The French military officials are all in excitement. It is
stated that M. Turpin, a man of science, who discovered the explosive powers of melinite, has invented an "engine of victory," which will destroy whole divisions, and disgusted with the want of attention to his reports, has sold it to a foreign Power, flying at the same time to Brussels to avoid an accusation of treason. The invention is either a gigantic mitrailleuse worked by electricity, and scattering bullets over miles square, or an asphyxiating shell which can slay whole regiments at once. It seems to be clear, from a debate on Thursday, that the Minister of War, General Mercier, did refuse to have anything to do with M. Turpin, as a man quite untrustworthy; but beyond that everything is obscure. It is probable that M. Turpin, who has an original mind, has invented something formidable; that he wants to make money in heaps ; and that he has in this way put himself, as it were, up to auction. No mitrailleuse whatever can, by physical possibility, be more than equivalent to so many men with rifles ; and the asphyxiating shells, though fearful in a building, usually lose their power in the open air, the imprisoned gases rising, instead of spreading. Of course, more formidable Gatlings and Maxims are possible, but in no case can a secret be confined to one army alone.
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