406 On the present Mode of finding 



parliament makes no mention of the rate, therefore the aU 

 lowance of a rate is an indulgence ; and that the commis- 

 sioners might require the maker to adjust the watch, so as 

 to keep mean time accurately. With as great propriety 

 might it be said, that the placing a glass over the face to 

 view the hands and figures is an indulgence ; or that to make 

 the balance of two or more metals is an indulgence ; or that 

 the watchmaker having the power of choosing his own 

 escapement is an indulgence; or lastly, that the astronomer 

 being allowed to take the moon's place from the Nautical 

 Almanack, instead of computing it with proper data and 

 La Place'? equations, is an indulgence. The act prescribes 

 no definite means by which the object is to be attained, but 

 leaves the artist entirely to his own choice: it cannor there- 

 fore but appear extraordinary, that the act should be thus 

 construed, to the exclusion of the most essential part of the 

 principle on which the method is founded. 



Those who are acquainted with the adjustment of the 

 balances of timekeepers know, that it is almost an impossi- 

 bility to bring them precisely to that minute point of exact* 

 ness, by which alone they keep accurately with mean time ; 

 and the difficulty of adjusting the balances for the effects of 

 heat and cold, so that they shall never vary with the greatest 

 extremes of either, would be at least as difficult to accom- 

 plish. But the former is attended with no other trouble to 

 the practical navigator, than merely requiring the aid of a 

 little calculation to a\low for the deviation. It would be 

 precisely the same with the allowance for the effect of the 

 alteration of temperature: and it cannot therefore but appear 

 extraordinary, that any objection should be made against 

 applying this correction, when, by means of it, so much 

 greater dependence can be placed on the time shown by the 

 machine. Art has always lent her friendly aid to science, 

 and science should return the kindness. Little can be ex- 

 pected in the progress of the longitude by either of them 

 separately ; but when they cordially unite their efforts, what 

 is there that they cannot subdue ? 



Nothing would tend more powerfully to advance the in- 

 terest of our own countrymen, than the establishment of a 



public 



