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calculated pressures, the guns were strong enough without, and that they are so, where there is no latent defect, is shown by the number of rounds that the unhooped classes have fired successfully. There are many temptations on the score of economy, and of simplicity, to adopt for the chase the unhooped mode of manufacture, for the 6-inch and for larger natures of guns, as is evidenced by its having been followed by every nation.
In addition to the 6-inch guns in the British service, or making for that service, there have been constructed by private manufacturers for foreign States, some hundreds of 6 -inch guns of practically the same designs, and these guns have given satisfaction.
I will not give you a list of all our 8-inch, 9·2 inch, 12-inch, 13·5 inch, and 110-ton guns, but we have these guns in considerable numbers. Well, what has been the result, and what have been the bursts? Of guns issued to the service, two 6-inch and one 12-inch have failed. One of the 6-inch guns I have already alluded to when describing the effect of a concealed cavity; the second gun blew its unhooped chase off with a half-charge; and the 12-inch gun which I have also previously alluded to, blew its unhooped chase off with a three-quarter charge. In addition to these failures in service, there have been during experiment, and when the men were firing under special precautions, failures in two 9·2 inch 18-ton guns. All these five guns that have failed were unhooped at the chase, and were not steel guns, but were all of the early designs, composed of wrought iron and steel; and, as I have said, two of them burst with diminished charges. As regards the question of bursting with diminished charges, how does this strike you? As a circumstance to make the failure all the worse, or as a circumstance tending to show that the guns have not failed from faulty design? I have already stated that the 6-inch guns of all Marks have fired thousands of charges, many of which were full charges; it is clear, therefore, that the design is sufficient for a full charge, and à fortiori it must be for a half-charge; if therefore failure has taken place with
