touch-powder with a port-fire; but now the discharge is effected by either percussion-tubes, quill-tubes, or friction-tubes.

NOTE 89, p. 240.-Cannon are cast in England without much of decorative accessory. Decorated examples, however, but generally those which were cast in foreign countries and have found their way to resting-places in England, may be seen in our national arsenals and armouries.

NOTE 90, p. 242.-My " Note" upon the second part of this chapter must of necessity be restricted within very narrow limits.

The relationship which existed between the cross-bow and the catapult would naturally suggest the construction of some miniature form of cannon, which might be portable, and which accordingly might be carried and used by individual soldiers as their personal weapons. In accordance with a natural suggestion such as this, hand fire-arms, or small-arms, were invented in the 14th century; but so slow was the progress of the successive improvements which ultimately developed the long latent qualities of these weapons, that they were not brought into general use until nearly three centuries after their first invention.

The hand-cannon soon gave place to the hand-gun, which, in its turn, was superseded by the arquebus or harquebus. This weapon, discharged by means of a trigger, was evidently designed after the model of the arblast or cross-bow, to which it bore a decided general resemblance, except in the substitution of the barrel for the bow.

Hand-guns were known in Italy in 1397, and in our own country they appear to have been used as early as 1375. A century later they begin to be more frequently mentioned, and they also appear in illuminations, about the same time that the invention of the arquebus took place-that is, as the 15th century was drawing towards its close. The Swiss, according to De Comines, had the arquebus at Morat in 1476; in England, in 1485, one-half of the Yeomen of the Guard, then first established, were armed with this weapon; but in France it was not adopted till after 1520, notwithstanding the presence in that country of a strong body of arquebusiers with Henry VIII. at "The Field of the Cloth of Gold" in 1518. The Tower Armoury contains fine specimens of the arquebus of the time of Henry VIII.; one, with the date 1537, and ornamented with a crowned Tudor rose and the initials H. R., appears to have belonged to the king himself; this weapon, like the other early examples of its class, is a breech-loader.

The haquebut is an arquebus with a curved stock; and a demi-haque is a small haquebut.

The musket, a larger, heavier, and more powerful modification of the arquebus, was in use in Italy about 1530, and in France about 1570; and it probably found its way into England about the same period, since it certainly was well known in this country before 1590. At first, in consequence of its weight and size, the musket was fired from a rest. The names of animals were generally bestowed upon ordnance, as the falcon and its diminutive the falconet, and so forth; and as the musket was the most important of small fire-arms, the name of the smallest of the birds of prey might be very consistently given to it-the musket is the male young of the sparrowhawk.

The caliver and the fusil are lighter varieties of the musket. In the armoury at Penshurst, in Kent, there are preserved no less than twenty-eight examples of the early musket and of the caliver; some have round barrels, and in some the barrels are canted to the muzzle; the barrels of several are enriched with scroll-work chased upon them, and on three there is the date 1595; one also, which is more richly ornamented than the rest has, with the date 1595, in relief the motto RIENS SANS DIEV. These, probably, are the earliest known specimens of the weapons of their class; but, as a matter of course, numerous other specimens exist in various armouries.

The carbine, or carabine, is a short caliver with a large bore; and the blunderbus (or thunderbus) is still shorter, and has the bore still larger. The musquetoon is another variety of comparatively light musket.

The true miniature arquebus is the pistol, which has been supposed to have derived its name from the circumstance that its calibre corresponded with the diameter of the coin-the pistole. Apparently it was common in Germany in about 1512; was adopted by the French cavalry in about 1550; and reached England a few years later. Occupying a position half-way between the arquebus and the pistol is the petronel, which was known in our country as early as 1580; and again, at the same period, the dag, which is a long pistol with a curved stock, appears amongst our countrymen.

In the first instance, the hand fire-arm was discharged by means of a match, or a coil of thin rope, held in the hand. The first improvement, which is coeval with the

arquebus, is the match-lock-a simple contrivance for holding the match in a curved cock, or serpentine, and causing it to fall, at the pull of the trigger, on the primingpowder. The matchlock itself was very greatly improved about the middle of the 16th century. The wheel-lock, introduced a little before 1510, and said to have been invented at Nuremburg, was designed to obviate the great inconvenience of the match method of firing; by a simple mechanism, a small grooved wheel of steel was made to revolve rapidly in contact with a piece of pyrites, or native sulphuret of iron, which was fixed into a "cock-head," and the sparks thus produced fell upon the priming in the pan. The earliest known specimen, bearing the date 1509 with the armourer's mark, is remarkable from having two cocks; by this arrangement, if one piece of pyrites should break or in any way fail, a second would be at hand and available. This most curious wheel-lock is in the collection of Mr. Pritchett, F.S.A. The wheel was wound up, or "spanned," like a watch, with a key, or spanner.

The snaphance, snaphaunce, or flint-lock, succeeded towards the close of the 16th century, probably about the year 1580. Evidently suggested by the wheel-lock, it substituted a piece of flint for the pyrites, and instead of the wheel it had a rough plate of steel. The pull of the trigger caused the flint to strike the steel plate, and by that same act the pan was uncovered, so that the priming-powder might be exposed to receive the shower of sparks that would fall upon it. It seems to have been a Dutch invention, and to have by no means a dignified origin; for this lock is said to have been brought into use by certain marauders, who by the Dutch were called "snaphaans," hen-snappers, or poultry-stealers-these worthies could not afford wheel-locks, and the lighted matches were liable to lead to their detection; so they devised their own snaphance, little suspecting, doubtless, that their ingenious invention would be universally adopted, and would maintain its supremacy during the greater part of three centuries.

While the wheel-lock was still without any rival, its liability to miss fire led to the invention of a double kind of lock, which combined the two principles of the wheel and the match, so that if one should fail, recourse might be had to the other. This idea is claimed by the French for the great Vauban, and locks which combine two methods for firing bear his name; still, there appears to be good reason for believing that the compound wheel-and-match lock was made in England earlier than the time assigned by French writers (after the year 1692) to what they designate "the invention of Vauban." This compound method of lock construction was also applied to combine the match and the flint systems in one lock. In order to fire the piece with the match held in the serpentine, the pan-cover is perforated to admit the match to pass through it to the priming; and, on the other hand, the primingpowder was protected from the burning match, while the flint was available, by means of a sliding-lid which closed the perforation in the pan-cover. (See "Archaologia," xxxi., 491.)

In addition to the fire-arms already described, there was one of a formidable character, a kind of blunderbus, called a dragon, which gave to the troops who used it the name "dragoneers," whence was derived the well-known term "dragoons ;" "Grenadiers," again, were soldiers who threw small shells or grenades. Handmortars also were introduced towards the close of the 16th century, for discharging similar small shells, but they were never used to any extent.

When small-arms were first used, the soldiers carried their powder, priming-powder, and balls in flasks and bags. After a while-about 1550-bandoleers were introduced, consisting of shoulder belts from which were suspended a series of small cases, each containing a charge; numerous examples may be seen at the Tower, Woolwich, and especially at Hampton Court. About a century later cartridges were invented; and then cases, called patrons, were provided, each of which would contain a small group of cartridges.

It is

I have already noticed the remarkable circumstance that the early small-arms, like the early ordnance, were (at least in some instances) breech-loaders; and now 1 have to add that they also were sometimes revolvers. In the Tower armoury, for example, there is a match-lock revolver, the date of which is about 1550. singular that M. Lacombe should have made no mention of revolving arms, except in an indirect allusion to American ordnance; but how much more remarkable still, that the suggestive qualities of those old breech-loaders and revolvers should have remained unnoticed, actually from century to century!

Locks, as it is well known, have been applied to ship-guns.

The discovery of detonating powder by the French chemists, which is mentioned in the text led to the adoption of the percussion-lock and a cap-a grand step in

advance towards the perfection of fire-arms. The "needle " and the various achievements of recent science and skill, with the rifling of the gun-barrels, have almost, if not altogether exhausted the resources of gunsmiths, and produced weapons so perfect that any decided further improvement would seem to be scarcely possible.

The rifling of gun-barrels may be considered to date in England from about the end of the 16th century; but the earliest patent for rifling is dated in the year 1635. (See Colonel Chesney's "Observations on Fire-Arms," p. 258; Sir S. Scott's "British Army," vol. ii., pp. 250-327; and "Archæologia," vol. xxii., p. 59, and vol. xxvi.,

P. 241.

in

NOTE 91, p. 248.—It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that the English percussion-lock guns of every class and variety, whether rifles or smooth-bores, breech or muzzle-loaders, are at least equal to the best that have ever been produced any other country. And, in like manner, the Snider rifle (the invention of an American, but a weapon now naturalised amongst ourselves), the Whitworth, the Lancaster, the Enfield, the Henry, and various other English rifles, while in the Chassepot and the Needle, and others of foreign production-not forgetting the American Spencer repeating carbine-they may have rival weapons, can concede to none a just claim for superiority.

NOTE 92, p. 253.-Col. Chesney ("Past and Present State of Fire-Arms," p. 267) gives a minute description of the Minie rifle-ball, together with an explanation of the system of loading with that projectile from the muzzle. The important points are the elongated and conical form of the ball, and the cause of its expansion in the act of firing the piece. A deep cylindrical hollow is sunk in the ball at its base, which is closed with a capsule or small thimble of sheet-iron. This capsule is made to sink to about one-third the depth of the hollow in the ball. When the rifle is loaded, the ball is placed in the barrel with this capsule downwards and next to the powder. The leaden ball itself exactly fits the bore, without filling or in the slightest degree entering the grooves of the rifling. "In firing, the explosion, as a matter of course, forces the iron thimble up into the conical hollow of the ball, before the inertia of the ball itself has been overcome (before the ball moves, that is), and thus, by increasing its diameter (by causing the ball to expand), it forces the lead into the grooves of the bore so completely, that the whole base of the bullet is exposed to the action of the powder without allowing the slightest windage, or any diminution in the explosive force of the powder, by which so much of the impetus is lost in common rifles.'

The needle-gun is loaded at the breech; consequently the ball, which has a peculiar form, is so much larger than the bore of the barrel that it becomes rifled in its passage, without any necessity for expansion. The "needle" is made to pass through the charge of powder, and to cause the explosion of some fulminant which is placed between the gunpowder and the ball; thus the charge is fired from the front, which ensures a more perfect ignition, than when the fire is given at the lower extremity of the charge. The chamber, also which contains the charge is so constructed that there is an empty space behind the gunpowder, and this causes the recoil to be but slight.

It will be understood that elongated and conical rifle-balls are attended with this important advantage, that in consequence of their length they are considerably diminished in circumference without any loss of weight; and, therefore, it follows that they can be discharged from rifles having comparatively small bores, which are much lighter and more easily wielded.

NOTE 93, p. 256.-Excessive rapidity in firing is not altogether free from drawbacks. Soldiers in action, who are conscious of their ability to discharge their rifles many times in a single minute, may be tempted by the very excitement of their own rapid firing to fire at random, to waste their ammunition, and even to expend all their ammunition prematurely as well as much too speedily. It is undoubtedly a matter of great importance that soldiers should be able to fire rapidly; but it is of much greater importance that their fire should be steady, and delivered with a real meaning. The latest experience has shown that it is only under very rare and exceptional conditions that a soldier fires away more than half of his sixty rounds of rifle ammunition, even in the most hotly-contested action; he may fire sixty rounds in a few minutes, and he may with almost equal rapidity expend a second supply; but these are the exceptions to the rule of rapid firing, and not the rule itself.

NOTE 94, p. 256.-War-rockets are not included by M. Lacombe amongst the modern missiles and implements of warfare which he enumerates and describes. They have been proved in the Abyssinian campaign to be very formidable weapons; and there can be no doubt that, in future, they will be regarded with serious

attention.

NOTE 95, p. 260.-I find it necessary to follow the example of M. Lacombe in omitting all special reference to marine artillery, and to the application of modern science and skill to naval warfare. The subject, however, is equally important and interesting; and the existing usage of employing massive plates of iron for the defence of shipping, coupled with the extraordinary magnitude and power of the guns that are now constructed for the armament of ships of war, bring this subject into direct connection with a treatise on "Arms and Armour." The turret-system, also, possesses the strongest claims for such a careful and unprejudiced description in a popular form, as might make its true aim and purpose more generally known and better understood. I can only add that it is the very importance of these and such matters which, since it forbids a cursory and superficial treatment of them, excludes them from the fixed limits of the present volume

NOTE 96, p. 260.-The Meyrick Armoury, now exhibited at South Kensington, is rich in every variety of " Arms and Armour" in use from about the close of the 15th century. It is to be hoped that this truly magnificent collection will become the property of the nation.