i \\"V 



67 



together in spiral rolls round a steel bar or core, smaller in diameter 

 than the bore of the gun. Orer thin, whrn cold, uxither twist of the 

 same kind U nude with the spiral running in a contrary direction, and 

 so until three or four layer* hare been put on, according to the calibre 

 of the gun and the thickness required ; the whole is then reheated and 

 welded together for the last tune under the steam hammer. The 

 edge* of the three feet length* are next planed down so as to admit 

 their joining and lapping over; and over these edge* are forced on thick 

 wrought iron rings, which, being welded down at a white heat, of 

 course contract o ai to make the joint almost stronger than if made in 

 one piece. In the breech an opening U cut down into the chamber ; 

 but the breech iteelf U Mparate from the gun, and U worked back- 

 ward! by a powerful ncrew. Whrn the gun u to be loaded, the breech 

 in worked back, and a wedge-shaped piece, fitting into the opening of 

 the gun, lifted out, but not to admit the introduction of the charge, 

 which in pushed forward with a ramrod at the back, working through 

 the Urge screw in which the breech turns into the chamber, where the 

 ruling begins. The wedge is then replaced, the breech screwed close 

 by a single turn of a lever handle, and the gun fired. The operation of 

 loading and firing can be performed, we believe, three times in one 

 minute. Apart from the simple but effective mechanism of the breech, 

 the great merit of this gun consists in the manner in which it is 

 formed in spirals of metal bauds, which give it such an enormous 

 increase of strength that one-half the thickness of iron can be dis- 

 pensed with. Thus, an ordinary long 32-pounder weighs 57 cwt., and' 

 require* 10 Ib. of powder to throw a ball to its utmost effective range, 

 8000 yards. Sir W. Armstrong's 32-pounder only weighs 26 cwt., and 

 a charge of 5 Ib. of powder throws its shot 54 miles, or nearly 10,000 

 yards. In a S2-pounder of this latter kind there are no less than 44 

 rifle grooves, having one pitch in 10 feet, or making one complete 

 twist round the inside in a gun of that length. A greater pitch would 

 no doubt give greater impetus to the shot, but the risk of ' stripping ' 

 the lead was so great that it could not be attempted. The shot used 

 are iron and cylindrical, and at first were completely coated over with 

 lead ; but this plan has just been altered, and the shot have now only 

 two rings of lead a quarter of an inch thick and an inch and a half 

 broad, one at the shoulder and one at the base of the cone. Both 

 these rings are dovetailed, so to speak, into the iron shot, so as to leave 

 about one-tenth of on inch to fit the rifling. Thus, when the cartridge 

 is ignited, the ball is forced forward from the chamber into the narrow 

 bore, which it fills so closely, being actually too large for it, that there 

 is no windage whatever, and every portion of the explosive force is 

 applied to projecting the ball." 



CANON (owir), a rule. The several senses in which this word is 

 used are all derivatives from its first or original sense : and this sense 

 it appears to have acquired, as itself a derivative from eanna (we use 

 the Latin form, though in fact both canita and canon are Greek terms 

 transplanted into the Latin language), which signifies a rod or cane ; 

 such a plant as produced straight, round, smooth, and even shoots, 

 adapted to the purpose of a rule ; or as we say, a ruler, used in drawing 

 straight lines. The word cannon is the some with run mi, and is applied 

 to the instrument of war so called on account of its resemblance to a 

 rule. The word canon is used in mathematics and iu music ; and also 

 to expiess certain grammatical rules formed by the critics. But it in 

 more particularly appropriated to rule in respect of things ecclesiastical, 

 and it in in thin application of it that we propose here solely and 

 briefly to treat of it. 



If it is asked why eanna should be used for rule especially in things 

 rmUi*ti-til, we answer that the most probable reason that con now 

 be given is, that the word was so used by St. Paul (Gal. vi. 16). " And 

 an many as walk according to this rale (cation), peace be on them and 

 mercy, and upon the Israel of God." 



The rule here spoken of was the Christian rule, the rule or law of 

 the Christian church : and as these rules became explained or amplified 

 in subsequent times by persons deemed of authority in the church, as 

 by popes, bishops, councils, whether general or particular, these new 

 rules or explications of the ancient and fundamental rules of the 

 Christian church were designated by the term canono or canon*. Of 

 these there is a great multitude. Thus they speak of the canons of 

 the Council of Nice, the canons of the Council of Trent, meaning 

 the decisions of those councils on points of doctrine or discipline 

 submitted to them. The Apoilolical canoiu are canons which are 

 supposed to have been agreed upon at a very early period in the 

 history of the church. By some learned persons they have been 

 referred even to the times of the Apostles, whence this name. 



The collected body of these canons forms what is called The Canon, 

 Law, which in other words is the law of the church, that body of in- 

 junctions regulating men's private discipline, and their social relations, 

 which originate, not in the conferences and wills of civil authorities or 

 parliaments, but in the deliberations of ecclesiastical courts or eccle- 

 siastical assemblies, the members of which were ecclesiastics, and the 

 precedents on which they acted the decrees of similar assemblies, or of 

 other persons possessing ecclesiastical authority, or finally, of the most 

 mend authority of all, that of the Apostles and of the Founder of the 

 Christian church. We may here make a slight deviation from our 

 subject to point out the distinction between the canon law and the 

 civil law. The former is already explained. The civil law is the 

 political and municipal law of Uu Roman empire. When we hear a 



person spoken of as doctor of lawn, what U meant is, that he is a doctor 

 of both civil and canon law ; but the term in Great Britain is now 

 littlf more than a mere honorary distinction. 



i is also used for the rale of persons who are devoted to a 

 life strictly religious : persons who live according to (religious) rule, 

 such as praying at certain hours, and for a certain length of time, keep- 

 ing themselves from marriage, eating particular kinds of meat, periodical 

 fastings, and the like. It is applied to the book in which the rule was 

 written, and wlu'ch was read over to such professed persons from time 

 to time ; and since in such a book it was not unusual to enter also the 

 names of persons who had been benefactors to the community, which 

 names were recited from time to time with honour, and tin 

 held and reputed to be holy persons or saints (sancti), the entry of 

 such names formed what is meant by cattmiiation, though in later 

 times, when it was found that saints multiplied too fast, wli. 

 small religious community added any benefactor to their li-t. tl 

 became confined to such persons as had their names enrolled in tin- 

 great imaginary volume of which the head of the church was the sole 

 guardian. It was also applied to penont who lived under a rule ; as 

 the Augustinian canons, persons who adopted the rule of Saint 

 Augustine. And here the distinction U to be observed of mju! 

 frciilar canon*. The regular canons were persons who were confined to 

 their own monasteries, where they practised their rule ; the secular 

 canons were persons living indeed a religious life, or one according to 

 some prescribed Christian form and order, but who nevertheless mixed 

 more or less with the world, and particularly as discharging the various 

 offices of Christianity for the edification and benefit of the laity. This 

 was the species of canons that are found in the cathedral churches, or 

 in other churches called conventual, as at Southwell in Nottingham- 

 shire, wlu'ch were all churches of very ancient foundation, the centres 

 of ( 'hristionity throughout on extensive district. There they lived a 

 kind of monastic life under the presidency generally of a bishop : but 

 issuing forth from time to time to introduce the light of ('ln-i-ii.ni 

 truth into districts into which it had not before penetrated, or to 

 instruct the persons lately received into the church, ami to ]K-i-forin 

 for them the various ordinances of Christianity. As parish churches 

 arose, the necessity for such visits from the canons in the cathedral 

 churches was diminished. But the institution remained : it was 

 spared at the Reformation, and continues to the present day. 

 canons are sometimes called prebendaries. This arises from their 

 being endowed with land or tithe, as many of them are to a greater or 

 lees extent, which endowment is colled a prebend. The canons have 

 stalls in the cathedral churches, which are generally called prcbendal 

 stalls. They form the chapter in the expression the dean and chapter, 

 and are still nominally what they actually once were, the council of 

 the bishop for the administration of the affaire of his diocese. 



From canon is formed canonical, which occurs in many ecclesiastical 

 terms, as canonical hoart, canonical tin, canonical punithment, canonical 

 lettcrt, canonical obedience, and canonical scripture*. These terms re- 

 quire no explanation, except it be to add that the canonical scriptures 

 are the usually received books of the Old and New Testament. 



CANON (in mathematics). This word, which signifies a rule, has 

 generally been employed to mean a set of mathematical tables. Tims 

 it was customary to speak of the canon of logarithms, of sines, A 

 collection of formulas has sometimes been called by the same name, 

 and even any mathematical instrument. (Vitalis, Lex Math. ) 



CANON in music (narur, a rule), a composition, generally vocal, 

 sometimes in two, but commonly in more parts, in which, with the 

 exceptions that will be mentioned, precisely the same melody, or 

 subject, is given to every part. Thence the wi,l. from the fact that 

 every part follows the same rule or model. This melody is sung by 

 each, after the leader, either on the unison, or the octave, or on the 

 fourth and octave, 4c., below, the voices severally following or answer- 

 ing each other at the expiration of one or more bars. According to 

 many German and French writers the canon is n perpetual fuyue, but 

 this definition is liable to great objection: indeed, the term / 

 itself by no means satisfactory. [Fuouc.] 



To compose a canon on the unison, or octave, requires less labour 

 than genius, and, with very few exceptions, is the only composition of 

 the kind that produces a constantly agreeable effect. A canon is said 

 to be written thrte-i*-one (or/uur-in-oiw, Ac.) on the unison, when the 

 parts follow on the same degree of the scale. Cherubim's ' Perfida 

 Clori,' and Dr. Hayes's ' Come follow me to the greenwood tree,' are 

 admirable examples of this sort. The renowned ' Non nobis, Domine,' 

 of Birde is an unrivalled specimen of the canon three-in-one, on the 

 fourth and octave below ; and Dr. Blow's ' Gloria Patri ' (engraved on 

 his monument in Westminster Abbey), a canon four-in-one, on tln> 

 fifth, octave, and twelfth below, is entitled to the encomiums that have 

 been bestowed on it. 



A canon in many parts may have two or even more melodies. Thus 

 a canon four-in-two is for four voices, two singing one melody, two 

 another, both subjects blending. But the canon takes numerous 

 shapes, which it would be impossible, even if it were desirable to 

 describe in this place. The C'onnn by Augmentation is that in wlii.-h 

 the notes of the answers are double and quadruple in length as com- 

 pared with those of the subject. Dr. Cooke's ' Amen ' (regularly sung 

 after ' Non nobis ' at the Catch-Club) is an ingenious example of this 

 species. The Canon by Diminution is exactly the reverse of that by 



