I shall just give the cost of the various items in the fitting-up of an imitation gun for the African market, combined with an imitation musket for the same; the former is not so desperately bad as the latter, the one being barely half an inch in the bore, the other full three-quarters of an inch, and yet their weights are not dissimilar.
You can have a shipload of these for 5s. 9d. each. It is satisfactory to know that they send powder with them of corresponding quality.
Cost of “African guns” alias “Park Paling.”
| s. | d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Common musket barrel, or birding barrel | 2 | 0 | |
| Lock | 0 | 4 | |
| Stock | 0 | 4 | |
| Stocking | 0 | 5 | |
| Brass furniture | 0 | 3 | 1⁄2 |
| Screwing together, and finishing | 0 | 9 | |
| Polishing and hardening, hammer, &c. | 0 | 4 | |
| Steel rod | 0 | 3 | |
| Browning and painting barrel and stock | 0 | 4 | |
| Small items | 0 | 3 | |
| Total | 5 | 3 | 1⁄2 |
CHAPTER VI.
THE PROOF OF GUN BARRELS.
For a considerable period subsequently to the introduction of the manufacture of gunnery into England, there existed no public proof, or test, for the goodness and safety of barrels; further than that the feeling of the maker induced him to protect the limbs of his customer. Even so early as the seventeenth century, the bias of human nature to evil began to be displayed in the production of materials for guns, the use of which was attended with loss of both life and limb. In consequence of the frequent bursting of inferior guns, the Company of Gunmakers of the City of London instituted a proof-house, to which the barrels of respectable makers were all sent to be proved. The East India Company required all their muskets to undergo the same test; hence it became a custom to have barrels proved there: many also underwent an extra test on the premises of the manufacturer; so jealous were sportsmen, and so necessary was it deemed to provide against any possibility of accident. Thus it was shown clearly that laws are not always required to carry out certain results, but that it is sometimes preferable to allow matters of this kind to be arranged according to the knowledge of the parties interested; for frequently when an individual is aware that there is a law under which, in case of need, he can shelter himself—as many do at this day in case of guns bursting—he becomes careless: he has always a ready answer, “I can assure you the barrel was proved; and there must have been some unfortunate cause for her going: you could not have rammed the wadding home, or you must have put in an extra charge,” and such like excuses. It is never for a moment supposed that there was any insufficiency in the proof.
The great demand for rubbish of a villanous description during the existence of the slave trade, induced some philanthropic gentlemen in Birmingham to found a Company, with suitable premises, for the proof of all gun barrels; and an Act of Parliament was obtained in the year 1813, incorporating the body. The first Act proved insufficient, as the Birmingham makers found easy means of evading it; so they had to obtain a fresh Act in 1815, by which parties receiving any barrel to rib, stock, &c., without its having previously been proved, became liable to a penalty of twenty pounds, and not less than twenty shillings: it also enacted that any person or persons making and selling any gun, the barrels of which had not been proved at either this or the London proof-house, became liable to the same penalty; and it further enacted, that any person or persons forging the stamps or marks of either of the two proof-houses, should be liable to the same penalties, and in default of payment, to a certain term of imprisonment, &c. It also ordered, that all barrels be proved with the quantity of powder in proportion to the various bores enumerated in the table.