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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
able to rifle tbe latter, should it become necessary, had better not be 
abandoned. 
They consider more especially that the time and labour devoted by each of 
the competitors to the perfecting of his own system requires that a decision 
should be come to as to their relative merits, and also that the present 
opportunity should be taken for setting at rest the question whether the 
material itself is capable of standing the strain put upon it when heavy 
projectiles are fired. 
The only way to satisfy,these ends is to conclude the competitive trial, and 
afterwards to fire all the guns with their proper service charge and projectile 
until they burst. If so many as seven 32-prs., rifled on different systems, all 
exhibit a satisfactory degree of endurance, by standing 1000 or more rounds, 
no hesitation need be felt in rifling cast-iron guns, should the demand 
increase beyond the power of supply in wrought-iron. Should even a few of 
them do so, and their strength be referable to any special principles of 
construction or system of projectile, a definite result will have been obtained 
by the whole enquiry; but to stop it at this moment will be to throw away 
all that has been done, and to leave grounds for re-opening the question at a 
future day. 
8. The Committee then request authority to conclude the trial of 
endurance of Mr Britten's guns, towards which 500 rounds have already 
been supplied, and after the conclusion of the competitive trial, for which 
they are now waiting, to extend the same trial to all of the others, for the 
express purpose of ascertaining more conclusively than has yet been done, 
what cast-iron guns, rifled, will stand, when firing their proper service 
projectiles with service charges, as rifled guns, and also, whether systems 
which involve lead coatings, have a superiority in respect to endurance, 
which at all corresponds to the extra cost of the projectile. 
Supposing the average endurance to be 1000 rounds, and the projectiles 
to be made in the Royal Laboratory, the expense will be about £3500 for 
stores, and added to the expenditure already incurred, or authorized in 
connexion with these guns, viz. £2820, the Government will have paid 
about £6320 for the result, exclusive of any premium or reward it may be 
thought right to give to one or more of the competitors. 
Looking to the importance of the question both in a military and a financial 
point of view, the Committee do not think this an extravagant outlay. It is 
almost all in powder and shot. Under no circumstance could moral 
assurance of the prudence and safety of a change of material of this character 
be attained without long and costly preliminary trials, involving, perhaps, as 
extensive an expenditure of ammunition. 
(Signed) J. St. GEORGE, 
President. 
