The Arkansas Advocate

English Guns.--There is a peculiar malleability about our English iron that is not to be met with in any other quarter of the globe, and consequently the pinnacle of perfection to which our gun-makers have arrived is unattainable by the foreign manufacturers. A curious, and not uninteresting, exemplification came under my knowledge about three years ago. A gentleman connected with a highly respectable firm in the gun trade, at Birmingham, was summoned to attend a board, or more properly speaking, a committee, composed of some of the Magi in Leadenhall street, respecting a contract for guns, to be shipped to their possessions in the East. The president of this said committee was Captain M--, who was the spokesman of the conclave,-and after some bartering and higgling, as to the price, &c., the contract was agreed upon. As is customary on these occasions, several patterns of guns were produced before this board of tea-dealers, and from divers samples handed to the would be contractor, one single barrelled gun was selected as the ne plus ultra of perfection. Mr. W. D--, the individual in question, was rather tauntingly asked by Capt. M --, if he could make such a barrel as the one which adorned the gun produced; a modest, yet firm, affirmation was the reply. Now it so happened that this was a noted tool, the barrel whereof was of Damascus make. A bonus of ten pounds was promised, if Mr. W. D--, the contractor, would produce a barrel of English manufacture, and of the same weight and calibre, which would stand the test of trial, or proof, against it. The offer was boldly and eagerly accepted by the contracting party, and a day of trial appointed in the East India Company's ground. At the same hour, Mr. W. D and his employer at Birmingham turned out by one of their best workmen, a barrel exactly corresponding in weight and calibre to a fraction with the "master piece."

The usual proof charge of powder was apportioned to each of the rival powers, under the superintendence of an umpire, at each trial of the strength of the barrel; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight bullets were fired by each of the guns without any damage, but on the nine bullets being discharged, the Damascus barrel flew into a thousand pieces, like so much glass; ten and eleven bullets were fired from the Birmingham gun ; at the discharge of the twelfth bullet, about three inches of the muzzle blew off, and that without materially disfiguring the barrel, for the piece was severed as nearly as if it had been regularly sawed off, and it was the opinion of those present that the "Brummagem" would have stood even one or two more bullets, had the last (the twelfth) been properly rammed down.

Nevertheless and notwithstanding, as Joseph Hume says, the superiority of British manufacture was manifest, and without adducing this authenticated fact in support of my argument. I should be borne out in asserting that our iron is immeasurably better than any other in the world. The best material used for gun-barrels is stub iron or old horse-shoe nails; these form the best twist, are tough, and more yielding withal.

-The Sportsman.