Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1815).pdf/13

Rh more easily copied than any other, it is not questioned they gave, or thought they gave, an honest opinion; yet, when men are in determined hostility to a purpose which promises to affect their interest, their judgment may reasonably be suspected to want the freedom of perfect disinterestedness; especially when given without Oath. Admitting however to the full extent, what long and uniform experience most decidedly contradicts, that the key is easily copied, it cannot fairly be urged as defeating the merit of the Invention. All keys may be copied, alike in wood, or any other material, which has hardness enough to overcome the friction of the Locks; the one in question will clearly appear to an unprejudiced observer, to require that mathematical similitude which the greatest care alone can produce. But if this ideal excellence was attainable, if the key could receive a form to which neither the vicious nor the ingenious could supply a counterpart, its use must be very limited; for the purchaser of a Lock, placing property under its protection, most