THE BRITISH AR'-IY ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 
159 
and 20 pieces of ordnance, i.e ., one gun per thousand), with the English artillery 
train under the famous Captain Morgan. It was at this siege that Spinola, in 
despair at his solid shot falling harmlessly at 600 paces, i.e., 1000 yards, discerned 
and first employed in Europe the arm of the then future—the deadly 8-in. howitzer 
(recently invented in Holland by Count Mansfield who was in English pay): but 
for nigh one hundred years no other general in Europe rightly understood the 
value of shell fire until it became in the hands of Marlborough the all-conquering 
arm for both Field and Siege Artillery warfare. 
Of the great Civil War, which broke out in 1642, 1 would rather not talk. The 
parallelism of history, then and now, is so obvious and so vividly realistic in 
matters of army administration as to involve topics too delicate for me to discuss. 
But there are some practical lessons deduced from the arms and from the men. 
The Parliamentarians seized the trains at the Tower, Hull and Chatham, which 
each consisted of 12-prs. of 14 to 12-cwt., 6-prs. of 6-cwt., 3-prs. of 3 and 2-cwt., 
mortars to 10-in. and hand grenades (no howitzers); but there were no regulars 
nor veteran troops in the kingdom, as of the 20,000 recently sent to Holland only 
some 300 returned before the Restoration. <£ Sergeant-Major-General ” Shippon 
—the parliamentary Adjutant-General—could neither read nor write; and the 
noble Earl who was royalist Adjutant-General was similarly gifted. Forts and 
feudal castles were captured, not so much by solid shot as by the destructive 
demoralisation of bombs ; and only once was there a regular Field Artillery battle. 
The last fortification to hold out against the parliamentarians was Elizabeth Castle, 
Jersey, against which a sea army had essayed in vain, and a land army lay before 
it impotent; but it remained for Lieut.-Fireworker Thomas Wright of the artillery 
to embark for Jersey from the Tower of London in a sloop, accompanied by his 
mate and a 14-in. mortar with bombs. Building his platform at one mile and a 
half range, Lieut.-Fireworker Wright sent one bomb into the church and 
another into the magazine below, which, blowing up and setting all on fire, the 
garrison compelled the Governor to surrender—for in those days there was but 
one magazine for all munitions de guerre, as well as de bouche. Lieutenant Wright 
sent his bill into Oliver Cromwell. The job cost J640 ! 
After the Restoration came a period of intense activity in manufactures—a 
revolution in fact. Charles had been for many years a shrewd observer in exile 
on the continent, where artillery had become an arm and a science (shell guns 
excepted) while still with us at home a mechanical art; and the King brought 
over an army of Flemish artificers. About 1670, when Lord Roberts was com¬ 
manding in Lublin Castle, a new train had been sent over to Ireland owing to 
discovery of a process of hardening brass (bronze) guns by tin to give the metal 
almost the tenacity and penetration of iron, while continental guns remained of 
the softer material which drooped or twisted after few rounds. This was the first 
army corps train which Marlborough took into Holland at close of XVII. century ; 
but there was not in 1670 a howitzer; in 1698 the first batch of bayonets was 
also sent to Ireland to replace the dagger or snaphaunce musquet; and about the 
same time Marlborough revived the howitzer. Of the battles and sieges in 
Ireland at close of the century, the only valuable professional accounts are to be 
found in Vol. II. of Lord Wolseley’s “ Life of Marlborough.” Why was it that 
in every field battle fought by Marlborough the British infantry were repulsed 
once, twice, and occasionally thrice, before victory, “by the superior (small arm) 
tire of the French;” whereas in each of these battles the British artillery although 
outnumbered by four to three in guns silenced the artillery of the enemy ? I 
maintain it was because (1) the French were all armed with the musket bayonet, 
while all but our first army corps and grenadiers had only the old snaphaunce 
musket, which required the dagger to be removed from the muzzle to admit of 
