The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-10 00:00:00

COAST WARFARE.

The late trials of the Gibraltar shield at Shoe-
busyness have imparted fresh interest to a subject
which was beginning to pall on the public mind. A
vast amount of excitement has been created among
soldiers and engineers, and the usual crop of exag-
gerated statements has arisen from so fertile a
source. It is necessary to distinguish between the
different questions involved, and avoid any confu-
sion between the Gibraltar shields and the iron forts
designed to defend our dockyards. A shield is, as
its name signifies, a defence which can be set up or
taken down, strengthened if necessary by the addi-
tion of other plates, and moved from place to place
as required. It may be applied to casemates or open
batteries. Shields constitute an additional protec-
tion to the guns in a battery, and they must not
he confounded with the battery itself. It is evi-
dent that they should vary in power of resistance
according to the different situations in which they
are intended to be placed. Again, the strate-
gical value of the positions must be taken into
consideration, and the probability of any foreign
Power attacking them in such force as to render
their defence a matter of time and difficulty. There
are, therefore, two distinct questions involved—one
military or strategical, the other a problem for en-
gineers. The first can be settled only by Govern-
ment or by masters of military art ; the second is
capable of solution either by military engineers or
such persons, whether military or civil, as compre-
hend the forces likely to be brought to bear against
the structures under consideration. The shields
which have caused so much lively discussion, and
bid fair to become a handle for much Parliamen-
tary controversy hereafter, would, probably,
never have been made at all—certainly not for
some time, but that the critical state of Europe
caused the Government to investigate the condition
of our distant fortresses, when they discovered that
a single strong ironclad and cruiser could bombard
any one of our maritime strongholds with impu-
nity. Hurried counsel was taken with the Depart-
ment of Works at the War-office, and a certain sum
of money was diverted from other purposes to
supply an act ur.l and pressing need. Rightly or
wrongly, it was decided that the sum availahls
should be employed in giving moderate protection
to as many guns as possible rather than complete
immunity from danger to a few. In taking this
course, the Royal Engineers placed themselves in
antagonism with the general feeling of artillery
officers, who were not consulted to the extent that
would have been proper under the circumstances,
seeing that they have to fight the guns. Be this as
it may, the shields were designed to meet only the
guns of the day, firing from distances at which ships
are likely to be kept by the guns of the forts and
the bidden dangers of submarine mines. We are
unable to state whence originated this false idea
of economy ; but while it is quite true that the
Gibraltar shields are capable of withstanding the
number of shots likely to be received in a bom-
bardment from, let us say, our 9-inch gun, which