§ MR. HENRY BAILLIEsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, If it is true that the second 600-pounder Armstrong Gun burst at the fiftieth round; and, if so, whether it will not be advisable to at once stop the rifling of heavy guns on the Woolwich Shunt, and Whit-worth Systems, until the War Department, have ascertained the most enduring system of rifling heavy Artillery?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON, in reply, said, it was the fact that an Armstrong gun had burst in such a manner that it had become unserviceable. He was, however, unable to give the hon. Member any definite reply to his Question until further investigation had been made as to whether the cause of the bursting of the gun could be attributed to the system of rifling the gun, or to the excessive charges that had been fired from it.