APPEAL TO MR. GLADSTONE 167 



Knowing this [he tells Darwin, October 20, 1871], I 

 am determined that my voice shall not be withered. . . . 

 I should lose caste altogether if I did not stand up to fight. 

 I am putting all this in plain language to Mr. Gladstone. I 

 quite feel that I should hold on here, and that it is my duty 

 to do so, and that I ought not even to hint at resignation. 

 On the contrary, my cue is to treat my being turned out 

 as a ridiculous idea. Moreover, to threaten even to resign 

 would be a dishonourable ruse. But I shall let Mr. Glad- 

 stone know that I continue in Office under protest, and Mr. 

 Ayrton's office subordinates, no less than my own here, 

 shall know this, and that there is no sort of compromise of 

 principle in doing my duty under such circumstances. 



To C. Darwin, 



Kew : October 31, 1871. 



Dear Darwin, — I think that you should see enclosed. 



I have at last driven Mr. Gladstone into a corner, and 

 obliged him to take up my grievances. I told you that 

 he had forwarded my complaints against Mr. Ayrton to the 

 latter to be answered, and he has sent me Mr. Ayrton's in 

 the form of a paper of explanations, and allowed me an 

 opportunity of discussing them with his private Secretary 

 as his representative. I have unhesitatingly pronounced 

 Mr. Ayrton's ' explanations ' to be * a tissue of evasions, 

 misstatements and misrepresentations,' and I further charge 

 him with telling the Prime Minister a direct falsehood. I 

 then proceeded to show how all but impossible it is, that 

 I should hold office under a Minister of whom I entertain 

 and express these sentiments, and whose conduct to me has 

 been so ungracious and offensive, and whose acts I regard as 

 so detrimental and subversive of discipline in this establish- 

 ment. I further appeal to Mr. Gladstone as the First Minister 

 of the Crown, by whom Mr. Ayrton was set to rule over me ! 

 to direct the latter to restore to me that authority and those 

 functions of a Director that his Minister has taken away. 



* So you see,' he continues a few days later, ' I am enjoying 

 a good shriek at my Lords and Masters, and I rather enjoy 

 tossing my horns against the Sun and Moon ' — the more so 

 because circumstances introduced a touch of ironic comedy 

 into the business. 



