The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-02 00:00:00

HISTORY OF CONTRIVANCES FOR KILLING

MEN.
(From the Liverpool Journal.)
They have a contrivance in China for killing woman.
Europe, with more gallantry, is content with implements
for killing men • and, strange as it may appear, the more
perfect the implements, the fewer men are killed.
Dr. Birkbeck discovered that man was made for box-
ing, the articulation of his wrist joint demonstrated it;
but the fighting propensity, which the fact intimates, has
never been content with the " bunch of fives." Man has
sought other and more destructive weapons ; hence, in-
stead of Mr. James Ward at Waterloo, we had the Duke
of Wellington ; instead of the " ring" of the " fancy,"
we had the Artillery and the Life Guards. But the
fact is, the prize-ring is not a primitive institution—it
is itself a proof of advanced civilisation. The art of
boxing is very properly considered a science, for it is
unknown everywhere, since the days of Adam, except
in England. Sir Walter Scott founded his tale of "The
Drovers" on this nice distinction between the tutored
and the untutored man. The Englishman used his fist
—the Highlander his dirk.
_ _

Originally—that is, long ago—men armed themselves
in the best way they could for war ; and victory, since
the first battle, has ever depended upon the nature of
their arms—their man-killing machinery. Science has
always triumphed over physical force, and men armed
according to more perfect art, have, however few their
numbers,- ever been invincible. " The Retreat of the
Ten Thousand" is a case in point ; Cortes, in Mexico, is
another and the same.

Identified with this fact is another still more instruc-
tive. The general who first adopts approved methods,
or new machinery, is certain of victory. The Greeks,
Athenians, and Spartans, defied the Persians by
means of their phalank, and they themselves were
subsequently humbled by Espaminondes, who doubled
the ranks in the phalanx, making them sixteen
in place of eight. Philip was his pupil, and
adopted his plan ; the Athenians neglected it,
and the disposition pf men in a column defeated all the
eloquence of Demosthenes—all the patriotism of Greece.

Alexander, by the same method, conquered all
save one town ; and, mark the fact, that town was
defended by a novel man-killing machine--the Greek
fire, of which more anon. The phalanx gave Persia and
Egypt three centuries of civilization under the Generals
of the " Macedonian madman."

The Roman art of war differed little from that of the
Greeks, save that their materials were better and more
abundant. Their successors at Constantinople protracted
the fall of the empire for ten centuries, by the adoption
rather than the discovery of a new man-killing implement
—the Greek fire. The Saracen brought up his fiery and
fierce thousands in vain; the mysterious fire drove them
hack, and preserved from desecration the domes of Constan-
tinople. It fell only when the enemy availed himself
of the same destructive power, and the empire had ne-
glected the new explosive—gunpowder. Had Constan-
tine paleelogus only had half-a-dozen pieces of artillery
on his walls—which he might have had—the fate of the
world had been different.
The birth of gunpowder was the eternity of civilisa-
tion. The barbarian was from that moment impotent,
and never again could he destroy the works which
science had raised, and refinement consecrated.
War then became a thing of science, and the battle
was his who best understood the law of projectiles.
This was Napoleon's grand secret. He was a gunner,
and his artillery, under his own direction, con-
quered, as he prophecied, Italy in a month. He had
another secret essential to success—the knowledge of
concentration—he had but one line of operations from a
single base, and the tendency of all was to one deter-
mined spot. So fixed was this rule in his mind, that the
evening of the great battle
~ in Russia he was heard
thinking aloud—" What, after all, is victory ? It de-
pends on the power of concentrating, on a given point,
a greater number of men than your opponent."
The history of man-slaying contrivances will exhibit
the humanising and civilising influence of science when
applied to war ; in fact, superiority of war is the test of
civilisation, for it implies cultivated intellect, mechanical
skill, and scientific superiority. The Greeks were the
greatest in peace because they were the greatest in war ;
the same may be said of the Romans ; and the Western
Empire, by the Greek fire, sustained civilisation until it.
found again refuge in the free municipalities of Italy.
The application of gunpowder gave dignity to Europe ;
rendered the study of sciences necessary to nations; and
capital essential to captains, for without money there
can never be war, and without trade and manufactures
there can be very little money.
When Captain Warner's destructive explosive mys-
tery was first mentioned in Parliament, the worthy
Member for Salford protested against it as an in-
fernal machine ; and declared that the inventor de-
served execration rather than honour. He was
wrong : more men were killed in ancient than in
modern battles, and battles will cease when means
of the utmost destruction are discovered, for who would
then go to war ? Captain Warner's discovery seems to
be of this kind ; and, if available, there can be no more
battles. Men will then be compelled to submit to reason
—the majority must then rule—rule in righteousness—
in the good opinion of all.
Before the application of the Greek fire to purposes of
war, various contrivances were adopted for the purpose of
demolishing fortresses, undermining walls, &c. The ar-
tillery, so to speak, was a restrained bow, which, when
released, flung a stone some hundred yards or so, and men
approached walls, castles, &c., by concealing themselves
in covered sheds moved on wheels. Of this descrip-
tion was the Trojan horse, but in the middle ages it was
called a " sow," and the object of the men inside was to
" bore" a hole in the wall, or work the battering ram.
These were used in Ireland in the fifteenth century.
The Greek fire was an anticipation of gunpowder. The
secret of making it was known only in Byzantium for cen-
turies, yet was it borrowed in India. Alexander the Great
retired from the city of the Oxydracaa, because they fired
thunder and lightning from their walls. Gibbon de-
scribes it as sweeping the Bosphorus ; but in all this
there was exaggeration, for the secret is now well
known to chemists.

The confinement of the secret of the Greek
fire so long to the Western Empire indicates
a Most ignorant and unequivocal age, and yet
gunpowder, like steam, was a play-toy with
boys in the streets two thousand years before its
man-destroying qualities were known. Usually the dis-
covery is ascribed to Roger Bacon ; and, like true-born
Britons, we contend against the claims set up by the Ger-
mans to the Liebig of the 14th century—the scientific
monk Barthola Schwartz. But the truth is, neither are
entitled to any praise. Roger Bacon, in 1270, mentions it,
not as a discovery of his; but as a thing so well known
that boys used it in the streets in making squibs and
rockets. Long before him Magnus Grsecus 'describes
the mode of making it ; and, what is not a little sin-
gular, recommends what is now used in preference—
charcoal of willow wood. In a treatise on Pyrotech-
nics, he describes the manner of using it at the Zoolo-
gical Gardens of this day.
In the year 80, of the Christian period, the Chinese
had ordnance which they used in war. Tho Arabians,
in 1312, employed artillery ; we used them in 1346, and
the Venetians had them on board their vessels in 1380.
All this time, however, they were of comparatively
little use, and would have remained so, but fur the rage
for mathematics in the succeeding centuries in Italy.
Military men knew nothing of the art of gunnery, and the
philosophers were the first who investigated the law of
projectiles, Galileo's treatise on motion having especial
reference to the subject of artillery. It took more than
100 years before small guns were used, and then not to
be fired from the shoulders, but from rests driven into
the ground. They were fired by a slow match, and
more than another century elapsed before the wheel-
lock was discovered, and the wheel-lock was nothing
more thane a notched steel, which struck fire as it re-
volved. Flints are only a very recent contrivance, and
percussion caps are: of yesterday. The manufacture of
gun flints is of itself a curiosity ; and, strange enough,
the tip. of the savage's arrow is the source of powder ig-
nition in the bands of civilised man.

It may thus be sees that knowledge progresses slowly
even where we should suppose the most active stimulant;
and, consequently, the non-adoption of a discovery is no
proof of its unfitness for the greatest purposes. Perkins'
steam-gun undoubtedly possesses the capacity to do the
work of a potent explosive powder. It discharges bullets
every day at the Adelaide Gallery—it projected a 401 b.
ball, in the presence of the Duke of Wellington, with a
velocity unknown to gunpowder ; and yet it has never
been fairly tried. It now never will, for Captain War-
ner's mystery will render its use unnecessary.
What is this mystery ? Captain Warner is ready to
reveal it for a sum which they have refused to give, but
which they will give by and by. The cold water thrown
on it by military and naval men was in perfect accord-
ance with all that has gone before. The common mind
is essentially conservative ; devoid of faith in man's ca-
pacity to progress, and ignorant of the secrets of science.
The blowing-up of the ship on Saturday is a fine satire
on Sir Howard Douglas's speech last session in Parlia-
ment. Captain Warner was described as something
very like an impostor, but he had the true energy of a
discoverer ; he was not to be diverted from his purpose,
and he has righted himself, not by means of Field Mar-
shals, or Admirals—not by the bounty of Government
or patronage of the Court, but by the liberality of a
British shipbuilder.
From the first moment that Captain Warner satisfied
himself of the practical importance of his discovery, he
has pursued it with all that irrepressible ardour and
earnestness wherewith Providence seems to endow ori-
ginal genius for the achievement of its destined ends,
despite of every obstacle that may accrue from limited
means, public apathy, private incredulity, and the ap
palling discouragement of the world's dread laugh
that ever awaits on even partial failure in a vast
undertaking. But from the commencement, Captain
Warner found many zealous, liberal, and sanguine
friends. Among these was a solicitor, named
whose history, if published, would make a com-
plete romance in itself. This gentleman was second
in a duel that obtained considerable notoriety about eight
years ago.; in which the younger brother of a then
recently created Peer, figured in a manner more con-
ducive to his love of eccentricity than creditable to his
manliness or decency. The attorney assisted the Captain
in raising very large sums of money for the purpose of
prosecuting his experiments. We are at a loss to know
what it is in these experiments that renders them so ex-
ceedingly costly as they are represented to be—for it
will be recollected that their expense was one ground
upon which the Government declined to embrace the
inventor's proposition for testing the value of the dis-
covery. But this we do know. that solicitor referred
to raised many thousand pounds, which were invested in
the prosecution of the experiments ; and he becoming
ruinously involved in pecuniary and other legal liabili-
ties, the Captain was, we believe, greatly embarrassed
through the very course from which he had looked to
receive ample assistance at the usual premium only paid
for such aid.

But still, what is his mystery ? Can we not pluck out
its heart? Let us, like others, have our guess; and the
history of gunpowder encourages us to suspect that we
may not be very far wrong. Though, truth to speak, we
are not without a bias; for a friend of ours was once fool-
ish enough to flatter himself that he had made—a dis-
covery !
It is known to chemists that the chloride of nitrogen
possesses an explosive power greater than that of any
body hitherto discovered. For instance,'a grain of it, not
larger than the smallest mustard seed, if placed on a
soup plate, and touched with a wet or oiled point of a
fishing-rod, will instantly explode, and shatter the plate
into a thousand pieces. Owing to the difficulty of manag-
ing it, very few chemists have made experiments on it.
Sir Humphrey Davy, in trying its power on phosphorus,
had nearly lost his life ; and Pulong, the French che-
mist was deprived of an eye and finger by it. Turner
gives the mode of preparation, and all subsequent che-
mists are content to repeat his process in—words.
Now, here is an explosive power sufficient to accom-
plish the destruction of a whole navy ! All that is
wanted is a sufficient quantity, and the quantity required
is perfectly portable, and, where there is water, its ac-
tion, silent, unperceived, and inevitable. Supposing,
therefore, that Captain Warner has discovered a safe
mode of manufacturing—say half-a-pint of it, the subse-
quent process is obvious. He has only to place it in a
shell of a strength adequate to bear the force necessary to
propulsion, and in this shell let the aperture through
which the oil was poured be left open.
The account of Captain Warner's experiment shows
that the explosive power, whatever it was, operated first
on the water, and subsequently by concussion on the
vessel. If this be not the Captain's " secret," it is cer-
tainly a power which would operate exactly in the way
his is described to have done. Still a secret would re-
main—how to manufacture the quantity required.
But Captain Warner will blow up forts as well as
ships, and in forts he could not drop his "mystery"
into water. True ; but the smallest drop of oil in a
fragile glass globule, and disposed so as to burst on
striking any body, would answer the same purposu as
contact with water—would, we believe, answer, if
possible, still bettor.

METROPOLITAN NEW PUBLI-

CANS' PROTECTION SOCIETY.

The tenth annual General Meeting of the Metropolitan
New Publicans' Protection Society was held yesterday, at
the White Conduit-house Tavern, Pentonville. The
attendance was extremely numerous, and the greatest
interest appeared to be felt in the proceedings of the day.
The chair was taken about one o'clock by Mr.. W.
J. Penry.
The CHAIRMAN said it was his duty to inform them
that the Committee had called them together on that
occasion, to transact the usual general business con-
nected with the Society. Trusting that they would take
the same interest in the proceedings of the Society as
they had manifested on former occasions, he would at
once commence the business of the day by calling on
Mr. Bishop to read the report.
Mr . BISHOP (the Secretary of the Society) then.pro-
ceeded to read the report, of which the following is, an
abstract

After referring to the position of the beersellers at
the first opening of the trade, and the opposition against
which they had to contend, the report went on to say
that the past year had proved to what extent the efforts
made in the name of the public against the beerhouse
and the beerseller, were really and indeed the true and
spontaneous act of that public. The monopolist bad not
only failed to establish a case against the beersellers
calling for the interference of the Legislature, but in
their over-eagerness they had proved themselves the
suborners and movers of every attempt to injure that
class. The interested opponents of the open trade in
beer had been proved to be the sinister, the vindictive,
and the only enemies which the beerseller and the beer-
house had had arrayed against them. To prove this
assertion, it was only necessary to mention the fact that--
so long as their opponents were at work against them,
petitions and similar manifestations were brought forth ;
but when that opposition was proved to be hopeless, its
exertions, tending only to the advancement of the trade,
the so-called manifestations of public opinion became
" like angels' visits, few and far between." The beer-
sellers and the beerhouse still existed, and what was the
result of the extension of their privilege in the last
three years? Why, that there was much less complaint
either of or from the beerseller, than at any previous
period, and that there being no concoctor or fomentor of
discord, no opposing manifestation exhibited itself either
in or out of Parliament. But few exterior attacks hav-
ing been made during the past year, the immediate at-
tention of the Committee had been directed to the petty
but mischievous efforts of certain overseers, who, by
putting into play the negative power with which the
beer-laws had clothed them, had raised a destructive
movement, and upon several occasions interposed be-
tween the beerseller and the operation of the Beer Acts,
The Committee had, in many cases, applied the gentle
pressure of the penal part of the Act, and convincedlhe
refractory functionary that he mistook or misconstrued
the reading of the Act, when he considered that to be z.
discretionary power which the Act itself only made a
ministerial one. Attempts had been made in several
parts, in and about London, to restrict the hours
during which the beerhouse was entitled by law
to remain open. In every. case, however, the
efforts of the Committee in favour of the
beersellers had been successful. In some districts
the police had supplied the place of the base informer,
and capriciously assumed the invidious task of harrassing
the beersellers of the locality. The beerseller had the
same right as another to have a lodger, a relative, or a
friend in his house, but in several instances this had been
tortured into an offence against the laws. In such cases,
the Committee deemed it their duty to step in, in order
to defend the harrassed beerseller in the fair and lawful
exercise of his business. The financial prospects of the
Society were very encouraging. The .progress of the
Society had been such as to secure to every widow the
full advantage held out by the rules. In the year 1842,
four widows were assisted from the funds set apart for
that especial purpose. The like, or even a greater
number, would have been equally benefited in the last
year, had there been so many applicants ; as it was, all
who applied were assisted. In the present year, no less
than six bereaved widows would, by right of the claim
left them by their deceased husbands on the funds of the
Society, reap the benefit of their associating_ together
for mutual assistance, protection, and support. The report
then referred to an alteration made in the proceedings
of the annual meeting. He concluded by reminding the
subscribers, that if portents might be credited, a period
was approaching when the beerseller and the beer-
house would be again brought before the public, and
probably under legislative notice, and that it was essen- --
tially necessary that every member of the trade should
attach himself to the Society.
From the financial statement, it appeared that there •
was a balance in hand of 1921. 178. Id.

Mr. PEARSALL moved, and Mr. BARNSHAW seconded,
the adoption of the report.—Carried unanimously.
The SECRETARY said it would not be necessary to
proceed in a formal way to the election of widows. The
Committee were empowered to devote one-eighth of the
funds to the allowance for widows, and it happened, for-
tunately, that, after the allowance had been made for the
widows who then had claims on the Society, there would
still be a balance in hand.—(Cheers.)
On the motion of Mr. STALWOOD, seconded by Mr.
COLVIN, the report was adopted unanimously.
The following were then announced as the names of
the persons elected to fill the places of those members of
the Committee who had retired as required by the regu-
lations of the Society :—Messrs. Monk, Pearsall, Lush,
Knight, Higley, Glass, Matthew, and Bennett.
Mr. PROSSER moved that the last day of May should
be appointed, instead of the last day of July, for re-
ceiving applications from widows.
Mr. KYNNERSLEY seconded the resolution, which wee •
carried.
The CHAIRMAN said the formal business of the meet-
ing, so far as the Committee was concerned, was now
brought to a close, and it would be open to any gentle-
man present to make any remarks or proposal to the'
meeting.
Mr. Ilawx.ms could not help referring for a moment
to what took place at the last annual meeting. Ile
could assure the gentlemen present that he was not in-
fluenced by any feeling of disrespect to the Committee,
or any other persons, by the course which be then pur-
sued.—(Hear, hear.) The step which he took was one
which was, he believed, congenial with the feeling of the
trade generally, namely, that the annual meeting of the
Society should take place without any interruption from
strangers.—(Hear, hear.) He was very happy to see
the alteration which had now been made. lie Wished
to seethe beersellers conduct their own affairs. Let the
business of the Society be carried out by its members,
nd by them alone, and there would be no repetition oi
the scene which occurred at the last annual meeting. He
had a motion to propose, before he sat down, with re-
spect to the power of calling annual meetings. He
thought that, at present, there was not sufficient power
given in that respect to the subscribers of the Society;
and he proposed to alter the existing regulation by em-
powering thirty members of the Society, by requisition,
to call a general meeting.
Mr. MAYHEW seconded the resolution.
The SECRETARY said he was quite sure that in the
former part of the remarks of Mr. Hawkins the Com-
mittee as well as himself fully concurred. He could not,
however, agree with him as to empowering thirty sub-
scribers to call a general meeting, lest that power should-
be exercised in an improper manner, so as to prejudice
their interests. As far as scrutiny went, the Committee
was perfectly willing to meet the subscribers as often as
they pleased ; and indeed the subscribers already had
the power of being present at all the Committee meet-
ings. Having made these remarks, he would leave it to
the discretion of Mr. Hawkins whether or not he would
persevere with his motion. If the Committee refused to
call a meeting in any case of urgent necessity, the matter
might easily be brought forward at the next annual
meeting. No complaint of that kind had been made up
to the present time.
Mr. LINDSEY opposed the motion. He thought the
subscribers did not require any more power they did
not exercise that which they had already.—(Hear.)
After some further discussion, Mr. Hawkins's proposal
was put from the chair in the following form:—
That in rule 10, after the word subscribers, the foll9we
ing words should be inserted:—" Upon receiving a re-
quisition signed by 30 subscribers."
The motion was rejected by a considerable majority.
Votes of thanks were then given to the Chairman,
for his impartial conduct on that occasion, and to the
Committee for the manner in which they had performed
their duties during the past year, after which the* meet•
ing adjourned.
At the close of the above meeting the subscribers end.
friends of the Society proceeded to the large tent, con-
structed in the White Conduit Gar des, where an excel-
lent dinner was served up by the honst of the establish..
ment. Mr. Lindsey, the treasurer of the Society, pre..
sided.
After the cloth had been drawn, and the usual loyal
toasts had been gone through,
Mr. KYNNERSLEY proposed " Lord Monteagle, the
Patron of the Beeersellers Pension Fund, and our other
Parliamentary Friends." In proposing the toast, he ad-
verted to the great service Lord Monteagle had rendered
to them as a body. Their cause had also, he said, been
greatly assisted by Mr. Warburton, Mr. Aglionby, and
other Members of the House of Commons ; and to each
and all of these gentlemen their gratitude was justly due.
—Drunk with three times three.
The SECRETARY proposed " The Metropolitan New
Publicans' Protection Society." He observed that when
this Society was first established, not more than four or
five staunch friends could be found to rally round it ; but
believing both their principle and end to be right, they
had persevered, and were now rewarded for their exer-
tions. He then adverted to the struggles in which the
Society had been engaged, and in which it had formed
nucleus for the trade, enabling them to state their case
in the most effectual manner. To prove its necessity,
and the advantage which it conferred„ he observed
that, on the principle of consumption, after all its
efforts, there was only a Parliamentary majority of two.
What would have been the result if those efforts had
been wanting he left the meeting to judge.—(Hear.)
If the Society had conferred no other benefit on the
trade than that of relieving them from the visits of the
common informer, and from magisterial influence, it
would have a substantial claim upon their gratitude;
but the provision it made for widows was another ad-
vantage, of which all must be sensible. He trusted that
its aid would soon be further extended to old and de-
cayed members of the trade.—(Hear, hear.) On all
these grounds he felt great pleasure in proposing the
toast.—(Cheers.)—Drunk with great enthusiasm.
It was then announced that Mr. Rouse, the proprietor
of tshl. e
tothe
WhiteConduitPensionFund.
nd. Tavern, had put down his name
for
Other toasts were proposed, including a vote of tlianksi
to the Chairman, and the utmost conviviality prevaileti
until the company dispersed.

Sir Robert Peel is to dine with the Worshipful
company of Clothworkers on Thursday, the Bth instant,
and all the rest of her Majesty's Ministers will meet th©
Right lien. baronet at dinner in Clothworkers'