38 



FOUNDATION AND OBJECTS 



of the government of the Association gave me a 

 good idea of the spirit, but no wish to consume my 

 time in taking a part in it/ Nevertheless, despite 

 his personal taste, he wrote later in the same year 

 to Charles Darwin : 



' Do not let Broderip, or The Times, or the Age, 

 or John Bull, nor any papers, whether of saints 

 or sinners, induce you to join in running down the 

 British Association. I do not mean to insinuate 

 that you ever did so, but I have myself often seen 

 its faults in a strong light, and am aware of what may 

 be urged against philosophers turning public orators, 

 etc. But I am convinced, although it is not the 

 way I love to spend my own time, that in this country 

 no importance is attached to any body of men who 

 do not make occasional demonstration of their 

 strength in public meetings. It is a country where, 

 as Tom Moore justly complained, a most exaggerated 

 importance is attached to the faculty of thinking on 

 your legs, and where, as Dan O'Connell well knows, 

 nothing is to be got in the way of homage or influence, 

 or even a fair share of power, without agitation. . . . 

 I can also assure you, as the strongest commendation, 

 that the illiberal party cannot conceal their dislike, 

 and in some degree their fear, of the growing strength 

 of the Association. . . . Heaven be praised, we 

 seemed in no danger of splitting on the rock of 

 politics, which I always fear much more than any 

 occasional squabbles among ourselves. . . . The 

 moral of all this is, Go next year to Birmingham 

 if you can, although your adviser has been only to 

 two out of eight meetings/ 



Again, of the Oxford meeting in 1847, Lyell, in 

 describing events to his father at some length, says : 



