i)n the Oil Question. 109 



associated witnesses into the witness-box, to ask him a single 

 question on the last trial ; although all of them were in court, 

 in full expectation of being examined. 



It may be added, that Messrs. Severn, King, and Co. have 

 no obscurity on their minds respecting the subject; as they 

 are at this moment actually preparing to renew the oil-process 

 on a much larger scale than it was before, and are busily en- 

 gaged in constructing the apparatus for that purpose. The 

 oil-vessel, more than three times as large as the former one, is 

 already finished ; it has a capacity of more than one thousand 

 gallons ; and the sugar-pan, which is also under operation, will 

 be of dimensions fully adapted to the size of the oil-vessel- 

 Such is the answer which Messrs. Severn and Co. are preparing 

 to give to the declarations and opinions of these Associates, 

 respecting the extreme danger of using oil in a sugar-house, as 

 delivered in court, on the 16th of December last, on the trial 

 versus the Directors of the Phoenix Office — all which may be 

 seen at pages 321, 345, 350, 354, 367, and 371, of Mr. Gurney's 

 printed Report of that trial. 



Some persons have the talent, when they find themselves in 

 a difficulty, of making broad assertions without adducing any 

 proofs. Almost every page of their work would furnish an 

 illustration. Let those, however, who may have the book, look 

 at the following instances : at page 36, is a charge of my 

 having made " partial and distorted comments," and yet not a 

 siogle example is adduced. At page 21, is a complaint of my 

 not having " addressed the scientific public," without pointing 

 out a more suitable path than that which I have pursued ; or 

 imparting the secret by which, independent of gratuitous dis- 

 tribution, they have contrived to circulate their book among the 

 " scientific public." At page 55, they say, " He has so stated 

 his case, as to lead his readers to draw false conclusions; this 

 may be done without saying any thing strictly untrue, but the 

 effect is as bad." This passage mischievously assumes an air 

 of honest indignation; but would not the " scientific public" 

 have been better satisfied, if they had taken the pains of trying 

 to exhibit one or two instances of this venial mendacity ? 



