It took up eighteen months to get the determination of the Commissioners, what number of other Watches they expected to be made, under the new Act. After which time, they told us they would be satisfied with two, and if they were made by other workmen, it would be so much the more agreeable to the spirit of the last Act, which had been grounded upon a doubt whether other people could make them.-It has been hitherto impossible to get them to fix any determinate mode of trial with

'up in them when he went to sleep: and this with sea-sickness threw him 'into a severe fit of illness; and it was with the greatest difficulty that his 'life was saved-but he very well knew, that if he did not keep the water 'out of the box, that some would be so cruel as to say, he let it in on pur'pose, because he knew it would not answer: and others would say, it was a thing too tender, and too delicate to go to sea: and would not 'consider the hardships of the voyage, nor the cruelty of not having a pro'per place prepared to put it in: and that he was sent home in a ship which 'with the greatest difficulty they were able to keep above water in the 'weather they met with.-Thus after one of the roughest voyages that any 'ship ever had, they on the 26th March, arrived at Spithead.'

66

He would not have expressed himself thus, on not having a proper place, if he had reflected further, for it was the cruelty of fortune, in this instance. Commodore Forrest, the officer in command, he previously says, gave him all the assistance in his power" to promote the objects of the voyage. 'He said his orders were to ship him, and Mr. Robison 'the Astronomer, [after the observations were completed] in the first man 'of war that should sail for England; but that he did not expect there 'would be one that would sail till June. This was very bad encourage'ment for Mr. Harrison, who did not want to stay so long in that country.' Subsequently however, the Authorities at Jamaica having occasion to send a dispatch home without delay; and the observations being completed, 'the Commodore sent to Mr. Harrison, and informed him, that there would 'in two days time be a ship sail for England with an express; and if he 'was ready he would ship him on board of it.'-He does not say, he applied to the Commodore, or the Captain, for the carpenter to prepare a place for the Timekeeper; and it could not be supposed those Officers would think of it, but at his suggestion. His being sent home in an old ship, not worth repairing, and condemned after her arrival, which, by its consequences, had he not being providentially of a robust constitution, was so near costing him his life, was yet altogether a casualty, like some of the most important events in the lives of other men.

which they will be satisfied. They did indeed propose in 1767, that the new Watches should be tried for ten months, under Mr. Maskelyne's care at Greenwich, and for two months in the Downs, but they refused to specify what degree of exactness they expected even during that trial, or whether they expected the Watch should now, for twelve months, not err more than that Act of Queen Anne had allowed for a voyage of five or six weeks: and they also would not promise to abide by the result of such trial.*

Trusting however to the ultimate justice of our country, and desirous of vindicating our fame, we set about making another Timekeeper, and have prosecuted it more as a study of the different ways in which the operation may be abridged and improved, than with a view of getting the Watch completed a few months sooner, or later: and in the success of our researches, we have found some consolation for the injuries heaped upon us.—Mr. Kendal has during the same time, made by order of the Commissioners, an exact copy of our old one; which we have had no opportunity of examining, but are informed, and believe, it is just as good as the original:† and while we were

*Who is there will not decidedly condemn such conduct, confirmatory as it is of Dr. Shepherd's admission, that-it never was intended Timekeepers should gain the reward? which though spoken of the 14th George 3rd, was as applicable to Lord Morton's Act: for though by that explanatory measure, one half of the premium was to be paid on certain conditions (the framer of the bill having no choice, as the public indignation would not have suffered him to withhold it) yet the other half was placed beyond reach in little less than direct terms, by being hedged round with such a tissue of uncertainties. It was only the protection extended to John Harrison by his Sovereign, that enabled him at length to cut this Gordian knot. The whole conduct of the Lunar party, and of the northern Peer, furnishes an impressive lesson, of the revolting consequences to be expected, when any set of men are entrusted with arbitrary power without any enquiry into the probable perversion of it to the purposes of clashing interests, or of unextinguishable animosity.

+ There is a discrepancy here, but of little consequence. According to the minutes of a Board, 3rd March, 1770, he had seen and expressed his satisfaction at the goodness of Mr. Kendal's work.

only waiting for some cold weather to finish some experiments we wanted to make, meaning afterwards to apply once more to the Board for some reasonable trial of Mr. Kendal's and our new one, as the two required by the last Act, we were apprized of the intention of the Board, to send Mr. Kendal's upon the expedition with Messrs. Banks and Solander.-Upon this occasion, I stated by letter to Lord Sandwich, the general history of what had passed. The impropriety of sending Mr. Kendal's Watch upon that expedition, when our old one would just answer the same purpose, and Mr. Kendal's would, by ascertaining our right, facilitate the bringing of the Invention into general use; and offering to agree to any mode of trial, by men not already proved partial, which should be definite in its nature, conclusive as to establishing our reward, in case of success, and in any degree near the limits of the original Act, in point of duration and exactness. And I also took the liberty to observe to his Lordship, that the instructing one excellent workman to make the whole with his own hands, was not the way to bring the Invention into general use, and pointed out to him an effectual method for that purpose. This letter was laid before the Board; and I was told, in answer to it, that we must make another Watch before the Commissioners would appoint a trial, for they always understood the two were to be made by us; and, that as to a mode of trial, they had already determined upon one (which is above recited) and saw no reason to alter their opinion.-There was no mistaking the intention of the Board when thus explained, and I told them, as the truth is, that we shall never give them any more trouble. After the experience we have had, I humbly conceive that it would be absurd in me, as it is impossible for my Father, who is on the verge of fourscore years of age,* to attempt to

*The singular inhumanity of exacting more labours from a man near fourscore, would of itself alone, have made an impression on His Majesty highly favourable to the Applicant's case-aggravated, as is seen, by the consideration that they previously allowed it would be more in the spirit of the Act to amend and alter, if one of the two Watches was made by

risk the matter any further through the same channel. If His Majesty would be graciously pleased to suffer our new-made Watch, to be lodged for a certain time in the Observatory at Richmond, in order to ascertain and manifest its degree of excellence, I should hope that the prejudices of many might thereby be vanquished, and that it would become easy to obtain redress.

I humbly beg pardon for the liberty I have herein taken, but I conceive it a duty I owe my King and Country, to make this representation: and in acquitting myself thereof, I beg leave to subscribe myself, Sir,

Your most obedient

East-street, Red-Lion-Square,

Jan. 31st, 1772.

and humble servant, WILLIAM HARRISON.

another hand. In the original work the Author thought himself justified in demanding of the learned Professors, if they did not know, from their classical reminiscences, that old age had no where so honourable an abode as at Sparta; and if they meant it should not have a more disgraceful one than in Britain? Did they not know, that impaired sight and an unsteady hand, are among the common and serious disadvantages of age? Were they so entirely ignorant of chronometry as to overlook such impediments? Certainly the Gentlemen of Oxford and Cambridge owe no thanks to their predecessors, for leaving it to be inferred that the sentiment which honours a virtuous old age did not appear among them, in its essence, though it might be descanted on in the pulpit, which was their trade. It is yet consolatory to add, that the Spartan notions are not extinct among the moderns, as appears by the following remark, which occurred in a party who were ascending Mount Blanc.- Expecting very much from Simeon, 'I was not disappointed, and felt increasingly convinced, from his conduct, 'that respect for superior years is a sure indication of moral health. He 'that venerates not the hoary head with all its little infirmities, is destitute 'of some of the heart's best emotions, and his old age shall be void of 'honour. [New Monthly Magazine for May, 1826.]

It is singular enough, that though the Author of this extract knew nothing about the particulars introduced here, yet it becomes the bitterest satire on the mathematical Commissioners who abetted the inhumanity of

No. 3.

VOYAGE, IN THE DEPTFORD MAN OF WAR, TO MADEIRA, AND FROM MADEIRA TO JAMAICA-ACCURACY OF THE TIMEKEEPER; AND THE RETURN, WITH A VERY TEMPESTUOUS PASSAGE, IN THE MERLIN SLOOP.

THE circumstances attending the run from Portsmouth to Madeira, in the first voyage, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, and other periodicals of the time, were very remarkable (and certainly such as could never have been paralleled, had the Longitude depended on Dr. Maskelyne's superior method.) When the Deptford approached the Latitude of Porto Santo, the crew who were confident in their reckonings, made her considerably to the eastward of that Island, which differed widely from the Longitude shown by the Timekeeper. But the Captain, though he would have laid five to one that the ship was too far run easterly, yet, as if out of courtesy, would not alter his course, Mr. Harrison having declared, that if the wind and weather continued the same, and Porto Santo was accurately laid down in the maps, they must see it the next morning—a prediction which was verified at seven o'clock.

On arriving in Funchal roads, another and forcible illustration of the utility of the Timekeeper occurred: for they fully expected to have found that the Beaver sloop of war had anchored there a week or two previously: that ship having sailed a fortnight before them, taking out orders to the merchants. Lord Morton, that a premeditated intention could have devised-leaving the inference, that neither learning, nor the Christian ministry, to which they all belonged, could, in their case, supply" some of the heart's best emotions" which nature had denied them to participate in.