Lieutenant Hill’s plan, from an incidental notice in the third number of the _East-India Military Repository_, seems to have been the same as that of an Englishman named W. Wilton, which was tried at Woolwich in 1784. The wood of a common fusee is partly cut away to about half its thickness on both sides, and the space filled up by two small wedges of brass; a washer of leather being placed under them, a hole is drilled through them and the fusee, a brass or copper wire is inserted, and riveted firmly on both sides. The wire, when heated, becomes as brittle as glass, and the shock of the shell touching the ground breaks it off; the little wedges fall into the shell, and the fire finds two lateral vents into the powder. “A fusee similar to Mr. Wilton’s (_East-India Military Repository_), with the leaden pins (four small ones to give additional security to the brass wedges), was produced by the conductor of the Expense Magazine, _amongst several other kinds_ said to have been invented by the late Colonel Hill, of the Bengal Artillery. These specimens are now in the model-room at Dum-Dum, but we have never seen any invention for the purpose more simple or more perfect than Mr. Wilton’s fusee.” Of eight shells fired with the fusees at Woolwich, in 1784, six ignited at the moment of the shell touching the ground. At the beginning of this month a fire broke out in the Arsenal, at night, consuming the workshops, and all they contained, “except a number of carriages of different kinds, which, by the unparalleled efforts of the officers and soldiers, were preserved from the flames.” Colonel Pearse was present, and his presence stimulated their exertions to the utmost, but there is reason to believe that his own end was hastened by the exposure to this night, under the influence of mercury, as we find was the case from his own correspondence. Early in April he gave over the command of the garrison to the next senior officer, and proceeded down the river for a change of air, in the hope of restoring himself to health, but without the desired effect, and on the 15th June he ended his life; a garrison order by the Governor-General thus announces it:— “It is with the utmost concern that Earl Cornwallis has occasion to prepare the mournful duties of a last tribute of military honour to the remains of Colonel Pearse, in whose demise the army has lost a zealous and most respectable officer. “On the corpse being brought into garrison the colours are to be lowered half-staff, and to remain so until the corpse is interred. “The brigade of artillery is to furnish the funeral party, which is to consist of such part of the late Colonel Pearses own battalion as is in the garrison, completed to the strength of a battalion, and commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Deare; the remainder of the brigade, with the 4th battalion European infantry, are to attend the interment with their side-arms, in such disposition as the senior officer present may direct.”