THE LATE PROFESSOR TYNDALL. 823 



functions held by me. On the other hand, my faith in free insti- 

 tutions, originally strong (though always joined with the belief 

 that the maintenance and success of them is a question of popular 

 character), has in these later years been greatly decreased by the 

 conviction that the fit character is not possessed by any people, 

 nor is likely to be possessed for ages to come. A nation of which 

 the legislators vote as they are bid, and of which the workers sur- 

 render their rights of selling their labor as they please, has neither 

 the ideas nor the sentiments needed for the maintenance of liberty. 

 Lacking them, we are on the way back to the rule of the strong 

 hand in the shape of the bureaucratic despotism of a socialist or- 

 ganization, and then of the military despotism which must follow 

 it ; if, indeed, some social crash does not bring this last upon us 

 more quickly. Had we recently compared notes, I fancy that 

 Tyndall and I should have found ourselves differing but little in 

 our views concerning the proximate social state, if not of the ulti- 

 mate social state. 



In the sketch he has recently given of our late friend, who was 

 one of the small group known as the x Club, Prof. Huxley has 

 given some account of that body. Further particulars may not 

 unfitly be added ; one of which may come better from me than 

 from him. The impression that the club exercised influence in 

 the scientific world (not wholly without basis, I think) was nat- 

 urally produced by such knowledge as there eventually arose of 

 its composition. For it contained four presidents of the British 

 Association, three presidents of the Royal Society, and among its 

 members who had not filled these highest posts there were presi- 

 dents of the College of Surgeons, of the Mathematical Society, and 

 of the Chemical Society. Out of the nine I was the only one who 

 was fellow of no society, and had presided over nothing. I speak 

 in the past tense, for, unhappily, the number of members is re- 

 duced to five, who are now scattered, and of these only three are 

 in good health. For years past the difficulties in the way of meet- 

 ing have been growing greater, and the club is practically dead. 

 But the detail of most interest which Prof. Huxley has not 

 given, concerns a certain supplementary meeting which, for many 

 years, took place after the close of our session. This lasted from 

 October in each year to June in the next, and toward the close of 

 June we had a gathering in the country to which the married 

 members brought their wives ; raising the number on some occa- 

 sions to fifteen. Our programme was to leave town early on Sat- 

 urday afternoon, in time for a ramble or a boating excursion be- 

 fore dinner ; to have on the Sunday a picnic in some picturesque 

 place adjacent to our temporary quarters ; and, after dinner that 

 evening, for some to return to town, while those with less pressing 

 engagements remained until the Monday morning. Two of our 



