Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/173

116 scheme to rob the public of the reward without really and effectually performing the conditions, strikes me as a charge of so atrocious a nature, that I think myself not only justified in publishing to the world what has been done with respect to trials of the merit of my Invention, but even indispensably obliged so to do. I well know what I hazard thereby, and if the rest of my reward cannot be obtained on principles of national faith and public spirit, I am contented to forego it, but I will not descend into the grave loaded with that dishonour which my enemies, availing themselves of their rank or offices, have, in various ways, attempted to throw upon me.

In the first place I must remark, that the trial referred to was not fixed by me, but by an Act of Parliament passed so long ago as the year 1714, which (after vesting certain discretionary powers in Commissioners to judge what methods are likely to prove practicable, and authorizing them to issue smaller sums of money) goes on to fix the last grand test of the merit of any such Invention, and enacts 'that when a ship, under the appointment of the said Commissioners, shall thereby actually sail from Great Britain to the West Indies without losing her Longitude beyond certain limits, the Inventor shall be entitled to certain rewards.' Having from the year 1726, employed myself in adapting those principles which I had at that time executed in a pendulum Clock, to an instrument