content_output-092_5 (Q6894)

In the year 1653, by an ordinance of Louis XIV., soldiers were forbidden to use flint-lock guns, and by another, later in the same year, the use of these guns by soldiers was made a crime punishable with death. They were introduced into England in the reign of William III., and from that time gradually increased in favour till they became the general weapons of this country. They remained in use in the British army until 1840, flint guns being manufactured in Birmingham for the English Government as late as 1842.