AMMUNITION. Sometimes this name is given to cannon and mortars, as well as to the projectiles and explosive substances employed with them; but more usually A. is considered to apply to the latter—such as shot,.shell, gunpowder, cartridges, fuses, wads, grenades. Muskets, swords, bayonets, and other small arms are sometimes, but improp erly, included under this term. The royal laboratory at Woolwich is the place where A. is chiefly prepared for the British army and navy. The cannon-balls may be cast at some of the great iron foundries in the north; the shells may be cast or forged in the shell-factory at Woolwich; the muskets may be made at Birmingham. and the rifles at Enfield; the bullets at the shot-factories; the gunpowder at Waltham abbey—and so on; but the "making up" of the A. is mostly conducted at the establishment above mentioned. Bags of serge, in enormous number, are cut out and made, and filled to form the cart ridges for large ordnance. Bags or tubes of paper are made and filled to constitute blank cartridges for small arms; while the ball-cartridges are inclosed in thin t opper cylinders. The tubes and combustibles for war-rockets and fuses are also manufactured. The cart ridges for small-arms (rifles, muskets, carbines, and pistols) are made in millions; since it is on those that the main offensive operations of an army depend. It has been calcu lated by the Woolwich authorities, that a British army of 60,000 men, comprising it fair average of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers, ought to be provided with no less than 18,000,000 ball-cartridges f..:r small-arms, for six months' operations. These would require 1000 A. wagons, and 3600 horses, to convey them all at once. It is therefore deemed better that., under any such circumstances, there should lie established entrepav for supplying the troops from time to time. The wagons constructed for this kind of ser vice will carry 20,000 rounds of small-arm A. each; the cartridges are packed in boxes, and the wagons are drawn by four horses each. Several wagons are organized into an "equipment," under the charge of a detachment of artillery; and there are several such equipments for an army of the magnitude above mentioned—one for each division of infantry, a small portion for the cavalry, and the rest in reserve. It has been laid down
that an army of 60,000 to have 2,680,000 cartridges with them, besides those in reserve; and that the conveyance of such a quantity, with a few forges and stores, would require 150 A. wagons, 830 men, and '104 horses. The equipment would return to the entrepot for a new supply when needed. In the peninsular war, and at Waterloo, the English used two-horse carts, carrying about 10,000 rounds of small-arm A.-each; but a superior kind of wagon has been since introduced. In the field, an infantry sol dier usually carries about 60 rounds, put in compartments in his pouch. hen the word A. is used in connection with artillery matters, the'' fixed" A. comprises the loaded shells, cartridges, and carcasses; whereas the "unfixed "are the unfilled ease-shot, grape shot, and shell. During peace, the Woolwich laboratory serves out little less than 1,000,000 lbs. of gunpowder annually, in A. for the army and navy, for purposes of exer cising, saluting. etc.
The chief kinds of A. will be found briefly described under their proper headings.
Mir/TESTY signifies an act of pardon or oblivion, and the effect of it is that the crimes and offenses against the state, specified in the act, are so obliterated that they can never again be charged against the guilty parties. The A. may be either absolute, or qualified w ith exceptions. Instances of the latter are to be found in ancient and modern history: thus, Thrasybulus, when he overthrew the oligarchy in Athens, caused an A. to be proclaimed. from the operation of which the thirty tyrants, who bad formed the oligarchy. and some few persons who had acted tinder them, were excluded. Again, Bonap•rte, on his return from Elba in 1815, issued a decree, which was published at Lyon. declaring an A., from the benefits of which he excepted thirteen persons whom he named. And in our own country, the historical reader will be able to recall the act of indemnity passed upon the restoration of Charles II., by which the persons actually concerned in his father's execution were, as a class, excluded from the A.