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 Sweden, Holland, England and others soon also received his instructions and they, too, have since built up a new method of defence second to none.

My own experiments, Captain Maury says, show that the electrical torpedo, or mine has not hitherto been properly appreciated as a means of defence in war. It is as effective for defence as ironclads and rifled guns are for the attack. Indeed, such is the progress made in what may be called this new Department of Military Engineering that I feel justified in the opinion that hereafter in all plans for coast, harbour and and in all works for the protection of cities and places whether against attacks by armies on land or ships afloat, the electrical torpedo is to play an important part. It will not only modify and strengthen existing plans, but greatly reduce the expense of future systems.

These experiments have resulted in some important improvements and contrivances, not to say inventions and discoveries which as yet have been made known only to the Confederate Government. They are chiefly as follows:

First. A plan for determining by cross bearing when the enemy is in the field of destruction, and for "making connections" among the torpedo wires in a certain way and by which (the concurrence of two operators) becomes necessary for the explosion of any one or more torpedoes. This plan requires each operator to be so placed, or stationed that a line drawn straight from them to the place of the torpedoes may intersect as nearly as practicable at right angles, and it requires the connections to be such that each operator may put his in or out of circuit at will. When the torpedoes are laid, a range from each station is established for every