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For these reasons, and in view of the consideration that some change in 
artillery materiel —as, for example, the more general adoption of the 
Moricrieff carriage or of the turret ship—might subtract from breech¬ 
loading every one of the advantages which are claimed for it, while leaving 
as a residuum all its disadvantages, England may well pause before em¬ 
barking in the large expenditure which would be entailed by the experiments 
which must necessarily precede the adoption of any breech-loading system. 
But, in any case, it should be distinctly understood that, supposing such 
experiments to be undertaken, they would in no way prejudice or interfere 
with our system of gun-majang. Whether we have reason to hesitate or not 
about the adoption of breech-loaders—whether it be or be not necessary for 
us to alter our calibres, to adopt steel projectiles, to use Russian prismatic 
powder, and to increase our charges—no one has yet been able to show the 
slightest grounds for abandoning our wrought-iron guns. Upon what basis 
that part of our system stands, we have already shown. It is too solid to 
be shaken. It is certainly unassailable by the advocates of steel. 1 
What do those who write like Captain von Doppelmair propose to give 
us in place of our present system ? Do they propose that we should enter 
anew into a careful investigation of the various systems of foreign artillery 
-—examining, rejecting, selecting ? Do they propose that we should engage 
in a fresh gunnery competition, inviting a comparative trial of all the various 
elements which go to make up the artilleries of Europe? Not at all. All 
they desire is, that on such partial and imperfect evidence as a few isolated 
experiments, like those of Tegel, may have afforded—experiments, moreover, 
which, when carefully examined, appear to furnish conclusions diametri¬ 
cally opposed to those which Captain von Doppelmair has endeavoured to 
draw from them—that, on such grounds as these, and absolutely without 
any reference to the results of our long continued trials at home, we shall 
hand ourselves over, tied and bound, to the Krupp system. We are to 
exercise no independent judgment. Our own experiments must count for 
nothing. The voices of our own artillerists must be silent. Nay, we may 
1 In passing, we would observe that Captain von Doppelmair makes a great mistake in supposing 
that, if England were by any unfortunate chance driven to use steel guns, instead of coiled 
wrought-iron, she would have to apply to Essen. Steel guns, if we require them, can be made in 
England as well as abroad. Indeed, Mr. Peed, the late Chief Constructor of the Navy, goes so far 
as to express an opinion very unfavourable to the Krupp system of steel manufacture. In a 
report dated January 12, 1870, he observes :—“ Some time ago I visited some of the steel works in 
Prussia, and was much impressed with the insufficiency of the means then and there existing for 
securing soundness and uniformity in large castings, in combination with that ductility which is so 
indispensable in many articles made of steel. I was particularly impressed with this at the great 
steel works of Mr. Krupp, at Essen; the more so, probably, on account of the enormous scale upon 
which the manufacture of steel guns, and other articles, was there carried on. Close observations 
of the operations of steel-making at that firm convinced me that, while the method of casting must 
necessarily be attended by the risk of unsoundness in the cast ingot, the subsequent process of 
forging the metal under heavy steam-hammers gave no guarantee of soundness.The 
method of manufacture was seriously defective, and experience has, in fact, shown that great inter¬ 
nal unsoundness frequently exists in castings so produced. In one instance that came under my 
notice—and was, indeed, notorious at the time among engineers—a very large cavity existed in the 
interior of a marine crank-shaft, and caused its speedy failure.” 
To this it may be added, that England certainly uses, and probably produces, more steel than 
any other country ; and it is in the last degree unlikely, if coiled wrought-iron were to fail us as a 
material for ordnance, that we should be driven to purchase our steel ingots at Essen. 
