I think it more consistent with the respect I owe to the public, and myself, to speak out plainly, than to have recourse to insinuations, on a subject of this nature; I therefore declare, that I am not satisfied with the truth of his reporting other observations relative to the Longitude, as I do maintain that in both his voyages the observations which he said he made the land by, were not calculated till after he had seen the land;[1] and I am certain those
- ↑ Dr. Maskelyne, knowing his Antagonist had incontrovertible evidence of this humiliating fact, thought it the safer course to attempt no reply. But what can be said of the majoity at the Board, who, in 1772, Lord Morton being then dead, inherited the mantle of that Philosopher by experiment, and assuming it by turns, disregarded the most palpable truisms, to so good purpose as to insist on the last made Timekeeper being tried at Greenwich, and nowhere else: id est, by their colleague, a person noways remarkable for self control, and who might be reasonably presumed to have been excited almost to frenzy by the astounding failure recorded here, which he had no ink that would blot out. Without undervaluing the professional abilities of the Astronomer Royal, it was obvious that such a cause of exasperation was likely to make his hand unsteady, and to show his heart not "hung in the right place."
quarrel between the Doctor and Sir Joseph Banks, who denied either the originality or the utility accruing from an invention for which the learned Collegians had voted £500. This sparring gave birth to a pamphlet from Flamstead Hill, for private circulation only, which the Author has not seen; but from his confidence in the Baronet's superior knowledge, he surmises, that when a case is to be made out at all events, the party may be resembled to a barrister, who cannot deviate from the purpose for which he has received a retaining fee.
