The Cannon Shot England has been the most advanced country on questions of ordnance for more than a century. Ordnance is even a domain reserved to specialists, organized as a distinctive body ruled by a Master from 1415 onwards. This year, William Compton, 36, general at the age of 23, praised by Lord protector Oliver Cromwell for his gallantry and his skills, a royalist though, has been appointed Master-General of Ordnance. He is not a man who takes a job as a sinecure.