8 On Lightning Conductors to Powder Magazines. [No. 109. 



Fourthly. He asserts that the lower portion of the wooden spear 

 shews no evidence of the lightning having passed through it. Neither 

 should it, as it never was touched. 



The lightning first fell on the point, the concussion shivered the spear, 

 and the arm of the statue ; from the point it struck the copper of the 

 dome, and thence by three divisions it entered the house, as described 

 in the accompanying report. 



Fifthly. The writer states, " there is no evidence of a direct or later- 

 al discharge on the spikes with which the head of the figure is cover- 

 ed." These may or may not have been affected, there was no examination 

 made of the spikes at the time, as I had no fancy to climbing the scaf- 

 folding for the purpose, and as far as their having been struck or not 

 affects the question of the point, those who know the freaks and antics 

 which lightning displays in its course, will readily admit that one metallic 

 point may be struck close to another, without this being interfered with 

 in the least degree. 



Lastly. He dwells emphatically on the circumstance that neither 

 Captain Fitzgerald nor his Assistant Mr. Barnes, the overseer, have in 

 any way publicly confirmed my statement, although they are both in 

 Calcutta, and could have been appealed to. 



On this I have to observe, that the writer is (perhaps better than any 

 other person) aware of circumstances which rendered it difficult for 

 me to appeal to Capt. Fitzgerald or Mr. Barnes on this subject — nor 

 did I then, nor do I now, feel the necessity of such an appeal. I de- 

 scribed what I saw. My character for veracity must stand or fail 

 by the correctness of my statement ; had the gentleman alluded to, or 

 his assistant publicly contradicted me, it would still be a question with 

 every impartial man, which statement was to be believed implicitly ; 

 and most observers would probably conclude, that it was more likely 

 that the marks of fusion I described had escaped the attention of 

 these individuals, than that I had wilfully and falsely described that 

 which had no existence. 



I contend, too, that it can never be admitted that a writer's state- 

 ments are invalidated in the least degree by the silence of any persons 

 he refers to. The writer cannot force these persons forward in his 

 defence, and many reasons may exist, too deep for the world to pene- 

 trate, and too powerful to allow the parties to act with perfect candour, 



