110 Mr. Parkes' additional Observations 



At page 61, is a very solemn passage, " whoever will per- 

 vert what has been said for the purpose of his own argument, 

 may expect severe animadversion when he is exposed." The 

 trembling which seized me on reading this, can easier be ima- 

 gined than described, but my apprehension subsided when I 

 found that their threat, instead of being put into summary ex- 

 ecution, " vanished into thin air ;" and that the words were 

 merely designed to close a paragraph handsomely and without 

 trouble. Had they attempted to prove all they assert, their 

 book would, perhaps, have distended itself to more than de- 

 sirable dimensions. It was better, therefore, to register their 

 ideas exactly as they occurred, and leave it to otliers to apply 

 them. Thus as Dryden says : 



*' They fagoltecl their notiouB as they fell, 

 Aud if they rhymed and rattled, all was well." 



In the same summary way do they attempt to make the 

 public believe, that I was the editor of the report of the first 

 trial, though they have no foundation whatever for their sus- 

 picions or insinuations. I was neither consulted respecting 

 the printing of the report, nor had any concern whatever in 

 editing it. 



In page 65, we read, '* Mr. Parkes makes me say, that I 

 had four hundred thermometers of Paatorelli ; that the one 

 used in the experiments was one of them.' It is not so printed 

 in the book, and if it had it would have been wrong ; , it 

 shews how Mr. Parkes makes free with other people's words." 

 To shew the nature of this exquisite quibble, read the words 

 themselves, as taken down by Mr. Gurney. " Was it Pasto- 

 relli's thermometer," said Mr. Scarlet. — Answer, " Yes : we 

 had four hundred made by him, and I proved some of them 

 and found them good for common thermometers *." 



That no opportunity of making an unfavourable impression 

 might be neglected, they return to the charge, of my having in 

 court accused one of them of having adulterated the oil on 

 which he operated. This is often iiinted at, and in page 16, 



* Mr. Guniey's Report, p. 183. 



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