had very little knowledge of coal gas being used in private houses. He admitted that he was one of the committee at Bow when he made his calculations of the comparative price of oil and coal gas, and also at the time the dividend was declared, which he still conceived to be out of the clear profit; but he considered that the accountant did not understand the mode of making up the accounts, though he avowed himself to be no accountant at all.-The above is a faithful abstract of the most essential circumstances contained in Mr. Ricardo's evidence, and it may tend to elucidate the objects of the different papers which he published on the subject of oil gas, with the professedly disinterested view of enabling others "to arrive at a tolerably correct opinion, which it would be most adviseable to adopt." If his motives were laudable, the disclosures before the committee cannot be deemed as adding weight to his authority for recommending the use of oil gas to general adoption, either for its utility or the profit attending it; and had his evidence corroborated the favourable representations which he had published as the

* It will be right to state that the detail of the evidence of all the different persons named in the preceding pages is given as nearly as possible in the precise words of the Minutes of Evidence as they stand in the printed copies.

result of a similar speculation on a smaller scale, he would have avoided some severe animadversions.

The circumstances detailed in the preceding pages have been related with so much minuteness, not only because the opinions and statements of the individuals concerned have influenced some of the measures with regard to Gaslighting, but also from their relation to the subsequent stages of the inquiry under consideration. Many other individuals were examined with respect to various collateral points of the investigation, but their evidence was of comparatively trivial moment as far as regarded the main object in view. They related to the establishment of oil-gas companies in Norwich, Dublin, Hull, and Liverpool; and also the apparatus at the Post-Office and Covent-Garden Theatre, and Mr. Hawes's soap-works; but the result of the evidence did not prove them to be either lucrative concerns, or attended with very superior advantages in any respect. Another branch of the evidence went to shew the price of oil at different periods, which of course would affect the price of oil gas. There was also a trifling exhibition of rusty watch-chains and scissors, a few tarnished silver thimbles, with some other articles made of steel and brass, (not omitting some corroded copper pipes,) to demonstrate the

injurious effects of coal gas; and this concluded the evidence to prove the importance of establishing an oil-gas company in the metropolis, ostensibly to obviate the evils and inconveniences necessarily attendant upon the use of coal gas; but others inferred that its primary and real object was the manufacture and sale of Patent oilgas apparatus.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PROCEEDINGS IN OPPOSITION TO THE OIL

GAS BILL. EVIDENCE OF MR. SWEET, &c.

HAVING recounted, in the two preceding chapters, the principal circumstances which were adduced and urged in support of the plan for establishing an Oil-Gas Company in the metropolis, we shall now attempt to exhibit a faithful picture of the measures pursued by the different Coal-gas companies in opposition to the scheme. The Chartered Gas-Light Company, being the oldest as well as the most extensive of the kind, was the first that engaged the attention of the Committee; and the proceedings commenced by the examination of their solicitor, S. W. Sweet, Esq., who recited various clauses of the different Acts of

Parliament by which they haden authorized to raise a capital of £900,000 for the purposes of their establishment. The Report of the Select Committee of 1823 was also read, as well as a portion of Sir William Congreve's Regulation Bill, which did not pass; and although it tended to impose certain restraints, it contained a clause to invest coal-gas companies with the privilege of making gas from oil as well as coal.

The petition which they had presented to the House of Commons was admirably worded and methodically drawn up: it stated not only the petitioners' reasons for objecting to the measure proposed, but gave also a concise, yet comprehensive view of the rise and progress of the Chartered Company. Among other points it alluded to the prejudices and difficulties they had overcome, the sacrifices they had made, and the hazard and expense they had incurred in the course of their operations, from which the public had derived great advantages in many respects. They particularly noticed the great loss and injury sustained by them in being compelled, by Act of Parliament, to give up a district which produced to them a rental to the amount of upwards of £15,000 a year, in consequence of a report made to the Secretary of State by Sir William Congreve; when, at the same time, heavy restrictions were imposed upon them, and they

were subjected to a penalty of twenty pounds for every light which they lighted out of the district assigned to them.

The inquiry was one of no ordinary importance from the great capitals which were embarked in gas works; and it was also very interesting in a scientific point of view, inasmuch as it embraced the whole theory and practice of gas-lighting. Besides, the facts and opinions which were involved in its details, were to emanate from men of the highest reputation for their attainments in those branches of knowledge more immediately connected with the subject of discussion. They were also distinguished by a kind of intellectual independence and dignity which occasioned them to be looked up to with confidence, as sources of information free from the imputation or suspicion of being influenced in their decisions either by vanity, selfishness, or the partiality produced by friendly connexions; hence their evidence was characterized by the simplicity and boldness which truth and candour ever impress upon their offspring.

It was essential, too, that the evidence adduced by the Coal-gas companies should be clear, precise, and minute, so as to render it satisfactory; they, therefore, diligently sought and brought forward those persons whose qualifications would enable them to answer the interrogatories upon every point to which their examination might