February r. 1900] 



NATURE 



questions, will enable him to be of the greatest service in Par- 

 liament. The election of so distinguished a graduate will be 

 an honour to the University. 



Sir Michael Foster's claims to your support are not put before 

 you in the interest of any political party. We think it more 

 important that a fit representative of the University, as an in- 

 stitution for the promotion of learning and science, should be 

 sent to Parliament, than that a member should be added to 

 one or the other side of the House. There is, however, one 

 question upon which the country, independent of party, is 

 agreed — that the Government must be supported in prosecuting 

 the present war to a successful conclusion — and on this Sir 

 Michael Foster is at one with the country. 



It is of the utmost importance that those graduates who will 

 support Sir Michael Foster should inform the committee at 

 once, and you will please therefore fill up, sign, and post the 

 enclosed card as soon as possible. 



We enclose with this a letter from Sir Michael Foster. 



We are. Sir, 



Your obedient servants, 



T. F. ROTTOX, M.A., LL.B., Q.C 



M. J. Warin(;, M.S., M B , B.Sc , 



II. r. Harris, B.A., 



C. E. Wilson, M.A. (Camb ), B.A. (Lond 



Chahnian. 



\ Honorary 

 A. (Lond.), I •^''^''^^«'''^^- 



The following letter has been received from SiR Michael 

 Foster in answer to one from the Chairman of his 

 Committee informins[ him of the steps which were being 

 taken in respect of his candidature. 



January 24, 1900. 



My Dear Rotton, — I learn from your letter, and from 

 other sources, that the Memliers of Convocation on whose l)e- 

 half you write have been led to invite me to represent them 

 in Parliament because they strongly hold the opinion that the 

 representative of the University should be chosen not on 

 account of his political opinions, but by reason of his fitness 

 to advance in the House of Commons the interests of science 

 and learning and of the University, and because they ihink that 

 I possess this fitness. 



I cannot but be gratified that so many eminent graduates 

 hold me in so much esteem ;, and, while not so confident my- 

 self as they are of my fitness for the post, I feel it my duty to 

 accept the great honour which they offer me in the spirit in 

 which it is proposed. 



If my candidature should prove in the end acceptable to the 

 majority of the Members of Convocation, I shall feel that I 

 enter the House, not with a mandate to support this or that 

 political party, but for the purpose of placing at the disposal 

 of the House the experience gained by many years' service in 

 the courts of learning and science, and in more than one 

 University. 



Any other position would be impossible for me ; and if the 

 Members of Convocation do me the honour to select me, it 

 must be on the understanding that I am not thereby pledged 

 to any political party. Still, the man in the lecture room, no 

 less than the " man in the street," has his political views ; and 

 neither would the University expect its Member to take part 

 in the business of the House only when academic questions 

 were being dealt with, nor should I desire to play such a part. 

 Indeed, purely political questions may be brought forward on 

 which, were I elected, I should think it wrong to abstain from 

 recording my vote. Bearing this in mind, I think it right to 

 say that had I been in the House of Commons some years ago, 

 I should have voted against the Irish policy of Mr. Gladstone ; 

 and that at the present moment I think, not only that the pre- 

 sent war should be vigorously prosecuted until the results so 

 essential to the welfare of the Empire are attained, but that the 

 nation is justified in having entered into it. So far I should 

 support the present Government. At the same time I wish to 

 state plainly that on many other questions my views, and per- 

 haps still more my sympathies, are those which used to be de- 

 noted by the term "liberal." Not having, however, looked 

 forward to the honour of entering into Parliament I have never 

 attempted to integrate my opinions into a compact whole cap- 

 able of being marked with a party sign ; and even now I feel 

 a great difficulty in attempting to do so. 



.\s regards the affairs of the University of London itself, 

 Members of Convocation are well aware that such efforts as I 

 have been able to make have been directed towards developing 



^^- ^579. "^'OL. 61] 



the University in the directicn\\hich has often been denoted by 

 the words " teaching University." In this I have been guided 

 by a desire to promote the interests, not so much of teachers, 

 as of teaching and of learning. Though a somewhat long ex- 

 perience as an examinee and an examiner has shown me the 

 weak points of examinations, I owe too much to the University 

 of London in its old form as an examining University not to 

 feel deeply how much good it has done. When called uf)on 

 as a witness before the Cowper Commission, the only evidence 

 I ventured to give was to emphasise the desirability of enlarging 

 the old University, as against setting up a new one. I thought 

 then, and I think now, that the changes which it is proposed 

 to make, so far from doing any one part of the University 

 harm, will do good to the whole ; and that he whom it is 

 proposed to call an "external student" will share, with the 

 "internal student," the benefit which must follow upon the 

 recognition of the principle that the true function of a Uni- 

 versity, whatever else it may be called upon to do, is not to 

 grant titles, but to develop learning and to promote the ad- 

 vancement and spread of knowledge. If elected, I should 

 regard myself as the representative of the educational interests 

 of external students and internal students alike. 

 Yours. &c. , 



Michael Foster. 



PROFESSOR D. E. HUGHES, F.R.S. 



■pvAVID EDWARD HUGHES was born in London 

 ■L^ on May 16, 183 1. His parents were Welsh, from 

 Bala, in Merionethshire. He spent his early years in 

 the United States, to which place his parents emigrated 

 in 1838, and he became a citizen of the United States. 

 He never abandoned this citizenship, and this is pfobably 

 the reason why the English Government never recog- 

 nised his eminent scientific services. Being a musician, 

 like so many of those who spring from our Welsh hills, 

 he was appointed professor of music in Bardstown, 

 Kentucky, at the age of nineteen. He also held the 

 chair of natural philosophy. At the age of twenty-four 

 he invented hi^celebrated Roman type-printing telegraph 

 that spread his fame throughout the civilised world. 

 He struck a new line. His instrument was based on 

 synchronism, and each letter was struck by one current. 

 His apparatus was adopted in the United States, but it 

 was very little used there, and he came to England in 

 1857 to try and introduce it here. He came at an un- 

 fortunate time. Telegraphy was in the hands of several 

 private companies, whose capital was locked up in pro- 

 moting other patents. Competition was excessive and 

 ruinous ; but in 1863 the United Kingdom Telegraph Co. 

 took up Hughes's instrument, and on the transference 

 of the telegraph to the State, in 1870, it came into the 

 possession of the Post Office. It was also employed by 

 the Submarine Telegraph Co. for their communications 

 to the Continent, and now the largest Hughes's type- 

 printing telegraph station in the world is probably the 

 cable room of the Post Office in St. Martin's le Grand. 

 In his occasional visits to the General Post Office he 

 never failed to express his delight at the great advances 

 made by the Post Office Technical Staff in the develop- 

 ment and working of his beloved child. It was driven 

 electrically, and it worked duplex. 



Hughes's instrument was made the international type 

 of apparatus, and every country in Europe adopted it. 

 Honours and wealth were showered on him. Being a 

 man of very simple habits and of few wants, his annual 

 expenditure was small ; but his income was great. His 

 riches accumulated, and it is now generally known that 

 he has been most generous in endowing various scientific 

 institutions and hospitals with large sums of money. 



On April 13, 1859, a paper was read before the Society 

 of Arts describing not only his apparatus, but an original 

 form of cable, which separated two layers of gutta-percha 

 insulation by a film of semi-fluid viscid oil, so that flaw 

 or punctures in the insulation were automicaily repaired. 



