THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
203 
THE 
STORY OF THE 36-INCH MORTARS OF 1855-1858. 
liY 
MAJOR-GENERAL LEFROY, C.B., F.R.S., R.A. 
1. “I AM SO FULLY SATISFIED OF THE PROBABLE SUCCESS OF MR. 
Mallet’s scheme, that I am willing to take upon myself, as 
First Minister of the Crown, the full responsibility of carrying 
IT INTO EXECUTION; AND I THEREFORE REQUEST THAT YOU WILL, WITHOUT 
THE SLIGHTEST DELAY, TAKE THE NECESSARY STEPS FOR THE IMMEDIATE 
CONSTRUCTION OF TWO MORTARS UPON THE PLAN PROPOSED BY MESSRS. 
Mallet and Barry.* 
“ Time is an essential element in this matter, and months have 
already been lost in needless hesitation.” 
Such were the memorable words, addressed to the Lieutenant-General of 
the Ordnance, May 1, 1855, by which Lord Palmerston broke through the 
obstructions of routine and the cautious counsels of his usual advisers, to 
take upon himself the responsibility of .a step which was worthy of the 
mechanical pre-eminence of Great Britain, and the energies she developed in 
the Crimean War. It is a fact hardly known that had a similar decision 
been exerted on another occasion, we should have had a field battery of rifled 
guns before Sebastopol in the same year; for its equipment was ordered by 
Lord Panmure, although the order was subsequently cancelled. 
2. It is somewhat remarkable that, with such an historical interest attaching 
to them, we should still be without any account of the 36-inch wrought-iron 
mortars of 1855, except the paper read by Mr. Mallet before the United 
Service Institution in May, 1858. As part of the practice made with one 
of them was subsequent to that date, this paper is necessarily incomplete. 
It is needless to dwell on the military interest of the subject. They not only 
eclipsed all previous monster mortars—such as the long'range 13-inch 
mortars employed by the French at the siege of Cadiz in 1810, one of which 
may now be seen in St. James's Park, and the Liege 24-inch mortars 
employed at the siege of Antwerp Citadel in 1832f—but they remain un¬ 
surpassed as pieces of ordnance, in respect to the weight of metal they were 
intended to throw, and did actually throw in the course of the experiments, 
* See Mi*. Mallet’s note subjoined, as to Mr. Barry’s connection with the subject, 
t This piece had a calibre of 24 ins., but weighed only 7 ton3i 
[VOL. VITiJ 27* 
