, 1866-08-31

Which existed IN The PruSSlan war depart
ment when the invention was, as it were,
made a present to us, proved and approx
ed by practice. And when the rotten
maladministration crumbled all to powder
on the first touch, there was no one with
vigour and honesty enough to look to the
rebuilding of the system out of the best
material. To be sure, we were convert
ing so many thousand Enfieldsinto breech-
leaders before the victories of the Prus-
slams over the Austrians; but that was
on tho f.rther inoitnmnnt nf notorious
events, upon the reports of the massacres
inflicted by the needle-gun upon the
Danes, and some apprehension of the
tremendous slaughters in America, where
forms Of breech-loading and repeating
carbines were used by the Federals that
gave rise to the Jest among the Confede-
rates that the Missouri calvary wound up
their carbineS in the morning and fred
with them all day. Suppose one thou
sand of the deSperadoes who followed
Sherman had, under the na:ne of Fenians,
possessed themselves of such arms with
sufficient ammunition, they might have
established q Nucleus whence they might
have overrun half Canada by this time.
Exactly as the Wan Office has treated
the needle-gun, or rather worse, has the
Admiralty dealt with the turret system.
1t is enough to put those who observe
beyond patience to hear the title of able
administrators bestowed upon men who
have distinguished themselves principally
by their obstruction to progress, and who
have, at enormous outlay, kept our fleet
Just so much behind that of our chief RI
walls. The press has never ceased to adj
vocate the full trial Of the turret system
from the first publication of its claims.
The Dispatch has been among the very
first to suggest that, by way Of expert
ment at least, it should be ascertaIned
whether vessels offering the smallest
mark and firing the heaviest shot would
not probably prove masters in any future
contest. The idea was yet more strong
Iy pressed by a man who held ofice-by
that Junior Lord of the Admiralty who
set himself to show, what had never been
suspected before, that Junior Lord real
Iy had very useful functions to perform
if he would only give himself the trouble
to attend 10 them. The Americans were
building their Monitor feet, were per-
uniting their construction to be seen and
examined by all who cared to visit them.
They were boasting that they were far
outstripping us. They challenged us
openly to compete with them. One Of
their most renowned seamen told the
world that the Monadnock was more
than a match for an European fleet of
iron-clads. Still no belief, ne attention
to the evidence thrust upon us not hon
est emulation enough to say, "The in
vention is our own; Captain Coles has
taught the principle, and surely we can
apply it as well as you" All the labor,
thought and expense are devoted 10
something else, and the inventor of the
turret system is batled at at every turn,
though he yet creates the most powerful
of our iron-clads out of a cut down
wooden ship; I'LL at length the Monad-
mock weathers Cape Horn with ease and
safety, appears off the CHILEAN coast as
the lord of all the hostile and neutral
fleets there if only permitted to exert the
authority /; and the Miantonomoh crosses
the Atlantic to England with the pleasant
message that, if it could be done in an
agreeable way. al the be British iron-clads