French, whose skill in the science of gunnery is well known, ordered six floating batteries cased in iron during the Russian war; and on his recommendation our Government ordered four similar vessels to be constructed. The French, having the start, brought their vessels into play against the fortress of Kinburn with complete success. Our vessels were not finished before the close of the war, one was burnt on the stocks, and the others, rotten in their timbers, have since been used only as experimental targets. These trials have proved the excellence of iron armour-plates for resistance -if not absolute impenetrability -to shot. In the meanwhile, our Government were urged to adopt the scheme of steam rams, or vessels of great size, propelled at a great velocity, and made of immense solidity at the prow; which being impelled stem foremost upon a hostile vessel should drive her under water by sheer force and weight of collision,-crush and sink her by the blow. A vessel of such powers was ordered to be built by contract, at Blackwall. The French, however, had already made another step in advance; had launched two ships of warcalled frigates-adapted equally for steaming or sailing, coated with plates of iron, and armed with batteries of tremendous power. One of these, the Normandie, was said to be a failure, inasmuch as her power of flotation was very deficient of the other-the Gloire -the accounts were so favourable, that the design of a steam-ram was laid aside and the Warrior was ordered to be completed as iron-cased frigate. The Warrior is 380 feet in length; 58 feet in extreme breadth; 41 feet 6 inches

an

in depth: her tonnage-builders' measure-6177 tons; and the total with her engines 9000 tons; her engines of 1200 horse-power. Her lines are designed for speed, and it is calculated she will steam over 14 knots an hour. Her method of construction is new. Instead of a keel, there is an immense girder of wrought sorap-iron, 14 inch thick, and 3 feet 6 inches deep. To this are bolted the massive ribs beams an inch thick, but several feet in depth, placed (except where spaces are necessary for portholes) 22 inches apart. The main deck and upper deck are of wroughtiron, cased with wood, carried on wrought-iron beams, to which the ribs, &c., are all bolted as one piece. The ship is first built complete as an ordinary steamvessel, with plates of wrought-iron, 1 inch thick under the bottom, 1 inch up to the spar deck. This forms, as it were, an inner skin or lining. From 5 feet below the water-line, up to the spar deck, comes the great armour of teak and iron over all. This is formed of a double casing of the hardest teak, 18 inches thick, with the beams laid at right angles to one another; and over these, plates of wrought-iron 4 inches thick. This monstrous armour does not, however, extend the whole length of the vessel-only the centre or fighting part of the vessel, 220 feet in length, is thus protected. The bow and stern portions are formed of plates of the thickness ordinarily used for first-rate steamvessels. By this arrangement, a great saving of weight is effected, and in those parts where lightness and buoyancy are most desirable. But as it is possible that the vessel might be sometimes used as a "ram"-and it has been argued

that such is her strength, speed and momentum, that she could run down, crush, and sink a fleet of line-of-battle-ships in succession -the fore part is strengthened by no less than eight iron decks, with supports and diagonal braces innumerable. The nose or beak of the ship is adapted for this terrible impact, being one immense slab of wrought-iron, 30 feet long, 10 inches thick, and weighing nearly 20 tons. Even this forging is exceeded by the mass of hammered iron, without flaw, through which the screw works at the stern, and which weighs 40 tons. The length of the ship is divided into numerous water-tight compartments, of which the bulk-heads separating the fore and aft divisions-the only part where danger is to be apprehended-from the fighting hull, are built of iron plates and teak of the same thickness as the ship's sides; so that were they riddled by shot, or knocked away altogether, the main body of the hull would remain complete and impenetrable as ever. Within the sides of the vessel are two longitudinal bulkheads, the spaces between which and the sides are galleries for communication. These afford the means of stopping any shot-holes, should any chance to be made, and being divided into compartments, would confine any leakage within a small space. The Warrior can carry in her bunkers fuel for 6 days' full steaming; but with a little extra stowage, would leave port with coal sufficient for nine days. But she will not, of course, depend upon her engines. She will have masts and yards of iron tubing, and will carry a large expanse of canvas.

The armament of the Warrior will be carried upon two decks,

as in a double-banked frigate. As at present arranged, it will consist of thirty-six 68-pounders, 95 cwt. guns, on the main deck, ten Armstrong 70-pounders on the upper deck, and two Armstrong 100pounders on pivots-in all fortyeight guns. But probably the smooth-bore guns of the old fashion will be speedily superseded by Armstrongs or Whitworths, or whatever more powerful engine of offence science may devise. These guns will be worked on a new description of carriages, combining the two advantages of the slide and the pivot; the main deck port sills will be 8 feet 6 inches from the water-those of the Gloire are but 5 feet 9 inches.

Experiments have shown, that although it is possible, with bolts of cold wrought-iron faced with steel, to perforate 4 inch plates of iron, or to crush them in upon their backings, yet for all practical purposes the armour of the Warrior is likely to prove impenetrable. To produce penetration, the bolts must be fired from a very short distance, and the impact must be in a straight line, otherwise the shot will glance off. The great speed and command of motion derivable from steam, should prevent either of these conditions. Hammered round shot at short range merely indent 4 inch iron plates-cast-iron round shot are broken to fragments. Plates have been broken in when struck many times near the same spot; but this is a contingency most unlikely to occur to a man-of-war in action.

Besides the great advantage to be derived from the offensive powers of a ship clad in iron armour, the advances in the science of destructives have rendered im

penetrability a necessity. Shells are now known of such terrible powers that a fleet of wooden lineof-battle ships would be blown to pieces or burnt to ashes in half an hour. It would be more proper perhaps to say "fleets;" for two hostile armaments, using these missiles against each other, would speedily effect mutual destruction. Some of these shells (Armstrong's is one) are of such size, and filled with explosive mixtures of such power, that when they burst into regulated fragments each piece has the momentum of an original shot. Others are filled with a fearful liquid, which ignites on contact with the air, and cannot be extinguished by water. Others are discharged filled with molten iron, which spreads and lodges in the penetralia of the enemy's ship, and sets fire to everything with which it comes in contact. These shells, moreover, are discharged from the new guns, and have a range and penetration proportionate to their weight. It had, therefore, become necessary that the old wooden ships should be covered with a sheathing of iron such as would prevent these terrible missiles from penetrating. Since, therefore, an alteration was unavoidable, it was wisely done by our Government to try the practicability of a new system-one that should combine the qualities of impenetrable defence, irresistible powers of offence, great speed, and good sea-going capacity. Opinions are much divided as to the effects of the change upon the maritime supremacy of this country; but since the essential conditions of the new system are iron and coal, and this is pre-eminently the land of iron and coal, it would not seem that the alteration can finally de

tract from that superiority on the seas, which we have so long possessed over all other nations.

ARMSTRONG AND WHITWORTH GUNS.-The tremendous weapons referred to in the account of the Warrior-the cannon of Sir William Armstrong and of Mr. Whitworth-should have some explanation. The gun invented by the former has been adopted by the British Government, and factories have been built and machinery set up for their manufacture, at very great cost. The gun of Mr. Whitworth has not, as yet, gone beyond the experimental stage; but the result of the trials has been to show that it is a weapon of wonderful range and accuracy.

The cannon of each of these inventors is so essentially different in its principles, that, except that they are both rifled guns, and both breech-loaders, there is no point of similarity between them. The Armstrong is made of coils of wrought iron joined into one tube; the pitch of its rifling is one turn in 10 feet, and its rifling itself is 38 fine sharp grooves. The breech is formed by a long chamber fitting on to the end of the gun, into which works a powerful hollow screw, which, when screwed up, jams the breech-piece, which is dropped before it, into the end of the tube, and so makes the perfect gun. The conical shot is compound,-that is, coated at the shoulder and base with rings of lead, to enable the soft metal to take the rifling.

The Whitworth gun, as distinguished from the Armstrong, is bored from one solid cylinder of homogeneous iron. There is no rifling, as is generally understood by the term, in the bore, which is a plain hexagon, making a com

will strike 100 holes in a column of targets at 3000 yards1 mile.

In February last the Whitworth gun was tried on the sands at Southport, Lancashire. The range marked out exceeded 6 miles, but even this was insufficient for the carrying powers of the gun; for one shot fell in the sea far beyond that limit. The guns experimented with were a 3-pounder, a 12-pounder, and an 80-pounder. The 3-pounder, with an elevation of 35 degrees, attained a maximum range of 9688 yards; at 20 degrees, 7073 yards; at 10 degrees, 4281 yards or 5, 4, and 2 miles! Nor was the accuracy less marvellous than the range-at 9580 yards the average lateral deviation was not quite 20 yards, at 9015 only 11 yards, at 6793 yards only 42 yards, at 1579 yards (not quite a mile) only 18 inches! The 12pounder attained an average maximum range of 4027 yards with an elevation of 10 degrees, and the shot deviated from a straight line, only 3 yards. At 3049 yards the average deviation was only 5100ths of a yard. The 80-pounder was mounted on a carriage not suited for accurate experiments, and therefore was not strictly tested. The results of occasional shots, however, were astonishing. It threw its bolts with an elevation of 7 degrees, 3500 yards, with a lateral deviation of only from 4 to 6 feet. The charges of powder with which these great results are accomplished are surpassingly small. The charge for the 3-pounder is 8 ounces, for the 12-pounder 1 lb. 5 oz., and for the 80-pounder 12 lbs.

The result of these experiments seems to be that the Whitworth

exceeds the Armstrong in range, but does not equal it in accuracy. The Whitworth 3-pounder is 6 feet in length, and weighs 208 lbs., with a bore of 14 inches. The 80pounder is 9 ft. 10 in. long, weighs 4 tons, and its bore 5 inches. The 12-pounder is 7 ft. 9 in. in length, weighs 8 cwt., and its bore 34 in.

BANK RATE OF DISCOUNT.— The rate of discount fixed by the Directors on the 24th May (4 per cent.) remained unaltered to the 8th November, when it was raised to 4. As Consols were at the very fair price of 931, the cause had to be looked for elsewhere, and was readily found in the astonishing decrease of the bullion in the Bank of France. The account showed a net withdrawal within the current year of 8,600,000l., or from 26,000,000l. to 17,400,000l. This defect caused a great efflux of gold to Paris, and in consequence, on the 13th November, the Bank rate was advanced to 5 per cent. and on the 15th to 6 per cent., The demand for bullion for export was the natural course of trade in the precious metals, and therefore caused no panic and little distress in English commercial circles. On the 21st November a rather singular transaction was completed between the Banks of England and France, by which the former purchased 2,000,0007. of silver from the latter for gold. As this transaction was merely for the purpose of maintaining a course of action on the part of the French Bank, severely condemned by our authorities as irregular and unphilosophical, the whole benefit of the transaction resulted to the English firm. And it appeared that the sçavans were correct, for the gold sent out by one channel flowed