keepers of equal goodness with that which is certified to have kept the Longitude.
but the senior Arnold on seeing Mr. Mudge's pamphlet, came forward, and offered to make oath, that Dr. Shepherd had told him, in presence of his Wife, it never was intended that Timekeepers should gain the rewards; and—which is synonymous with truly illiberal meanness, the elder Mudge was assured by Sir John Pringle, then a Commissioner, that when the Act, the 14th George 3rd was drawn up, some of the Professors were for having the Mechanics wholly excluded from benefiting by the pecuniary encouragement it provided; but the rest of the Board thought this so unreasonable, they would not consent to it. But although their effrontery (in thus cotemning Newton) was opposed in the first instance, yet these Collegians, who knew not, or who cared not, for the real wants of the Mariner, were suffered to have it all their own way in the details, which, if they had changed places with the Mechanicians, became a pointed infraction of the golden rule you bear from them so often, to "do unto all as ye would that others should do unto you." It was obvious they carried their plan in fact, though not in form,[subnote 1] for the sundry long trials required for two Watches were incompatible with the casualties incident to human affairs, and Especially those of the sea. Supposing however the first of them, of a year at Flamstead
- ↑ Mr, Mudge was a candidate Under this Act, but he began his first Timekeeper three years before the passing of the bill, which thence had the effect of an ex poste facto law to him, and (according to his Son) had he known the prescribed conditions of it, and their uncertain bearing, he never would have been concerned with so sinister a blow at the Mechanics. The rewards of 10,000 and of £15,000, according to the degree of accuracy specified in Queen Anne's Act, having continued unapplied, though the larger premium, (in 1771) had been one half paid, and the other in abeyance, Mr. Mudge and his friends (mistakenly we apprehend) not conceiving that the two former rewards merged in the latter, he became a candidate for them, till the 14th George 3rd having wholly superseded the original enactment of 1714 left him in an awkward situation.
