ABSTRACT
On 12 January, 1860, the War Office acknowledged the Admiraltys request for more naval officers to be trained in the use of the new Armstrong breech-loading rifled guns. This was very much a case of a private Victorian inventor supplying the British military with a bold new weapon system which might render those of potential enemies obsolete. If imperial dependencies acted more like self-reliant nation states and if the naval arsenals of the mother country were extensively fortified then Britannia could truly operate like a Mistress of the Seas. When Old Pam formed his first government during the severe trial of the Crimean War which saw the downfall of Lord Aberdeen’s he looked to Britain’s leading Peelite to continue his hard work as Chancellor of the Exchequer for him as well. Gladstone typically demurred on moral as opposed to strictly political grounds, for the new Prime Ministers desire for pursuing a more ruthless course against Russia was well known.
