Here then, the biographers of John Harrison, who being wholly unacquainted with these scenes, attribute his troubles to "the delicacy of the Commissioners, in deciding between him and the public" may learn that the scrupulous sensations with which they endow them, had no veritable existence. The disinterested part of the Board were either outvoted, or too indolent to interfere when so clever a Manager as the President of the Royal Society, to wit, was willing to be fac totum to the whole concern: while those who were notoriously at variance with the Claimant, at the head of the party opposed to the success of the mechanics, could give a licence to their personal animosity, under the commonplace resort pro bono publico. It is certain the authority and immunities of the Board of Longitude were now either delegated to, or assumed by, an individual, whose effrontery was commensurate with his self-importance, and who even vaunted that the Act to amend, explain and alter, that of Queen Anne, was his own; and, after it was brought into

sentiment "It gives me pleasure to be praised by you, whom all men praise:" and the "doubts and difficulties" would have been no further heard of, except at Coventry. But the Claimant was wholly unfitted for any adroitness at such a manœuvre; it would have seemed to him like putting on a fool's coat; his, was a straight forward course; he would not compromise his sincerity, though it might have been demonstrated, that the rugged path in which he toiled and lost himself would soon have become as smooth and level as a bowling green before him.

Parliament, denounced, as follows, to his rival, through the agency of a gentleman in the Lower House, named Grey.*—“Tell Mr. Harrison, with

*He was chairman of the committee when Lord Morton was nominated one of the eleven Commissioners, under the 2nd George 3rd, but nothing attaches to him in the present affair, further than his being the bearer of this message: which yet becomes a marked curiosity by the Parliamentary management it illustrates at this, if not at a more extended period (or what time is exempt from it?) when an independent member, if such he was, could, as if only a matter of course, be the bearer of a message not with a reference to public business, but administering, could he not see, to the private revenge of this weak but consequential Peer. Such a transaction becomes an aggravated slur on a constitution by all admitted to be the perfection of political wisdom in theory, but yet betraying in practice such an inconsistency as the case herewith discloses ; which was not mixed up with the common party distinctions of Whig and Tory, or otherwise. How, under any circumstances, the House could comply with the speechifying of some Popinjay by whom it might be pestered and either forward swimmingly, or swamp by procrastination, a bill brought in to supersede that on which our Mechanician had "pinned his faith" forty years before, is for gentlemen more conversant with the mysteries of legislative etiquette to say-unless they adjudge the astounding denunciation of the P. R.S. to be a sheer rodomontade, worthy of the quarter it came from. But what can be thought of the incapacity or the misconduct of a majority at the Board of Longitude, by whom so improper a character as the Earl of Morton, who insiduously sought to get him within his grasp, was enabled as far as in them lay, to control the destiny of a man of genius who reflected so much credit on his age and country, but towards whom the conduct of their majority, after he had achieved the Longitude of Jamaica nearly within a mile, was any thing but honourable.

out he will agree to the Resolutions of the Board of Longitude, on the 9th instant, that this affair shall never come to a decision in the House, but only be put off from time to time."

Montesqieu has said that the united power of the King, the Lords and Commons, in the Parliament of England, is the highest on earth; yet here, setting aside his rank (such are the discrepancies in the history of man) an ostentatious but insignificant individual, of contemptible pretensions, and who, in common parlance, would have been called a conceited prig, wields this mighty power; or at least assumes to give it a direction subservient to his own splenetic resolves and paltry revenge.That the whole affair was of a personal nature, were there no previous evidence on the point, the conduct of this inflated Aristocrat, after he had procured the passing of the Act, which, with exulting propriety, he called his own, would establish. The ostensible purpose of that measure* was to as

*There are instances in which the difference between the real and the ostensible purpose of some bill brought into either House of Parliament, is enough to excite the amazement of those, out of doors, in the secret, when such there are; but in the present case, no liberal man, that could have traced his Lordship's motives to their source, two years before, and had scented his genius for mechanics, would have desired to be in his confidence. The following brief dialogue, which occurred in April, 1833, may place the subject in a clearer point of view. Sir Robert Inglis asked whether Government were 'acquainted with the nature of the Bill authorizing the esta

certain its being practicable to make more Timekeepers, like the successful one, and equally accu'blishment of the Glasgow lottery, while that Bill was in pro'gress through the House?-Lord Althorp replied, that His 'Majesty's Government had not the least idea that a Bill 'authorizing the establishment of a lottery had passed the 'Houses of Parliament until he was apprised of the existence 'of the lottery itself. His attention was then drawn to the 'subject, and on looking at the Act, he found that no allusion 'was made to the lottery in its title, and that the word lottery 'itself occurred but once throughout the Act. It was, to say 'the truth, most skilfully drawn up, and the parties who con'cocted it had fully succeeded in rendering the House and the 'Government entirely ignorant of the real nature of the Bill.-'Sir Robert Peel: If the lottery is not yet drawn, the Bill may 'be repealed [it is drawn.] Well then, all I can say is, that 'those who were parties to the transaction ought to be subjected 'to public punishment.'

The measure which the President of the Royal Society was too successful in procuring, not to explain, but to subvert the original Act, was not of this description, though the imposition was as complete, for it did not require the sharp wits of those concerned in the Glasgow business, but belonged to a more common class of enactments-to those bills which pass both Houses pro forma; either because they are prepared by public functionaries, honourable men, whose averment, as to the utility of the step, it might seem both unnecessary and invidious to dispute; or the bill was to rectify some technical informalities, or certain local particulars, interesting only to A, B, C, and D, or their neighbours, whom nobody appeared to oppose.*

*

* The Author remembers reading in the debates, many years ago, that while a private bill was passing through its final stages in this way, a gentleman in the House, cautioned them against too much precipitation, and, to enforce his suggestion, related that, one day, on the third reading of a bill of this description, an honourable Member happened to observe

rate. Towards which object (security being given) the first, and most important requisite, was that

-What could be thought of the application, had it been known (we are justified in repeating it) that the Commissioners themselves had uniformly interpreted the 12th of Queen Anne as the Claimant did. So that after he had persevered forty years on the basis of this conformity, rendered more unequivocal by advances of the public money, they could not measure back their steps without assuming the attitude of a swindler towards so singular a dupe, as he might be regarded. The HISTORY OF THE TRANSACTIONS shows that this unparalleled case should be dated from January 19th, 1765, when a great vain man" first took his seat at the Board, surcharged with inexhaustible animosity towards the Claimant, for having been defeated in enforcing his eccentric resolves under the separate Commission. He was now enabled to embody those resolutions, six in number, as far as possible, in the clauses of his bill-which Parliament never knew, nor even the Board, we conjecture, for no attention was paid to the proceedings of that Commission after its failure. Hence a northern Aristocrat whose forte was low cunning, notwithstanding his chivalrous descent, could effect a counterpart of the Glasgow Lottery, though much deficient in the acuteness attributed to the parties concerned in that gross imposition. To aggravate pretences the fallacy of which there was no one to detect, the consideration is very material, that there was a party at the Board of that a man in the gallery changed countenance, and was evidently much alarmed at their proceedings: this inducing him to go round and question the person, he found by his statement, that was that bill to receive the royal assent, it would extremely affect his interest, if it did not entirely ruin him. That he had come from the country, but could only witness what was going on without knowing how to take any step in his own behalf. The House being apprized of this, it led to an investigation of particulars, and to the introduction of a clause, effectually to guard against the injury pointed out: which but for the casual incident mentioned, would soon have passed into a law.