But why proceed to the manufacture of monstrous guns, like those that Mr. Krupp has just produced, or meditates producing in the future; guns of such a caliber can be used only in special cases--in battery on the coast or on board of a ship. It is not with _materiel_ of this kind that war is waged; it is with field pieces. Our ultra-Vosges neighbors well know this. One of the reasons that the war that very recently threatened us did not break out, was because the Germans could not fail to see that their field _materiel_ was not as powerful as ours; that the shell of our 3½ inch gun weighs 17½ pounds, while that of their heavy 3½ inch gun does not weigh 15. Now, this difference has its value. Hunters well know what importance it is necessary to attach to the number of the ball that they use. This granted, it is well to observe that the net cost of the "40 cm. kanone L/40" must not be less than $300,000 or $400,000. Now, on the interest of such a sum we could have from ten to fifteen complete batteries, that is to say, comprising, in addition to the sixty or eighty guns, all the necessary accessories, such as carriages, limbers, caissons, harness, etc. Frankly, between the two acquisitions, there is no hesitation possible. Finally, if we must say so, we do not think that foreign powers, when they believe it their duty to provide themselves with _materiel_ of great caliber, will think of supplying themselves from the Essen works, on account of the memorable accidents due to the imperfection of guns coming from this celebrated establishment. The list of burstings that have occurred, not only in Germany, but also in Russia, Bohemia, Italy, Turkey, and Roumania, is already a long one. To speak here only of what occurred in France in 1870-71, it is certain that out of seventy German guns of large caliber in battery against the southwest front of the wall of Paris, thirty-six--say more than half--were put out of service during the first fifteen days of the bombardment, and that too through firing merely; and it was the opinion of Mr. De Moltke himself that the German siege batteries would have been reduced to silence, had the defenders been able to hold out for a week longer. It is equally certain that, during the course of the Loire campaign, eighty guns of Prince Frederick Charles' were put out of service by the sole fact of their firing. Summing up the history of these many accidents, the Duke of Cambridge asserted to the House of Lords (April 30, 1876) that _two hundred_ Krupp guns burst during the Franco-German war. Have the engineers of the Essen works improved their processes of manufacture since that epoch? It is permissible to doubt it, seeing that, very recently, the Italian navy refused to take from Mr. Krupp some 15½ inch guns whose tubes were but very imperfectly welded.