PREFACE. 



THE circumstances which have led to the publication of this 

 treatise on the Sliot-gun and Sporting-rifle are as follows : 

 At the close of the year 1857, on undertaking the editor- 

 ship of the department of the Field connected with shooting, 

 I found its columns deluged with an angry correspondence 

 on the comparative merits of the breech-loader and muzzle- 

 loader statements and counter-statements were made, week 

 after week, all of which could not possibly be true, since 

 many of them were in direct opposition to each other. 

 Theories were propounded of the most visionary kind, yet, 

 as generally happens, their inventors expected them to be 

 received as conclusive of the opinion to support which they 

 were brought forward. The battle had raged for several 

 months ; but after all this 



" Bubble, bubble, 

 Toil and trouble," 



no one was convinced, and the question was left exactly 

 where it was when the correspondence commenced. But, as 

 numerous good sportsmen seemed really desirous of ascer- 

 taining with something like exactness the real merits of 

 these guns, it was determined to give them a public trial, 



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