involved in the Construction of Artillery. 417 



inactivity. It is useless ; for universal experience lias shown that no secret of the smallest 

 value can be maintained within the walls of an arsenal for even six months after its 

 value is ascertained. Can a secret military invention of any note or value be pointed to 

 at this moment, as in the possession of any one power upon earth exclusively? Not one. 



Ventilation and competition are the very life and spirit of all improvement ; and, in 

 place of such an antiquated system of pretended secrecy, nothing would so energize and 

 make vital the progress of our military departments, and more especially of the ordnance, 

 as the publication in some form of an official journal of its works, researches, and progress ; 

 and an annual distinct, detailed, systematic, and scientific Report to Parliament of all that 

 has been brought forward (good or bad), whether by communication or importation, of 

 invention, experiment, research, or discovery, within the department at home ; and pro- 

 gress ascertained, of whatever sort, in the war departments of other countries abroad. 

 Whatever of new light such publicity diiTused, would be returned with tenfold intensity 

 to its source, and need not preclude reserve and silence upon any point (should such 

 possibly be ever found) upon which the national welfare would render secrecy for a time 

 expedient. 



France, which possesses at once the largest and most important military literature in 

 Europe, and reckons amongst her military ofiicers and engineers some of the brightest 

 names that adorn the roll of science, is a proof of the value of such publicity — of the 

 admission of the principle that science has no secrets, and that its valuable applications can 

 have none. There the results of every improvement or invention — every massive research or 

 train of experiment, whether at Metz or Toulon — appear speedily in print, and give a fresh 

 vantage-ground in common to every working mind, whereon to attempt still further 

 progress. How full of stimulus to the slothful — of hope and promise to the zealous and 

 aspiring! — how sifting of the chaff from the grain, is such a system of publicity ! 



Note AA (Sect. 305.) See Note Q. 



Note BB.— (Sect. 305.) See Note T. 



Note CC— (Sect. 316.) See Note W. 



Note DD.— (Sect. 318.) See Note S. 



