Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/42

Rh in this way, to take tenfold vengeance for having been hung in chains on his own premises.—The esprit du corps could never more decidedly have called for the unqualified contempt, and resentment of the public, had it been known that the meritorious individual was thus set up as a mark for malignant shafts, by persons whose learned designations, to say nothing of their Christian ministry, could not control that wild beast which Frederic 3rd said every man carries in his breast. Those gentlemen who have seen the caricature which Dr. Knox was supposed to have given of our Universities, in his day, may involuntarily ask, if the conduct of these savans was not too much in accordance with that questionable picture? No redeeming feature appears, for—with such a transparent purpose in view, they dared to heave the gauntlet of defiance at their Sovereign, after having excited his indignant resentment in behalf of the sufferer; and inducing him, with that promptitude and decision of character, which were his attributes, immediately to adopt the only course consistent with the limited authority of the crown, to do justice to the aged Claimant of the second moiety of the reward for the discovery of the Longitude at sea.

As in the course of this, a tract designated as the Journal of John and William Harrison is frequently cited, some account of it becomes important. After the death of the younger Harrison (William) it was discovered that he and