The complete proposal therefore involved the adoption of shell guns exclusively, new guns being made and old guns being reamed out as necessary to enable each ship to carry pieces of one calibre alone. The calibre proposed as unit was the long French 48-pounder. And, as an example of the way in which M. Paixhans would convert armaments, the case of the French 74-gun ship is here taken. This, with an existing armament of:-- 28 36-pounders, 30 18-pounders, 14 6-pounders, 14 6-pounder carronades, a total of 86 pieces throwing 2250 pounds of solid shot, he would convert into a ship armed with:-- 28 48-pounders (reamed from 36-pounders), 30 48-pounders (of same weight as 18-pounders), 28 48-pounder carronades; eighty-six pieces throwing 3010 pounds of charged shell weighing 35 pounds each. For the new shell gun he proposed a design of iron howitzer in which the distribution of metal was so adjusted as to give a sufficient factor of safety at every section, while at the same time allowing the total weight of the piece to be reduced to a minimum. This _canon-à-bombe_ was to be mounted on a stable form of carriage, made without trucks but fitted with running-out rollers and directing bars to control the line of fire and the direction of recoil. To those who were inclined to regard with feelings of horror this new use of explosive missiles, this progress in the art of destruction, the inventor put the question, whether experience had not proved that the perfection of arms had not had the effect of making warfare actually less bloody; whether it was not a fact worth consideration, that, while in days of old the destruction and loss of life in battles was enormous, the loss of English seamen by gunfire in the numerous combats of three long and bitter wars of recent times amounted to less than five thousand killed. And would not, therefore, further development of arms be a positive benefit to humanity?[106]