THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
479 
THE FIELD GTO FOR INDIA. 
A PAPER READ AT THE R.A. INSTITUTION, WOOLWICH, FEBRUARY 22, 1870, 
BY 
COLONEL IT. IT. MAXWELL, E.A. 
Major-General F. M. Eaedley-Wilmot, R.A. in the Chaie. 
1. TJp to the year 1862, the armament of the Indian Field Artillery 
consisted of 9 and 6-pr. guns, and 24 and 12-pr. howitzers. The field 
battery pieces were lighter than those in use in England, weighing only 
10 cwt. The horse artillery pieces were identical with those of the 
home service. 
About that date the first breech-loading Armstrong battery reached 
India. I can tell you little from my own personal knowledge of the 
efficiency of the guns in that country, as the superintendence of the 
Indian Gun Foundry fell to my charge at the same period. Gradually 
I came in contact with them in another way. All sorts of strange 
things came into my hands, sent to me as patterns for manufacture, of 
whose use I had only read. But at last, a 6-pr. breech-loader Arm¬ 
strong gun, split in the powder-chamber, came to me for repair, if 
possible. With a feeling of despair I was compelled to return it, with 
an intimation that its repair was beyond my power. 
Chance threw in my way, in 1865, a description of the French 
field gun, and at the same time I learnt that it had been tried at 
Shoeburyness, and that its practice was found equal to that of the 
9-pr. breech-loader of the service. 
I heard, too, that the Dutch in Java had adopted the French system, 
and manufactured the guns and their equipments on the spot. 
I came to the conclusion that a gun of this description was precisely 
what we wanted in India, as we had an ample stock of bronze in the 
country. I appealed to the powers that be; my proposals were favour¬ 
ably received, and were sent to England for submission to the Ordnance 
Select Committee, who reported not unfavourably of them. 
Just at this time the Armstrong and Whitworth controversy had been 
fought out on the sands of Shoeburyness. Muzzle-loaders began to 
hold up their heads, the navy especially objecting to breech-loaders. 
The next step in the history, was the assembly of a Committee of 
superior officers of artillery; they reported unanimously in favour of 
muzzle-loading field guns. 
Then followed experiments with steel-barrelled iron-coiled guns and 
a bronze gun of the same size and shape* The experiments were so 
