3g 
absurd system of administration altogether, or at any 
rate of dispelling the fatal complacency in which the 
Ordnance Department wraps itself, and which found a 
voice when Colonel Maitland declared two years ago “ that 
our ballistic knowledge has long been fuller and more 
complete than that of any of the Continental authorities” ! 
But it is proverbially easy to find fault, especially with 
Government departments, though by no means so easy 
to propose practical remedies for defects of administra- 
tion which force themselves so irresistibly upon the 
nation as do the shortcomings of our naval and military 
management. Fortunately, however, no great originality 
is required on the part of the would-be reformer. He has 
only to observe how great private firms manage their 
business, and carry on operations quite as extensive and 
complicated as any of the branches of Her Majesty’s 
service. What private firm could exist, secure the con- 
fidence of its customers, or the soundness of its work, if 
its head were appointed for five years, and selected, not 
because he had received special training in the business 
which he is about to manage, but had done good service 
in some other situation for which he had been trained ; or, 
worse still, if the selection were made because the man 
selected was a good fellow and on the best of terms with 
all the members of the firm! Has any great firm ever 
started as a company ? 
its origin to the personal qualities of some one man, and 
chose that have survived the death of their founder, have 
been carried on by men of distinguished ability selected 
usually by him. We do not speak of enterprises requiring 
so little originality as railway, gas, or water companies, 
but even in them the chairman rises by a species of 
natural selection to a position of prominence, the natural 
homage due to a master mind. Would any sane man 
propose, for a moment, that the chairmen of such com- 
panies should be changed every five years, and farther, | 
that in order that they might suffer no loss they should 
| are more extensive in kind and much more varied in 
exchange offices, that is, the railway chairman, at the 
expiration of his term, should become chairman of the 
gas or water company, and so on? 
Yet this is precisely the way in which our dockyards 
and arsenals are managed. Officers, most of them most 
estimable and excellent gentlemen, who happen to be in 
favour with the superior powers, receive these desirable 
appointments, and often travel from one to another till 
they are obliged to retire from the service altogether. 
They would be more than human if they refused the 
Has not every one of them owed | 
NATURE 
offers made to them, and it is unreasonable for the public | 
to cover them with abuse on account of shortcomings 
which are due to the system, and not to the individuals. 
We cannot, for a moment, admit that any of the com- 
mittees are corrupt in the slightest degree, directly or 
indirectly, or that they have not done their best to carry 
out the work intrusted to them; neither are we disap- 
pointed with the results of our absurd organisation, any 
more than we should be with the misfits which would 
result if we insisted on our tailor becoming our boot- 
maker also. 
Take the case of the Ordnance Committee. It is com- 
posed of officers who, including the President, are being 
continually changed, and it also numbers two apparently 
permanent civil members. 
Not one of these gentlemen | 
[Oct. 21, 1886 
has been brought up to the business of steel-making or 
gun manufacture, not one of them has made himself a 
name in the branch of manufacture and metallurgy which 
the Committee directs, not one of them would be com- 
petent to go abroad and start a steel-works and gun 
factory unaided by the contractors and subordinate 
experts about them—how can they be competent to deal 
either with the complicated theories or the practical 
details of gun manufacture ? and when failure occurs, who 
is to blame? 
Judging by Colonel Maitland’s lecture and Sir F. Bram- 
well’s expositions, the Committee, as a body, and as 
individuals, are not only satisfied but even complacent, 
for they find that other nations are in almost as bad a 
muddle as we are ourselves. It is perfectly obvious that 
there must be individual responsibility. The head of each 
department must be a permanent officer directly respons- 
ible for the design and execution of such things as the 
military or naval forces require, and these heads should 
be selected from the most able men to be found within or 
outside the services, men who have already achieved a 
reputation in the special departments for which they are 
required. 
And there are precedents for this. The Post Office ;— 
can anything exceed the admirable manner in which that 
branch of administration works, and keeps in the fore- 
front of progress? It is needless to say that it is not 
worked by shifting committees. Or, take the steam 
department of the Admiralty. We never hear of 
serious complaints of the main engines or the countless 
subordinate machines of our war-ships; our Navy is 
ahead of all others in respect of adapting every useful 
invention, every scientific appliance ; but then Mr. Wright 
is a permanent chief, and he is not hampered by a com- 
mittee composed, shall we say, of carpenters appointed 
for short terms of office. And yet the changes wrought 
in Mr. Wright’s department during his long term of office 
detail than anything the Ordnance Department have had 
to contend with. The steam-engine has been completely 
altered, surface condensation has been introduced, the 
steam-pressure has been increased eight-fold, compound 
and triple expansion has been introduced, the whole 
system of torpedo warfare has come into being with all its 
complicated appliances, the electric light has been 
adopted, and in addition the design and supervision of the 
Dockyard machinery has fallen to his share. The public 
never hears of Mr. Wright: had we not mentioned his 
name, most of our readers would have been ignorant as 
to who was the meritorious officer to whom we were 
referring ; his very virtues have been the cause of his 
obscurity; his is not an heroic part, and he has never 
drawn public attention to himself by making a mess of 
anything. 
And next, let us look abroad. We have no hesitation in 
stating that the most successful gun factory in the world 
are the Abouchoff Works near St. Petersburg. That 
establishment, since 1866, has been under the direct per- 
sonal control of Admiral Kolokolzoff, and during that 
period the guns turned out have not varied either in 
design or material; they have been increased in length 
and constructed to produce higher muzzle energy ; but it 
oe 
