they have since published all my drawings without giving me the last moiety of the reward, or even
formance of any thing is often very remote; and it is but justice to Mr. Ludlam to observe, that it made no difference whether the injunction to secrecy was to be upon oath, or upon honour, for it never reached the parties who received the explanation: not at least, Mr. Mudge, one of the watchmakers that attended: who being sent for, and interrogated at a Board, March 14th, 1767, the following odd cross purpose came out,
Question. Did you think yourself at liberty after receiving; the said explanation to communicate the same?
Answer. I thought it my duty to do it, and that it was the intention of the Board I should do so.
Question. To what number of English workmen did you communicate it?
Answer. To ten or twelve I believe, and to several Gentlemen curious in mechanics besides.[subnote 1]
The cause of this singular blunder would probably be found in the gross impropriety of the Commissioners having left the management of this public concern to so incompetent a busy body as the Earl of Morton, who either was too much engrossed by his own importance, and love of display, to remember what he should have communicated to the Gentlemen who attended in Red Lion Square, or designedly left them ignorant of it; for to judge by the general tenor of his conduct, and the words "Harrison will get all the money," which more than once escaped this inimitable petit maitre of philosophers, he neither wanted the Claimant to profit by the powers abroad, nor those at home. A circumstance coinciding with the belief that this discrepancy might be traced to the Manager is that, it was not
- ↑ It is much to be regretted that, in another part of this examination, Mr. Mudge does not speak with approval of the labours of his successful predecessor; especially as the Continuators of Dr. Rees point out different coincidences between his improvements, and those of John Harrison, too great to be accidental.
