ik na!
tht
,eem3uisrtu.haßel
they
Brotherhood
were
hueerrreh(
their admission and informed
uct,
so apparently the result of
This extraordinary
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politicalbtoe
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