Large pieces, which were conveyed on carriages, were called _Karren buchse_, from the action of conveyance. Soon afterwards cannon were introduced, at first called _canna_; now known as artillery. However, artillery-men, and others concerned in those employments, still use the terms previously mentioned. The hackenbuchse were so very large and unwieldy, that if carried in the hand, they could not be used manually alone; they were, therefore, supported by a post or stay, called a _bock_, because it had a forked end, somewhat resembling the horns of the buck, between which the piece was fixed by a hook projecting from the stock. There is still preserved in the Tower of London, an old _buchse_; a specimen of every species of our national arms may be seen in the same place. From those terms before-mentioned, it would appear, that not only the English, but also the French, and most other European nations, took the names of their fire-arms. It appears that pistols were first used in Germany; they had a wheel attached to them. Bellay mentions them in the year 1544, in the time of Francis I.; and under Henry II., the German horsemen were called _pistoliers_. Several historians think that the name came from Pistolia, in Tuscany, because there they were first made; and, if we might hazard an opinion, we think this conjecture right. Hence, although Germany might first have generally used them, we think they were an Italian invention. Muskets are said to have received their name from either the French _mouchet_, or else from the Latin _muschetus_; however, we are of opinion that neither of these terms gave its original; and submit that it is derived from the Latin _muscarium_,--the fall of men being as sudden after the explosion of this deadly weapon, as the death of a fly after it is flapped by that instrument, which was common in the butcher’s shambles of ancient Rome. Daniel proves they were known in France as early as the period of Francis I. Brandome, however, asserts they were introduced by the Duke of Alva--that cruel monster in human shape--that tool of a blood-thirsty tyrant--whose name has its full merit when it has eternal execration, as the exploits of that diabolical character in the Spanish Netherlands bear indubitable testimony: that wretch existed in 1507; and they were not known in France at that period, as Brandome endeavours to prove, or we should have had more intelligence handed down to posterity by the commentators of one who would so willingly have used such an instrument. The _lock_ is said to have been invented in the city of Nuremberg, in Germany, about 1517; but that cannot be considered as the lock of the present day, as even in Germany the fire-lock is known by the name of the French-lock, which certainly militates against the previous assertion, the one giving the name perhaps to the other.