The Shasta courier., 1859-04-23
Modern Warfare.

The French Pamphlet on Italy tells us tha!
King Victor Emanuel, at the battle of Novara
received sixteen bullets in his coat But though
the battle of Novara is a very recent event, the
science of projectiles has been revolutionized
since it was taught-and sixteenth part of such
risk would now, probably, produce more IA
tai result 1t seems hard to say how armies are
In future to manGuvered. As guns are now
manufactured and handled, they must literally
sweep the field of everything living With such
rifles and cannon as we now use, the Great Ma
poleon could have been picked off the observa-
tory at Waterloo or the tobacco mill at Lepsic,
as surely as Nelson was shot down on the quar-
ter-deck of the Victory. There is a famous
painting of Louis XIV. standing on the bank of
the Rhine, with the marshal of the day implor-
ing his Majesty to remove his sacred person
from scene of such danger and even threaten
ing to terminate the battle by retreat, unless
his prayer is attended to. There is no longer
room, however, for any such affecting scenes
To enter the field at all, is to stand at the can
mons mouth, and none will 60 there except at
the stern command of war.
These considerations ought to have some weight
with the Imperial and Royal personages whose
military ardor is thought to count for something
at this moment in the tremendous balance of
war and peace. The Emperor of Austria and
tne hing OF Sardinia are both something more
than holiday soldiers, and the inclination of the
emperor OF the French to studies of war is well
known.
But the life of Sovereign concerns more than
himself. Kings cannot afford at the present dav
10 oe Killed off like Charles XII, or Richard
Otur ue Leons However brave they NAV be or
however disposed to the science of arms. thev
can De out amateurs in the field of battle and
ior such indulgence there is no longer any fair
scope. on lives like theirs may hang not onIv
dynasdesf but constitutions toe.
An inquiry will naturally suggest itself ae.r
all these reflections, as to the probable end of
sucn marvellous progress in the terrible arts of
destruction. II war IS to become year by wear
more dreadful, more deadly and more rxnsns;ra
what will be the practical effect upon soc;etv :
We trust it may be this-that it will be less and
and less readily undertaken. When war is almost
certain ruin to both sides, both sides. we NAV
hope, will pause before they accept such an is
sue. The Enfield rifle, as we have seen both in
the Crimea and in India, can change the yery
face of a battle; but the Enfield rife is a mere
pop-gun compared with the elaborate weapons
which are now introduced to the world.
In the American frigates single gun worked
by half dozen seamen, will throw to dis
tance of two or three miles, a shot equal in
weight to an entire broadside of such cannon
as were used BY Ducan and Jarvis. Armstrong s
guns are expected to carry nearly twice that
distance, and rifles have been produced which
will send bullets through target at thousand
yards with a rapidity of success like that Of
hailstones on a skylight. How any ship or bat
talon is to stand against such proecties, it is
puzzle to conceive. But if war can be thus made
to extinguish war, it will be true blessing,
though realized by strange process.-London
Truss