280 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1862. first known to him by paragraphs extracted in our news- 

 Failure of papers from the Bengal Hurkaru and other Indian papers, 

 Office. and afterwards by the Overland Summary, by which it 

 appeared that severe censure had been passed upon him 

 for the part he had taken in the monetary affairs of the 

 Albert. The question was not unimportant, because much 

 ruin had been caused by the failure of the office ; and 

 though this could not be traceable to his advice, his name 

 had been used as a screen by those whose mismanage- 

 ment, if nothing worse, had caused the calamity. As 

 was said, he had but to fight shadows, but this might be 

 worth while when the shadows rest upon a good name. 

 When all this came to his knowledge in 1870, he was too 

 weak and ill to care much about erroneous statements 

 respecting himself, but his friends prevailed on him to 

 write an explanation of the case, which was simple enough. 

 He had, he said, given an opinion upon the data laid 

 before him. He had not been required to investigate the 

 affairs of the office. Had this been asked, he would have 

 perceived that the managers were counting as realised 

 capital large sums which they believed would be paid to 

 them from various quarters, an error against which he 

 had strongly cautioned them, and into which he after- 

 wards suspected they had fallen. His letter, the last he 

 wrote upon public business, contains a little touch of his 

 old humour. 



When a scientific opinion is given, it is intended that ' it '- 

 the whole opinion, remember may be used in any way the 

 receiver pleases. Let him give ' it ' as it was given, without 

 alteration or suppression, and he may speak of it as he pleases, 

 may call it what he pleases, and may infer from it what he 

 pleases. He may call my life office valuation a receipt for mince 

 pies which I certainly never intended it to be but he must 

 not mix up with it anything out of Mrs. Rundell or Mrs. Glasse. 

 Let him give it but fairly, and I am content, if he will do the 

 same, to take all the consequences of his change of description. 



Mathemati- The last occurrence connected with Science which gave 

 " ' him pleasure was the formation of the Mathematical 



