so reduced me, and employed so much more of my
money than I expected, that I have been obliged to turn most of my Navy
bills into cash, and at the same time, to my great concern, am very
deficient in my balance. This gives me great uneasiness, nor shall I
live or die in peace till the whole is restored." He had, however,
made the first false step, after which the downhill career of
dishonesty is rapid. His desperate attempts to set himself right only
involved him the deeper; his conscious breach of trust caused him a
degree of daily torment which he could not bear; and the discovery of
his defalcations, which was made only a few days before his death,
doubtless hastened his end.

The Government acted with promptitude, as they were bound to do in such
a case. The body of Jellicoe was worth nothing to them, but they could
secure the property in which he had fraudulently invested the public
moneys intrusted to him. With this object the them Paymaster of the
Navy proceeded to make an affidavit in the Exchequer that Henry Cort
was indebted to His Majesty in the sum of 27,500L. and upwards, in
respect of moneys belonging to the public treasury, which "Adam
Jellicoe had at different times lent and advanced to the said Henry
Cort, from whom the same now remains justly due and owing; and the
deponent saith he verily believes that the said Henry Cort is much
decayed in his credit and in very embarrassed circumstances; and
therefore the deponent verily believes that the aforesaid debt so due
and owing to His Majesty is in great danger of being lost if some more
speedy means be not taken for the recovery than by the ordinary process
of the Court." Extraordinary measures were therefore adopted. The
assignments of Cort's patents, which had been made to Jellicoe in
consideration of his advances, were taken possession of; but Samuel
Jellicoe, the son of the defaulter, singular to say, was put in
possession of the properties at Fontley and Gosport, and continued to
enjoy them, to Cort's exclusion, for a period of fourteen years. It
does not however appear that any patent right was ever levied by the
assignees, and the result of the proceeding was that the whole benefit
of Cort's inventions was thus made over to the ironmasters and to the
public. Had the estate been properly handled, and the patent rights
due under the contracts made by the ironmasters with Cort been duly
levied, there is little reason to doubt that the whole o