THE ORDNANCE SERVICE. [From the Times, November 7.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 491, 17 April 1850, Page 4

THE ORDNANCE SERVICE. [From the Times, November 7.]

An accomplished essayist once premised that he could give no better idea of the work under his notice than by saying that it contained two cubic feet and weighed , 18 pounds avoirdupois. We shall be presently reduced, we fear, to the same method of description as regards the blue books issued by Parliamentary Committees. The specimens of this class of literature multiply so rapidly, not only in number, but in individual bulk, that the most patient reader can hardly digest their contents, or keep pace with their disclosures. We have now before us a report, which is only one of a series upon the same subject, which is confined to a single branch of that subject, and which, nevertheless, coDtains 1092 pages, and weighs, according to the official stamp, Blb, 7|- ounces. What complicates the matter still further is, that, this mass of contents is scarcely reducible by atiy kind ot syllabus or analysis, to any reasonable number of' intelligible propositions. There is an immense, amount of information, more or less valuable; m the. case may be, and an infinite quantity of suggestions, but the service rendered to the public by this " Second Report of the Select Committee on Army and Ordnance Expenditure" will be appreciable, we fear, only by some very indirect and circuitous operation. As far as the main object of the inqqiry.is Concerned, the Committee enconnlered just such difficulties as might have been anticipated. The general tendency to increase in expenditure was just as undeniable as it was unpleasant, but when the particular items came to be examined they were found to admit of very plausible defence. Then there were no means of ascertaining or fixingresponsibility. The parties under question. were not the parties really accountable. They were but the executants of orders received from some other department^ and thus the true source of responsible authority perpetually eluded inquiry. Finally, when it came to a definite proposal of some scheme of reform there was no one bold enough to venture upon the task, and it was acknowledged that ,the hearty co-operation of the Executive Government with the experienced administrators of the present system was indispensable to the realization of the desired improvements. As a specimen of the difficulties to which we have been alluding we will take the expenditure entailed fey the change of armament in naval and garrison service. Most readers wifl be aware that the guns- formerly in use have been recently superseded by more efficient weapons of destruction, and those who have gone over the Victory at Portsmouth will probably recollect the old fashioned and insignificant. look of one or two pieces which wers actually mounted on the vessel at the battle of Trafalgar. The extent and cost, however, of these alterations will, perhaps, create some surprise. Not only is the weight of metal, as well as tlie number of guns, largely increased, but the character of projectile is changed likewise, and the consumption of powder is augmented in proportion so that there is a heavy increase in all these items at once. Nor do the consequences of scientific gunnery end even here, for new firing tubes, new sights, and improved gun carriages are also required to make the uew artillery available, and all these improvements must be applied to old' ships as well as new ones, for there $aa be but one description of armament recognized in the navy^ viz.', the best. The following comparison will convey an idea of these changes. The Britannia was a good old three decker, a match, in her time, for anything of her class, and after she had been creaitably, though not very prominently, engaged at Trafalgar, she returned into store at Devonport her full armament of 102 guns, weighing in the aggregate 4342 cwt., and throwing a broadside weight of 1 160lb of shot. In the present year 1849 the Caledonia is just what the old" Britannia was in 1806 ; but, instead of the armament specified above, she carried 120 guns, weighing in the aggregate 5560 cwt., and throwing 21361b. weight of shot at a broadside. The reader will observe that the augmentation is far less in the number of pieces than in their individual weight, calibre, and" capacities. The guns in the new armament, are only increased from 102 to 120, or by about one-fifth, whereas , the effective broadside is increased by very nearly one-half. "Besides this, the projectiles expended are far more costly. A round sliot is of course only so many pounds of iron more or less, but a is become an ingenious and delicate piece of mechanism, requiring to be primed and packed away for service with as much care as a chronometer. The following figures were handed in to the committee upon this head :—: — Cost of shell (8-inch") as received from ' contractors ........•• * 0 Cleaning, painting, and inspecting do .. u o Cost of bouehing,i»id fitting with a fuze . 2. 8* Strapping ty bottom and filling wixh-po^'- * der .•.......••• Cost of box to contain the shell f 1A Total value when. ready for service ...-11 3i

The cost of a soldier's great coat, as we learn from the same report, is 9s. 4|d., being exactly Is. lid. less than a shell. The old projectile for which this dainty device was snbstituted stood us in about 4s. 4d., so that the price is almost trebled ; and this estimate, it should be understood, simply represents its value in the laboratory, and is independent of any cost of transfer to such outlandish regions as we may happen to be engaged in. Really this is very like breaking windpwa.wlth guineas. But what is to be done ? Npbod^can,winder, after such details, that the of persons employed in the Royal Jabbratory at Woolwich, which in 1835 was only. 126, at a cost of £5738, should now be 455, at* cost of £16,801, or that the outlay upon projectiles should have arisen, during the same period, from £12i5 to £13,995. Nor is it any matter of surprise that the total result of all these changes should be a disagreeable increase of the Ordnance Estimates. The augmentation, it is true, is not wholly or exclusively due to these refinements in jiestructiveness, but it is partly chargeable to more pacific reforms. Soldiers are now better clad, better housed, better fed, better taught, and better treated than formerly, and all these improvements tend to the same result of temporary expenditure. The removal of one great source of demoralization, in the sale of spirits within the barracks, has cost the country £10,000 a year in the falling off of canteen rents. Barrack schools and libraries have also made their demands upon the Exchequer, and even a more liberal allowance of coals for the accommodation and comfort of the troops, made, it is stated, upon the express recommendation of the Commander-in- Chief, contributes its quota .to swell the general amount. Even on the destructive side of the account, it must be recollected that every one of these new discoveries has been both invented and adopted for the one single purpose of economizing time, money, and power. The only recommendation of a new gun or a new shell is that it will be more effective than the old ; and the obvious result of bringing such' armaments into use must be the shortening of a campaign, and the proportionate saving of all that a campaign costs. Even if a shell costs a sovereign it is cheaper than a soldier. Some naval officers say that a sea fight, under the present system, can never last fifteen minutes if the ships are fairly engaged, and that a naval campaign can hardly be prolonged above six months. This is, as yet, matter of conjecture, and long may it remain so ; but, as a kind of example, let the reader recollect the crusade of the 19th century, when our floating batteries took Ac:e aud redeemed Palestine in 24 hours. Until wars shall wholly cease, the only true principle, even in the interests of peace itself, would appear to be the perfection of destructiveness ; for when this can be so far realized as to threaten annihilation to the belligerents reciprocally we must, perforce, leave off quarrelling.