to the New York Exhibition, in 1853, was made in that year. It has been appended to the other papers, as many parts continue to be of interest, and inquiries are still made for it.
The address to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was delivered in Glasgow in the year 1856, and the paper on “Standard Decimal Measures of Length” was read at the meeting of the Institution in Manchester in 1857, during which years I had the honour of being President.
The subject of rifled fire-arms, including artillery, has, during the last three years, occupied much of my time. It is so comprehensive in its nature that I have, in the following paper, purposely avoided going into details, and have confined myself to an explanation of the principles on which I have proceeded.
I could not help taking an interest in a subject so intimately connected with those branches of mechanics to which I have long paid special attention; believing as I do that the greater the precision with which fire-arms may be used at long distances, and the more their powers of destruction are increased, the more reluctant will civilized nations become to use them against each other, while, at the same time, a greater superiority will be given to wealth and civilization over mere numerical strength.
