Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/268

NO. 5. Tremendous as the crash of that broadside. When mother Earth to her foundations shaken, And Davy's lockers shall disgorge their dead. Apologizing for the soliloquy of "the brave rough English Admiral" (poetry not being in his prospectus) the Author judges that, "since the discoveries of the immortal Newton, the four individuals most deserving the gratitude of their countrymen and of all civilized nations, are—Edward Jenner, M.D., to whom we are indebted for the vaccine inoculation; James Watt, who developed the gigantic powers of steam; Sir Humphry Davy, from whom we have that surpassing invention, the Safety Lamp; and John Harrison, who preceded the other three, and who brought the mensuration of time, of such prime importance to astronomy and navigation, to a degree of accuracy unknown before his day, and rather wished than hoped for. Improvements have been made since he led the way, but "he will ever be regarded as the father of modern chronometry," say the continuators of Dr. Rees: who likewise add that, "his services were not overpaid." How and whence then results the anomaly that, no public monument exists of a self-taught genius whom Newton would have placed at his right hand, and from whom the world experienced obligations of such magnitude? The merit of Scotland's rural Poet, who wrote chiefly in his native dialect, is acknowledged by his countrymen in a colossal statue; and nearer home. Major Cartwright, with whose professed object in public life we are not interfering, but who was tried, and convicted of illegally combining with certain other persons to return Sir Charles Wolsey to Parliament, as a legislative attorney for Birmingham, is honoured with the same distinction, of a statue larger than the life (in Burton Crescent;) while we may enquire in vain for "the storied urn, or animated bust" of

This paradox is partly met by the consideration that John Harrison differed from all the men of genius who flourished in the last century; they were surrounded, or otherwise in intercourse with an extensive circle of friends and followers, and