"The following is Colonel Hawker's letter on the subject:"

SIR,

To the Editor of the United Service Gazette.

Agreeably to your request, I send you sketches (taken by Mr. Cornelius Varley), in order to show the difference of ignition between the musket now issued to the troops and the one on which the master-general of the Ordnance did me the honour to order a meeting of the select committee at Woolwich.

As the former is now adopted, I am of course to conclude that the most severe trial of it has been made by those gentlemen who have the good of the service at heart; and I, therefore, sincerely hope that my doubts of its efficacy may prove without foundation. I should, however, observe that the grand error which many persons are led into, is this: they try a gun day after day, with occasional cleaning, till many thousand rounds may have been discharged without one miss-fire. But this is no trial at all; a soldier, after having repeatedly fired his musket, may have to keep it loaded the whole night in bivouac, or "piled" in the damp air. He may then have to turn out and march with it, perhaps in wet weather, and thus a long interval may elapse before he has occasion to discharge it; at last, he suddenly meets his enemy, -where his life may depend on the certainty of his musket. Now, this is what I consider a fair trial; and I, therefore, make it a rule to prove all my coast-guns, although for a different purpose, with similar disadvantages in view; and a musket that goes off half a dozen times, under these circumstances, I consider better tried than by the innumerable quantity of never-missing, powder-wasting rounds which is generally pronounced as the criterion of infallibility.

A concluding word or two on the muskets. Let me recommend, as I did years ago, an elevated sight (to meet the eye, which cannot otherwise be brought to the centre of a straight governmentstock), and a pistol-grip (screwed on) to every musket in the service. Brass scroll-guards are worse than nothing; they give no firm hold either in firing, or in closely contending with an enemy; they are slippery, and cold to the hand in winter, and liable to be broken. It strikes me, too, that if it is determined to run the risk of copper caps, in order to avoid the loss of the outlay which has been made in the machinery for manufacturing them, the contractors might supply patent breechings for nearly the same ex

pense that must be incurred by the bunnion (I can think of no other name for it), which, in the altered muskets is soldered, and in the new ones, I suppose, would be welded on to the barrel, by which means, instead of a protuberance that adds to the length of communication, they might be enabled to shorten the passage, to do which is the desideratum of every gunmaker that knows anything of his profession.

I have received a letter from Mr. Westley Richards, announcing the completion of a new musket for my inspection. If it surpasses that of Mr. Wilkinson, I shall be most happy to recommend it, as I have no interest whatever in any invention but the good of her Majesty's service.

I am, Sir, your humble Servant,

Pall-mall, June 15. 1842.

PETER HAWKER, Lieut. Col.*

N.B. The proper mode of proceeding is, of course, to order no more muskets than are absolutely required, until it be ascertained which invention proves best adapted to the service; and let it be placarded as a golden rule for all persons concerned with them, that long communications and fine powder will never do for either campaigning or sea-service. - P. H.

I am not aware that any new invention for small arms, from the days of Joe Manton up to the present year, has been accepted by the select committee; though every attention has been shown to all who have offered any thing for the good of the service, by the late, as well as by the present master-general of

* 1844. Since the above letter was written, Mr. Richards has sent me, for trial, this new invention, which is a flat pasteboard primer covered with tin-foil. I have my doubts of its superiority for general use; and it is better adapted to double than to single guns. But, from what Mr. Richards told me of trials on board the "Excellent," it may, perhaps, prove desirable for marine-muskets; as the sailors, instead of injuring their feet by running over the decks among splinters of copper, have only to tread upon a material on which, as he says, "they may safely dance a hornpipe."

the Ordnance. All that the master-general can do is to order a sitting of the select committee; and such are the rules of the service, that the decision of this committee may be considered as final, not only in military, but in naval! affairs of gunnery. There is, I believe, no instance of a master-general taking on himself the responsibility, by acting contrary to the report of the select committee. Let us, therefore, be allowed to ask what can the gentlemen of this committee, whose profession is fortification, the use of cannon, &c. be supposed to know about small arms, more than any other amateurs or non-professionals? And it appears, by what I hear from all the leading gunmakers and their best workmen, that the committee, instead of conferring with them, and consulting the most scientific men of the day, generally appeal to their own assistants or inspectors, who must, of course, have but a superficial knowledge of arms, in comparison with men that have made the gun-business their constant study and profession. What is the consequence of thus resigning the control of the manufacturing department into the hands of persons who are not practical men? They worry the contractors with a waste of time and expense, in gauging, to a focus, all the stocks, cocks, and other such frivolities, instead of directing their attention more to those all-important parts, the insides of the barrels and breechings, the certainty of ignition, the durability of the work, the regulating of the triggers and mainsprings, the mounting of the stocks to the hand and eye; many of which, if I may judge from what muskets I have yet seen, appear to have been regarded as a minor consideration, so long as

the outsides can pass a rigid examination of what has nothing to do with real utility. And these most essential parts may perhaps be not even understood without the help of some gun-maker or his journeymen. It requires good sense, with great judgment, to properly form a thing; though but little talent, with perhaps much waste of time, to finish and polish it. Now, let us ask, can there be a matter of greater importance than the arming of our soldiers, on which may depend their lives, and the glory of our army ? And particularly when premiums are offered for, and encouragment given to, new inventions, by the governments of those countries with which we may not always remain at peace. None, therefore, but such persons as those, for instance, who would oppose a revision of our laws, could hesitate to wish for an effectual reform in this department of our service. Only let us have a council on fire-arms; and select such men as Purdey, Wilkinson, and Long (these are enough, though I could name a host of others), and put them in competition with inspectors, furbishers, and armourers; and see which would contrive, as a standard pattern to work from, the best musket, rifle, or pistol for the service. Let us hope, at all events, that ere long we shall have some new regulation, by which, as we are far superior to all other countries for fire-arms, we shall be assisted by the greatest talent of the present day, in order to equip with the best of arms the finest army in the world. In the meantime, let me conclude with two more diagrams, and a few directions that may perhaps be turned to some account.

1844. In order to give each diagram the full size of a regulation musket, and to show a further improvement for the spring. musket, I here present my readers with new woodcuts, engraved by Mr. Branston, expressly for this work. For an explanation to the letters of reference, see under the preceding sketches.

This engraving gives a foreshortened three-quarter view of the interior of a patent (or solid) breeching for a musket, such as Wilkinson has made to order, though not to his own fancy. Here we have what is still called the "patent breeching," which would be safer and more durable than a common plug; and with which it will be seen there is precisely the same long communication as that in the common government musket. I have to thank Mr. Wilkinson for the model from which this was engraved. But here again I must suggest some amendments in which he appears fully to agree with me: viz.

The communication should be shortened by reducing that frightful protuberance, and thereby bringing the cap-nipple nearer to the barrel, and forging the cock so