Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/187

Rh in possession of a training ground for our army at Aldershot, with all its accompanying advantages, which cannot be over-estimated.

Perhaps the most important military reform with which Lord Hardinge's name is associated was the introduction into the service of the rifle, in substitution for the old smooth-bore or Brown Bess. The Small-Arms Committee of 1852, which had been appointed by his predecessor at the Ordnance, Lord Anglesey, while strongly advocating the merits of the Minie rifle, recommended that the bore should be reduced. As the result of elaborate experiments, the Enfield rifle of 1853 was finally adopted, though it is interesting to record that, even at this early date, Lord Hardinge expressed his opinion that the best rifle he had seen was a breech-loader of Mr. Prince's. The Enfield was stronger, and at the same time weighed less, than the Minie; and was then, undoubtedly, the best weapon available. It was well tested at Alma and Inkerman; in the trenches too, it was noticed that the Russians always retired more quickly when attacked with the rifle. Unfortunately, as must happen at a period of transition, the rifles issued belonged to two different patterns, requiring different kinds of ammunition; while many regiments retained the old smooth-bore during the early months of the war. It was impossible to manufacture in time a sufficient number of rifles for the whole army