140 
MINUTES OF PEOCEEDINGS OF 
A few years later, a breech-loading system of field artillery was proposed 
by M. de Bonneville, a French officer of Engineers. 1 The gun, which 
Fig. 7. 
weighed 1*6 cwt., carried a 1 lb. lead ball, and, according to M. de Bonne¬ 
ville, it could be loaded and fired while on the move :—“ Les canonniers 
pourront toujours servir leur pieces, quand meme les chevaux iraient au 
galop ” 
While these movements were taking place in western Europe, Captain 
von Holtzman was endeavouring to construct for Frederick William of 
Prussia a gun which would combine in itself the rival attributes of mobility 
and efficacy of fire. Like all his cotemporaries, Holtzman overlooked the 
fact that the nature of the gun carriage and limber, and the organisation of the 
means of draft, drivers, horses, and harness, are most important considerations 
in constructing any system of artillery, and he devoted all his energies to the 
impossible task of lightening to a great extent the gun without diminishing 
its efficacy of fire in a corresponding degree. It was evident that the charge 
must be lessened in the same proportion as the length and weight of the 
gun ) but Holtzman imagined he could compensate for the reduction of the 
1 “ Esprit des Loix de la Tact./’ a la Haye, 1762, Tom. II. pp. 75-78. In tlie early part of the 
18th century breech-loading guns were by no means so uncommon as is generally supposed. Father 
Daniel, when describing Sieur de la Chaumette’s breech-loader (“Hist, de la Mil. Fran.,” Tom. II. 
p. 331), says the idea was not a new one. See also the Emperor Napoleon’s “ Etudes, &c.” 
Tom. IV. p. 4, and the “Diet. Militaire,” par M. A. D. L. C., Dresden 1751:—“ II y a eu et il y a 
encore des canons que l’on charge par la culasse ; cette idee de charger un canon n’est pas nouvelle.” 
Breech-loaders had fallen into disuse before the end of the century, for reasons pointed out by 
M. Durtubie in his “ Memoire et Obs. sur l’Artillerie a cheval.” Paris, 1795, p. 18. 
Fig. 7 represents M. de Bonneville’s gun and carriage. 
