1870 PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 19 



But I am afraid that this wretched war will play the 

 very deuce with our foreign friends. If you Germans do 

 not give that crowned swindler, whose fall I have been 

 looking for ever since the coup d'&at, such a blow as he 

 will never recover from, I will never forgive you. Public 

 opinion in England is not worth much, but at present, it 

 is entirely against France. Even the Times, which 

 generally] contrives to be on the baser side of a con- 

 troversy, is at present on the German side. And my 

 daughters announced to me yesterday that they had 

 converted a young friend of theirs from the French to 

 the German side, which is one gained for you. All look 

 forward with great pleasure to seeing you in the autumn. 

 Ever yours faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



In addition to this address on September 14, he 

 read his paper on " Penicillium," etc., in Section 

 D on the 20th. Speaking on the 17th, after a 

 lecture of Sir J. Lubbock's on the " Social and 

 Eeligious Condition of the Lower Races of Mankind," 

 he brought forward his own experiences as to the 

 practical results of the beliefs held by the Australian 

 savages, and from this passed to the increasing 

 savagery of the lower classes in great towns such as 

 Liverpool, which was the great political question of 

 the future, and for which the only cure lay in a 

 proper system of education. 



The savagery underlying modern civilisation was 

 all the more vividly before him, because one evening 

 he, together with Sir J. Lubbock, Dr. Bastian, and 

 Mr. Samuelson, were taken by the chief of the 

 detective department round some of the worst slums 

 in Liverpool. In thieves' dens, doss houses, dancing 



