This paper was written in India as far back as 1839, but many of its suggestions were still untried, and present circumstances seem to urge their importance.

The recent improvements in the hand-rifle have so greatly increased the practical range of that instrument, as to have passed and left far behind, in point of range and precision, the heavy field pieces which heretofore have done accurate execution at distances impracticable to small arms. The large guns therefore imperatively require to undergo the same alteration which, by converting the musket into a rifle, has so greatly increased the directness and accuracy of the flight of its ball.