Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/27

xx payment of £17,500 depended, they actually, without the least enquiry, took the word of this scientific coxcomb, so grievously to the prejudice of an eminent genius, whose rival, singularly enough, he assumed to be thought to a certain extent; for he pretended to have himself discovered, some years before, a principle employed in the construction of the Timekeeper, "but had not told it to man, woman or child." In connexion with this, he was possessed of a curious secret in mechanics, which, as he said "not a workman in London could find out, for they would all get wrong, if they attempted it.'" There might be no questioning this merit in a President of the Royal Society—who, however, previous to these disclosures had been fully