when he had established the enormous superiority of his own gun, he should be allowed to supply guns at two-fifths of what we are now paying for them. He asked also, that before disclosing his system he should have a guarantee that, in the event of his proving all he claimed, he would be allowed to furnish a sufficient number of the guns of which, by Colonel Maitland's showing, we stand in urgent need. In other words, he asked that that should be done for him which the United States Commissioners declare to be the one right mode of securing efficient work – viz., that a remunerative contract, of enormous advantage to the country, should be made with him in the event of his achieving success.
Now we in our turn ask on what possible plea, consistently with a regard for the interests of the country, could such an offer as that have been refused?
For the country it is a pure case of winning either way. If Colonel Hope fails, not a penny is paid to him; if he succeeds, we get an incomparably cheaper and better article.
The excuse of the department for not adopting this offer is ludicrous in the extreme. They say their rules do not admit of making contracts, on condition of the production of a better and cheaper gun than they themselves can produce. They say they must have everything explained to them before they make any terms. How can a department with such a feeling about it as now exists everywhere, ever under these conditions obtain outside help at all?
The correspondence would be ludicrous if it were not so serious. To a man who has expressly said that he wants no assistance in conducting experiments, Sir F. Campbell writes, that before granting
him any money for experiments, such and such conditions must be fulfilled! Does that mean that the department does not read letters addressed to it? Or what does it mean?
Things were in this state when Mr Brewster inquired in the House whether the conditions of Colonel Hope's offer were not such that if he failed the nation incurred no loss; if he succeeded, the national advantage would be great.
To this Mr Brand, coached by the department, replied that a trial had been offered to Colonel Hope. Looking into the matter, however, for himself, he discovered that he had been made to give an answer of which the substance was not true. And then, like the upright and straightforward English gentleman that he is, he at once corrected his mistake, took into consideration the whole question, and saw that there was no colourable ground for the position taken by the department. The result has, we believe, been some arrangement with Colonel Hope, in accordance with which the trials are to take place four years later than they ought to have been made. The trials will be unquestionably of great interest. We must confess that, from the history we have been tracing, we think that it will be necessary to watch them with a very vigilant eye. Otherwise, seeing how pledged the department is in every way against the success of any men external to itself, some pretext will certainly be found for depriving the country of what may be of great benefit to it.
But, whatever may be the fate of the "Hope Gun," we are convinced that the time for a searching inquiry into the whole question of our mode of obtaining our armament has come.
We cannot trust to a body, with such a record as we have here
