368 Reviews. | April, 
place to three or four heavy cannons, which will do the work with 
more effect at a greater range? To this subject a reference was recently 
made by a correspondent in ‘The Times, and when duly weighed it 
appears most important. In addition to doing the work more effectively 
at the least cost in the long run (for, of course, fewer guns will require, 
proportionately, less men), we have the fact that such a change, by 
lightening the weight of the equipment, would admit of the application 
of a heavier armature, and there would thus be gained a more powerful 
means of attack, a more obstinate resisting medium, less expenditure 
of money, and less waste of life. 
For, after all, it is our military engineers who should have these latter 
objects in view in all their schemes of offence and defence. Although 
we are not members of the Peace Society, we sympathize with those 
who are constantly laying stress upon the fact, that war is not only a 
bloody, but a costly game ; a game which will only be played out when 
the belligerents discover that the stakes, in every case, amount to more 
than the prizes. Duelling has ceased to be the fashion, because less 
courage and dexterity are required to put a ball into the body of a 
man, at 100 yards, than to pierce him through with a rapier ; and as 
war becomes more mechanical, and the cost is increased, whilst the 
occasions for the display of prowess become less frequent ; when man 
finds that it is no longer a question of the strongest arm, but of the 
toughest steel—then he will begin to open his eyes to the fact that he 
is not a fighting, but a reasoning creature ; and that if the Almighty 
had meant to make him resemble a tiger, intending that he should 
settle his differences by brute force, He would have furnished him 
with claws, and with a much smaller and less convoluted brain than 
that of which he now stands possessed. 
THE INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES OF THE NORTH 
COUNTRY.* 
Tr is always of interest to note the onward march of human industry— 
to see man advancing from point to point, subduing nature, and making 
each conquest a standing place upon which to apply his knowledge. 
Upon this ground, especially, are we pleased with the handsome 
volume which has been issued under the auspices of some eminent mem- 
bers of the Coal-trade of Neweastle, and of the Institute of Mining 
Engineers, informing us of the Industrial resources of the Tyne, Wear, 
* «The Industrial Resources of the District of the Three Northern Rivers— 
the Tyne, Wear, and Tees,’ &c. Edited by Sir William Armstrong, J. Lowthian 
Bell, Esq., J, Taylor, Esq., and Dr. Richardson, Longman, London; Reid, New- 
castle. 
‘A History of the Trade and Manufactures of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees,’ &c. 
Second Edition. Spon, London; Lambert, Neweastle. 
‘A Handbook to Neweastle-on-Tyne.’ By the Rey. J. Collingwood Bruce, 
LL.D., F.S.A. Longman, London; Reid, Neweastle. 
