THE closing of this Exhibition last week will be regretted by the large number who have spent many an amusing and indeed instructive on hoar within its gates.

The original promoters, executive com- mittee and all others connected with the organization and management of this truly National Exhibition are to be most sincerely congratulated on the success that has attended their labours. "We think the results of the Exhibition will be found to extend far beyond what at first sight would seem to be their limit. The fact of upwards of two and a quarter million visitors having passed the turnstiles during an unusually wet and inclement season testifies to its having been made most interesting and attractive. These numbers must surely have not only se- cured from loss the liberal public-spirited guarantors, without whose support the Exhibition could not have been held, but also we hope ensured a substantial sum being forthcoming for the founda- tion of a benevolent fund for the relief of the widows and relatives of persons whose deaths may be attributable to the naval service, the admirable object to which it was from the first determined to devote any surplus there might be. A very large proportion of the visitors—if not an actual majority—have probably never seen a ship, or at any rate have only done so in the cursory way attendant on a day's holiday at the sea-side, or a visit to a dockyard. The display of mimic naval warfare on the lake, in- cluding as it did an action between battle-ships, with the attendant incidents of a mast being shot away, a turret-gun disabled, a serious explosion on board one of the combatants, attacks upon them by torpedo-boats, the running of a "Whitehead torpedo, the laying of mines and ex- ploding them as a ship passed over them, the laying of counter-mines, &c., was all carried out in such a manner that it could not but convey to the minds of spectators of ordinary intelligence and thought, such an impression of the cir- cumstances of modern naval warfare as they could not have the opportunity of obtaining in any other way. This im- pression must have planted, in all who received it, a great interest in naval affairs, more particularly from its being seed sown in the kindly sympathetic soil (if we may use the simile) of the love of the sea and all pertaining to it that is inherent in the Englishman.

We think the remarkable increase that has occurred in recruiting for the navy in the London district since the Ex- hibition opened, amounting to twenty per cent., may with justice be attributed in great measure to the various displays, including the parading and drilling of numbers of seamen with rifles,- cutlasses, and field-pieces, which have always called forth enthusiastic applause from the large crowds who witnessed them. Another ramification of this spread of information will show itself in the increased interest it must give to all who have benefited by it, in reading the subjects dealt with in the naval intelligence, including reports of naval operations both of actual war and of manoeuvres and the attendant discussions that appear in the public press, because they will now be far better able to under- stand them, and who does not read the papers nowaday? This idea equally applies to the accounts of furious gales such as we have recently experienced, with their ac- companying disasters to shipping, in the reports of which we so frequently read " the crew were saved by the rocket ap- paratus," the mode of doing this having also been exhibited. It is unfortunate that the want of space and other con- veniences for working one of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION'S fully- equipped Life-boats on the lake obliged the executive to abandon their original intention of displaying also this branch of the life-saving service, which would have been equally instructive and interest- ing.

In the article on the Exhibition which appeared in the last number of this journal, the want of space obliged us to confine our notice to the Sopping, Cooke, and Franklin galleries, and to a few of the kiosks and other outside exhibits, which mainly comprised one part of the subject only, viz., ships themselves. The contents of the other galleries, more particularly the St. Vincent, Armstrong and Camperdown galleries, comprised an equally complete history of naval war material, from the time of Henry VI., when cannon were in their infancy, to the present day, with all the latest weapons of naval warfare and their appliances. The student of history, as well as of gunnery, found much to interest him in the primitive guns of the earliest periods, with their quaint old- world names, beginning with the wrought- iron " serpent gun " of Henry VI., followed by what we presume was the first breech- loader, made in the time of Edward IV., of bars of forged iron, looped together with iron rings, and named a " Peterara;" it is 3 feet in length, with a diameter of bore of 2J inches, and weight 1 cwt.

13 Ibs. These are followed by guns of various sizes, made in the time of Henry VIII., named "Saker," "Culver- ing," "Culvering Bastard"—a curious twelve-sided gun—" demi-cannon," and " cannon Royal," which last has a bore 8ij inches in diameter.' We then come to the " Falcon " and " Falconet" of Charles I., and "Minions" of Charles II., William- and Mary, and Queen Anne. With these is a brass 6J inch Howitzer, dated 1782, mounted on a carriage made in the Royal Arsenal in the same year, and presented to the Emperor of China in 1792. It was found in the Summer Palace, near Pekin, when taken by the British and French forces in I860, and was then brought back to this country. Following in his- torical order the development of cannon, we find that comparatively little was done in this way until the first ironclads were produced, during the Crimean war, and it was found that their 4 inches, or there- abouts, of armour rendered them im- penetrable by existing guns. It is true that between 1840 and 1860 larger guns, throwing heavier shot, were produced, but they were all on the same principle, viz., made of cast iron and throwing spherical shot. During this period shells were also brought into more general use, and fired from all guns; guns were also introduced for firing hollow-shot, which was I equally effectual against the old "wooden walls," and enabled a larger shot to be thrown with a considerably lighter gun than a solid shot of the same size could be. At the time of the Crimean War, the only additions that had been made to the old 32, 24 and 18-pounders of the great wars at the beginning of this century were the 68 pounder, weighing 95 cwt. and 65 cwt., the 10-inch hollow- shot gun, weighing 84 cwt., and the 8-inch, hollow-shot gun of 56 cwt; There was also one attempt made to pro- duce the effect of rifling, or giving the spiral motion to a shot, but it failed, and was for the moment abandoned. At this time, however, the necessity for greater power of penetration, in order to overcome the armour plating, had made itself manifest, and a system of rifled breech-loading guns firing cylindri- cal shot pointed at one end was intro- duced, the additional extra strength re- quired being obtained by building the guns of separate wrought-iron coils round a central tube. This was the beginning of the struggle for mastery between guns and armour that went on With varying success for some years, first one, then the other, gaining the advantage, but with the inevitable final result of the limit in weight of armour that can be put on a ship being reached before that of the size and consequent power of penetration by the guns. The first system of breech- loading having proved unreliable, a return to muzzle-loading was resorted to, but this had again to give way to breech- loading on the system at present in use, this latter having culminated in the enormous 110-ton gnn, a model of which was shown in the Armstrong Gallery. Of course the system of working guns by hand-power had to be abandoned, and machinery, principally hydraulic, was adopted. Although inevitable, this can- not but make the guns much more delicate machines, and it yet remains to be seen how they will meet the contin- gencies of actual warfare. Next to these in size, but not in novelty of construction, come the "quick-firing guns," throwing missiles from 100 Ibs. weight to 3 Ibs., at the rate of from six to thirty a minute.

These, and the smaller " machine guns," also possessing great rapidity of fire, have been called into existence as the best form of defence against torpedo boats, on account of the perfect storm of pro- jectiles they would rain upon them when once within range. Improvements in the manufacture of both gunpowder and pro- jectiles has kept pace with that of guns, and the galleries under consideration contain a complete and very instructive display of both.

In the Armstrong Gallery there was a very striking full-sized drawing showing the power of penetration of the 110-ton gun, we presume, fired at close quarters.

The target was in all 44 feet 4 inches thick, being composed of compound armour 1 foot 8 inches thick, then an iron plate 8 inches, then 20 feet of balks of oak, then 5 feet of granite, followed by 11 feet of concrete, and finishing with a brick wall 6 feet thick. The shot passed through all the other obstacles into the brick, and stopped about half-way through that. The different kinds of projectiles, with the highly ingenious and scientific appliances called in to assist in their perfection, are far too numerous for in- dividual notice here. Amongst other aids, the power of electricity is largely drawn upon in both gun and torpedo warfare.

One of its powers in the latter operations was displayed on the lake, where it was applied from the shore, to the purpose of propelling and guiding a boat without any one on board, into a field of mines, and there made to drop and explode counter-mines, to destroy those already laid and clear a passage for ships to pass through.

The Caniperdown Gallery, amongst other interesting exhibits, contained two tanks illustrating the operations of mining and counter-mining.

The full-sized model of the Victory was most truthfully carried out, and must have brought back recollections of past days to many an old sailor. The crowning scene in Nelson's life, viz. his death in the hour of victory, was admirably presented.

The Nelson, Blake and Benbow gal- leries, ,which were devoted to pictures, letters and other relics of England's naval heroes and their deeds, was in itself an exhibition of the greatest in- terest, requiring much time to examine and contemplate.