Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/71

Rh Terror—presented ten pieces of ordnance (October 23, 1792), on condition of their being returned at the peace, as his own country might need them. A deputy suggested the conferring of French citizenship on him, but the Convention simply voted thanks. Captain Wilson, a half-pay officer, perhaps the Scotchman who ultimately married Wolfe Tone's widow, offered a seven-barrelled gun, all the barrels of which could be discharged simultaneously. The poet Burns (February 1792) sent some guns, the equipment of a smuggling vessel which he had helped to capture, and had bought at the auction; but both letter and guns were stopped at Dover. Burns was in danger of dismissal from the Excise for this, but escaped with a reprimand. Professor John Anderson, founder of the Institute at Glasgow, went over in 1791 to offer the Assembly "a cannon the recoil of which was stopped by the condensation of common air within the body of the carriage:"—

The Assembly accepted the model of it, and experiments with a six-pounder were made near Paris, Paul Jones being an approving spectator.