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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
8-incli mortar or howitzer of the Indian heavy field batteries. I do not 
pretend for one moment that it will; but it will handsomely replace the 
24-pr. howitzers of the light field batteries: it will do more than this 
—I speak advisedly—it will be at least as efficient as the 18-pr. gun of 
the Indian heavy field batteries in opening a breach. It will thus 
compensate for the somewhat deficient common shell power of the 9-pr. 
M.L.R. batteries. 
It will be recollected that no army goes a-field in India without a 
siege train of some sort. Let that siege train have the best and most 
powerful guns, howitzers, and mortars that you can give them, with a 
maximum weight in the largest gun of 50 cwt.—the weight of the 24-pr. 
siyge gun. If you have a small fort to take, detach a portion of your 
siege train. But dragging about 18-pr. guns, 8-inch howitzers, and 
8-inch mortars over a parade ground by elephants, drilling the battery 
as you would a field battery with all its minutiee, appears to me to be an 
exhibition calculated to raise a smile. 
Again, many would have a couple of howitzers with each field battery, 
for they say that just when you want your howitzers, they would be 
miles away. You would be in the position I once had the misfortune 
to be in, when we unlimbered our 6-pr. horse artillery smooth-bores 
against the stout stone-walled fort of Wudnee, at the opening of the 
Sutlej campaign. I am happy to be able to add that we judiciously 
refrained from firing, and that the fort was evacuated during the night, 
when we were all in bed. 
16. But to return to the howitzers. There are, I think, insuperable 
difficulties in the way of mixing up the howitzers with the 9-pr. rifled 
guns. We all agree, I think, that we cannot have a really efficient 
common shell for field purposes much smaller than a 20-pr., with a 
bursting charge of about 1J lb. The piece must really be a howitzer, not 
a mortar on wheels, for it must do a little in the way of homicide as well 
as fire into or over parapets, at houses, &c. We must consequently 
have some segment and shrapnel shells. For these to be efficient, we 
must fire with a charge of at least from T yth to T Vth of the weight of the 
shell. Such a charge behind a 20-pr. shell involves considerable weight 
in the piece—I think not much under 10 cwt.—as it is to fire at high 
angles, lest we smash our carriages to. pieces. 
But this is not all. You must recollect that this 20-pr. shell weighs 
more than two of your 9-pr. shells; and thus, if we associate the 20-pr. 
howitzer with the 9-pr., we can only carry with it less than half the 
number of rounds that we do with the latter. This would be a serious 
loss to suffer, and in a long campaign I think you would regret'your 
reduced supply of ammunition. I think most of my hearers will allow 
that the association is unadvisable. 
But has the reverse no advantages? Prussia, when armed with 
smooth-bores, had distinct howitzer batteries, and within my own 
service, I recollect all the 24-pr. howitzers in the army of the Sutlej 
being collected into one battery at Sobraon in 1845. I merely throw 
out the thought for your consideration. 
17. I must now return to the 9-pr., and will say a few words about 
