The Sun.
London, England, 1816-10-22 00:00:00

-_!_"-zriZONCittEN4S*'net)K E rs.

4,7—rripk. ,
The itioniteilr contain*rrawe °following observit
lions on these impletnetrfir„—rtitil to have been
writtetrby.a.tlistingnisite,d OttieerofArtill, tr in
theYrench service. 'Filey itr.e, written, it will is
obsrved, in anst er to t ec tines( ions:—
" 1. Are the Congreve rockets, .when they fall
in .tbe.ranks, mole ttnirtierons ttyin bombs 1'

" t-os suppose the ro.i.;ftvt cli:oged_ with three
grenades (tor it could
.opt contain a greater tpiaro'
tity, witfout the greoades.rieia4' very small, and
therefore,of no effect), and; which is the otos -ta.
rourable supposition, that it falls ami!ist a ticpta-
cL:a Of cavalry, and by ii, fall puts one horseman
out of vi ; (liar every grvo.tde.p)iis`lin'ritiog,
iu tike,:manner puts u loan out of 'service; this
stroke, the
.mitst itikvantituous it is possible to
imagine, will have vitt out of service only four
men in all !

• `° But the execution of one bouib, including
the via/theta, is ns k known, 15 men put out of
IctVlCtt; Creii reducing this number to 12,
the expluSion of the hdrtib is three (Mies more
murderous than that of the rocket. Besides, is
not the etreet of the rocket entirtly paralyzed by
the separation' of the turf or
,chapiter from the
bodY of the riicket;. and -is not this separation
easy with the blow of a sabre, while the rocket
of the bomb. cannot be torn out, and even by cut-
ting it, its .action would :not prevented, since
the fire is already communicated to the portion of
the rocket contained in the interior cal the bomb ?
" We remark, in passing, that bombs produce
from- 9.t0 10 splinters, anal that small ioenades
seldom give more than two ;:so that it would ep.
pear the, number of splinters k its proportion' to
the size of the diameter Of the projectile.
'2..-Do the Congreve rockets, on falling into
a place,. effect mare damage there ; do they set
fire to it more speedily and certainly than bombs,
tihells, and red. hot balls ?

"''!'he experinients made ut Boulogne in 1803
proved, :that a rocket 'passing through a sail sel.
dom set fire•to it ; that passing through a fir plank
of an inch io•thickness, it hardly set fire to it once.
in n dozen times ; while the sail and th.e plank.
Uniformly-409k. firewhen pierced by red-hot bolls.
1 omit the enormous difficulty of throwing rockets
lio as to hit the object: we shall speak of that by-
and bye.
" Besides, the combustible materials of the
Oche( tire neither more inflammable nor more

•
difficult to extinguish than those with which bombs
are.eliarged, and-may.-all, when ana•
lysecl, he rethiced to those of tLe Oche u feu. Tile
Insect of bombs and shells equally bur►t in the
writer; but what damage is not. done by a booth
of 12 inches falling upon a building, e►en ii bout
its bursting, or even setting it on tire, While tt
slight bedding of earth ur dung prevents the
effectcof the rocket 1

341. Is the aim of Congreve rockets more
certain...than that of bombs, shells, or red-hot
halls ?—is>their.r,an,ge longer ?
Zwitif ion is simple and easy. The
English titet►mselves admit that they cannot an•
ewer for the direction; and 6tiii 101 for the range,
which never, exceeds Iboo toises. At that dis»
tance,hombs, shells, and red-hot balls are thrown
with almost certain aim, and even up to 1800
toises, without speaking, of the' new mortars
:which were triad.beforeEnden, and whose range
is almost double.

" It results from these observations, sufficiently
simple, and easy to he verified, that the Congrevo
rockets are far front being so dangerous as some
affect to say ; that they are,on the contrary, much
less terrible Limo bortibis, sltells, and,red-hot balls;
and 1 sec not that we cpn deduce any other
conclusion- front the prodigious noise .that has
been, and As endeavoured to 'be made about
thent, titan the certainty that. those who din it
iln your ears have no other object but to irt-
fluence the moral of the soldier; and it is with the
sole view
,of enlighteonm the, soldier as to the
real effects of .Congreve.yockets, and to forth),
hint against..the
.exaggerated' fears with which tt
may be sought to inspire him in regard to them,
that I have thought it right to commit ~rase oh-
SerVatiOnS to paper. 1 shall leetnLit a duty to re-
ply to any objections that may he made to me:"