~1st. Celerity.~ ~2nd. Load lying down.~ ~3rd. Easily cleaned.~ ~4th. Solid ball.~ The advantages of breech-loaders, are, 1st.--Celerity of fire, about ten rounds a minute have been attained. 2nd.--The soldier can load while lying flat on the ground. 3rd.--The barrel can be easily cleaned and examined as to its state. 4th.--A solid ball can be fired, and with less windage. ~Self capping.~ Various modes of self capping have been brought forward, but that by Maynard seems to merit the preference; time is further economized, and the powers of the breech-loader thereby increased. ~Cavalry have breech-loaders.~ Our cavalry regiments in India, are partially armed with breech-loading rifles, and all their pistols are rifled, and upon the tige principle. ~Rifles universal in English army.~ The whole of our Guards, regular Infantry, Royal Marines, Militia, and Royal Engineers, are armed with rifles, and the Carabine used by the Royal Artillery, is also rifled. All our Colonial corps are supplied with rifled arms, with the exception of the Native corps, serving in the East Indies and Ceylon. ~In larger numbers.~ ~Taught to use.~ ~Prizes.~ Thus rifles are introduced in larger numbers and of better quality in the armies of England, in proportion to their numbers, than amongst any other nation. While more care and expense is incurred in qualifying our soldiers efficiently to use them. In illustration of which, it is only needful to call attention to the simple fact that £20,000 per annum is distributed as a stimulus to the marksmen of the British army, for which boon all honour to our Royal Commander-in-Chief. ~Explosive shells.~ The idea has recently been revived to increase the destructive powers of Infantry, by furnishing them with shells, with which they may explode ammunition waggons, artillery limbers, &c., &c., to the distance of 1,000 yards. Captain Norton, Mr. Dyer, Colonel Jacobs, and Mr. Whitworth, have directed their minds to this most important subject. ON RIFLING. It has been stated that amongst the different gun makers who assembled at Woolwich, for the carrying on of experiments in 1851, no two agreed upon any one thing; and in 1860, it may still be averred, with almost equal truth, and that it yet remains an unsettled question as to the form, width, depth, number or degree of spirality of the grooves, as also the harmony which should subsist between the grooves, diameter of bore, the form and weight of projectile, and the quality and quantity of charge. ~Description of Rifles.~ ~Advantages of a rifle.~