RIFLKD ORDNANCE. 



RIGHT. 



100 



itarion merely figure upon pl*r, have little idea of the 

 thai are encountered by thoee who carry inventions into 

 . % port, I had my full abaro of i-nch .li!li.-ulti.-~, ami it 



;> now It three yrani of continual application to .-nrmount th, m. 

 IB thr bright uf cummer my ex|>oriuieuU won- for the moot part 

 ewricd oo at the n ami, between the hour* of 8 o'clock in the 

 morning and 6 ; for after that time imiple began to move about and 

 wrr apt to get in the way. At other MMOD* I avail"! myself of the 

 wild moot* bdooging to my friend Mr. llvaumont. at Allenhcads, ami 

 tlwre I had a hut eoMtruoted on a mountain ridge, 2000 feet above 

 the IH of the tea. My target* were placed upon Uie opposite side 

 of a deep valley, when nothing more valuable than grouse or lean 

 *h*vp ran the riak of bang ahot ; and well it wan that MI, h was the 

 CMC. for I had cuoctructml an instrument r-r maintaining a fire upon an 

 . l.j.vt (a breach, for example) aftr dark new had aet in, and 1 used to 

 awaken the dammit of the heath by firing shells at my distant target 

 iu the middle of the night; and I may observe in passing that. whi-n 

 this instrument was fully |rfected, I was enabled to strike a distunt 

 object in a pitch dark night with the fame accuracy as in broad day- 

 light- At the end f Uic three years I had succeeded in bringing to 

 maturity luth gum n<! j.p.jeetile-. Several new guns had been made 

 OB my own re|N>ni>iliility, ant! eon.-ider,ible expense incurred on 

 rxpnuiient* ; Imt all my disbursements w.-re refuiidetl by the Govern- 

 ment a* soon as the results were ascertain^!." 



liave <titi-nil thus fully into th.' de-criptiou of the Armstrong 

 gnn a> it is the gun adopt.-.! in the s.-ivice. It only remains briefly to 

 notice tli. \Vliitwnrth gun and the French rifled gun. The Whitworth 

 gun ha*, like the rifle [Riri.R], a hexagonal bore, the angles of the 

 hexagon being rounded on". AH the projectiles arc very long, the 

 Inclination of the grooves is very great. The guns with which the 

 experimental were made in the spring of 1860, near Liverpool, were 

 breech loader*. The following description and table of dimensions is 

 Ukt-n from the Lectures on Artillery before quoted. " The breech is 

 eland by a cap which screws on outside, and works in an iron hoop 

 attached by a hinge to the side of the ln-ei eh ; the cap is opened back 

 for loading, after which it is shut-to, like a door, and then screwed on 

 to the breech by a handle for the purpose ; the vent is in the centre of 

 the cap, and therefore in line with the axis of the bore. For smaller 

 iind gun*, Mr. Whitworth uses homogeneous iron, the larger guns 

 are made of the same material, but strengthened with wrought 

 imo hoops fixed on by hydraulic pressure. The Whitworth projectile 

 in hexagonal, it* form coi responding to that of the bore, and it is made 

 of cut iron accurately turned I. y machinery (Jiy. 5); for penetrating 

 hard aubstanoex, as wrought iron plates, the projectile is flat headed 

 and made of homogeneous iron (fy. B). The charge is Jth the weight 



Wf. *. 



Fig. 0. 



M.j.ii, 3-1 In. 

 Minor, 3-8. 



of the projectile, and it is placed in the Lore in a tin cartridge which 

 remain* in until after the gun is fired, when it is removed ; a wad of 

 .ting substance closes the front of the cartridge, and is intended 

 to prevent the fouling of the bore." 



H Gf.f. 



li * i-oiinder. tin- extraordinary range of 688 yards (more than 

 .j.)wa obtained The Armstrong 32-iioundcr 



with the mine elevation ran . .|. 



* <n '' 1> guns was also very 



accurate. It nlo /.|>|,e.im to have an a.! r the Armstrong 



gun in range with <- ; .i.U elevation, and can b, ,,-.,1 either as a 

 lattler or w a mn.k- loader, while, a* ,-xplained under Hi 



. i obtained without windage. But until careful expt-i 



I. boll, under II,. ..which has 



*" l"th-rl 50 || !,, (!. 



relative menu. The jwnet; , ,,f tho flat-headed p. 



- - in very great, and in ,,-.ctiv<- 



than any other projectile. Mr. Whitworth has found that decreasing 

 tin' hinder ]rt of the projectile has greatly increased its range. 

 The French Jl-pounder field piece is a muzzle loading 6-g 

 bronze gun weighing about 6 cwt. The calibre is about 3'36 i i 



Kig. 7. 



S4M 



the grooves making one turn in 60 inches. The projectile 

 is shown in ."',</ 7. It has 1 2 leaden buttons on its exterior, 

 that is, 2 for each groove. Though undoubtedly not nearly 

 so perfect a weapon as cither the Armstrong or Whit- 

 worth, it appears to have done good service in the late 

 It-dian campaign. It is also very simple in construction. 

 The Krench have also a bronze rifled siege gun of about 

 the calibre of 12-pounders, and have rifled some of their 

 heavy iron ship guns. The success of the latter is doubt- 

 ful, for in all the experiments in this country, unless 

 strengthened, cast iron rifled guns have burst when fired except with 

 ill charges. 



RIFLEMEN (called by the French tirailleur.'!) were soldiers whose 

 duties corresponded nearly to those of light infantry troops, but their 

 muskets being rifled or grooved, the effect of their fire, within certain 

 limits, was more certain. 



In the preceding article we have stated what is known com < 

 the first use of rifled barrels on the Continent; and iu the article 

 ARMS it has been shown that the duty of riflemen is indicated in tho 

 'Observations' compiled by the Earl of Albemarle in 1G4U. The 

 Anglo American people are, however, believed to have been the first 

 who organised corjis of infantry armed with rifle-muskets, and during 

 their struggle for independence the fire from those pieces too often 

 took effect with fatal precision against the officers and iu the ranks of 

 the British forces. From that time the incorporation of bodies of 

 riflemen with the armies began to take place among the nations of 

 Europe, and it is now become a general practice. In the British 

 service, the 60th, formerly called the Royal American regiment, is a 

 rifle corps ; and Manningham's rifle corps appears in the ' Army List ' 

 for 1801, but this became in 1803 the 95th regiment. In 1816 it was 

 formed into the present Kifle Brigade, and placed under the command 

 of Sir David Dundas, who had before been colonel of the 60th regiment. 

 Subsequently to that year a regiment of native riflemen had been 

 raised in Ceylon, and a rifle corps of cavalry at the Cape of Good Hope. 



In 1853, after the Minie' rifle was adopted into the service, it was 

 intended to arm the whole of the infantry with it. In fact, the greater 

 portion, if not the whole, of our army, were armed with it at the battle 

 of the Alma ; but the Enfield rifle having been decided on in 1854 by 

 the committee appointed by Lord Hardinge, the whole of the infantry 

 are now armed with it. Such being the case, the titles of Hiflo 

 Brigade and 60th Rifles become meaningless, though still retained on 

 account of old associations. 



The 60th and Rifle Brigade are however armed with a short Enfield 

 and sword bayonet. 



RIGEL. [ORION.] 



RIGHT. This word occurs under some form in all the Teutonic 

 languages ; and bears a double meaning equivalent to the significations 

 of the Latin word jut. 



In its strict sense it means a legal claim ; in other words, a claim 

 which can be enforced by legal remedies, or a claim the infringement 

 of which can be punished by a legal sanction. It follows from this 

 definition that every right presupposes the existence of positive law. 



The causes of rights, or the modes of acquiring them, are various, 

 and can only be explained in a system of jurisprudence ; for example, 

 a person may acquire a right by contract, by gift, by succession, by 

 the non-fulfilment of a condition. But every right co-relates with a 

 legal duty. Thus a right arising from contract (for example, a con- 

 tract to perform a service, or to pay a sum of money) is a right against 

 a determinate person or persons; a right of property in a field or 

 house is a right to deal with the field or house, availing against the 

 world at large. On the other hand, every legal duty does not co- 

 rclate with a right ; for there are certain absolute duties which do not 

 co-relate with a right in any determinate person. Such are the duties 

 which are included in the idea of police ; as the duties of cleanliness, 

 order, quiet at certain times and places. 



The word right is sometimes used, improperly and secondarily, to 

 signify not legal but moral claims ; that is to say, claims which are 

 1 merely by public opinion, and not by the legal sanction. 



In this sense tho right of a slave against his master, or of a subject 

 against his sovereign, may be spoken of ; although a slave ha.*- 

 any legal right against his master, and a subject never has a legal right 

 gn. It is in the same sense that a sovereign govern- 

 ment is sometimes said to have rights against its subjects, although in 

 -.'ii government creates rights, and does not possess 

 them. In like manner, one sovereign government is said to 

 rights against another sovereign government; that is to say, moral 

 rights, derived from the positive morality prevailing between inde- 

 pendent nation^, which is called international Inn: 



\\'e likewise sometimes hear of certain rights, styled natural rights, 

 which are supposed to be anterior to civil government, and to be para- 

 mount to it. Hence these supposed natural rights sometimes receive 

 also the additional epithets of indefeasible, indestructible, inalienable, 

 and the like. This theory of natural rights is closely connected with 

 the li.-tion of a social compact made between persons living in a state 



