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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
would render useless. It is, however, not impossible to follow the 
English system, preserving our bronze pieces and applying to them 
the Woolwich improvements. 
Baron Berge then proposes to put a steel tube with the Woolwich 
rifling into the bronze guns; the other alternative is to adopt the Belgian 
gun. The report thus concludes :— 
Of the two systems proposed, the first is that which offers the 
greatest security. Its adoption would be the most simple. It gives— 
if one can in such matters hazard an opinion—a certainty to realise at 
little cost the desired improvement. The second system appears 
destined to give greater accuracy. It has the inconvenience of pre¬ 
serving the embarrassments and troubles of a breech-loader, but it is 
in the line of progress. 
Many artillery officers have changed their opinions since 1870, and 
would view with repugnance the continuance of a system of artillery 
and of theories to which they impute a portion of their disasters. 
If these considerations weigh in the balance, they incline towards 
the second solution. But whatever be adopted, we must have recourse 
to improved workmanship, and manufacture the ammunition after the 
newest methods. 
London, 
October 25, 1871. 
