The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-29 00:00:00

OIL SPRINGS.

Numerous advices appear to confirm the great
value of the oil springs lately discovered in the
United States and Canada. The question as to the
duration of their yield remains to be settled, but it
seems probable that, owing to the extent of the
regions in which they are found, the supply will
last many years, and that a proper organisation of
railway facilities will alone be needed to cause the
production to be among the most important in
modern commerce. In the United States the princi-
pal deposits aro understood to be close to a station
on a new railway—the Atlantic and Great Western
—which will render their conveyance to New York
comparatively inexpensive. In Canada they are
about 12 miles from the Wyoming Station of the
Great Western of Canada Railway, and some ar-
rangements will be necessary for the transit over
that distance, the existing roads being of the worst
description. At the site of the principal wells the
ground was two years ago covered by an almost
unbroken forest. Now there is a resident and
constantly increasing population of upwards of
500, During last winter the coaches took au
average of 50 people daily to the spot from Wyom-
ing, and many bought land and remained. There
are several inns filled to overflowing. Two good
hotels are in course of erection. !louses and shanties
are rising on all sides, and the greatest activity
is everywhere apparent. At present there are
about 100 wells in full operation, all yielding oil.
The land is held in large blocks, the owner leasing
acres and half acres for 99 years, The terms
usually are 300 dols. for the privilege and one
third of the oil drawn from the wells. The wells
are sunk and cribbed to a depth of from 40 to 60
feet till the rock is reached. In many cases surface
oil is found before reaching the rock, but it is of
rather inferior quality and doubtful yield. After
arriving at the rock, the wells through the earth
being from 4 to 7 feet square, they drill to a depth
of from 40 to 70 feet, between which distances oil
is almost sure to be discovered. Wooden tanks,
varying from 500 to 2,000 gallons capacity, are con-
structed close to each well. The oil is pumped into
these, and afterwards drawn off into barrels to be
sent to market. The cost of a well is very small.
Parties in the distriet making contracts for sink-
ing wells. Their charge is for sinking through the
earth dols. per foot, and for drilling through the
rock 2+ dols. per foot. A well after being com-
menced usually yields oil in less than 30 days. At
these prices a well can be sunk, a tank for 100 gal-
lons made, and a pump and all necessary appliances
provided for a sum equal to about £lOO sterling.
When oil is found, one man at 4s. a day can readily
pump 100 barrels, or 4,000 gallons a day. The
csst of the oil, including every expense, and cal-
culating the reimbursement of every, outlay in-
curred in one year, and also calculating a yield
of 15 barrels, or 600 gallons a day, is, it is
alleged, absolutely less than a halfpenny sterling
a gallon delivered into the tank alongside the
well. Very few attempts have yet been made to
pump by steam at the place where the oil is
most extensively found, nearly all the labour being
by hand. This is partly to be attributed to the
badness of the roads, preventing the possibility of
getting heavy loads into the district, and partly
to the yield of the wells being on an average about
equal to the quantity a man can easily pump in a
day.

A moderate average yield for all the wells now
in operation (100) is 15 barrels, or 600 gallons, a
day. At the rate at which privileges are being
disposed of and parties are preparing to sink wells,
there will be 500 in operation before Christmas.
Taking the present 100 wells only, however, the
result is extraordinary. Thus-100 wells yielding
600 gallons give 60,000 gallons per day, 360,000
per week, or 18,720.000 per annum. A trustworthy
observer remarks :—"uch a yield seems almost
yet I believe, from personal observa-
tions, and inquiry na and
quiry on the spot, that it is within the
bulou
truth."

SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday...a-The Hamburg-
American Company's screw steamer Hammonia, Captain
Schwensen, sailed hence for Now York this afternoon,
taking out the usual mails, upwards of 300 passengers,
20,000 f. in specie from Havre, sal a large cargo. She has
no specie from England. The Royal Mail Company's
steamer Avon, Captain Reeks, left this afternoon, at four
o'clock, for St. Thomas's, to be placed on an intercolonial
station.

THE STRIKE IN THE IRON TRADE.—The ex-
tensive strike among the puddlers in the north of England
has not been arranged. At the monthly meeting of the
ironmasters, held at Middlesborough on Tuesday, it was
determined not to allow the men to go in unless at 4.h —6 full _
10 per cent. reduction. On Saturday, inconsequence
eaur-
the continued depression in the iron trade, the Blah?
mouth Ironworks will close, and this, combined nth the
throw
bankruptcy of Mr. Oswald, the iron shipbuilder, will
2,800 men out of employment at that place:
The Lord Chief Justice has appointed Thomas
Hull Terrell, Alfred Hanson,
and Henry S. Maine,
E'squires, of the Chancery bar,
it° of London, and the
county of revise Middlesex. the lists of voters
for the metropolitan boroughs, t .e city

A MEM. FOR LORD NORMANBY.—The Turin
correspondent of the Temps relates that during the provin
cial government of the Xmilian provinces in 1859 Colonel
Frapelli, on officer of remarkable energy, was engaged in
raising with the utmost despatcb. a national force ; but the
question was how to dress and equip the recruits as fast
as they were raised . In this emergency
a contractor sent
in a tender to fit out the whole force at a very moderate
figure. The contract is placed. among the official archives.
The contractor was the Duke of Modena himself,
treatir,g with the usurping Government through the me-
diw:a of a well-known banking-house. Nor was the specu-
Fation a bad one ; for either
the usurping Government
would last and pay its way, or the Duke would have his
own again, and sink the clothier and contractor in the
sovereign.

PAINFUL SCENE AT A FIRE.-A fire took place
on Tuesday 'ring
at the premises of Mr. Pritchard, in
Conduit-street. Eleven persona were at one time in great
danger of being burnt to death, but were saved by a fire-
escape, urtder Conductor Bailo3 f, who behaved with great
courage.

that was wrong, as it was tyrannicide and net
assassination to destroy a man who intended to
destroy the lives and liberties of thousands of his
fellow-creatures, and it was right to take the life of
one man if it would save thousands.
The CHAIRMAN here interposed, upon which
Mr. WRIGHT said that there were " dirty tools
of tyranny in the town," who had exercised all
their influence to prevent the hall from being used
for the purpose of the lecture. The mayor and
the French consul had exercised all their influence
with the committee of the hall, but he was happy
to say they had not succeeded. (Cheers).
M. de RUDIO then described his sufferings at the
Silver Mountain and in the Island of Salutation,
and his escape, on the 9th of December last, with
several companions, to the English colony of Ber-
bice, whence they worked their way to London,
where he arrived on January 29. In conclusion,
he said he admitted the conspiracy, but all p=rsons
who could see further than the limits of Britain
must know that for the Continent there was no
way to obtain liberty but by conspiracy. Ordi-
nary means were of no avail, and men might rise
by thdtisands only to fall into the hands cf their
tyrants. It was only by revolution that free..
dom could be secured, and conspiracy was the
mother of revolution, The liberties of England,
of Switzerland, of America, had all originated
in conspiracy; and so the Italians, Germans, French,
and Russians, must obtain their liberty. The inte-
rest of European Kaisers and Kings was directly
opposed to the emancipation of their subjects, and
yet it was supported by so large a number of those
subjects that the only possible solution of the diffi-
culty was a sanguinary one. Consequently the
man who could conceive a plan of preventing a
general danger by killing one guilty party only
must be a benefactor to the human-race. (Applause.)
Such was Cromwell, and such is Garibaldi; and
feeble as was his brain, and weak as was his hand,
compared with those of the two great men he
had named, yet his motive was the same. For this
cause he had sacrificed family and freedom, and
had risked his life. Napoleon was one of the foun-
tain heads of wickedness and crime, and had he
(Rudio) succeeded in his purpose he would have
been honoured in life and death. He knew that the
views of many Englishmen were opposed to such.
means being taken, but they should remember that
no land in Christendom had witnessed so many
martyrs for the cause of liberty as their own. He
was no partisan of assassination in the vulgar sense,
but oceasionally he did approve of tyrannicide. He
admitted the principle of private vengeance only
when nationality and economy of life were at
stake; in such a cause he had done what he had
done, and in such a cause he would risk his life
anew. And he knew enough of Englishmen to
be able to say that if their country was suffer-
ing from the treacherous conduct of one individual
they would rise as one man—(applause)---and endea-
vour to exterminate him. Andif Englishmen would
do that, why should not Italians, Frenchmen, and
Germans ? He and half a score others had taken
that duty upon themselves, and were they right or
not ? (Applause.) He knew their answer would be
in the affirmative. Rudio then resumed his seat.
On the motion of a gentleman in the meeting, it
was resolved that Bernard should be written to for
an answer to the charges that had been made against
him, and it was afterwards decided that, as a mark
of respect to Rudio, a subscription should be made
at the door. The seconder of this latter proposition
stated that the reason there was not a larger audi-
ence was that detectives had been employed to
pull down the bills announcing the lecture.