An anomaly in the constitution of the Commission of Longitude, never contemplated by the 'also shewn a letter from a friend, who said, he was very sorry 'the Commissioners should have given him the trouble of this 'second voyage, before they gave him the reward.*-Therefore 'it was plain from this, that Mr. Maskelyne's friends were well 'acquainted with what intention he went to Barbadoes.

'William Harrison acquainted Sir John Lindsay+ with these 'facts; who agreed with him, that this being the case, Mr. Maskelyne must certainly be a very improper person to take 'the observations of equal altitudes, according to the instruc 'tions from the Board of Longitude. Therefore, the next day, 'when they came to the observatory, William Harrison told 'Mr. Maskelyne what he had heard, and produced witnesses 'to what he said, and did insist that Mr. Maskelyne should not 'observe: and Sir John Lindsay declared, that, if Mr. Har'rison did insist upon it, that he did the same: for he did not 'think it was right that Mr. Maskelyne should [take the ob'servations] as he could not deny but what Mr. Harrison said, was true.—This put Mr. Maskelyne in great confusion; and 'he alleged, that if he was not to observe, it would be a great

* An obvious question arises here-for supposing Dr. Maskelyne had found the Longitude of Barbadoes and all the Islands in the route as accurately as was done by the Timekeeper, yet as he was not the inventor of the Lunar method, that honour belonging to Meran, a Frenchman, with whom Professor Mayer subsequently divided it, how could he claim the reward? Notwithstanding this moot point, he spoke as if he had received assurances from one or more of the Commissioners to that effect: and probably Dr. Shepherd who introduced him to John Harrison could have informed us better on the subject. But there is no intimation that Dr. Halley, the Abbe de la Caille, and Captain Campbell, who exerted themselves assiduously to accomplish the same object, ever formed expectations of achieving the reward. Dr. Maskelyne was the only astronomer, at sea, who, like Ixion, grasped a treasure in nubibus, only to

catch a Tartar.

+ The Captain of the Tartar frigate, which took him out, with the Timekeeper.

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framers of it, was that one class of interested, or of honorary candidates, became judges of the merits 'dishonour to him; and therefore he insisted upon it, he must. -After a long time spent in this dispute, William Harrison 'agreed, that Mr. Maskelyne should observe; provided Mr. 'Green [the other astronomer] took the next observation. Mr. 'Maskelyne then went to work, but was so confused, with the above, that his observations were scarcely to be depended on : 'for every one that was present could see that he set some of 'his observations down dubious, when, at the same time, there 'was not a cloud near: nor was he in a condition to adjust his 'instruments.'

The reference to his friend's letter above, is explained by a private voyage to St. Helena, in a merchant brig, to find the Longitude by the Moon, with the assistance of Mayer's Tables, which were imported in 1756, and excited much interest among scientific men. Captain (afterwards Admiral) Campbell, an officer well versed in the mathematics, was employed by the Commissioners to verify the Longitude with the advantage thus afforded: but as these tables, though so useful under favourable circumstances, will not enable a seaman to overcome the physical impossibilities so often in his way, and as this gentleman, like Dr. Halley, was not disposed to estimate the Lunar process higher than its practical merits deserved, the trial was altogether a failure.-Not so with the ardent Cantabrigian introduced, who, contrary to the proverb, always found hope an excellent supper, as well as a good breakfast: and as the sharpers who plunder Samuel Simon, the Jew, in Gil Blas, found Gaspard, his apprentice, just snch a talkative young man as they wanted: so the Lunar party at the Commission of Longitude could not have met with a more enthusiastic zealot, for their purposes, than was Nevil Maskelyne, thus brought forward. He must have been either employed, or materially assisted by the Board, or by some patron who kept behind the scenes: for it was never said that his pecuniary

of another, more likely, in the opinion of the great Newton, to achieve the discovery sought. Professors of Astronomy from Oxford and Cambridge decided without appeal, while the Mechanics were not represented at the Board; and unless for a season, by some casualty, had no person to attend to their interests; and as the esprit du corps, in the learned mathematicians, varied not from what occurs among the most illiterate groups in society, the consequences were a source of infinite trouble and harassing disquietude to a man of genius who had sacrificed those advantages which his acknowledged abilities would have insured him, among scientific men, for the construction of astronomical clocks, to the delusion which his disputes with men

resources, at this period, were equal to such an enterprize.— He published the result of his discoveries in a pamphlet with an elaborate title; but as the security promised the mariner, who should follow his instructions, was only within a degree (or sixty geographical miles) which would not now be regarded by those who possess a chronometer of moderate value, we pass it by, to remark on the duplicity-the double-dealing that seems to have pervaded this affair: for he had been introduced to the Harrisons by Dr. Shepherd, a Commissioner of Longitude, as a gentleman skilled in the mathematics, but without any mention of the trip to St. Helena, not at least of the object of it: and the Father and Son, either not having seen his pamphlet, or not being aware of its ulterior purpose, had no idea of this decided rivalry, or they would of course have objected to him; he being, from direct opposition of interests, a very unfit person to take the observations connected with the examination of the Timekeeper.

opposed to his success for so good a reason as that it interfered with their own superior demonstrations, threatened to make interminable, when he was nearly an octagenarian.* A total disregard of

*A passage in the Journal of John and William Harrison, under date 13th October, 1761, shows the consequences of this legislative oversight so remarkably, that it would be doing injustice to the subject to omit it.-John Harrison and his 'Son both attended this Board, and, on their return home, 'called at Mr. Bird's, to see the instruments which were to go 'to take the observations for the trial. They here met with 'Dr. Bradley, who had also been at the Board of Longitude, as being a Commissioner. The Doctor seemed very much out of temper, and in the greatest passion told John Harrison, 'that if it had not been for him and his plaguy Watch, Mr. Mayer+ and he should have shared ten thousand pounds be'fore now. This gave the Candidate an opportunity of seeing 'what sort of a friend Dr. Bradley had been at the Board, who 'formerly had been one of the best he had, but now self'interest seemed to be the principle.'

This weakness in the eminent Astronomer may be dated from his connexion with Christopher Irwin, the inventor of the marine chair, becoming engrafted on the natural vice of age it was not so singular as the defection of another friend, the circumstances of which are a curiosity.

Among John Harrison's scientific cronies, was Dr. Robert Smith, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Astronomy, and author of a work found in musical libraries, under the title of Smith's Harmonics.-The musical accordance of time was secondary only to the mensuration of it, in our

+ Tobias Mayer, a Professor at Gottingen; inventor of the Lunar tables: for which the Commissioners of Longitude in England, with proper liberality (the Author desires to say) voted him £3,000 out of the money at their disposal: this he did not live to receive, but it was paid to his widow.

his age was indeed not one of the least deformities in these proceedings: and what can be thought of this opprobrium when we find that Mr. Mudge, junior, intending to extenuate any defects in his father's Timekeepers, shows him to have been near sixty when he commenced the first: that is, twenty years younger than the Claimant. Neither was this the extremity of that malevolence which under

Mechanician's pursuits; and these geniuses had frequent discussions to solve some problem for

Untwisting all the chains that tie

The hidden soul of harmony.

In the solution of it, however, they touched a string too discordant for the dulcet notes of friendship; they differed respecting the right to discovery of a principle advanced in the Harmonics, but we waive the particulars here. Their estrangement, under such circumstances, cost the rural genius some tears (as he tells us.) Not so, the Cantabrigian, who, notwithstanding his professed analysis of harmony, seems to have been deficient of it in his composition; and indulged an acrimony so injurious in its consequences, that not having the candour to separate the cause of the Longitude from that of the musical amateur, he degenerated from a zealous friend into the bitter enemy of his former associate; which, as the Professor's chair gave him a seat at the Board, he could demonstrate: and, like Dr. Bradley, had no idea of the propriety of absenting himself when questions immediately connected with the interest of the Candidate were before them-a remark applicable, it may be seen, to other Commissioners at personal variance with him they were a jury appointed to decide on his claim to a reward of £20,000, but unlike the general practice in other courts, he could not challenge any of them, though ever so notoriously at enmity with him.