July II, 1872] 



NATURE 



science of which he is a leader, and the public which he had so 

 long served, if he had bowed in silence tu this rebuke. He wrote 

 a secund letter of remonstrance to the First Commissioner, iu 

 which he expressed himself as follows : "The matter, therefore, 

 stands thus : Several months ago I wa-, unknown to myself, de- 

 posed from the discliarge of a function of great imporiance. I 

 was left to hear this accidentally and, I have now to add, through 

 one of my own subordinates. 



"I do not for a moment question the First Commissioner's 

 power to e.\ercisc arbitrary authority over the Director of Kew, 

 but I ilo submit that there has been hitherto no plea whatever 

 for such action as regards myself, and that the repetition of such 

 acts, and the leaving me to be informed of them, on each ocva- 

 sioii, by my subordinate, constitute a grievous injury to my 

 official position, and tend to the subversion of all discipline in 

 this department." 



At this point, Sir, Dr. Hooker turned in the fullest confidence 

 to you. He had undoubting trust in your will and power to pro- 

 tect both Kew and him from the arbitrary and, we would add, 

 ignorant acts of the First Commissioner. He respectfully claimed 

 the privilege of bringing the matter under the cognizance of the 

 Right Honourable the First Lord of the Treasury. 



Vou doubtless remember the letter addressed to you by Dr. 

 Hooker on August ig, 1S71. You could not fail to remark the 

 reluctance with which he appealed to you, and his previous 

 anxiety to take all possible measures to avert the necessity of 

 such an appeal. "I cannot express to you. Sir," he writes, " the 

 anxiety that this step costs me, nor how earnestly I have endea- 

 voured, by suppressing all personal feelings, to conduct my 

 duties here under Mr. Ayrton to his and to my own satis- 

 faction. 



" After upwards of thirty-two years spent in the public service 

 at home and abroad without a suspicion of mistrust on the part 

 of my many previous superiors, I have had since Mr. Ayrton's 

 accession to submit to various arbitrary measures, which, though 

 compromising my position and authority, have been concealed 

 from myself and become known to my subordinates, through 

 whom alone I have first been made cognizant of them." 



From you. Sir, the Director of Kew received no direct reply 

 to this communication ; but by the First Commissioner he was 

 requested to "furnish the dates and particulars of the conspicu- 

 ous proofs of disregard to his office, and the particular occasions 

 and facts with dates, of his being left to be informed through his 

 subordinates of acts of arbitrary authority of the First Commis- 

 sioner, and the dates and particulars of those acts." 



To this challenge the Director of Kew replied by adducing five 

 .distinct acts of arbitrary interference, with their "dates," 

 "proofs," and "particulars." * Among them was included what 

 we have a right to call clandestine tampering with the subordi- 

 nates at Kew. For example, the Curator ot the Gardens was 

 tempted by Mr. Ayrton, personally, to leave Kew by the offer of 

 a higher position, involving authority over works at Kew ; and 

 he was re'iuested by Mr. Ayrton to keep the fact from the know- 

 ledge of Dr. Hooker. To the loyalty of this man to a master 

 whom he trusted and loved, the Director of Kew owes the dis-_ 

 covery of proceedings which under any previous First Commis- 

 sioner would have been impossible. 



Your attention. Sir, was drawn to this reply in a letter addressed 

 to you by the Director of Kew on the 31st of August, 1871. It 

 is in every respect so excellent, and so sure to be appreciated by 

 all who know the real meaning of scientific work, and the bane- 

 ful effect upon such work of this harassing conflict with your First 

 Commissioner, that we do not hesitate to reproduce it liere /// 

 ixlcnso. 



" Royal Kew Gardens, August 31, 1S71 



" Sir, — I beg most respectfully to submit copies of my further 

 correspondence with the Right Honourable the First Com- 

 missioner of Her Majesty's Works, 6.;c. 



"The acts detailed in the accompanying letter are, I believe, 

 correctly described. I trust that I do not exaggerate in charac- 

 terising them as grievously injurious to my olficial position, and 

 tending to the subversion of discipline in this establishment ; and 

 I have evidently no protection from a repetition of them, except 

 througli the intervention of a higher authority. 



"Of these acts, those referred. 'to under I, 2, 3, formed the 

 subject of a prolonged correspondence between the First Com- 

 missioner 'and myself ; that under 4, I brought to the notice of 

 Mr. Stansfeld, and the result was the abandonment of the pro- 



" Dr. Hooker's letter containing these charges was never answered, or 

 even acknowledged, by Mr. Ayrton. 



posal ; tliat under 5 will, I venture to hope, be revoked by your 

 authority. I refrain from commenting on these acts of the First 

 Commissioner in reference to their seriously interfering with the 

 execution of my peculiar and multifarious duties here. 



" These include the labours of a .Scientific Botanist, a Horti- 

 culturist, and the adminis'rition of Public Garden.=, Museums, 

 and Pleasure Grounds, frequented annually by upwards of 

 600,000 persons. 



" Jiesides the living collection?, I have the direction of the 

 largest and by far tlie most frequented Herbarium (by botanists 

 and amateurs) in existence, and a very extensive Library. 



" I conduct, wuhout a secretary, a responsible and onerous 

 correspondence with Foreign and Colonial Gardens, as also with 

 the Admir.alty and Indian and Colonial Offices, on all subjects 

 connected with Horticulture, Forestry, Botany, and the appoint- 

 ment of officers to duties in connection with these matters, and 

 the introduction of useful plants everywhere. 



" I have, further, the editorship or control of various botanical 

 works now being published, by order of Government, at Kew ; 

 and I have to devote every moment that I can spare from my 

 duties to maintaining, by researches and publications of my own, 

 a position as a .Scientific Botanist. 



" Until the accession of Mr. Ayrton, I have been enabled to 

 fulfil these duties with satisfaction to myself, having been treated 

 with uniform confidence, consideration, and courte^y by my 

 superiors. I was invariably consulted on all prospective change? 

 affecting my own and my subordinates' positions and duties. On 

 the revision of my estimates at the Board, before their trans 

 mission to the Treasury, I was referred to ; and amongst my 

 other current duties w-as the control of the construction and re- 

 pairs of the hot-houses and heating apparatus throughout this 

 establishment. 



"Subsequently to Mr. Ayrton's accession, my position has 

 been materially changed in all these respects. He had hardly 

 entered on his duties when he hastily administered to me a 

 wholly unmerited reprimand (the first I ever received), and his 

 last act (known to me) has been to take from me the above- 

 mentioned concrol, without pretext, warning, or subsequent in- 

 timation. 



' ■ I venture to hope that this may be restored to me, if the 

 reasons I have adduced in t. e enclosed letter to the First Com- 

 missioner are satisfactory to you. To these I would add, that in 

 all similar establishments with which I am acquainted, in Eng- 

 land or abroad, the opinion of the cultivator is entitled to the 

 first consideration in all matters relating to plant-houses and 

 heating apparatus ; that to trast him with the care and treatment 

 of invaluable collections, and make him amenable to the opinions 

 of another in respect of the apparatus he requires, is as obviously 

 wrong in principle as to refuse a surgeon his choice of instru- 

 ments and hospital appliances. Nor would it be candid in me 

 to withhold from you my conviction, tliat I have by this arbitrary 

 act of the First Commissioner been lowered in the eyes of those 

 who know no more of the circumstances than that I am deposed 

 from the lull control of buildings and apparatus which I was 

 entrusted to erect and have still to use. 



" Let me assure you, .Sir, that I am unconscious of any feelings 

 of personal animosity against Mr. Ayrton, 1 



" Having regard to the tenour of ihe sentiments he is reported 

 to have expressed in public, on^accepting office, in respect of pro- 

 fessional duties such as mine, I felt it incumbent on me to be 

 especially circumspect in my conduct and demeanour under his 

 rule. And in evidence of this let me add, that when still smart- 

 ing under his unprovoked reprimand, I, at his special request, 

 devoted many nights to examining and reporting upon various 

 books and pamphlets on the public parks of England, France, 

 and America, for his guidance — a labour not very congenial and 

 whoUy beyond my province as Director of Kew, and which I 

 further undertook in the hope that it might lead the First Com- 

 missioner to judge more generously of the acquirements and 

 duties of some of the officers of the department he controls. 

 " I am, Sir, 

 " Your most obedient Servant," 



"Jos. D. Hooker, Director 



"To the Right Honour.able 



The First Lord of the Treasury " 



To this letter Dr. Hooker was honoured by a reply from your- 

 self, coucliedin kind and considerate terms. You had communi- 

 cated with Mr. Ayrton, anri had received his explanations, which 

 you forwarded to the Director of Kew, "in the hope that they 

 would convey to his mind the assurance that there has been no 



