Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 73

what I have suggested offer Mess^rs Penn an Equivalent or
Compensation for what they may lose in Quit Rents if the
Line last run is established as a Boundary or Dividing Line
instead of the true Tangent required. As the more I see the
less I am inclined to think it practicable to describe on the
Earth to a great Degree of Accuracy the Lines required to be
run & am persuaded that the Appointment of so many Com-
missioners to carry the Articles of Agreement into Execution
will much enhance the Expence, Variety of Opinions ever
occasioning Delays & increasing Difficulties I cannot but wish
His Ldp & the Proprietors of Pennsylvania had found a Gen-
tleman in England whose Mathematical Abilities & Integrity
they could have equally relied on, & have engaged him to
come hither to direct & superintend the Work, if They had
given such a One a Thousand Pounds for his Trouble they
would in my opinion have saved Money & the Business would
have been finished in much less time than it can be where so
many are concerned & to be consulted. Even on the most
trivial matter it is a rare Thing to find ten or a Dozen Men
exactly of the same Opinion, how then can it be expected that
the Commissioners appointed on this occasion to be as it were
a Check on each other will always agree with respect to the
Mode of prosecuting the Work ? To say the Truth there has
scarcely been a Meeting either under former Commissions or
the present when those who came together did not differ in
opinion about what ought to be done or the manner of doing
it & I need not tell you how difficult it is for any Person to
give up his own opinion out of Compliment to another. The
Difficulty there is in running the Tangent Line makes me
very apprehensive about that long North Boundary or East &
West Line where an Error will be productive of very material
Consequences. I observe what D^r Bevis says in favour of his
Transit Instrument by which he supposes such a Line may be
described with great facility, but I find upon a nice Examina-
tion that not one of the Instruments yet sent us is exactly
graduated & fitted ; & in running so long a Line there will be
great room for Errors to creep into the Work. If the Glasses
of the Telescopes are not exquisitely ground & fixed it is
evident that the Surveyors will deviate, & I find there are
scarcely two of several Telescopes which our Surveyors have
tried that will answer & represent two distant Objects in pre-
cisely the same place & as to that you sent me last year it will
not shew two Lines at 300 yards distance from each other
equally distinct, but when one appears distinct & clear the
other is obscure & indistinct ; the Place of the Sun too when
they are running makes a Difference viz. whether the Rays
fall on the Eastern, the Western, or South Side of the Plumb

Letter Bk. IV