THE EXHIBITION OE 18€2. 
155 
is their ambition to excel. This is an advantage of which few 
countries can boast, and it is of a character that will leave 
its impress upon the public mind, and will raise the thinking 
and industrial portion of the community of this and of all other 
nations much higher in the scale of civilization. 
No. VI. 
THE IMPLEMENTS OE WAS. 
BY CAPTAIN J. P. D. DONNELLY, tt.E. 
(INSPECTOR OP SCIENCE, SOUTH KENSINGTON.) 
IN comparing the Exhibition of 1862 with that of 1851, it 
-A- must have struck all observers that in nothing was there 
greater change — advance — improvement if you will — than in the 
implements of war. In no other department could there be a 
question whether or not such improvement was a subject of 
congratulation. Is it so here? An interesting inquiry no 
doubt, but wholly beside the object of our article. We can 
but note the fact. The causes are obvious. In 1851, Europe 
had, for five-and-thirty years, enjoyed, comparatively speaking, a 
profound peace. Since then, two European wars, a protracted 
struggle in America, and a general feeling of uneasiness that a 
third war may break out in Europe at any moment, have 
directed universal attention to the subject. 
The effect of this attention has been very marked ; whereas 
in 1851, with the exception of a few military men and sports- 
men, no one took the slightest interest in improvements in rifles 
and such instruments, for the last few years there is scarcely 
a schemer with an idea, and a belief in his own ingenuity, who 
has not come forward with his inventions ; scarcely a firm of 
mechanical engineers which has not dabbled in patents for 
guns, armour-plates, forts, and so on. People who had perhaps 
never heard of a rifle, and certainly did not know the precise 
difference between that and a smooth bore, are now well up in 
the latest performances of “ Whitworths ” and “ Armstrongs ” 
(which the daily papers publish in their most prominent 
columns), and are ready to give a decided opinion on their 
respective merits. This is enough to account for the great 
stride which has been made during the last ten years. To note 
all the instances of improvement, and to describe them, would 
require a much greater space than that at our disposal. A con- 
