Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/96

Rh it for a season.—Had George 3rd been as irascible as his Grandfather, who never forgot his German predilections and was once found at the head of some companies of his guards, in the court yard of St. James's, trying the sword he had used at the battle of Oudernarde, and determined not to be so vilely thwarted any longer by this pesthouse of a constitution, which bore no resemblance to that he had left at Hanover, where no man could contradict him, but at his peril.—Had George 3rd we say, who excelled in that suavity which becomes a diamond of the first water in a Monarch*s crown, been of the same composition as his predecessor, he would immediately have sent for one or more of the Judges, or the Attorney and Solicitor General; certainly for some responsible functionaries; and submitted to them (as well as his agitation and vehemence would allow) that the Commissioners of Longitude had told him no regard would be paid to the result of any trial of a Timekeeper, or Watch-machine, under his immediate inspection; and that if he had a mind to try what experiments he would it did not matter any thing to them: they had nothing to do with it—The Board have said what they would have done, and they will not alter their orders.In having so said, and by this authoritative language of defiance, were they not guilty of a high misdemeanour and a contempt of the regal Office, which it was his duty to uphold, to support the dignity of, and to claim the respect