the final settling; especially, and the consideration is of prime importance, that the Petitioner had relinquished every other advantage in life, which his extraordinary abilities might have insured him, to solve the problem of the Longitude, by and with the encouragement of the Commissioners, the mathematical Commissioners, be it observed, till his ultimate success was highly probable.
The debate on the grant not being to be procured, the ostensible causes of this partial failure do not appear; but the real circumstances, or what William Harrison took to be so, are thus accounted for to his friend. After adverting to the weary struggle, but unexpected success of the contest, with such powerful opponents, he proceeds 'Had I been so happy as to have pushed matters, with my Lord North, while Sir George Saville, and some more of my most worthy friends were in town, I had received the whole, without any deduction, but out of politeness[1] to Lord North, his Lordship
- ↑ It will be recollected that, on his Lordship's motion, the papers of the Commission of Longitude were ordered to be laid before the House—were they read with any attention then?—and how is that to be reconciled with the politeness (as the younger Harrison calls it) with which this deduction was carried?—and received with equal civility by the Premier, we must suppose: but by what code of good breeding Lord North could have justified the ill-manners and uncouth opposition he was showing his excellent Master, for what might have been called a drop in the bucket, at the Treasury, we cannot divine.
