1 82 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



Huxley was President of the Marine Biological As- 

 sociation, which early in the year was considering the 

 advisability of trying to induce the Government to add a 

 scientific adviser to the Board of Fisheries. He opposed 

 the step, being of opinion it would lead to administrative 

 difficulties. 



In his capacity as a Governor of Eton he had to take 

 part in the election of a new head, and some of his ideas 

 about what ought to be done are embodied in a letter to 

 his eldest son (dated July 6) : — 



'* The whole system of paying the Eton masters by the profits 

 of the boarding-houses they keep is detestable to my mind, but 

 any attempt to alter it would be fatal. ... I look to the new 

 appointment with great anxiety. It will make or mar Eton. 

 If the new Headmaster has the capacity to grasp the fact that the 

 world has altered a good deal since the Eton system was in- 

 vented, and if he has the sense to adapt Eton to the new state 

 of things, without letting go that which was good in the old 

 system, Eton may become the finest public school in the country. 

 If on the contrary he is merely a vigorous representative of the 

 old system pure and simple, the school will go to the dogs " 

 (Life, ii, pp. 134-5). 



As a strong Unionist, Huxley was of course intensely 

 interested in the Home Rule question which was 

 agitating the country at this time, and his views are 

 expressed in a letter to Mr. Albert Grey, M.P. (dated 

 March 21, 1886), published in the Times for April 13, 

 under somewhat singular circumstances. It appears that 

 the Unionist case had not been adequately stated in 

 America, and contributions to the Nationalist funds had 

 been coming over the water somewhat more freely than 

 the other party relished. Mr. Grey, therefore, arranged 

 to cable to an American newspaper syndicate the opinions 

 of leading Unionists, and from America came the sug- 

 gestion that the series should begin with Huxley. It 



