Intrusted with this mandate, these officers proceeded on a tour of inspection throughout Europe; and we have no hesitation in saying that the report they have produced upon the condition of artillery in the several States of the Old World is one which, in every respect, does honour to the selection made by President Arthur. It is a document which no European Government can afford to despise. It lays down principles of such manifest wisdom and such plain common-sense, that one only marvels that they should in this year 1885 require to be stated. The criticism they apply to the systems at present in vogue in Europe is of course much more guarded than their general statement of principles. One has to read a little between the lines in order to judge of the full force of the feeling which dictated them. Men who had had the advantage of inspecting government, and, with a few exceptions, private manufactories everywhere, could scarcely put into black and white all that they thought. And yet there are trenchant criticisms, which require only to be applied to facts, otherwise known, to form a very serious indictment against the system which we in England have hitherto pursued.
We propose to set forth first the general conclusions at which they have arrived, before we touch upon any special criticisms they have applied to our own methods. We think that these will startle our readers, rather because they seem too obvious for argument than by any great originality; but inasmuch as they are founded upon an elaborate examination of the history of the subject in each country of Europe, and are based upon the disastrous experience of such as have taken a wrong course, we cannot afford to pass them by. The central principle of the Board's report is, that it is essential to encourage, develop, and gain for the service of the country the whole of the manufacturing power and inventive talent of the country itself. As they put it, they consider "that every inducement should be offered to attract the private industries of the country to the aid of the Government, in providing ordnance for the army and navy, and that the steel manufacturers should be called upon to provide the material." They hold and maintain strongly that, in order to do this with safety and efficiency, the Government must have, and ought to have, factories of its own "to perform the work of establishing standards, making experimental guns and fabricating cannon upon a moderate scale." The sole purpose of this, however, is to save the Government from being in any way slavishly in the hands of the manufacturers, who might combine to dictate terms if there were no check upon them. They insist, as for years our own navy has most rightly yet vainly insisted, upon the grave and manifest inconveniences which arise from the manufacture of naval guns being in the hands of the same department with those for the army. They wish for factories for both navy and army; but on such a merely expansive and experimental scale that this division shall entail neither competition nor additional cost. But they go on: "With Government gun-factories established for both the army and the navy, there will still be needed the hearty co-operation of the private industries of the country. This cannot be aroused unless there is held out to them a fair prospect of remuneration."
The Board does not approve of a partnership in business between
