THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
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may be, to cannonade formations of troops drawn up without cover and 
comparatively stationary. Should this be so, it is natural to expect, that the 
arms, which have been instrumental in scaring troops from the open ground, 
should now possess the power of rendering their retreats untenable. This 
power must moreover, for obvious reasons, be looked for principally in the 
artillery, and its possession will in a great measure depend upon the nature 
of the projectiles employed, as well as upon the character of the ordnance 
composing the field batteries, and the amount of skill exhibited in their 
service. 
A brief consideration may not be out of place, of the qualifications of the 
projectiles supplied in our service to rifled field artillery, to meet the 
exigencies of the various operations enumerated above. The supply of 
solid shot being limited to batteries of position, there remains alone a com¬ 
parison between the classes of shells employed.* Although these latter 
consist at present of common and segment shell, yet in a general comparison 
with common shell, the remarks on segment shell being equally applicable 
to shrapnel, from the points of resemblance in their principles of action, and 
the shrapnel being more distinctly representative of the class to which they 
both belong, it will here be treated as such. At the same time it is not intended 
in any way to touch upon the question of the relative merits of these pro¬ 
jectiles as compared together. Nor is it intended to detract in the slightest, 
from the intrinsic merits of the shrapnel shell, which has been the means of 
throwing so much lustre upon the British artillery during our Peninsular 
and Indian campaigns, as has been sufficiently attested by the highest 
authorities. 
It is almost needless to observe that a close relation exists between the 
operations of war and the projectiles they demand. The nature of the 
former determines the principle of action to be applied to the latter. The 
frequency of the one regulates the proportionate supply of the other. 
The tactical operations to be looked for in a campaign, may, relatively to 
the question under consideration, be divided broadly into two classes; those 
in which obstacles have to be overcome, and those in which nothing 
intervenes between troops opposed to each other. The varieties of the former 
have been enumerated, when considering the possible ordinary work for 
field artillery in future. Eor this class, the common shell appears to be 
especially adapted. The principle of the shrapnel, when used strictly as such , 
renders it a comparatively feeble missile against troops covered by obstacles 
which must be penetrated or destroyed. On the other hand, when employed 
as common shell with a percussion fuze, it has proved itself to be possessed 
of considerable power of penetration and subsequent destructive effect, and 
might in this manner be often employed usefully, against troops placed within 
the loopholed enclosures of a post. Where however complete destruction, 
or conflagration is desired, or where the obstacles are stubborn in their 
nature, or afford cover overhead , recourse would reasonably be had to common 
shell. The bullets and fragments of the shrapnel, so galling in the open, 
would spend themselves in vain among the branches of a wood, or the 
defences of a post. 
* Case-shot is excluded from consideration, its application being simple and obvious. 
