Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/204

147 NO. 1. and as far as I can learn, incapable of being master spirit that till then had presided over these works, collectively and in detail, heard the crash occasioned by the excusable ignorance of the smith, and the pertinacious self-opinion of the astronomer.—If we imagine him present at this "confusion worse confounded," and that instead of leaving the room from anguish, he had, in a paroxysm of resentment, broken a cudgel over the head of this consummate Vandal—that the usual legal resort had followed, &c.: it is not likely any jury, if the defendant's counsel understood his brief, would have adjudged more than one shilling, or, to mark their contempt, not more than one farthing damages to this deputy of a public trust; who, according to the witnessed statement, professed a perfect knowledge of all matters in hand, and—began with asking what he was to do! And—who commiserates not the veteran genius, who had achieved what till then was thought impossible; when from the upper window he saw these proofs of his inventive faculties carried off like common furniture?—the whip cracks; the wheels "grate harsh thunder" and—"the iron entered into his soul."

Mr. Burke could not have been aware of the circumstances attending the extraordinary transfer described, when (as was shown in its place) he warmly espoused the cause of the aged Claimant, and deprecated the treatment he had received; or the double-refined and unnecessary cruelty exhibited on the above transmission, under a public plea, which the conduct of die responsible parties thus outraged, would have shown him touching spontaneously those chords which chime in unison with the finer feelings of our Common nature—"While wond'ring senates hung upon his tongue."

Neither did that Gentleman know the strange incongruity of one class of candidates becoming judges of the merits of another, or he would have pointed out, in his forcible language, with apposite illustrations, its tendency to such results. Leaving the reverend Astronomers (Maskelyne and Long) to renew