242 SOME OLD BOOKS 



So firm was the Iron Duke's faith in Brown Bess 

 with the flint-lock that in 1835, when the Master 

 General of the Ordnance asked his opinion as to the 

 merits of Forsyth's invention, he would hear of no 

 change in these ' admirable arms.' 



'I consider our arm [Brown Bess] as the most efficient 

 that has yet been produced. The fire from it undoubtedly 

 is acknowledged to be the most destructive known. ... I 

 confess I always considered undesirable any alteration of 

 them. . . . For instance, in case of wet, which musquet will 

 recover soonest the one with the flint and steel lock, or the 

 one with the lock for the use of detonating powder ? 1 

 recollect having had a trial with Manton's plugs on that 

 point. The musquet with the flint and steel lock commenced 

 its fire the soonest. . . . Can the soldier be entrusted to take 

 care of sixty or seventy-five rounds of priming composed of 

 fulminating powder 1 Will it bear all the vicissitudes of 

 heat, cold, wet to which it must be exposed ? Where is it 

 to be kept in order that he may get at it for use with cer- 

 tainty and celerity ? ... I do not hesitate to declare my 

 opinion that it would be absolutely impossible to venture to 

 rely upon the priming ammunition, whether in our fleet or 

 in our armies.' 



These words seem to sound from a far distant age, 

 yet there are those still living who remember him who 

 spoke them. The Duke had restored to the British 

 Army the prestige which had so grievously waned 

 since the American War; he had blotted out the Duke 

 of York's deplorable record in the Low Countries; he 

 had insisted upon regimental officers knowing and 

 attending to those duties which it had become the 

 practice to leave sergeants to learn and discharge ; by 

 uncompromising discipline and, it must be owned, a 



