When Mr. Pritchett had perfected his ball, it was tried in the three-groove rifle, for which it was intended, with the most satisfactory results, and was fired an indefinite number of times without the slightest difficulty.  It appears, however, that this successful trial was not sufficient to satisfy the new-born zeal of the authorities.  Accordingly, a conclave of gunmakers was consulted previous to the order for manufacturing being sent to Enfield; but with a depth of wisdom far beyond human penetration, they never asked the opinion of Mr. Pritchett, who had made the rifle which had carried the ball so satisfactorily.

The wise men decided that it would be an improvement if the grooves were deepened—­a strange decision, when all the experience of the day tends to prove that the shallower the groove the better.  Down went the order; the improved rifles were made as fast as possible, and in the month of March they went to the seat of war.  May is hardly passed by, and the sad fact discovered in the Crimea is echoed back on our shores, that after thirty rounds the soldiers may right about face or trust to cold steel.  I think my youngest boy—­if I had one—­would have suggested testing the improvement before indulging the army with the weapon.  Perhaps the authorities went on the principle that a rifle is a rifle, and a ball is a ball, and therefore that it must be all right.  It might as well be said a chancellor is a chancellor, and a black dose is a black dose; therefore, because an able Aesculapius had prescribed a draught which had proved eminently useful to bilious Benjamin, it must agree equally well with lymphatic William.—­Never mind, my dear John Bull, sixpence more in the pound Income-tax will remedy the little oversight.

Three years have elapsed since these observations were penned, and behold a giant competitor has entered the field, threatening utter annihilation to the three-groove (or Enfield) rifle and the Pritchett ball.  Mr. Whitworth (whose mechanical powers have realized an accuracy almost fabulous), after a long course of experiments made at the Government’s expence, has produced a rifle with an hexagonal box and ball, the correctness of which, at 1100 yards, has proved nearly equal to that of the Enfield at 500 yards, and possessing a penetrating power of wonderful superiority; the Enfield rifle ball scarcely penetrated 13 half-inch Elm planks.  Whitworth’s hexagonal ball penetrated 33, and buried itself in the solid block of wood behind.  It remains to be seen whether this formidable weapon can be made at such a price as to render it available for military purposes.  The hexagonal bore is not a new invention, some of the Russians having used it in the late Baltic campaign; but it is doubtless Mr. Whitworth’s wonderful accuracy of construction that is destined to give it celebrity, by arming it with a power and correctness it wanted before.[CQ] An explosive ball has also been introduced by Colonel Jacob of Eastern celebrity, which from its greater flight will prove, when perfected, a more deadly arm than the old spherical explosive ball invented and forgotten years ago.  With the daily improvements in science, we may soon expect to see Colonel Jacob’s in general use, unless the same principle applied to Whitworth’s hexagonal ball should be found preferable.