Richmond Daily Times

Superiority of French Rifles.—Sir Charles Shaw in a letter published in the London Times, calls attention to the great superiority of the rifles used with such terrible effect by the Tirailleurs de Vincennes in the recent Algerian war, and suggests that weapons of the same descriptions should be used by the British troops against the Kaffirs. The invention has, since long, been considerably improved and instead now being effectual at 656 yards, merely by the use of a hollow cylindro conique ball, engrafted upon M. Delvigne's invention by Captain Minie, as precise firing can be done at 1,500 yards. At the distance of 765 yards the rifle would, to a certainty, knock down a life-guardsman in spite of his cuirass, and a front of men at 1100 yards. By the adoption of this destructive machine, Sir Charles argues that the Kaffirs may be shot far more effectually and far more economically, than they possibly can be by the present muskets.