Rev. Mr. Ludlam, one of the six Gentlemen named by the Commissioners to receive the Discovery, and therefore, I make no doubt, by Leave of the Board. Nor did they stop here, for they have since published all my Drawings without giving me the last Moiety of the Reward, or even paying me and my Son for our Time at the Rate of common Mechanicks; a Discouragement to the Improvement of Arts and Sciences, and an Instance of such Cruelty and Injustice as I believe never existed in a learned and civilized Nation before.

I have already had Occasion to mention, that at the Time I receiv’d the Certificate for the first Moiety of the Reward, the Watch was delivered up; it remained six Months locked up at the Admiralty, and was then removed to Greenwich, to be the Subject of those Experiments concerning which I now trouble the Public. The other three Machines, were (by Order of the Commissioners) soon after demanded of me by Mr. Maskelyne. One of them which had been going more than thirty Years, was broke to Pieces under his careful and ingenious management, before it got out of my House; and the other two were so far abused in the Carriage by Land to Greenwich, as to be rendered quite incorrect, and as far as I can learn, incapable of being repaired without having some essential Parts made anew: Thus perished the first Essays of this long-wished for Invention!

Unwilling however that the Public should lose the Benefit of the Discovery, or the Chance of further Improvement, I applied, by repeated Letters, to the Board, praying that the Watch might be lent to me (offering Security for it if required) for the Sake of employing other Workmen to make the different Parts by Model, with quicker Dispatch, and in Order to determine by Experiments, whether some expensive Parts of the Machinery might not be abridged or totally left out. Still have my Requests been refused, and of late they have alledged that they cannot keep their Engagements with Mr. Kendall if they were to lend me the Watch. What those Engagements are may be seen below.[5] The new Act, as I have already observ’d, did not determine how many more Watches were to be made before I should receive the other Moiety of the Reward: it was seven Months before I could get them to fix how many, and then they would neither agree to any Mode of Trial proposed by me, nor propose any themselves till eleven Months after that, viz. not till the 11th Day of April last, when (an Enquiry having been set on Foot in the House of Commons) they were pleased to propose, that instead of the Length of a West-India Voyage, which is about six Weeks, the Watches should be placed with their very good Friend and Well-wisher Mr. Maskelyne for ten months, and then be sent for two months on board a Ship in the Downs; and all this I am required to submit to, without the least Shadow of Assurance on their Part, that they will be satisfied with this Trial, let it answer ever so well, or that I shall thereby be brought at all the nearer receiving what is due to me, altho’ (independent of making the Watches) it must necessarily employ one whole Year of mine or my Son’s Time, in superintending an Examination, which, after all, can only prove that I, who have made one Machine, can make another like it; and the Point of general Practicability, about which so much stir is affected to be made, would not be one Jot advanced beyond what it is at present.

I cannot help begging the Reader will here allow me to add a Remark or two upon the general Practicability of my Invention, as that is now said to be the only Thing that was in Dispute between the Commissioners and me, and that they only wanted to be satisfied as to this Point. In order to clear it up then, I will submit to the Public to determine whether the general Use and Practicability of my Invention can, in the Nature of Things, be attacked, unless under one of these three following Heads:

1. That a Time-keeper, however perfect, is an insufficient Means of ascertaining the Longitude at Sea.

2. That such Information has not been given as will enable other Workmen to make other Time-keepers of equal goodness with that which is certified to have kept the Longitude.

Or 3. That they will come to so enormous a Price as to be out of the Reach of Purchase.

From the Benefit of the first Objection (even if it was founded in Truth, which I utterly deny) the Commissioners have surely precluded both themselves and the Nation, as with Respect to me, by their repeated Orders and Instructions, and after leading me on for near Half a Century, to employ my whole Time and make long Voyages for perfecting the Invention, they can never be permitted now to come and say the Invention itself is good for nothing. Should any one however continue to propagate such an Opinion, I beg leave, in Contradiction to it, to offer that of Sir Isaac Newton, and that of Martin Folkes, Dr. Halley, Dr. Smith, Mr. Graham, and eight other Persons of great Eminence, both publicly given to the House of Commons and to be found in the Journals, viz. Sir Isaac’s in Vol. 17, Page 677, and the others in Vol. 29, Page 547.

The second Objection is flatly contradicted by Evidence lately before the House of Commons, by which it appears that the Description and original Drawings from which the Watch was made, as given in by me upon Oath, are printed and published; and that Mr. Mudge (the only one of the Watchmakers to whom the Discovery was made, who has been examined by the House of Commons) declar’d he could make these Watches as well as I can. Moreover I am ready, on Condition of receiving the Remainder of what’s due to me, upon Oath to give all manner of future Information and Instruction in my Power; and I hope it could never enter into any Man’s Idea of general Practicability, that I should actually teach every indifferent Workman in the Nation, and furnish each of them with a Set of Tools for the Trial of his Ability, at my own Expence, before I could be entitled to the Reward.

With Regard to the third Objection, no Estimate of the future Expence can (from the Nature of the Subject) be grounded upon any Authority better than that of Opinion. The Price of common Watches, where each Part is made by a different Workman, bears no Proportion to what must necessarily be charged by any Man who was to make the whole with his own Hands: the same Reduction will naturally take place when a Number of Workmen are instructed to make the different Parts of these. My Opinion is, that they might in a very few Years be afforded for about £.100 a-piece, and if a Reduction of the Machinery can be effected (which I am strongly inclined to think is the Case, but have not had an Opportunity of proving by Experiment for want of my Models) the Expence may be reduced to about 70 or 80 l.

By this Time I think the Reader may naturally exclaim, How can all these Things be? What can induce a Number of Noblemen, Statesmen and Officers of the first Rank and most unblemished Characters; what can induce the President of the Royal Society, and the Professors of the Universities (to each of whom his Majesty has been most graciously pleased to order Payment of 15 l. per Day for every Board of Longitude they attend) and what can induce the Astronomer Royal, thus to discourage an Invention which they are specially constituted to improve, protect, and support? I might answer with Mr. Maskelyne, “that’s none of my Business to