Service garrison guns had only to pierce the sides of wooden ships, the penetrating power of guns was well known, and every confidence was reposed in our 32 and 68 pounders, chiefly forming the armaments of our land defences; but when our wooden walls were no longer held to be tenable, and the sides of our war-ships were for the future to be clad in massive plates of wroughtiron, a mighty revolution was thenceforth initiated in great guns.* With the comparatively thin plates with which our first iron-clad ships were covered (plates 3 to 4 inches thick), the old 68pounder for some time was triumphant, and great was the exultation of enthusiastic gunners over the penetrating power of the weapon. But when inch upon inch was added to the iron covering of our ships, the necessity became apparent that a new and far more powerful gun than had ever before existed was absolutely required, and that could only be obtained by greater size and rifled projectiles. Experiments of active force on the one side, and passive strength on the other, were made at Shoeburyness during the summer of 1868. A representative section of the forts in course of erection in the rear of Plymouth breakwater and at Bermuda was raised for experiment, and against

Let us here offer a tribute to the memory of Mr James Chalmers, the civil engineer, to whom the idea of the iron-plated ships is due. He brought England under a debt of gratitude to him for his invention of the "target. In 1863 he began to interest himself more particularly in making improvements in armour for ships and forts, and from that date to the day of his premature and untimely death he gave himself unreservedly, and without a day's intermission, to this important subject. Many nights were earnestly given to the working out of plans and calculations. It was to Mr Chalmers a passion, as he saw plainly enough its importance in modern warfare. His trial of the target "that he had spent so much time, and thought, and money upon, was made at Shoeburyness in 1863, and was a complete success. The "Iron Plate Committee," appointed by the House of Commcns to investigate the subject, stated in their official report, that "no other target designed for Naval purposes has resisted a similar weight of shot with so little injury." The improvements were, many of them, at once adopted by the authorities at the Admiralty, both in the building of ships of war, and also for defending forts. Almost every day, for years, did Mr Chalmers visit the Admiralty; and unnumbered were the plans and diagrams, with carefully prepared specifications, which he drew up with his own hands and weary head to illustrate his various plans. He was acknowledged at the Admiralty, and by the various ship builders, as the man who possessed the greatest amount of practical knowledge of armour-plating in England. Mr Chalmers published a work on Armour for Ships and Forts,' in 1865, which was not only extensively read and carefully studied in our country, but was also sought after eagerly by the Continontal Governments, as well as by our friends on the other side of the Atlantic. It was everywhere conceded that Mr Chalmers had the most thorough knowledge of the subject, and that he was perfectly acquainted with the relative merits and demerits of all the various targets; and also of the terrible projectiles by which their resistance was tested.

this massive wall the most powerful artillery was brought to bear. The Plymouth fort was the first defensive work ever erected which presents to an enemy a wall of iron alone without masonry or earth being visible at any point. It is designed to carry eighteen 10-inch guns, each throwing a 400 lb. shot with 60 lbs. of powder, and the outer wall, which is composed purely of iron, has a thickness of fifteen inches on the seaward side, made up of three layers of iron, each five inches thick. The outer layer is formed of plates placed horizontally-the middle layer of planks, or very narrow plates, placed vertically-the inner of plates laid horizontally. This triple layer of 5inch iron is supported inside by vertical iron standards 3 feet 9 inches apart, except at the embrasures, where there is an interval of 7 feet 6 inches between those on each side. Palliser bolts (named after Major Palliser, a very skilful Officer, who has successfully advocated the use of chilled round shot) fasten the plates and standards together, being nutted on the inside. The most potent battery of guns ever yet assembled together was brought to bear against the structure. Three days were spent in attempts to destroy it. The first day's firing was from the English 12-inch 23-ton gun, and an American 15-inch gun, constructed by a Mr Rodman. A portion of the target had been strengthened by the super-position of an additional 5-inch plate on the outside, and against this were fired three rounds from the English and two from the American gun. The general result of these five rounds was to show considerable damage to the structure. On the second and third days still further damage was done to the target. A salvo from the two pieces of ordnance would probably have demolished it altogether. But it was very evident that forts thus armed would, with the addition of some backing, offer a formidable resistance to the fire of guns of lesser calibre if an enemy should venture to attack them with inferior artillery. This, however, is an eventuality on which we must not calculate, for it became notorious that other nations of Military renown were preparing guns of 15 and even 30 inches. At the same time our own artificers were industriously engaged in improving and enlarging their own inventions.

The struggle which now commenced between the penetrating power of guns on the one side and the resisting power of iron plates on the other, to which allusion has already been made, involved a curious identity of interest between the guns for ship service and those for land service. What was good for the battery was also good for the ship. Both guns were called upon to pierce and tear the massive iron plates. It was to the Navy that the credit may be given for taking the initiative in this great race. About the year

1865 a smooth-bore 10-inch gun, weighing 12 tons, and throwing a spherical shot of 150 lbs. in weight, was put on board the Excellent, gunneryship, for trial and experiment. This gun was

mounted on what is known in the Land Service Artillery as a traversing platform. The gun ran in and out on its carriage upon slides, supported on rollers or trucks and confined to the ship's side by a radius bar. No mechanical means for working this gun were provided further than the ordinary tackles and handspikes. At this juncture the assistance of a gentleman who had already rendered singular, service to the nautical world at large in his invention for reefing the topsails of ships from the deck, appears to have been sought by the Admiralty to help in the transition state at which gunnery had evidently arrived. This gentleman was Mr Henry D. P. Cunningham (now Major of the Hampshire Artillery), a person of remarkable inventive talent, who, besides the maritime contrivance to which we have alluded, and which alone will serve to immortalise his name, had produced many other valuable inventions. Indeed, he had been a worker in gunnery improvement so far back as 1849. We find Mr Cunningham attending the Ordnance Select Committee at Woolwich with a plan of a breech-loading gun which had been originated through a dreadful accident which he had witnessed of a man having been blown to pieces in loading on board of a ship-of-war, the President, in which Mr Cunningham was serving as the Admiral's secretary. This plan of a breech-loading gun was accompanied by another most ingenious scheme for checking the recoil of a gun by the action of air, and economising or collecting the force of recoil and applying it to run the gun out again.

With the means originally provided for traversing the 12-ton gun put on board the Excellent, twenty men are required; that is, ten men on each side to move the gun round reciprocally, and it further required twenty-six men to run the gun in or back; both operations occupying upwards of three minutes of time. By the means applied by Mr Cunningham, this heavy gun was traversed by one man in twelve seconds, and run back by four men in sixteen seconds. The charge for this gun was 50 lbs.; the initial velocity was of course considerable, and the result of impact of so heavy a projectile at any distance within 600 yards of range was very destructive. But still something more was to be arrived at. This gun had only initiated the race between guns and armour-plates. Heavier projectiles to fly through the air with increased velocity and corresponding deadly powers were called for, and these could only be attained by rifling the guns and elongating the projectiles. It had been already determined upon that to bear

The

the initial strain of large charges, and especially with rifled guns and elongated shot, guns could no longer be made of cast iron. A chief feature in Sir William Armstrong's gunnery improvements was the manufacture of wrought-iron guns on the coil principle. Henceforth, then, the guns were to be of wrought-iron-a costly change to enter upon; but it was unavoidable. The next practical question to be determined was the form of rifling, and the method of imparting the rotatory motion to the projectile from the rifled twist of the gun. Sir William Armstrong coated his projectile with lead, which, in cutting its way through the rifled grooving of the bore, imparted the necessary rotation to the projectile. Messrs Lancaster, Scott, and Whitworth likewise had their respective rifling systems, and differing from each other. While these advances had been made in ship gunnery, guns for land service had been increasing in size. In 1865 rifled guns of 23-tons weight and 13inch bore, throwing a shot of 600 lbs., were manufactured and tried at Shoeburyness. difficulties of moving these guns about for the necessary operations of loading and traversing was great, and again Mr Cunningham appears to have come to the rescue, as in 1866. Frequent mention of his doings with a 23-ton gun, mounted at Southsea Castle, is recorded in the journals of the day, and, what appears marvellous, by the "Cunningham gear "this ponderous gun was, and indeed can still be, traversed by one man; in fact, in one of the inspections it is recorded that a boy, ten years old, actually traversed the gun. One of the great advantages obtained by thus being able to lay the gun with so few men (the single man who traversed being completely under cover of the gun) was the protection afforded to the gunners, by so few being exposed to shot entering the embrasures of fortresses and batteries. It is mentioned in these notices of the trials of Mr Cunningham's invention that a steam vessel was sent out to pass backwards and forwards, so as to ascertain the power of following an enemy's ship passing up the harbour channel at 200 yards, when it was found that one man could follow the vessel with perfect ease, and with a large amount of surplus speed in favour of the traversing gear. Shortly after the completion of the Southsea gun, Mr Cunningham appears to have been engaged in fitting other heavy guns (25-ton) with his traversing gear, and mounted upon a central pivot platform.

In a word Mr Cunningham proved so thoroughly the perfect efficiency of his system of traversing guns, affording protection to the gunners, and otherwise simplifying the working of the guns, that the Ordnance Select Committee unhesitatingly recommended it for adoption in the Service; and, accordingly, in December, 1868, the Secre

tary of State for War caused the recommendation to be carried out. As with the difficulty of moving the new heavy gun about arose the difficulty of manipulating the projectiles, we find Mr Cunningham supplying the Service in this important direction, and equipping a 25-ton gun at Shoeburyness mounted on a turn-table with a system for facilitating the transportation and conveyance of the projectiles to the bore of the gun. The invention appears to have consisted of an over-head shot railway, a peculiar construction upon which the projectile was raised some distance in the rear of the gun, and then conveyed with the greatest possible ease round to the muzzle. A shot sling was also provided of singularly simple and efficient construction, by which the projectile was gripped and lifted up, and in connection with this was a carriage or barrow by which the projectile was raised from the gun, and conveyed to the lifting-point at the railway. The use of Mr Cunningham's plans reduced the labour and time expended in loading this large gun to a very great extent. All these plans were subsequently applied to a new battery established on the south-west coast of England.

It would be gratifying to the historian if he could add that a large gratuity rewarded the efforts of Major Cunningham, of the Hampshire Artillery, to serve his country and economise the toil and the risks incidental to Naval and Military Artillery; but it is not recorded that any pecuniary consideration was awarded to his successful efforts. In any other than the British Service we should find him in the list of rewarded and decorated soldiers.

Coevally with Mr Cunningham's later labours, Captain A. Moncrieff, of the Edinburgh Militia Artillery, invented a plan for raising guns in a few moments above the decks of ships and parapets of fortresses, and as rapidly lowering them, so as to protect the guns and gunners from molestation by the fire of an enemy. This scheme for masking a piece of ordnance and its position until it should be required for actual use, received the approbation and concurrence of many of the most distinguished Naval and Engineer Officers, and the Government recognised the inventive powers of Captain Moncrieff by a handsome award. Other men have similarly received marks of the approbation and thankfulness of the Government, which only excites surprise that Major Cunningham and General Boxer (the ingenious author of many improvements in projectiles and of the cartridge which bears his name, famous for the signal service it rendered in the Crimea) should have experienced neglect and in the instance of the latter Officer, something worse than neglect.

Contemporaneously with Captain Moncrieff's invention a singularly destructive weapon, to

which the French have given the name of the mitrailleur, came upon the tapis. Rumour had assigned to it certain extraordinary properties, and its action in a battle between the French and Prussians at Saarbruck stimulated English. curiosity as to the importance of its adoption in the British Service. Believing it to be at least worth a trial, the British Government made choice of one out of three or four kinds of mitrailleur, and caused it to be subjected to experiment at Shoeburyness. It was brought into action at the opening of the practice, at a range of 400 yards with a total of 178 hits in the five rounds. The time was limited to two minutes. The firing was slow, after the manner of file firing, and the gun, by means of the apparatus at the breech, was moved slowly from left to right, so as to cover the 270 feet of targeting. 178 hits out of 185 shots was not bad work, and it was better, no doubt, than could have been accomplished if the three men who are necessary to the working of the piece had been shooting with the Snider. To this succeeded some practice with a breech-loader (12-pounder) and the Indian field-piece (9-lb. muzzle-loader) with case shot. These canisters of bullets did much mischief where they took effect, and the pieces were so well handled that nine rounds were fired with the 12pounder, and as many as eleven with the other, in the allotted two minutes. The remainder of the day was devoted to a repetition of the previous experiments, but not against time. This deliberate practice was enjoined in order to eliminate failures due to premature or bad fuses, or other unforeseen causes. At 400 yards the mitrailleur fired five rounds in 3 min. 50 sec., the result being 177 hits out of 185 shots. At 500 yards 172 hits were produced by the same number of rounds, the time being 2 min. 55 sec. At 600 yards the hits were 170, and the time 1 min. 55 A volley was then fired at 800 yards, when the hits were 106, and the time 1 min. 45 secs. This was the smartest firing of the series. The field-guns were pitted against the mitrailleur, but with one exception the new-comer produced the greatest number of hits. The exception was the nine-pounder, which with charges of case shot registered 236 hits, but it should not be overlooked that each case contained 63 bullets, and that therefore during the round 315 shots were projected. The weapon itself may be thus

secs.

described:

The Montigny mitrailleur may be briefly styled a breech-loading compound rifle, the barrel of which is composed of thirty-seven rifled barrels, about the size of ordinary musket barrels. These are made hexagonal upon their exterior surfaces, and are thus fitted together into a polygon mass, which is enclosed in a cylindrical iron case, forming the whole series into one weapon. These barrels are open at their breech ends, and when the breech-block

is drawn back a metal plate, containing thirty-seven central-fire cartridges, is inserted. The breech-block, which contains the firing apparatus, is then pushed forward by a powerful lever, and the cartridges are forced into the chambers of the barrels. The firing apparatus is thus constituted :-There are thirty-seven pistons or strikers, actuated by separate spiral springs, which fire the cartridges; these springs are put in tension by the closing of the breech-block, and are liberated by the descent of a serrated shutter. In this way, if the motion be quick, practically a volley results, but, according as the firing lever is worked slower, so something like rapid file firing and single shots can be made, and with this advantage, that the mitrailleur barrel, having a horizontal motion, can be made to traverse in its direction along the whole front of an advancing column. The present mitrailleur is mounted on an ordinary wood field-carriage, and it is therefore more steady and less subject to recoil than it would be if on a lighter carriage suitable for its more handy transport, in combination with Infantry movements. This, perhaps, matters little at the present stage of the trials, although hereafter, if the divergence between the mitrailleur and its field artillery competitors be not very large, it may be desirable to see it tried with its special and appropriate equipments.

But

Akin to the improvements in ordnance are the inventions and alterations which have been made in projectiles. Canister, grape, shrapnell, chain shot, and round shot, are giving way to conical balls with detonating and propelling properties attached. The elongated bullet flies with greater certainty than the spherical, and makes a more deadly impression, besides being better adapted to the rifled bores of guns and small arms. there are limits to human savagery, and the invention of an explosive bullet-a rifle ball containing a charge of fulminating or ordinary powder in an interior cavity, and bursting on striking any object-was rejected by the leading Powers of Europe as altogether too destructive of life. The bullet had been in sporting use in India for some years, and was found to literally annihilate the animals which it struck, The wound that it made was frightful-tearing away muscle and integument, rending artery and vein, splintering bone, jagging and lacerating cartilage and tendon-and filling the tissues involved in the lesion with the chemical products of the explosion. The terrible missile was offered to the Russian Government. The Emperor, horrified at its power, immediately opened a communication with the Prussian Government, and the result has been that the use of the bullet was rejected by all the European Powers as altogether too inhuman. It has been argued in favour of the missile that the more destructive weapons become the greater chance exists of rendering war unpopular and ultimately impossible. But it has been found that the issue of battles may be rapidly determined by temporarily disabling a foe, which, on the score of humanity, is more commendable than the act of utterly destroying him by the infliction of the most certain and excruciating tortures.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Addition to the Army of Twelve Non-Purchase Regiments -Amalgamation of the Office of Secretary at War with that of Secretary of State for the War DepartmentEvacuation of the Ionian Islands-The 91st becomes a Highland Regiment-Abuses in Military Law-The Cases of Lieutenant-Colonel Mansergh and LieutenantColonel Dawkins-An Amendment in the Mutiny Act, abolishing Corporal Punishment in the Army, passes in the House of Commons-The Subject Considered-How the Character of the Army may be improved-The Purchase System discussed-Appointment of a Commission on the Court-Martial Question. Resuming the thread of the general narrative, interrupted by the sketch of the progress of ordnance, we find ourselves in 1862. The amalgamation of the Indian with the Royal Army had given an addition of twelve Regiments, nine of Infantry and three of Cavalry, to the latter Force. The Infantry had belonged to the three Presidencies, and some of them had had considerable experience of war in India. Each enjoyed an excellent reputation for gallantry and discipline. The Bengal, Bombay, and Madras European Regiments, which had acquired the denomination of Fusiliers, were notably distinguished by their services. In February, 1862, they were transferred to the Line as non-purchase Regiments, for none of the Officers who had served the East India Company had obtained their commissions by purchase. But the Officers were prohibited from selling their commissions. On the other hand, they were declared entitled to retain their claim to Indian pension, and all others were suffered to retire on full or half-pay. Officers joining purchase Regiments from the Indian Service were placed on the same footing, in all respects, with the Officers of such Regiments; and all nonpurchase Officers were granted the privilege of receiving an allowance on retirement of 100l. for each year's service, whether in the British or Indian Army, provided the total amount did not exceed the price of the Commission resigned.

The year 1863 was one of the least eventful years in the History of the Army. Saving the passage of a Volunteer Act, which maintained the Force on a separate establishment, and relieved the Regiments of the cost of arms and ammunition, the passage of the Regimental Debts Act, and the expressed determination of Parliament that all the duties, powers, and authorities of the Secretary at War should thereafter be exercised by the Secretary of State, the year was absolutely barren of events of material Military interest. The following year was scarcely more momentous. Perhaps the most striking incident in 1864 was the cession of the seven Ionian Islands to the Greek Government. 1860 there were 4,276 British soldiers quartered on the different islands; in 1864 they

In

were withdrawn. During the war of the French Revolution the islands had, by a clause in the Treaty of Tilsit, been handed over to the French by the Russians. In 1809 they were, with the exception of Corfu, captured by the British. At Santa Maura the enemy made a gallant resistance, but was ultimately overpowered by the British troops. By the Treaty of Paris, in 1815, the islands were formed into a free and independent State, and were placed under the exclusive protection of the King of Great Britain.* The first man chosen for the post of Lord High Commissioner was General Sir Thomas Maitland; his successors were sometimes civilians, sometimes Military men. Among the latter were Sir Frederic Adam, Sir Howard Douglas, Lord Seaton (formerly Sir John Colborne), and Sir Henry K. Storks. Sir Frederic Adam's government was tarnished by what appears to have been great injustice towards Colonel (afterwards General Sir Charles) Napier; but it is admitted in other respects his rule was not discreditable to England. With all his faults he was a man of ability and energy. A statue and a diamond star costing 2,000l., voted by the Senate, proved that he had governed after a manner to satisfy the aristocracy of the islands. A similar compliment had, with the exception of the vote for a star, been paid to the memory of Sir Thomas Maitland. Sir Howard Douglas had great difficulties to contend with. Appointed by a Conservative Ministry, he was expected by the people of the islands to carry out the measures introduced by a Liberal predecessor. He took the medium course, and endeavoured to persuade a somewhat refractory Parliament to prosecute those measures which, he maintained, could alone prepare the Ionian people for the pro

For a full and extremely interesting and well-written account of the Ionian Islands from the earliest period to the cession of those islands to the Greek Government, the reader is referred to a work published by Chapman and Hall. It was edited by Viscount Kirkwall, who had been on the Staff of Sir Henry Ward, the seventh Lord High Commissioner, but we have reason to know that the work was written by Major-General Whittingham, C.B., the author of an excellent volume on Bermuda, and of a Memoir of the General's gallant father, Sir Samford, to whom frequent reference has been made. At the time of the publication of the books on Bermuda and the Ionian Islands the General was a Regimental Commanding Officer, and seems to have been governed by motives of etiquette and Military subordination in preserving a temporary incognito. But there is no necessity for our hiding his candle under a bushel. General W. has sketched with a certain picturesque vigour the history of the British government of the Ionian Islands, and has drawn with a facile pen the characters of the several Lord High Commissioners. His descriptions of the islands and the manners of the people are likewise singularly vivid, and scattered throughout the volumes are anecdotes of noted and distinguished persons who have visited the islands at different times, or been more or less mixed up with the government.

per discharge of the arduous duties which free institutions impose. Sir Howard's hospitality was great but discriminative, and his public expenditure so much in excess of that of his predecessor (Lord Nugent) that he left a very considerable deficit in the treasury. Lord Seaton succeeded to the office of Lord High Commissioner after it had been temporarily held by a Liberal civilian. As a Conservative, he was illdisposed to carry out the measures of his predecessor, which rather disappointed the people. Some of his measures, however, were of a decidedly useful tendency; education and schools prospered under his sway, though he restrained the freedom of the press and any other form of expression of public opinion. But when the French Revolution broke out in 1848 and found so many imitators in Germany, Italy, and Greece, Lord Seaton all at once became an extremely Liberal agitator. All these changes unsettled the minds of the people of the Ionian Islands, and Cephalonia especially became the scene of disturbances. An occasion was afforded, arising out of the operations of a conspiracy on the islands, for a piece of gallantry on the part of a British non-commissioned officer. Serjeant Luke Dunne, of the 36th Foot, with twenty-four men, resisted a large body of the hostile peasantry, who directed their fire solely at the soldiers. In the conflict two of the 36th were killed and two wounded. Dunne's gallant and prudent conduct was rewarded with a medal and a pension. Sir Henry Storks was the last Military man who held the post of Lord High Commissioner. During his government the Parliament of the islands decreed the union of the islands to the kingdom of Greece. decree went forth in 1863, and in the following year, as has been said, the troops were withdrawn, having had no occasion for active employment between that period and 1815, excepting in the trifling instance recorded above.

The

May 3rd, 1864, was a red-letter day in the annals of the 91st Regiment. From the month of March, 1859, until 1861, Colonel Bertie Gordon had vainly endeavoured to move the Duke of Cambridge to restore the nationality of the Regiment in title and costume. He then addressed His Grace the Duke of Argyll upon the subject, and after an active correspondence which lasted an entire twelvemonth, the Duke succeeded in carrying the point for which Colonel Gordon had been solicitous. The objection of the Duke of Cambridge to the change sought by the 91st was founded the character of the recruitment upon of the Corps, which had in a great measure taken from it a Scottish hue; but Colonel Gordon having satisfied the authorities that the Regiment, by the exertions of the Recruiting Staff in Scotland, was rapidly acquiring a Highland personnel,