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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
brought into action beyond the range of musketry, plays on him and breaks 
his formation before attempting to attack him with the steel. In fact, in the 
Prussian regulations, and in those of other European armies, it is recom¬ 
mended when engaged to remain on the defensive, obliging the enemy to 
assume the more difficult part of the attack. But it follows and always 
will follow, that in war, an attack must eventually be made on an enemy 
hand-to-hand; and he who has to do so, will find that he has a difficult task 
in hand, unless he has a numerous artillery to break the enemy from beyond 
the range of the breech-loader. Now, a numerous artillery can only exist 
on the condition of its being light; otherwise an army would have as many 
incumbrances and impedimenta, as the Boinans called it, as would have 
been scorned by the army of Artaxerxes. Moreover, an armament of 
artillery so organized would cost the country a ruinous sum, and it would 
be compelled to purchase, for the teams of artillery of the present pattern, 
such a number of horses as to render it vain to attempt to form such a 
mass of artillery. 
Such a state of affairs compelled the government seriously to weigh this 
question, and to endeavour to find the means of solving it. 
The reader may thus discern from this rapid glance, that the question is a 
vital one for the army, and that obstacles cannot aud ought not to be 
permitted to be thrown in the way of its solution; and this all the more at 
the present moment when the whole of Europe is topsy-turvy, and it may 
so happen that a war may break out in which Italy must take part. 
These short considerations upon the necessity of reforming the armament 
of the artillery being premised, in order that the reader may be in a 
position to judge of the new artillery tried at Eoiano, we will give a few 
data connected therewith, comparing at the same time foreign with existing 
artillery, and thus he will be able properly to appreciate the value of the 
work done. 
Before entering into the question, it will be necessary to give some 
illustrations of artillery matters, which are indispensable to placing the 
reader, who has no knowledge of such matters, in a position to comprehend 
and appreciate the advantages and disadvantages which the new artillery 
may be possessed of. 
A projectile thrown from a gun produces destructive effects upon all 
substances it may come in contact with; that is, it penetrates and knocks 
down walls, cleaves and cuts down trees, breaks down palisades, slaughters 
and wounds men, horsed, &c. We note in passing that it is this last effect 
which is chiefly required in field artillery; nevertheless, a field gun should 
be capable of breaking down such obstacles as are usually met with on the 
field of battle, to wit, farm and country houses, slight intrenchments hastily 
thrown up by an enemy, and the natural defences formed by trees, hedges, and 
such like. In all cases, the effect alluded to is the product of two elements, 
viz. of the velocity with which the projectile strikes the object, and of the 
weight of the projectile itself. It thus appears that we can, without sacrifice 
of efficiency, diminish one of the two above-mentioned elements (the velocity 
and the weight of the projectile) provided we increase the other in due 
ratio.* 
* See note 5 p. 333. 
