496 
MINUTES OF PUOCEEUTNGS OF 
(5) Armourers 1 and special tools, 
(6) Lubricators and tin cups. 
(7) Lead-coating to shells involving India-rubber discs in the boxes, 
(8) Browning and greasing the gun. 
These complications may or may not form serious objections to the 
breech-loading gun in Europe; but for India, in my opinion, there is no 
doubt in the matter. There we have an atmosphere which in a short 
space of time alternates between that of a heated oven and a steam- 
bath. Expansion, contraction, rust, mildew, and so forth, try war 
stores by tests ten-fold as severe as any they are subject to in Europe. 
Again, the source of supply is so distant—if we were to rely on England, 
as perforce we must with the breech-loading system—that the country 
might well be lost before fresh supplies could reach us, even supposing 
them unintercepted on the high seas. On the other hand, large stores 
might be laid in, in fortified arsenals, so as to meet all possible wants. 
Independent of the consideration of the effect of the climate on such 
stores, the recollection of Delhi in 1857 reminds us that we might again 
be putting arms into the hands of our domestic enemies for our dis¬ 
comfiture—as the first process in every rebellion or revolution is to 
seize a depot of arms. A country is thus all the safer, the fewer arms 
she has in dangerous districts beyond her own immediate wants. 
Manufacture in the country is, then, the best security. I shall pro¬ 
bably be told that for a campaign you must trust to your stock in hand 
and not to manufactories. I reply that a campaign such as we had in 
India during the mutiny, would denude most of your arsenals, and that 
while the troops are fighting in the field, your manufactories, working 
night and day, should, if properly organized, be able to supply the 
arsenals nearly, if not quite, as fast as they issue stores. Thus, instead 
of being exhausted at the end of a campaign, you would be nearly as 
strong as ever in materiel. 
On the other hand, what advantages does the breech-loading system 
hold out to us in India ? I confess that the only one that I can see is 
assimilation with the Royal Artillery at home ; and this advantage I 
humbly hope and trust we shall soon have by the universal adoption of 
the muzzle-loading system. 
21. Let me now give you in two words a per contra list of the 
advantages of that system :— 
(1) Simplicity throughout the equipment, involving the possibility of 
manufacture in India. 
(2) Stores little liable to injury from the climate of that country. 
(3) Economy. 
These are the main advantages, though there are many others of a 
minor and less general nature. 
22. Before concluding, I do not think it out of place, now that we 
have got a gun for India, to direct your attention to the question of 
