, 1866-08-31

more than thelr snare OF II, because they
were every way ready to avail themselves of
it. For the moment, our Administration is
shamed into owning that intelligence, in
dustry, skill and diligence may laugh at
the pigtailery of self-complacent, easygo-
ing routine !; that the genius that can
judge of invention and appreciate it, and
turn it to use, is the quality that should
rule in our Ministerial offices, not the lazy
~incapacity that pooh-poohs new ideas be.
cause they are so troublesome to those
who nave first tn examine them, and will
be so unWelcOme 10 the blgots or the
mere pretenders that are the chiefs in the
departments.
We have just two or three facts that
prove with what inbred dulness, with
what vainglorious self suficiency, the
parties that have for nearly a score of
years alternately governed the empire
have put aside the means of victory and
safety. The needle-gun was boosted of
by the Prussians when the Baden army
was defeated, seventeen or eighteen years
ago. A new arm, officially declared TO
be a power in war, ought TO have been
an object of careful examination and great
interest to our War Department. The
acknowledgement may not be the best
breech-loader, may be the very worst Of
all those that have lately been tried /; but
if the very worst could produce the eff
fects seen in 1848, how simple and true
must the principle be, and how sure in
application, even under the most disad-
vantageous circumstances. The gun was
brought over here. AS soon as the slight
est necessity appeared for being prepar-
ed against the resuscitated BonapartiSm
that declared it had ga battle to avenge,"
we began to excite our countrymen 10
that Volunteer movement which only
became general some years after. We
saw and examined the Prussian gun, and
recommended its adoption to the few
corps then formed. But the Government
with whom, of course, the armament
rested-never seem TO have cared about
the existence of such a weapon. 1t was
never looked at, or put aside without a
serious trial and that after it had won
notable advantages in the field, and at o
time when all OF us were anxiousIy cal
culatlng our strength in the possible re-
newal OF that struggle which we were
warned had only been interrupted by a
long truce, forced on our enemies by the
event of Waterloo. The deadly i%nsensi-
bility to the chances of the public veal
or woe; the cowardly dread of being
thought troublesome by superiors in of
fee; the evil tone of apathy in Parlia-
mentary society that makes all public
service perfunctory, and puts down all
zeal as an offence against the Political
Trade-UnioD, which only allows a certain
amount of stimulated work to be done for
the wages, shirked the duty of inquiry
and experiment, and quietly hoped that
the old mode would "last out our time"
and only come to dreadful damage when
those who originated the evil should be
out of the way of answering for it. 1t is
all poor fudge to talk about the recent
discovery of the effect of breech-loaders.
We are b~oasting of the Enfield rifle at
Inkefmann. The very people who are
apologising for our backwardness are
pointing to that weapon as the proof of
their proficiency. But what if the En-
field rife had possessed four times the
penetrating power and could have been
fired FIVE times as often9 That is what
would have been done at Inkermann and