Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/58



prospect of any further reliance on a Commission of Longitude, presided at, and controlled, by two individuals at enmity with the Claimant, being thus extinguished; the general and fair report which their Sovereign had acquired of a high sense of equity, may be conceived to have led the Father and Son, after suitable reflection, to decide on an application to that quarter in their desponding situation. John Harrison being wholly domestic, was probably not much acquainted with Dr. Demainbury, a Swiss by birth, his Majesty's astronomer at Richmond; a gentleman of scientific abilities, but chiefly known at present by his marriage with the sister of John Horne Tooke having exposed him to some illiberal epithets from the popular demagogue, Wilkes, when they were pointedly opposed in politics. A similarity of pursuits, William Harrison being no mean proficient in astronomy, having brought on an intimacy with the Doctor, who would be disposed to check the oppressive conduct of his opponent at Flamstead B