Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/193

136 them to whom we were to explain it, would be upon honour not to disclose it, that I might have an oath administered or wasted!! The cause was simply that the Gentlemen who received the explanation understood the subject; while the philosophical fribble, who so oddly controlled his colleagues, knew nothing to the purpose.

This Nobleman's bad judgment, his propensity to multiply oaths, in cases where they were either superfluous, or misplaced, might have been palliated, had he tried to introduce the practice of his own country in administering them: but not an item on this point (the only one in which he could have been of any use) is discoverable. Jonas Hanway, in his "Defects of Police," complains much of the careless and irreverent manner in which they are tendered and taken in judicial proceedings on this side the Tweed, recommending the practice of the Scotch courts as a corrective. In England, a person taking an oath, does not ocularly know (without inspection) that he swears on the New Testament; for any other book, much resembling it may be substituted. Consonant to which, in the farce of the Romp, the puppy who is the hero of the piece, boasts how he had imposed on his Cousin, by having made use of Robinson Crusoe, instead of the Gospels, when he pledged his faith to her. In Scotland, an examinant laying his left hand on the open book, holds up his right, while he makes this solemn appeal.

Having adverted to the irritated feelings of our Mechanician under the singular provocation to which he was exposed, we can adduce as an instance of his urbane spirit and good temper, under casualities that seldom fail to attest the irritability of most people.—A school-boy had one day strolled into the workroom and study with a half eaten apple in his hand, the acid property of which some how or other occasioned a spot of rust to be found next day on the balance of the (last made) Timekeeper; which if it had not been observed might have proved of serious consequence. The good-natured old man