698 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1880, 
has been all this while unacknowledged? I fear it is 
even so. 
In the mean time much has happened, at least in 
your old world, on which interest centres ; here not 
much, but constant and rather humdrum work for me. 
We have got through the winter, a mild one, in con- 
trast to yours, so severe and trying, and our spring 
opens pleasantly ; and Mrs. Gray and I are well and 
You have had a parliamentary election, the result 
of which we delight in, though it took us, and seem- 
ingly most of you, by surprise. I fancy you are 
pleased to see Gladstone again at the helm, and still 
more at the collapse of Jingoism, — not a moment too 
soon. 
But let me hasten to tell you that Mrs. Gray and I 
contemplate crossing the Atlantic early in September, 
and of passing at least a full year in England and on 
the Continent. A busy year it must be, if my powers 
hold out; for I must do a deal of work, and I want 
to have a little play. I wish I could be more ready, 
by the finishing of my general study of the vast order 
Composite, so that I might know exactly what re- 
searches I must make in London, Paris, Berlin, ete. 
I have not got on as I expected; but, as I am to 
reach seventy if I live to near the end of the current 
year, I must no longer postpone my voyage. Indeed, 
I would leave at midsummer if I could get away. But 
the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science meets in Boston at the end of August, and 
has a day in Cambridge. And it would not do for 
me, an ex-president, to turn my back on it, and upon a 
houseful of friends whom we wish to entertain. But 
the moment it is over we shall hope to be off. 
