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PREFACE.
Harrison, in not complying with the resolutions of an imaginary majority. They might have seen, if they would, they were making themselves subservient to the contemptible and ungentlemanly revenge of the proud Thane, for having been defeated in enforcing his own construction of the 2nd George 3rd on the ill-fated Claimant. It is extremely surprising that not one Commissioner present had the sagacity to put a question or two to his Lordship, which would at once have dispersed the imbecile tissue he had fabricated. Had any particulars been asked, it must soon have appeared that he confuted himself; for his account implied that the Gentlemen of the separate Commission knew nothing of common business,[1] or they could never have adopted
- ↑ In the Journal of John and William Harrison, it is admitted that at the third meeting there was a majority against them; but it must have been connected with circumstances then generally contemplated, but now unknown; for the explanation looked for, by all who understood die subject, could not have varied much from that which afterwards took place in 1765, and which the Manager himself was constrained to acquiesce in; whereas his present resolutions were absolutely a dead letter, without the funds necessary to make them available. Besides this strange difficulty (entirely of his own creating) there was another beyond measure anomalous; which was that, by the lowest computation, his method of bringing the business to bear would have occupied from three to four, or five years; long within which time, if favoured by Providence, the Candidate hoped to see his Son return from the West Indies (as he actually did) with a success that would entitle him to a premium four times greater than that he was
