What then are these trials conducted to prove? It cannot be the superiority of Lancaster’s bullet; for he has abandoned that, “_and uses the Enfield_.” Is it the rifling?--if so, let us see what the same committee say of that:-- “The chief peculiarity of this rifle consists in the inner surface of the barrel being smooth, instead of cut into grooves, as in most rifled barrels. As a substitute for grooves, the interior of the barrel is cut into the form of an ellipse, whose major axis exceeds the minor by ·005 of an inch. The ball is rifled by being forced (when expanded by the explosion of the gunpowder) into the major axis of the ellipse, which thus fulfils the office of grooves in conducting the ball into the required degree of spiral motion. “As Mr. Lancaster has adopted the American plan of a ‘gaining-twist,’ or ‘increasing spiral,’ and applied it to his smooth-bored barrels with _elongated_ projectiles, it may be as well to consider the merits of this system. “The advantages are supposed to be: “1st. Increased accuracy. “2nd. Less recoil. “3rd. An absence of the tendency a ball has, when starting with a rapid spiral, to twist the rifle over sideways to the right or left, according to the inclination of the grooves. “4th. A diminution of the tendency a ball has to ‘strip’ when first started. “1st. The alleged increased accuracy has been by some attributed to the supposition that the revolutions of the bullet round its own axis increase in rapidity while passing through the air, in consequence of having acquired that motion when passing through the barrel, under the influence of the grooves; but it is difficult to imagine how a leaden bullet can carry within itself, after leaving the muzzle, any power of increasing its own rotatory or progressive motion. “2nd. That there should be less recoil is natural, as the bullet meets with less opposition when first started from a state of rest; but the amount of recoil in all rifles now made for expanding projectiles is quite inconsiderable, and not worth noticing. “3rd. The tendency of a bullet to twist the rifle on one side is now avoided by reducing the spirality of the grooves. Instead of being one turn in three or four feet as formerly, it is now one turn in six feet six inches, and sometimes only one turn in eight or nine feet.