Mounting of Naval Ordnance ^ 169 



is obvious, and it should be applied. An infinite deal of 

 pains has been taken, and with much success, to render the 

 carronad^ manageable, and the same ought to be taken with 

 the Congreve 24-pounder and other guns of this construction, 

 if they really h^ve become so unsteady and unsafe. But we 

 are informed by Sir W. Congreve himself in hisi " Cpncise 

 Account" of his 24-pounder gun, that the '' more conical 

 form of my construction" was, subsequently to its first intro- 

 duction, ^opted by thosp who cpntested the palm of excel- 

 lence with him j and indeed any one who looks at the newly- 

 constructed 32-pounders, of nearly the same length and 

 weight as that proposed by Congreve, must acknowledge, 

 that, with the exception of the ugly, pevnicioijs, and useless 

 mass of metal about the muzzle, they possess in a great de- 

 gree the conical form of Congreve, and therefore its pro- 

 perties, bad or good, Hence a proportionate care in mount- 

 ing them also will be requived to deprive them of unsafe 

 action on their carriages, which no doubt will be given. If, 

 however, what our author says with respect to the rejection 

 of the Congreve construction of ordnance be correct, and 

 that, from a forgetfulness of its valuable properties, a defect 

 arising from equipment may have condemned it, the new 

 carriage returns it to its proud position of excellence, and 

 with an augmented developement of good properties. This 

 has been amply proved with the 18-pounders of this con-, 

 struction with which the East India Company's ship, the 

 Earl Balcarras, has been armed, mounted on the proposed 

 carriage. Commander Marshall says, *^ as they may be 

 worked by nearly the same number of men as carronades of 

 similar calibre, line of battle ships carrying even fewer men 

 (than we have before supposed) may now change their main 

 deck guns for Congreve's 32-pounders/' 



Our author then proposes, with much propriety, to increase 

 the force of our 28-gun frigates by giving them 18-pounder 

 guns of Congreve's construction, as they may be worked 

 on his carriages " without any augmentation of their crews 

 or inconvenience to their narrow decks," being capable of 

 stowing fore and aft. 



We must refer our readers to the book and its numerously 

 well executed and illustrative plates for a great quantity of 

 detail and interesting discussion. We think that the pro- 

 position has completely put into our hands the power of 

 raising the force of our ships of war, either by advancing the 

 calibres to what Chapman (the Swedish naval constructor) 

 has proposed, or by introducing, at least, the calibre of 38 

 throughout our navy, which, in a former Number of the 



