Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/151

94 in the service, were scarcely able to get up the hill to the Observatory, so that when they came there, as can be proved from undoubted eye-witnesses, they only unlocked the Box, sat down until Mr. Maskelyne had done what he thought proper, and then locked the Box again, and departed: and whatever attestation they may be supposed to have made, I can prove that at several times when Gentlemen of my acquaintance happened to be present, the attendance of the Officers was by no means an effectual check upon the comparison of the Watch with the Clock. I would not be thought to accuse those Gentlemen of neglect of the duty imposed upon them; on the contrary I applaud their diligence in being ready at all hours of the day to attend when Mr. Maskelyne was pleased to appoint: and therefore I will even for the present (though contrary to fact) suppose they have been the check proposed by the Commissioners of Longitude against any unfair access to the Watch, still the Clock with which it was compared was left entirely in Mr. Maskelyne's power, and an alteration of the one could not but produce just the same effect as an error of the other, nor is there even the least pretence of a check either on the Clock, or on its comparison with observations of the Sun; nay on the contrary, Mr. Maskelyne did at this time take the Key of the Clock from Mr. Dymond in whose custody it used to be, and kept it himself.