38 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



Mr. De Morgan also wrote the following- letter, offi- 

 cially addressed to the Council through the Warden : 



SIR, I beg leave to address the Council through you on a 

 subject which I approach with great reluctance. 



It is well known to the Council that I have often differed 

 from them on matters connected with the management of the 

 University, and that, when I have done so, I have never hesitated 

 to declare my opinions in the plainest language. The Council 

 will therefore believe me when I say that I am convinced that they 

 and the Professors have during the last session been coming to 

 such an understanding as would have made the supremacy of the 

 former quite consistent with the respectability and independence 

 of the latter. A third body has, however, interfered in the ques- 

 tion, whose declared intentions, if carried into effect, will render 

 it impossible for me to continue in the situation I at present hold. 



Should the result of the labours of the Select Committee be 

 the abrogation of the by-laws alluded to at the General Meeting, 

 I respectfully inform the Council that it is my intention to seek 

 elsewhere the subsistence and character which I had hoped to 

 gain in the University of London alone. At the same time I 

 feel it would not be dealing fairly with the Council if I let them 

 remain in ignorance of my determination, considering that the 

 deliberation of the Proprietors may possibly be pushed to a late 

 period in the vacation, when a proper choice of a successor to 

 my chair may be rendered difficult by the shortness of time re- 

 maining for that purpose. Having announced my intention, I 

 am therefore in the hands of the Council ; should they consider 

 it unfair in me to offer a conditional resignation dependent on cir- 

 cumstances over which they have no control, I will, on intimation 

 to that effect, offer an absolute resignation immediately. My 

 wish is decidedly to remain in the University, if that can be done 

 consistently with my own notions of what is due to my character. 

 Having thus shortly stated the predicament in which I find my- 

 self placed, I leave the matter to the decision of the Council. 

 I have the honour to remain, sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



90 Guilford Street, July 1831. 



The whole was brought to a crisis a few days after by 

 the dismissal of the Professor of Anatomy, the resolution 



