90 REMINISCENCES OF 



My engagement in all probability also saved me 

 from having my career cut short at an early period. 



Soon after the marriage of the Queen to Prince 

 Albert, a movement was set on foot for sending 

 an expedition, with half benevolent, half ulterior 

 commercial purposes, up the River Niger, and a 

 very large meeting of influential persons was held 

 in Exeter Hall to promote this design. The meeting, 

 at which I was present, was presided over by Prince 

 Albert, his first appearance in public after his 

 marriage. The speakers included Sir Robert Peel, 

 the Rev. S. Wilberforce, subsequently Bishop of 

 Oxford and still later of Winchester, and other 

 equally prominent men. A short time after, the 

 close of my winter term at University College 

 having set me free, I had run down to my Scar- 

 borough home for a little rest and fresh air before 

 the commencement of the summer medical term. 

 Whilst I was sitting with my father one day, a 

 letter was handed to him by the postman, after 

 reading which, it was passed over to me. It stated 

 a meeting on the subject of the Niger Expedition 

 had been held at the residence of Lord Palmerston, 

 where it was resolved that a naturalist should be 

 appointed to accompany the expedition, and that 

 the post should be offered to me, but that the 

 meeting was not prepared to communicate directly 

 with me until my father had been consulted, in 

 order to learn whether or not such an arrangement 

 would meet with his sanction. Already engaged as 



