104 Mr. Parkes' additional Observations 



vessel at Messrs. Severn's, that was capable of producing the 

 conflagration ! Had any of Messrs. Severn's men formed the 

 intention of setting their masters premises on fire, by means of 

 the oil vapour I doubt much whether so ingenious a mode of 

 separating the water from it, and rendering it combustible, would 

 have occurred to them. 



If the chemists, engaged on the part of the defendants, were 

 all present to witness these experiments, I am astonished that 

 those among them, who valued their reputation more than the 

 support of a favourite theory, did not at once exclaim against 

 the illiberality of such a proceeding. 



Some of those gentlemen were probably not aware of the ten- 

 dency of the experiments, or conceived it would be useless to 

 protest against them ; and therefore they continued, — 

 " Th' entangled slaves to folly not their own !" 



Although 1 have thus endeavoured to explain the diversified 

 nature of the numerous deviations from the original apparatus 

 which these Associates seem now so anxious to disguise, I 

 should still not do justice to the subject, if I did not advert once 

 more to the opinion of the Solicitor General, who spared no 

 pains to make himself complete master of every point that had 

 any bearing on the question at issue. When speaking, in his 

 address to the jury, of the chemists who were engaged by the 

 Phoenix Insurance Office, he made use of these very remarkable 

 words : — 



" They seem," said he, " in their experiments, studiously to 

 have departed from this apparatus, for the purpose, in some 

 other way, under some other form, in some other mode, to de- 

 duce results and conclusions which never could be deduced from 

 the apparatus itself, which is the only subject of your inquiry. 

 And, Gentlemen, knowing what I do of these individuals ; know- 

 ing what I do of their intelligence and their sagacity, it does 

 appear to me that this has been an intentional deviation from the 

 apparatus, from a kind of presentiment, or conviction, existing 

 in their minds, that if they had adhered to the apparatus in 

 question, it would not have led to those conclusions they have 



