Captain Cook's Voyages.

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entific expeditions which were to prove so fruitful of results, and to raise her naval reputation to so great a height. In these expeditions, the officers, the sailors, and the scientific men were constantly brought face to face with unforeseen difficulties and dangers, which brought forth their highest qualities as men. There was, however, some intermixture of narrowness in the minds of those who sent them forth. For instance, while Dr. Priestley was at Leeds, he was asked by Sir Joseph Banks to join Captain Cook's second expedition to the southern seas, as an astronomer. Priestley gave his assent, and made arrangements to set out. But some weeks later, Banks informed him that his appointment had been cancelled, as the Board of Longitude objected to his theology. Priestley's otherwise gentle nature was roused. "What I am, and what they are, in respect to religion," he wrote to Banks, in December, 1771, "might easily have been known before the thing was proposed to me at all. Besides, I thought that this had been a business of philosophy, and not of divinity. If, however, this be the case, I shall hold the Board of Longitude in extreme contempt."

Captain Cook was appointed to the command of the Resolution, and Captain Wallis to the command of the Adventure, in November, 1771. They proceeded to equip the ships; and among the other instruments taken on board Captain Cook's ship were two timekeepers, one made by Mr. Larcum Kendal, on Mr. Harrison's principles, and the other by Mr. John Arnold, on his own. The expedition left Deptford in April, 1772, and shortly afterwards sailed for the south seas. "Mr. Kendal's watch" is the subject of frequent notices in Captain Cook's account. At the Cape of Good Hope, it is said to have "answered beyond all expectation." Further south, in the neighborhood of Cape Circumcision, he says, "the use of the telescope is

found difficult at first, but a little practice will make it familiar. By the assistance of the watch we shall be able to discover the greatest error this method of observing the longitude at sea is liable to." It was found that Harrison's watch was more correct than Arnold's, and when near Cape Palliser, in New Zealand, Cook says, "This day at noon, when we attended the windingup of the watches, the fusee of Mr. Arnold's would not turn round, so that, after several unsuccessful trials, we were obliged to let it go down." From this time complete reliance was placed upon Harrison's chronometer. Some time later, Cook says, "I must here take notice that our longitude can never be erroneous while we have so good a guide as Mr. Kendal's watch.” It may be observed that at the beginning of the voyage observations were made by the lunar tables; but these, being found unreliable, were eventually discontinued.

To return to Harrison. He continued to be worried by official opposition. His claims were still unsatisfied. His watch at home underwent many more trials. Dr. Maskelyne, the royal astronomer, was charged with being unfavorable to the success of chronometers, being deeply interested in finding the longitude by lunar tables; although this method is now almost entirely superseded by the chronometer. Harrison accordingly could not get the certificate of what was due to him under the act of Parliament. Years passed before he could obtain the remaining amount of his reward. It was not until the year 1773, or forty-five years after the commencement of his experiments, that he succeeded in obtaining it. The following is an entry in the list of supplies granted by Parliament in that year: "June

14.

To John Harrison, as a further reward and encouragement over and above the sums already received by him, for his invention of a timekeeper for ascertaining the longitude at sea, and his discovery of the prin

Final Settlement of his Claim.

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ciples upon which the same was constructed, £8570 Os. Od."

John Harrison did not long survive the settlement of his claims, for he died on the 24th of March, 1776, at the age of eighty-three. He was buried at the southwest corner of Hampstead parish churchyard, where a tombstone was erected to his memory, and an inscription placed upon it commemorating his services. His wife survived him only a year; she died at seventytwo, and was buried in the same tomb. His son, William Harrison, F.R.S., a deputy-lieutenant of the counties of Monmouth and Middlesex, died in 1815, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, and was also interred there. The tomb having stood for more than a century, became somewhat dilapidated, when the Clockmakers' Company of the City of London took steps in 1879 to reconstruct it, and recut the inscriptions. An appropriate ceremony took place at the final uncovering of the tomb.

But perhaps the most interesting works connected with John Harrison and the great labor of his life are the wooden clock at the South Kensington Museum, and the four chronometers made by him for the government, which are still preserved at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The three early ones are of great weight, and can scarcely be moved without some bodily labor. But the fourth, the marine chronometer or watch, is of small dimensions, and is easily handled. It still possesses the power of going accurately, as does "Mr. Kendal's watch," which was made exactly after it. These will always prove the best memorials of this distinguished workman.

Before concluding this brief notice of the life and labors of John Harrison, it becomes me to thank most cordially Mr. Christie, Astronomer Royal, for his kindness in exhibiting the various chronometers deposited

at the Greenwich Observatory, and for his permission to inspect the minutes of the Board of Longitude, where the various interviews between the inventor and the commissioners, extending over many years, are faithfully but too procrastinatingly recorded. It may be finally said of John Harrison, that by the invention of his chronometer-the ever-sleepless and ever-trusty friend of the mariner-he conferred an incalculable benefit on science and navigation, and established his claim to be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind.

CHAPTER IV.

JOHN LOMBE,

INTRODUCER OF THE SILK INDUSTRY INTO ENGLAND.

"By Commerce are acquired the two things which wise men accompt of all others the most necessary to the well-being of a Commonwealth: That is to say, a general Industry of Mind and Hardiness of Body, which never fail to be accompanyed with Honour and Plenty. So that, questionless, when Commerce does not flourish, as well as other Professions, and when Particular Persons out of a habit of Laziness neglect at once the noblest way of employing their time and the fairest occasion for advancing their fortunes, that Kingdom, though otherwise never so glorious, wants something of being compleatly happy."—A Treatise Touching the East India Trade (1695).

INDUSTRY puts an entirely new face upon the productions of nature. By labor man has subjugated the world, reduced it to his dominion, and clothed the earth with a new garment. The first rude plough that man thrust into the soil, the first rude axe of stone with which he felled its pine, the first rude canoe scooped by him from its trunk to cross the river and reach the greener fields beyond, were each the outcome of a human faculty which brought within his reach some physical comfort he had never enjoyed before.

Material things became subject to the influence of labor. From the clay of the ground man manufactured the vessels which were to contain his food. Out of the fleecy covering of sheep he made clothes for himself of many kinds; from the flax-plant he drew its