

1852-3 TREASURY AND ADMIRALTY 105 



possumus answer for the current year (1852) from the 

 Government, and a resolution was passed recommend- 

 ing that application on the subject be renewed by 

 the British Association in the following year. 



Meanwhile, weary of official delay, Huxley had 

 conceived the idea of writing direct to the Duke of 

 Northumberland, then First Lord of the Admiralty, 

 whom he knew to take an interest in scientific re- 

 search. At the same time he stirred Lord Eosse, 

 the President of the Royal Society, to repeat his 

 application to the Treasury. Although the Admiralty 

 in April 1852 again refused money help, and bade 

 him apply to the Royal Society for a portion of the 

 Government Grant (which the latter had already 

 refused him), the Hydrographer was directed to 

 make inquiries as to the propriety of granting him 

 an extension of leave. To his question asking the 

 exact amount of time still required for finishing the 

 work of publication, Huxley returned what he de- 

 scribed as a " savage reply," that his experience of 

 engravers led him to think that the plates could be 

 published in eight or nine months from the receipt 

 of a grant ; that he had reason to believe this grant 

 might soon be promised, but that the long delay was 

 solely due to the remissness of those whose duty it 

 was to represent his claims to the Government ; and 

 finally, that he must ask for a year's extension of 

 leave. 



For these expressions his conscience smote him 

 when, on June 12, at a soiree of the Royal Society, 



