Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1862-1865, 1865-04-10
NAVAL ARMAMENTS N AMERICA.

In the House of Commons, on the ID of March,
Mr. n E allie moved that 9 select oDmittee be ap-
pointed 10 require whether her nsjesty's chips were
at present armed in marper suited 10 the necess--
ties snd requirements Of modern warfare
The Marquis Of Harrington, Under Secretary Of
the Navy, In reply, said TIE honorable member
sad that the chips Of several other nations were
much better off than ours The Americans bad un-
dcubtedy got bigger guns than we had, but be.
doubted whether they were much better. The rA d.
guns of the Americans, which were held up TO sur
admiration last year. had proved perhaps the great.
est failure en- record il came from the Americans
themselves from thei bureau Of raval ordnance and
from other official reports that the Parrot was the
only riHed naval gun they had In their service, and
that In their opinion was the simplest and best gun
that had been constructed They had H. however, on
the authority of Admiral Porter ain ost every one
Of thoss guns employed at Wilmington the other day;
burst that they were utterly dscredited, aod that be
thought Il probable they would be entirely with
drawn from the American navy. he vas Justified,
therefore, IN saying thst The Americans hsd Dot, OF
this moment, rfed gun at all with which to erin
their Navy What would honorable members on
the other side of the house say il II could be fa;d at
this momert that we had not got rtisd gun for our
navy? Hear hear Did the honorable nember
with us TO follow the example Of the Americans ana
arm our ships with Parrot gups, wien ono no.
burst, as our Armstrong guns etth sngn' enih *
or ouening, but In such manner SIS to enosnger,
not TO DESTROY the lives of great part oil the crew
As 10 the enormous smooth bore guns Whcn tne
Americans were low armipg their navy "ltn' ne
thorght il a mistake TO say that ihey were tsPtror
to anythiI 9 we had got. We had "lougae i,on
guns of ten and half inches caio1e ana we've
tons weight. such ga the guns on toaro ,le hoya
s ver.igp. which be believed were quai 10 ary-
thing lie Americans pcsee'sec Ihey were GER
tsiniy not 40 large i caibre as = me OF ne amen
c,n grns Init they we're guns OF wrought.iTon in
CD ~ cast iron; they were Gups whose charge
obont one-fhh the weight Ct the Projectile,
snJ he cid not believe that any American gun
Y,o,ld fire a charge of over or eighth or cne-
80 ,he weight If tie proisctile.
r,.o navy were becoming aware tha. a r:fed gun
80 s.Tne weight of meal was much more advga-
., '-s than smooth bore gun for the purpose of
,e.or;rg irou-plaied ships; but the weight Of the
and the charge of POI der fred by these smooth
- orns we're ouch as TO justify the assertion that
.bev must he at least equal in power TO the 10 inth
ID II inch guns with which the Americans were at
resent aruaing thsi. Navy. Re mentioned these
f,cts 10 show that even at the present moment we
ra not 50 hopelessly behind the Americans as the
honorable member wished tho House to believe. IL
mus. be remembered that the Americans were not in
state of reposs as we were at present; they were
not IN state Of preparation they were not IN
sa in which they were abe to consider calmly VnsI
va, The test gun and to arm their Navy accordingly.
But the last three or four years they haa Deen en-.
poyipg their Navy to great extent, and 1t Wouo &c
naft unfair to compare the condition Oh our naval
-Idnance with the::s.