56 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OR 
Immense activity is being displayed in all our great foundries—an armour 
plate, 12 in. thick, 19 ft. long, and 3 ft. 9 in. wide, weighing 15 tons, has 
been rolled at Sheffield with almost as much ease as one of less than one- 
third its size could be produced, only as it were a few months since ; so much 
science and skill is brought to bear upon the manufacture of improved 
wrought-iron and steel, as well as in converting cast-iron, by a direct and 
easy process, into a metal possessing all the good qualities of soft steel and 
tough wrought-iron, that it may be confidently assumed that we have neither 
yet seen the full resistance to be got out of a given thickness of armour, nor 
can we yet see the limit to our power of piercing it; one thing only stands 
out clear in the uncertainty of the future, and that is, that land defences will 
ever be superior to attack by sea. Ships of form and power, that we little 
dream of now, may carry armaments heavier than our most enthusiastic 
inventors yet dare to suggest; but forts, if made of the proper material, and 
of form and capacity adequate to the reception of the ^largest growth of 
gun, must ever be able to crush anything afloat. 
Whatever advance science may make in gunnery, or mechanical skill in the 
production of monster guns and the means of working them, every step must 
tell in favour of forts to a greater extent than of ships; so that whatever 
else may undergo change in this age of monster guns and iron armour, our 
coast defences must maintain their importance, indeed they must become 
more important than ever. 
