175 



being founded at Edinburgh, separate from the Chair of Natural 

 History, Harkness should be looking forward to the time when he 

 might offer himself as a candidate for that post. I have been 

 given to understand that he did so with more confidence in the 

 result in consequence of the tenour of certain remarks made by 

 Sir Roderick Murchison, whence Harkness seems to have gathered 

 the impression that in the event of the Chair been founded and of 

 Harkness's coming forward as a candidate, he might rely upon Sir 

 Roderick's support. It appears that there was a mistake some- 

 where, as the following letter from Sir Charles Lyell will shew : — 



S3 Harley Street, January 30, 1866. 



Dear Harkness, 



I should have written to you before, had I not waited to hear what 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer would say when Sir R. I. Murchison met 

 him [in regard to the question] whether we were to have an Edinburgh 

 Professorship or not * * 



I am disappointed to learn that [Gladstone] says the Eoyal Commission 

 settled all that some six years ago, and if he were to break this in the case 

 of Edinburgh, all the other Universities would be coming upon them for 

 endowments. 



But perhaps I shall still go up with a deputation to Lord Russell. Sir E. 

 will not, I think, give it up ; but I cannot say that I feel very sanguine, 

 whereas I had really reckoned upon the Chair as a certainty, and had 

 imagined that the Commission had recommended — as you seem also to have 

 supposed — its institution. But I fear it was not so. 



My late father-in-law, Mr. Horner, was always recommending Geikie to 

 aspire to this Chair, and I feel myself in some measure committed to advocate 

 his cause, having been accustomed to look forward to his being a candidate 

 long before I entertained any idea of your becoming one. But I shall, of 

 course, be always ready to give my testimony in favour of your qualifications, 

 and am truly sorry to hear that so retrograde a step is contemplated as the 

 uniting of Botany and Geology. Truly, Sir E. Peel's untimely death was a 

 great loss. I do not wonder you wish to escape from a country where they 

 wish to make all education denominational * * 



Believe me, dear Harkness, 



Ever truly yours, 



CHAS. LYELL. 



However, Harkness did not allow a temporary disappointment 

 to abate his ardour in the least, and durins; the next few months 



