Mr. Maskelyne having shewn from the result of his calculation (which I have here proved to be false) that the Watch is not to be depended upon to determine the Longitude in a voyage of six weeks, then says, 'these considerations are sufficient to explain the motives which might have actuated Mr. Harrison, as a man of prudence, in desiring to send his Watch two voyages to the West Indies,
independent of any such circumstance; yet to the resentment which his Majesty felt in behalf of the oppressed individual, thus complaining, not a little of the determined opposition he gave to the proceedings of the Board of Longitude is to be attributed.—One obvious reason is, either that the majority who authorized the publication of a trial conducted with so little regard to regularity, notwithstanding it was intended to set the public right, had none of them seen it; or, which would be more incredible, although undoubted, that the same majority, almost wholly composed of Graduates, insisted on the last made Timekeeper being tried at Greenwich and nowhere else: an ultimatum which led to that total failure of the respect shown by all ranks towards the Crown; but which these Ecclesiastics were grossly deficient in on the date recorded.—Such we venture to conclude will be the sentiments of the Gentlemen of Oxford and Cambridge, now that the views and interests then predominant no longer agitate so many minds, and warp the better resolves of the "self approving hour," They may recollect those fine lines of Waller; often but too applicable to the deformity and party spirit of the transactions in which their predecessors were engaged above sixty years ago.
Our passions gone, and reason on her throne,
Amaz'd we view the mischiefs we have done;
After a tempest, when the winds are laid.
The calm sea wonders at the wrecks it made.
