90 Mr. Paikes' addilional Observations 



it could be established, would render such effectual service to 

 the cause which these zealous Associates have undertaken to 

 support, that I shall not be at all surprised to find these senti- 

 ments echoed and re-echoed in various parts of the book, among 

 the other numerous repetitions which have been employed to 

 swell its size, and increase its extrinsic importance. However 

 this may be, I shall not think it necessary to say another word 

 to refute that unfounded and unfortunate speculation. 



Respecting my observations on the expulsion' of the oil from 

 the vessel in Whitecross-street, they remark, " Mr. Parkes 

 cannot be so ignorant of the effects produced by the formation 

 of vapour in a viscid fluid by ebullition, as not to know, that 

 the fluid itself may be carried over with the vapour." All I need 

 say upon this is, that I leave them to form their own opinion ; 

 and, without attaching much value to that opinion, I assure 

 them, without hesitation, that I feel no shame in being charged 

 with ignorance from any quarter, especially as no individual 

 can know everything on any one subject that can be mentioned; 

 and the longer I live the oftener do I see occasion to deplore my 

 ignorance of many subjects which I am desirous of investi- 

 gating ; but this I do know, that if they had charged the vessel 

 in Whitecross-street with a quantity of oil that bore the same 

 proportion to the size of their vessel, as the oil at the sugar- 

 house did to the size of that vessel, there would have been no 

 spouting up of the oil, however fierce the fire had been that was 

 put under it ; but the oil would have expanded gradually and 

 without disturbance, and the oleaginous and aqueous vapours 

 would have passed off quietly through the tube as fast as they 

 were generated. This may be considered as my reply to their 

 exulting statements on the spouting up of the oil, which they 

 refer to, not only at pages 5 and 6, but also at pages 11, 12, 

 39, 42, 47, and 50. 



Do these gentlemen imagine that, if we had wished to have 

 created an alarm, we could not have summoned our friends 

 around us, and have filled our oil vessel in such a manner as 

 to have had " a sort of irregular fountain" also ; and " the 



