If the proprietor or the clergyman find under his own eye isolated instances of severity, oppression, or hardship in a general and salutary law, instead of railing against the law, he ought to attend to the individual instances; and private benevolence ought to keep the balance of the scales even, and be the makeweight wherever there is a just deficiency of national charity.
"Alice, or The Mysteries, Book II"
Edward Bulwer Lytton
It actually was at last thrown in as a makeweight.
"Tales & Novels, Vol. IX [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond]"
Maria Edgeworth
Then Christopher, I cannot tell whether consciously or otherwise, threw in a makeweight that fell in the scale that was threatening to rise.
"A Red Wallflower"
Susan Warner