Detonating 



Now that every gunmaker and almost every sports- 

 man is so infatuated with the detonating, or percussion, 

 system, I can easily imagine that the whole of this 

 edition, which relates to the flint, will by many be 

 considered an obsolete subject, arid therefore an useless 

 insertion. I fancy that I see a fashionable sportsman 

 opening this little work, catching his eye on the word 

 " flint," " pan," or " hammer," throwing down the 

 book, walking out of the shop, and exclaiming, " a 

 hundred years out of date !" little aware, however, 

 that, for these last ten years, I have made, perhaps, 

 more trials of detonaters than any gunmaker in the 

 kingdom ; and were I to print every schedule that was 

 carefully noted down at the time of trial, I might com- 

 pile a work, which would be formed of pages, more, in 

 appearance, like a book of arithmetic, than a work of 

 sentences. I shall therefore not trouble my readers 

 with a dry detail of evidence, but merely insert one of 

 the schedules, with a copy of an impartial opinion which 

 I sent to Mr. Joseph Manton in 1822 ; as every sub- 

 sequent trial, up to the present time, has only served 

 more strongly to confirm that opinion. 



Were I inclined, however, to make any further ob- 

 servation, it would be to say, that on further arid more 



