THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
333 
The reader, who sees the importance of the above-mentioned advantages, 
will perhaps wonder at hearing that the new materiel is not yet adopted ; 
there are certain reasons for that which we will endeavour to explain. 
In the first place, it is proper to say, that the experiments necessary to 
put in a clear light the above-mentioned advantages are not yet finished in 
the official, not to say solemn, manner which is necessary to put the matter 
beyond dispute; but that difficulty will soon be got over. The more serious 
difficulty to be conquered is that which arises from the nature of man; 
and in truth a novelty such as that we have before us in artillery, could 
not but be combated by many, more especially by some technical men who 
do not, in these novelties, appreciate at their true value the principles upon 
which they are based, and who thus see their own theories go down like 
houses built of cards. 
In the second place, there are persons who never will admit anything in 
this world to be good unless it is made by themselves. 
These naturally combat every proposal or invention unless it is their own: 
further, there are people so wedded to form and so little to substance, that 
such things, however good they may be in themselves, have no value whatever 
unless they have been anointed all over with the sacrosanct oil of bureaucracy. 
All these people raise objections and propose difficulties, which, in a matter 
of such moment cannot but have influence on the military authorities who 
have to judge in the question. That authority is consequently bound to 
see that every objection is met by facts, and the collection of these facts 
requires time, money, and labour. Nevertheless, as this will put the 
properties of the new materiel into brighter light and will end by rendering 
its advantages indisputable, no great harm will result, unless it is pro¬ 
ductive of unnecessary delay. 
But where the interests of the country are involved, we cherish the hope 
that this delay will be trifling; for these cannot be allowed to depend upon 
any private interests, nor upon any miserable fancies of those, be their 
position w T hat it may, who may endeavour, but cannot and ought not to be 
allowed, to avail themselves of their position to compromise the interests of 
the country. 
We hope, nevertheless, that the Ministry will gain the honour to its own 
administration of having introduced such great changes in the artillery and 
thus render great service to the country. It will, consequently, best know 
how to overcome all the difficulties which may present themselves. 
NOTE BY TRANSLATOR. 
The writer of the above article, with all due deference, has fallen into an 
error not unknown in England. If the projectiles fired by modern field 
artillery were solid, the whole train of his reasoning would be, in my opinion, 
perfectly sound. But precisely the reverse is the case : solid projectiles are 
not to be found in the wagons of any existing field artillery. Nowhere in 
the text is the effect of the bursting of any hollow projectile considered, 
[vol. vi.] 44 
