The Commander-in-Chief has complimented the Engineers in a published order
on their performance at Chatham last week. This official notice of course replies sufficiently to the rumour that the same high authority was heard to declare on the spot that had the Shah been present, which was fortunately not the case, it would have hem necessary to lay a small sacrifice of scientific heads at his feet. The rumour was perhaps an exaggera- tion, or even an inventionon the spur of the moment, when the chief experiment failed. But experts found more serious fault with the Chatham show than the accidental failure of a mine. They tell us that the whole afternoon's performance was a series of blunders, inasmuch as the breechloader would have swept the parties engaged from the earth long before their supposed work was done. And the whole affair gave observant spectators the impression that those Engineers who were employed to plan it had taken their notions from the Crimean era, and are deaf and blind to the revolution which their craft has undergone, in common with other branches of military art.
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