Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/110

Rh ; but that on the second, which seems always considered the most important, are preserved; and from the speeches of Sir George Saville and Mr. Burke being given in the first person, it would appear that the reporters found their interest in catering for the public curiosity.

April 27th. The Petition presented from John Harrison, the Inventor of the Timekeeper; &c.—was again read.

Sir George Saville.—I think. Sir, it is a disgrace to this nation, that a man who, as his petition sets forth, has spent forty years of a life of now fourscore, in studying and making so great a discovery as his watch most certainly is, should still remain without his reward, though he had the positive engagement of Parliament to depend on. I much wish, Sir, that he might at have his just due, and that speedily, lest heaven should give him that reward which his country most unjustly denies him. By the Act of Queen Anne, which offered the premium, he is absolutely entitled to it, his Watch having gone to the West Indies, with an accuracy in the performance much within what is required by that Act. But by the last Act, which was explanatory of the first, and which was framed in consequence of his claim, there arises such difficulties, that it seems the Board of Longitude cannot do him justice. This, I think, is so great a grievance upon a man who has made a discovery highly important to that art