Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/219

162 Commissioners have surely precluded both themselves and the nation, as with respect to me, by to avow he had a hand in framing a clause, which immediately reminds us of what occurred at Barbadoes, &c.

Another clause, of some magnitude, in this Act, he passes by: but we cannot wander out of the record in believing he had a hand, and an active hand too, in fabricating it: and moreover that he heartily concurred in this Lunar deviation; by which two-thirds were necessary to constitute a majority at the Board, instead of the larger half, as usual. We will not enquire after the special reasons methodically adduced for this proceeding, after they "had given the Mechanics such a bone to pick;" for no brawling demagogue could more flippantly advance patriotic motives to hoodwink his sinister purpose and selfish ends, than these "men of theory"—whose assurance must have been above par, if, with allusion to Tully's well known remark on augurs, they "could look one another in the face without changing countenance"—The junior Mudge asserts, uncontradicted, that the real motive, and bona fidœ intent was, that if they mustered their forces, they could always prevent the rest of the Board from carrying any measure contrary to their interest.

We have passed by a very obvious question, which occurs at the mention of this Act and its purposes.—Had not the Longitude been discovered in 1765, or, properly speaking, three years before; then what occasion for this new enactment and its provisions? It is shown in the preceding pages, that no sooner was the fact admitted (for the Lunar junta could not dispute it, as they had before done, by refusing the Candidate a check on the computations) but in consequence of the aggravated misstatements of the Earl of Morton, in asserting the contumacy of the Candidate, under the resolutions of a majority at the separate Commission, the authenticity of which majority was never enquired into, our Adventurer was delivered up to the personal revenge of the proud Peer, who did every thing