This is a fascinating circular issued by the Royal Irish Constabulary dated 19th February 1868. It deals with the newly purchased Webley breech loading revolvers that were supplied to the R.I.C. through the firm of Trulock & Harris of Dublin. This was a significant event in the Webley company history as it was the beginning of Webley's highly successful R.I.C. line of revolvers.

The discovery of this document turned the Webley collecting world on its head. Collectors had long assumed the revolvers supplied in this first purchase were of the early 1st pattern type with the extractor rod mounted on a rotating ring surrounding the barrel. This document changed that thinking. From reading Point 15, Removal of Copper Cases it appears there was no extractor fitted at all and empty cases were to be removed with a pencil or, if necessary, the cylinder pin. It's clear that the revolvers supplied to the R.I.C. were of a much more basic design.

Recently, researchers have discovered a surviving example of one of these first Webley's.  It's described and pictured in detail in the short article titled The First Webley RIC by Joel Black, Derek McAllister & Geoffrey Ward and available from Cornell Publishing. If you're a die hard Webley fanatic you really need to get a copy.