Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/103

Rh constitution in theory, would have upbraided them with the want of.—Henry IV. as we learn from Sully, was much prejudiced against all parliaments by the conduct of that of France; and George 3rd after the treatment he had received, might have resolved, consistently with the firmness of his character, that let what would be the consequence, he would never set his hand to any bill constituting such a commission; over which he had no control, though he knew and saw the systematic oppression shown to the venerable Claimant (who had relied on the public faith) by making his labours interminable if they could; ostensibly under a public pretext, but it was so evident the Astronomer Royal found it much easier to adopt this nefarious course than to reply to the strictures on his examination of the successful Timekeeper, "published under the authority of the Board of Longitude," (synonimous with his own) that there was not a court of judicuture in the kingdom but would have reprobated this perverted stretch of their power.

The moral correctness of the part which William Harrison bore in this transaction is deserving of notice; as he must have severely felt the pressure of the disappointment, when it appeared that the royal sanction was as much a cypher in the arithmetic of the Commissioners, as the estimate of the damage done by Dr. Maskelyne to his Father's machines; which, from that spirit of favouritism which frustrated the purposes of their institution,