CONCLUSION 177 



sentation of himself as the ' weak and helpless victim of a 

 scientific tyrant ' that it allowed Mr. Gladstone to wind up the 

 debate without expressing its opinion on what it had heard. 

 The Government could congratulate itself on escape from a 

 most unpromising situation. It had avoided producing the 

 crushing correspondence which, though Ayrton had declared 

 it should not be produced if asked for, Mr. Gladstone had not 

 refused. Hooker, though still eager to substantiate his charges 

 to the hilt, bowed to Mr. Gladstone's wish, and wrote Ayrton 

 a formal withdrawal of imputations that might be regarded 

 as personal or incompatible with official subordination. Ayrton 

 rejected this qualified withdrawal as being less than he had 

 demanded in the debate. The truce, however, remained un- 

 broken. At last, in August 1874, Mr. Gladstone transferred 

 Mr. Ayrton from the Board of Works to the resuscitated 

 office of Judge Advocate General. With the resignation of the 

 Ministry in 1874 his political career came to an end, as he twice 

 failed to secure re-election to Parliament. But till then Hooker 

 lived in perpetual uncertainty as to the next move, and exclaims 

 to Maw (November 2, 1872) : 



How I long for your liberty of life. You cannot con- 

 ceive the depressing effect of working under a chief in whom 

 you have less than no confidence. I dread opening every 

 letter from the Board, lest it should contain something 

 offensive, and I suspect every unusual communication. 



Sir Algernon West, in his ' Eecollections, ' recalls the part 

 he played as mediator in the quarrel, and says that he found 

 Ayrton the more reasonable man to deal with. I think this 

 is highly probable, for Ayrton had no reason to stand out for 

 redress of grievances and was quite ready to accept an act 

 of oblivion and indemnity — for his own indiscretions— and to 

 promise official correctitude — if he might be judge of what was 

 officially correct. 



