The Most Murderous Machine.
The Gaulois, of Paris, publishes a paragraph stating that “the man who shall invent the most murderous machine, and the one easiest to use and handle, shall receive from the French nation a prize of 500,000 francs. One of our exchanges also states that M. Lawrent, a distinguished civil engineer of Paris, has invented a rocket which can be directed with accuracy over any desired spot within a distance of three miles, and which on exploding discharges a sheet of burning petroleum upon whatever objects may be below. Experiments were made with this instrument of death, in which in less than ten minutes a large space of ground was covered with a sea of fire. “A committee, composed of superior officers of artillery, presided over the experiments, and the general at their head was appalled by the terrible nature of this engine of destruction.” This implement has been very appropriately named by the inventor, “Fusee Satan”; for if the Satanic is anywhere manifested, it is in the continual invention of these horrid implements for taking human life. The demand of this age is not for Bibles, and truth, and light, and religion; but for implements of death, war, murder, and destruction.