BREECH-LOADERS. 63 



Thelntroduc- M 7 experience in breech-loading 



tion of the ,, , . j , , -t 



Breech-load- arms for sporting purposes dates back 

 ing System. 



since the year 1855, when my attention 



was attracted to the La Faucheux system,* which 

 is almost as great an era in gun-making as the 

 > invention of the copper cap. After two years' 

 experience and repeated trials, in which, to my 

 disgust, I found my favourite Manton, and 

 others of my hardest-hitting muzzle-loading guns, 

 equalled or beaten by breech-loaders, my scep- 

 ticism vanished ; I felt convinced the system 

 was sound, and that sooner or later a complete 

 revolution must take place in the manufacture of 

 fire-arms. 



Under these impressions I endeavoured to 

 concentrate my ideas on paper, for the benefit 

 of my brother sportsmen, and my letter appeared 



* Although this system was invented and extensively adopted 

 in France several years previous to its introduction in this 

 country, the French workmanship of that day was, generally 

 speaking, so inferior, that no sportsman liked to shoot with a 

 French gun. Even French sportsmen preferred English fire- 

 arms. 



