384 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



poorest, of all that God has made. I find I had lost my realization of London by living in the 

 village of Boston, and had again to go over my former astonishment at its interminable size 

 and innumerable population. Perhaps nothing is more calculated to give a man a just idea of 

 the insignificance of his own or any other individual existence, than a sight of the throngs of 

 London. It is perhaps more than anything else calculated to check ambition, to see the un- 

 remitted struggle one is obliged to make under the most favorable circumstances to obtain 



&& iV> v **~ x " vw "o 



reputation or wealth, and to estimate at the same time the chance of failure and the value of 

 success even if attained. A lawyer, for example, with the best talents, commences practice, 

 and after a life of labor, with good fortune, gets upon the bench in his age ; in a few years, he 

 is worn out and dies, or retires and is forgotten. Is the success worth the effort ? Perhaps 

 it is, but the labor is more, and the value of it less, than at first sight we think them to be. You 

 may say that reputation is never an object worth striving for, — and I fully agree with you; 

 but it forms, notwithstanding our opinion, the great motive with such men as Sir R. Peel, 

 Mr. Baring, and others, for sacrificing what you and I should call our comfort and life. I went 

 yesterday into the House of Lords, which was engaged in hearing appeals from the Court of 

 Chancery. There were present the Lords Lyndhurst, Brougham, and the Bishop of Chichester. 

 Lyndhurst appears much older than his years, but Brougham has all the activity and sprightly 

 appearance of a man of fifty. His face is not wrinkled, his eye is bright, and his frame firm. 

 He sat with his hat on, reading the documents of the case through his glasses, held before his 

 eyes by his hand, as though he would balk the use of spectacles. He was active in going into 

 the merits of the case, in hearing and putting questions to the counsel, Dr. Lushington, and 

 seemed to take a more decided part in the trial as a judge than was taken by the Lord Chan- 

 cellor. The Bishop of Chichester said and did nothing. Brougham is deserted by all parties, 



as much as his great predecessor Bacon was ; and if the present ministry goes out, no one 

 thinks Brougham will have any place in the new administration. . . . 



Last night, April 3d, I attended a meeting of the Royal Society. Mr. Lubbock, V. P., 

 was in the chair ; Dr. Roget and Mr. Children, secretaries. The business of the meeting was 

 conducted with great formality, the mace lying on the table before the V. P. As many as 

 fifteen persons were admitted as Fellows, amongst others Mr. Featherstonehaugh of New York, 

 whose recommendation was signed by Buckland and eight or ten others ; but Mr. F. is an 

 Englishman by birth and connections, and that accounts for his having been so brought before 

 the Royal Society as to have been chosen, while men amongst ns of more merit are not known 

 to the men of science here. After the meeting, the members went into the library and took 

 tea and coffee, and remained together an hour or so in familiar talk. . . • 



I have spent several hours at Babbage's looking at his machine.* It is exceedingly ingenious 

 as a mechanical invention, but perhaps more striking considered with regard to the evidence it 

 furnishes of Babbage's knowledge of the theorv of numbers. 



I am more pleased with Faraday than with any one else I have yet seen in England. He is 

 in his person not larger than a certain good friend of mine [Dr. Ware], and his face quite 

 inexpressive, his forehead not large, and, in short, with nothing in his physical structure to 

 attract attention; but his manners are so frank and cordial, such activity of mind and readiness 

 to go right to the point, free from all affectation and humbugging, that I felt at home after 

 three minutes' talk. ... 



* The calculating engine, constructed at the expense of the English government. 





