This has been done, and with marvelous
effect in some respects. But the rifled cannon, though extensively
used both on sea and land, throwing shot and shell five miles, and at
close range through iron plates a foot thick, cannot be yet styled a
perfected weapon. It may be in a very few years, thanks to the ardent
anxiety, on the part of the several peoples composing "the parliament
of man, the federation of the world," to excel each other in the
"brain-spattering, windpipe-slitting art." At present it is maintained
by very good American authority that for use under some conditions,
at short or moderate range, the smooth gun of large calibre is more
effective than a rifled gun throwing a missile of the same weight.
Our monitors continue to be armed with the fifteen-inch Rodman, very
recent experiments being cited to prove its penetrating effect on iron
plates greater than that of the European rifled guns. This, of course,
at very close range.
The rifle is, in its simplest form, a more complex instrument than the
smooth-bored piece, and will always require superior intelligence to
manage it. The army which naturally possesses this requisite in the
highest degree will best handle this decisive weapon, and be, other
things equal, the strongest army. This consideration operates in favor
of our people, among whom the rifle has always been in so much more
constant and familiar use than with those of other countries.
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