We now come to a part of the question which has long been hotly debated
in this country, and about which an immense quantity of matter has been
both spoken and written on opposite sides--I mean muzzle loading and
breech-loading. The controversy has been a remarkable one, and, perhaps,
the most remarkable part of it has been the circumstance that while
there is now little doubt that the advocates of breech-loading were on
the right side, their reasons were for the most part fallacious. Thus,
they commonly stated that a gun loaded at the breech could be more
rapidly fired than one loaded at the muzzle. Now, this was certainly not
the case, at any rate, with the comparatively short guns which were
made on both systems a few years ago. The public were acquainted with
breech-loaders only in the form of sporting guns and rifles, and argued
from them. The muzzle-loading thirty eight ton guns were fired in a
casemate at Shoeburyness repeatedly in less than twenty minutes for ten
rounds, with careful aiming. No breech-loader of corresponding size has,
I think, ever beaten that rate. With field-guns in the open, the No. 1
of the detachment can aim his muzzle loader while it is being loaded,
while he must wait to do so till loading at the breech is completed.
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