Mr. SCHENCK. In relying to the Gentfrom Vermont I beg cave to remind the House that I said not one word last night about the importation of oil. My whole argument was confined to repelling, not an intimation but a direct charge, made by the chairman of the Committee 'of Ways&Means that the whole obje'ct of the efforttoprocnreprotection for this seed interest was to benefit, as the entleman said, some “half dozen crushers’ in the western States. I replied by showing that those half dozen crushers consisted of more than 90 presses, involving an interest of about 8 million dollars. I referred to the production in the 6 Western States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kentucky, and I presented some figures, the correctness ofwhich the gentleman does not deny, to show that the aggregate value during the last year of the flax sced produced in those States was $5, 250,000. The gentleman, evading that point, admit ting that he had gone very much too far in speakin of “a half dozen crushers, ” then spoke o the importation of flaxseed as falling off. On this subject I gave the gentleman some figures, which have nothing to do with what he is now speaking of, and which did not go back beyond 1861. I stated that so far from the fact being that the amount imported was of noconsequence, the aggregate importation from 1861 to 1865 amounted, in round numbers, to 1, 300,000 bushels. I will now give the gentleman the exact figures, taken from official sources. The importation, radually increasing from upward of 123,000 age in 1861, amounted in 1865 to 321, 670. Now, the chair man of the ComWays&Means, familiar as he is with all subjects relating to the tariff, must know that each one of these bags contains 4 bushels; consequently the amount im orted last year was 1, 286, 280 bush els. But, esides this, there was an importation'of 58, 776 pockets. This eastern fiaxseed, making, as it does, 2 and a quarter gallons of oil to the bushel while ours makes but 2 gallons, is to a great extent imported in small bags called ockets, containing 3 peeks apiece. Ret ucing these pockets to bushels, and adding them to the 1, 286, 280 bushels, the result shows more than 1, 300,000 bushels of this foreign seed im orted during the last year. Sir, I did not speal: at all of the importation of the oil; I relerred simply to the importation of the foreign seed. So far from the fact being that the importation has fallen off, I affirm that it has gone on regularly increasin during the last 5 years, the amount imported during the last (year being 3 times the amount importe in 1861. There is among law er's, I believe, what is called “answering asi c.” Now, the gentleman makes, as he claims, a triumphant defense by the production of some figures in reference to a matter to which I did not refer; but he takes special care to make no reference whatever to the statement with which I confronted him.