_Advance of the Rifle._—With the general improvement of fire-arms the rifle had worked gradually into favor and use. Its main drawback, as an army gun, laid in the difficulty experienced in loading it. But it was admirably adapted to the wants of the people settling the wilds of the American continent, hence they adopted it almost to the entire exclusion of any other kind of fire-arm. In the armies its use was limited to a few corps of sharp-shooters, usually on the frontiers where it was advantageous to harass the enemy by picking off his men at long range. England seems to have been rather prejudiced against the rifle until after our war with her for Independence. In that war she appears to have had so striking a demonstration of its efficiency that she soon after adopted it as a military arm; and other nations, having faith in her superior judgment, finally followed her example, bringing the rifle rapidly upward in rank as an effectual implement of war. _The Percussion Lock._—In 1807 a Scotch clergyman by the name of Alexander Forsyth, invented a new method of igniting the charge in fire-arms, which, after various changes and improvements, settled down to what is now known as the percussion cap. The percussion lock was a simultaneous invention, of course; though it did not differ materially, in point of construction, from the old flint-lock already in use. The main difference consisted in the substitution of a cylinder and tube for the priming pan and frizzen, and a hammer for the cock. A strong current of prejudice set at once against the percussion lock, though nobody could tell why. All declared it would not do, but none attempted to give a reason for the faith that was in them. As a result the new invention was pretty effectually held in the background until 1834, when its opponents accepted a challenge for a public test of its merits against those of the flint-lock. The test extended to 6,000 rounds. In the course of these the percussion lock (afterwards more commonly known as the cap-lock), gave but six miss-fires, while the flint-lock scored nine hundred and twenty-two misses. This astounding defeat at once sealed the fate of the flint-lock; still it was a long time before the prejudice existing against the other could be entirely removed. Even as far down as the date of our Mexican war, General Scott flatly objected to its use in his army, and had his men armed with the flint-lock, although there were then in our arsenals percussion-lock muskets enough to have armed all his forces more than twice over. But facts are such stubborn things that even the strongest prejudice must give way to them sooner or later. So it proved in this instance; one by one the manufacturers of flint-lock fire-arms adopted the improvements resulting from the discoveries of the Scotch clergyman, until finally no more flint-locks were made, and the percussion lock was in undisputed possession of the field.