It is quite clear from recent Parliamentary papers that the
weakest point in our preparations for war is the manufacture of large guns. Five of the large armoured ships are now ready and waiting only for their guns, some of which will not be supplied till next year, and four more will be ready sooner than their armament. That is wretched management, as it is, also, to leave the Field Artillery with the "worst gun in the world," as Lord Wolseley has declared. The difficulty as to the naval guns is increased by the fact that we need not only more guns, but a large reserve. According to a writer in the Fort. nightly Review, the life of one of these guns is limited to about two hundred discharges, after which the gun, and therefore the ship which bears it, becomes a sort of corpse. So certain is this, that strategists on the Continent reckon, it is said, on transporting armies across the Channel after a, great naval action, in which the ships, whether victorious or defeated, will have become stingless wasps. We suspect an ironclad, used as a, ram, will make havoc in a fleet of transports ; but this inability to provide efficient guns in good time is, in a country like this,
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