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MINUTES OF PEOCEEDINGS OF 
of getting any advantage in range, accuracy or rate of fire which would 
not equally be presented by a muzzle-loading system 
These observations have greater weight since the last Austro-Prussian 
war shewed us that future campaigns in Europe will be carried on with 
colossal armaments and the utmost dispatch. About 800 field guns 
accompanied each of the hostile armies, and though our taking the field 
with such a number of guns is out of the question, it is imperative upon 
us to simplify our materiel as much as possible. 
However, the adoption of the committee's recommendation is in abey¬ 
ance on account of the great expense of at once re-arming all our field 
artillery with muzzle-loading rifled guns, but it is improbable that B.L. 
guns will be made in future to any extent except for boat guns for 
which service they are very suitable, and in this year's estimate (1868, 9), 
there are twenty 12-pr. M.L.R. guns of an approved pattern, which perhaps 
will be adopted eventually for field service; these guns are to consist of 
coiled wrought-iron exteriors and solid ended steel tubes, toughened in 
oil and rifled on the “ Woolwich" system. Eig. 1 will show the general 
shape and dimensions. 
So far for field artillery. We must now turn to the question of heavy 
guns, which is a very important one to such an essentially naval nation as 
ourselves. 
Necessity for heavy M.L. Mi fed guns. 
The power and precision of rifled guns and the growing use of concussion 
shells which would burst on striking on a ship's side and make a hole 
beyond repair, or having penetrated, would burst between decks, dealing 
death and destruction around, and probably setting fire to the vessel, necessi¬ 
tated the use of ironclads.* To penetrate these necessitated in turn still 
* The power of horizontal shell fire was perceived only forty years ago; the French then adopted 
the Paixhans shell gun, and Gen. Millar, E.A. introduced our 10-inch and 8-inch shell guns ; the 
new species of fire, however, lay dormant for many years, but at length woke up by war, its 
development advanced pari passu with that of rifled ordnance. Nearly all the naval engage¬ 
ments which have taken place of late years furnish instances of the destructive effect of shells on 
wooden vessels:— 
At Sinope, during the Crimean war, the Turkish fleet was actually destroyed by Paixhans’ 
explosive shells fired from the Eussian vessels “Constantine ” and “Paris.” 
In the recent American war the iron-clad “ Merrimac ” blew up by shells the wooden vessel 
