176 THE AYRTON EPISODE 



desired withdrawal of the charge of evasion — a sign, apparently, 

 that the case was too strong to be successfully defended. 

 Hooker agreed on condition that a substantial reply to Owen's 

 attack be placed at once before the House. This was effected 

 by a Treasury Minute, whereupon Hooker, in accordance with 

 the Prime Minister's wish, withdrew any imputations which 

 may be regarded as of a personal character in his letter to Mr. 

 West of October 30; 1871, at the same time requesting per- 

 mission, in justice to his father's memory, to place on record 

 in the Office of Works his reply to Owen's report. He refused, 

 however, to withdraw the letter itself, the basis of all his charges 

 for the last ten months, lest this should be used against him as 

 a withdrawal of the charges themselves. 



Lubbock's speech in the House was effective in its studied 

 moderation, backed by the force of the Treasury's official rebuke 

 to Ayrton's roughness and the incompleteness of his presenta- 

 tion of the case. Ayrton, in a defence ' forty times as able 

 as his written memorandum,' as the Spectator describes it, 

 1 exerted his whole capacity in developing this thesis, that when, 

 as Justice Maule said, " God Almighty was addressing a black 

 beetle," He could not be expected to choose His words.' The 

 whole drift of his reply was that he had not injured Dr. Hooker, 

 and that Dr. Hooker was far too low an official to have a right 

 to raise questions of manner with a Minister of the Crown. 

 He was a mere subordinate spending £12,000 a year, while 

 the ' departments I control spend £1,200,000.' It was a great 

 thing for a Minister of the Crown to take such ' trouble to 

 satisfy a person occupying so subordinate a position.' Dr. 

 Hooker ought to have called on the Secretary, if he had any- 

 thing to complain of, ' like anyone else who was one of a number 

 of subordinates.' His scientific friends had written a scurrilous 

 libel on him (Mr. Ayrton) secretly, though they only knew 

 * about organic and inorganic matter,' while he knew some- 

 thing ' far higher,' the science of the law. Evasions ! Those 

 were ' errors used by a slave to escape from the anger of his master, 

 but which a master, conscious of his power, was not in the habit 

 of using against a slave.' 



The House was so taken aback by the strong man's repre- 



