Cambridge, July 5. 1851.
_Rifles_ (Vol. iii., p. 517.).--I am neither Mr. Gordon Cumming, nor an
officer of the Rifle Brigade; nevertheless, I have seen much of rifles
and rifle-firing; and I think I can assure your correspondent A. C. that
"_We_ make the best rifles" is rather an assumption. That the Americans
make most excellent ones, there can be no doubt; but I question whether
they ever turned out a rifle which, either for finish or performance,
would bear comparison with those made by Purdey, Lancaster, and others.
As an example of what an English rifle will do, I subjoin the
performance[4] of one made by Beattie of Regent Street on Minie's
principle for an officer in the artillery now going out to the Cape. At
_one thousand_ measured yards, sixteen balls out of thirty were put into
the target; and at four hundred yards, balls were driven through four
regulation targets, each of two inch oak, placed six inches apart from
one another; and into the earthen mound behind them ten or twelve
inches. If the Americans can beat that, either for precision or force,
they may claim to make the best rifles.
[Footnote 4: In Woolwich Marshes.]