Indies without losing her Longitude beyond certain Limits, the Inventor shall be intitled to certain Rewards.” Having from the Year 1726, employed myself in adapting those Principles which I had at that Time executed in a Pendulum Clock, to an Instrument or Time-Keeper so constructed as to endure the Motion of a Ship at Sea, and having made a Voyage to Lisbon and done sundry other Things during a Course of Years, mostly under the Direction of the Commissioners of Longitude, by way of preparatory Experiments, I thought the Invention sufficiently perfect about the latter End of the Year 1760, to go upon the ultimate Trial, which I accordingly applied for. My Son, after being sent to Portsmouth with the third Time-keeper (the fourth or Watch being to be sent to him) was kept there five Months, waiting for Orders; which having by returning to London at Length obtained, he went to Jamaica in the Deptford Man of War, and returned in the Merlin Sloop of War, having fulfilled every Instruction of the Commissioners. It remained to compute from the Astronomical Observations made at Portsmouth and Jamaica, whether the Watch had or had not kept the Longitude within the prescribed Limits; and as my Title to 20,000l. was to be determined thereby, I thought it but reasonable that I should name some Person to check the Computations, which was refused. The Commissioners appointed three Gentlemen for that Purpose, and on receiving their Report were pleased to declare that the Watch had not kept its Longitude within the above mentioned Limits.[3] Thoroughly convinced of the contrary (for I had the same Materials they had to calculate from) I required a Copy of the Computations which was also refused me; nor could I ever obtain a Sight of them either officially or through private Favour, ’till three Years afterwards, when they were ordered to be laid before the House of Commons; and it then appeared that two of the three Computations were absolutely inconclusive, proving nothing, and the third decided in my Favour. Further Proof of the Watch having succeeded in this Voyage may be found in the Journals of the House of Commons, Vol. XXIX. P. 546, in the Evidence of George Lewis Scott Esq; and Mr. James Short.

The Reader will easily believe I did not feel perfectly easy under this Treatment of an Invention to the perfecting of which (encouraged by the long continued Patronage of a Graham, a Halley, a Folkes, &c. &c.——learned Friends to Society, and Publick Good, whose Minds were too enlarged, and Spirits too liberal to admit that little Jealousy of inferior Artists, which since their Death I have been exposed to) I gloried in sacrificing every Prospect of Advantage from other Pursuits, and had willingly submitted to lead a Life of Labour and Dependence. However ’twas too late to retreat; and I had only one Means of Success left which was to follow the Commissioners in their own Way. Accordingly after many Difficulties (with a Relation of which I will not tire the Reader, as it is by no Means my Intention to meddle with any Subjects of Complaint, except such as are material to the forming a right Judgment of the Trials made and proposed) a second Voyage to the West Indies was agreed to in the latter End of the Year 1762, which Agreement was afterwards well nigh overset by the Commissioners insisting on such Astronomical Observations being previously made, as were next to impracticable in this Climate, and could be put into the Instructions for no other Reason that I could conceive, but to throw insuperable Difficulties in my Way, as they were not at all material to the Determination of the Matter in Question. However the Commissioners at Length gave up this Point on my Opinion of the Impracticability being confirmed by that of an Officer of the Navy distinguished for his Abilities and Skill in Matters of Astronomy. To take away all Possibility (as I thought) of this Voyage being rendered fruitless like the last, I then desired to have inserted at the End of the Instructions some few Words to this Purpose, “that provided the Experiment answered, the Commissioners present were of Opinion I should without further Trouble receive my Reward;” but my Son attending the Board with this Proposition was told by Lord Sandwich at that Time President, that it would be mere Tautology, for that their giving Instructions implyed the same Thing, and that if the Watch kept its Time within the Limits of the Act there could be no Doubt of my being entitled to and receiving the Reward, and nobody could take if from me. Upon the Faith of this, my Son went the Voyage to Barbadoes, in which the Watch kept its Time “considerably within the nearest Limits of the Act of Queen Anne,” as certified, even by the Commissioners themselves.

On the Success of this Trial being known, and after having employed near forty Years of my Life on the Faith of an Act of Parliament, was a Doctrine broached to me (as I solemnly declare for the first Time) that the Commissioners were invested with a discretionary Power of ordering other Trials and the fulfilling of other Conditions than those specially annexed by Act of Parliament to the Reward;[4] An Exposition of the Law, which I ever did and ever shall (until it is supported by legal Authority) totally reject and refuse Obedience to; for I do maintain, that before passing the last Act of Parliament I had as full and perfect a Right to the Reward of 20,000l. as any Free-holder in Britain has to his Estate; and I never would have desired nor ever will desire any better Satisfaction than a judicial Determination of that Point; which however it was very soon thought proper to preclude me from, by a new Law, passed at the Instance of the Commissioners of Longitude, placing me too certainly under the Discretion of the Commissioners and totally changing the Terms on which the Reward was to be given me, enacting that I should have half of it when I had disclosed the Principles and Construction of the Machine, and assigned over for the Use of the Publick the last made Timekeeper, together with the three others which were not so perfect as the last; and the other half when I should have made more Watches, without determining how many, and proved them to the Satisfaction of the Commissioners, without defining the Mode of Trial.

I frankly confess that from thenceforward I considered the second Moiety of the Reward as lost for ever. The first Moiety I obtained, tho’ it was with great Difficulty, as the Act required me to explain my Invention upon Oath, and the Commissioners were pleased to put into that Oath, Words of an indeterminate and unlimited Meaning, and refused to explain them, or even permit me or my Son to ask what was meant by them. We at length agreed to take it (finding we should never get any Thing if we did not, such was now the Power of the Commissioners) and they declared that themselves and the Gentlemen appointed by them to whom we were to explain it, would be upon Honour not to disclose it, that I might have an Opportunity of obtaining the Reward promised by foreign Powers; however, in less than a Month an Account of it appeared in the public News-Papers, signed by the