THE EIGHTY-TON GUN, OE WOOLWICH INFANT. 251 
speak of them ; but, being made by Sir W. Armstrong, they will 
presumably be the same class of gun as the 80-ton, but more 
powerful in proportion to their increased size. It is to be 
presumed from the trials that have taken place that the 80-ton 
gun may not fall short of expectation, and may prove able to 
pierce 20 inches of armour up to about 1,000 yards range. It 
ought, therefore, under favourable circumstances, to be capable 
of piercing the sides even of the Builio and Bandalo at short 
ranges ; the question is whether the latter could hold off so as 
to increase the range so much as to retain the power of pene- 
trating even the thicker sides of the Inflexible with the 100-ton 
guns, while the distance was such as to save her own thinner 
armour from the 80-ton guns of the Inflexible . This would be 
a difficult matter, for the larger the gun and projectile, the less 
any increase of range tells against the velocity of the shot ; so 
that even where it was practicable to secure the desired range, 
it is greatly to be questioned whether the gun could be made to 
hit the desired object. The uncertainties are greatly compli- 
cated by the fact that a vessel which could present her plates 
at an oblique angle to the blow of an enemy would obtain a great 
advantage. Of the other vessels afloat, the Great Peter might 
be looked upon as the most formidable. Of her 40-ton guns 
we can only judge at present by comparison with our own 
35-ton guns, for the 38 has never been tried against plates. 
Xow the 35-ton gun has just got the head of its shot through a 
target which had as much as 17 inches of iron, besides skin and 
backing, at 70 yards range. But this target has always been 
considered by the Admiralty and other authorities an imperfect 
one ; its plates were divided into three thicknesses, and altogether 
it is more than questionable whether the 40-ton gun could get 
through the Inflexible at her weakest place, even at the shortest 
range. Probably the Inflexible would be invulnerable to every 
foreign ship afloat, except the two Italian ones ; and that she 
could pierce the sides of all except these at any range likely to 
be desired, there can scarcely be a question. We have, then, the 
case before us of three ships coming into the arena of naval 
warfare, who, even at this stage of development of guns and 
armour, stand in almost the same relationship to all ironclads 
previously afloat as they in their turn bore to wooden ships. 
The question raised by such a sudden increase in power as w 7 e 
naturally connect with the 80-ton gun is this : Are we proving the 
possibility of the construction of armaments on such a scale that 
there is no definite limit not only to the power to which guns 
and armour may eventually be brought, but to the augmenta- 
tion that may suddenly be made in them ? If, for example, the 
success of the 80-ton gun is only to be regarded as an illustra- 
tion of the proof of the declaration that a gun of 200 tons could 
