416 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVII 



On July 16, he writes to Sir M. Foster : 



The blessed Treasury can't make up their minds 

 whether I am to be asked to stay on as Dean or not, 

 and till they do, I can't shake off any of my fetters. 



Early in the year he had written to Sir John 

 Donnelly of the necessity of resigning : 



Nevertheless (he added), it will be a sad day for me 

 when I find myself no longer entitled to take part in 

 the work of the schools in which you and I have so long 

 been interested. 



But that " sad day " was not to come yet. His 

 connection with the Eoyal College of Science was not 

 entirely severed. He was asked to continue, as 

 Honorary Dean, a general supervision of the work 

 he had done so much to organise, and he kept the 

 title of Professor of Biology, his successors in the 

 practical work of the chair being designated Assistant 

 Professors. 



"I retain," he writes, "general superintendence 

 as part of the great unpaid." 



It is a comfort (he writes to his son) to have got the 

 thing settled. My great desire at present is to be idle, 

 and I am now idle with a good conscience. 



Later in the year, however, a change of Ministry 

 having taken place, he was offered a Civil List Pen- 

 sion of 300 a year by Lord Iddesleigh. He replied 

 accepting it : 



