This diversion of recoil in systems having the breech-block pivoted
at the rear above the axis, and swinging longitudinally through the
frame by the operation of levers, is equally a result of over-charge
or of bursting cartridge-head. Of systems of tliis nature the trial
above referred to disabled nearly all the arms entered, the shock
naturally departing from the plane of resistance and seeking the
weakest point, with the effect, in one instance, of blowing away the
stock beneath the breech-block, in a second of raising the breech-
block and bending the lever uj)ward, and in a third of bending the
hinge-screw and cracking the adjacent receiver ; in each case the
piece being disabled. In this class of systems, moreover, the long
swing of the breech-block necessitates a difficulty of locking it by
mechanical device, which, as has been seen, is avoided by the very
organization and operation of the Remington action, in which, to
follow the ^ic;;w7?i of Captain Fountouclis, "the power tending to
keep the breech-block closed during the tire increases with that
which tends to open it."

DTJKABILITY AHD ENDUKANCE OF THE SYSTEM.
