i88o.] 
Submarine War . 
1 77 
of material, combined with capability of rapid manoeuvring, 
for war purposes, will also serve the ends of peace by pro- 
moting novel contrivances adapted to more humanitarian 
progress. 
As Robert Fulton had ultimately to turn his ingenious 
mechanism from the infernal machine towards the improve- 
ment of steam-ships, so we shall soon see all the new 
improvements of torpedo-boats carried out in more efficiently 
built vessels for the trade and passenger service of maritime 
nations. So if the ends justify the means, even extreme 
“jingoism ” will have had its share in hastening the progress 
of modern engineering science. 
Since writing the above the news has reached England 
of the terrible attempt by revolutionary conspirators to 
destroy the Emperor of Russia in his Winter Palace, on the 
evening of the 17th of February. General Gourko, who 
has been charged with the special investigation of this inci- 
dent, officially reports that, from an examination of the area 
of destruction and the appearance of the demolition and 
debris , the explosion must have been caused by several pounds 
of dynamite, ignited in all probability by electricity. The 
charge appears to have been placed in the cellars of the 
basement where fuel is stored for the heating apparatus, and 
this would seem as if the dynamite had been concealed in 
coal-torpedoes, such as those mentioned in the preceding 
pages. Although it is thought by some that the mine was 
sprung prematurely, in accordance with a designed purpose 
of terrifying the Czar, it seems more probable that an im- 
properly adjusted time-fuze was in reality the cause of the 
explosion anticipating the instant calculated by the conspi- 
rators. It appears that ten lives were sacrificed on the spot, 
whilst forty-five were wounded, of whom several have since 
died from the effects, making a total of fifty-five victims on 
this occasion. It is also suggested that a detonator may have 
been set in motion by machinery similar to that of the 
Thomas infernal machine ; anyhow the significance of this 
occurrence is great, and warns us of the presence of secret 
means of destruction whose origin and design we can only 
guess at, and in respeCt to which our knowledge and conse- 
quent legislation are alike at fault. It may also serve to 
remind us of what is yet a very moot question, viz., whether 
in sanctioning the manufacture of secret destructive weapons 
— nay, in actually encouraging their invention and improve- 
ment for purposes of legitimate warfare — we are not thereby 
unconsciously incurring a certain responsibility as to the use 
vol 11 . (third series). o 
