Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/19

xii public pretexts could with impunity indulge private resentment and despicable envy, for nothing could be more adverse to the common interest, than to throw unnecessary obstructions in the way of the work which they required from him» when he was two decennaries older than the watchmaker just mentioned. Did they not know, that an impaired sight, and an unsteady hand, are among the ordinary concomitants of age? Yet there is evidence, under different dates, of his repeated applications for the loan of the successful Timekeeper (offering security) having been refused; although he distinctly told them that the having it by him six months, would save him the labour of one year in three. At length, after eighteen months most injurious detention of the model, without the least consideration for the good of the community, they gave way on this point, but only, as might be said, in mockery for it was just then found to be necessary that the machine should go to Mr Kendal, or he could not complete his contract with the Board.

That corporations will be guilty of a meanness and oppression which, individually, they would be perfectly ashamed of, or desire to be thought so, is not a new observation, but it is insufficient to explain the circumstances detailed; for whatever might be the opposition of the Lunar party to the success of the Timekeeper, or their hostility to the Mechanics, still it becomes difficult to believe that any set of public men could throw common humanity to the