§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for War whether any experiments, for the purpose of testing the relative superiority of the Enfield, Whitworth, Jacob's and other Rifles, has been made since last Session; whether there is any Report made to the Government: and if so, whether it will be laid on the table before the close of the present Session. He also wished to know whether the iron cup at the bottom of the rifle ball has been abandoned and a wooden cup substituted, and if that is the case if the right hon. and gallant Gentleman can inform the House whether it is not probable that the wooden cup may soon be dispensed with.
GENERAL PEELsaid, that there had been two Committees appointed on the subject—one, called the Small Arms Committee, whose duty it was to test the merits 606 of all descriptions of arms; and a second, to test the merits of the Enfield, Whitworth, and Jacob's Rifles. That Committee was about to assemble almost immediately, and the only delay which had arisen was in consequence of some of Mr. Whitworth's Rifles called for last year not having been yet furnished. There was no question more important than that of the ammunition to the efficiency of the Enfield Rifle. The iron cup alluded to by the hon. and gallant Member had been done away with, but up to the present moment it had been found impossible so to shape the bullet as to do away with the wooden cup substituted. Experiments were now going on with respect to the ammunition which he could assure the House were highly satisfactory. No Report of course had yet been made, nor was there the slightest chance of a Report being made in time to be laid on the table of the House during the present Session with respect to the comparative merits of the different Rifles under trial; but he believed that there was no doubt that in some respects Mr. Whitworth's Rifles had been found superior to the Enfield: whether they were more fitted as weapons of war would most probably be decided by the result of the forthcoming experiments.