Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Engineers, Military Technology, Invention, Class, Status

    Captain Bernard Dale has the immense advantage of 'being known to all his compeers as the nephew of an earl, and as the heir to a property of three thousand a year' (371–72). He has, however, also 'obtained a commission' as 'an officer in the corps of Engineers' (371), and 'in his profession had been equally fortunate'. Indeed, by 'industry, by a small but wakeful intelligence, and by some aid from patronage, he had got on till he had almost achieved the reputation of talent. His name had become known among scientific experimentalists, not as that of one who had himself invented a cannon or an antidote to a cannon, but as of a man understanding in cannons and well fitted to look at those invented by others; who would honestly test this or that antidote'. (372)

Reprinted:

Trollope 1864