Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/112

Rh not favour but justice; claiming that reward which the law would give him, and to see it refused, upon what principles? Why, a man at eighty years of age is to make more Timekeepers; and he is not only to make them, but to make more voyages to the Indies to try them. Good God! Sir, can this be the House of Commons of Britain? This most ingenious and able mechanic, who has spent above forty years of an industrious and valuable life in search of this great discovery—and has discovered it; who has, according to the verdict of the whole mechanical world, done more than ever was expected—and even gone beyond the line drawn by that Act of Parliament, in consequence of which he undertook the work; this man is now, at the age of fourscore, to have his legal right withheld from him, by adhering to an Act which stands between him and his reward. This instance will be a fresh one, Sir, added to the long and black catalogue of genius and parts being exerted through long courses of lives in the service of the public, and ending in poverty and misery,—monuments of the base ingratitude of mankind! It is a case, Sir, that will admit of no delay; form is to come in between such a man and his reward; we are to have papers called for with all the tediousness attendant, before the inventor of this noble discovery is to have his just rights. Is this a conduct worthy of the munificence of this House? of a nation that