"I cannot help
thinking," he said, "that I am extremely ill-used by gentlemen
from whom I might have expected a different treatment; for, if
the Act of the l2th of Queen Anne be deficient, why have I so
long been encouraged under it, in order to bring my invention to
perfection? And, after the completion, why was my son sent twice
to the West Indies? Had it been said to my son, when he received
the last instruction, 'There will, in case you succeed, be a new
Act on your return, in order to lay you under new restrictions,
which were not thought of in the Act of the l2th of Queen Anne,'
--I say, had this been the case, I might have expected some such
treatment as that I now meet with.
"It must be owned that my case is very hard; but I hope I am the
first, and for my country's sake I hope I shall be the last, to
suffer by pinning my faith upon an English Act of Parliament.
Had I received my just reward--for certainly it may be so called
after forty years' close application of the talent which it has
pleased God to give me--then my invention would have taken the
course which all improvements in this world do; that is, I must
have instructed workmen in its principles and execution, which I
should have been glad of an opportunity of doing. But how widely
different this is from what is now proposed, viz., for me to
instruct people that I know nothing of, and such as may know
nothing of mechanics; and, if I do not make them understand to
their satisfaction, I may then have nothing!
"Hard fate indeed to me, but still harder to the world, which may
be deprived of this my invention, which must be the case, except
by my open and free manner in describing all the principles of it
to gentlemen and noblemen who almost at all times have had free
recourse to my instruments.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142