Il6 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, vu 



the £1200 may really mean,* but whatever the result, I shall 

 never forget the kindness with which my chiefs have fought my 

 battle.— I am, yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



On July 16, he writes to Sir M. Foster : — 



The blessed Treasury can't make up their minds whether I 

 am to be asked to stay on as Dean or not, and till they do, I 

 can't shake off any of my fetters. 



Early in the year he had written to Sir John Donnelly 

 of the necessity of resigning : — 



Nevertheless (he added), it will be a sad day for me when 

 I find myself no longer entitled to take part in the work of the 

 schools in which you and I have so long been interested. 



But that " sad day " was not to come yet. His con- 

 nection with the Royal College of Science was not entirely 

 severed. He was asked to continue, as Honorary Dean, a 

 general supervision of the work he had done so much to 

 organise, and he kept the title of Professor of Biology, his 

 successors in the practical work of the chair being desig- 

 nated Assistant Professors. 



" I retain," he writes, " general superintendence as part 

 of the great unpaid." 



It is a comfort (he writes to his son), to have got the thing 

 settled. My great desire at present is to be idle, and I am now 

 idle with a good conscience. 



Later in the year, however, a change of Ministry having 

 taken place, he was offered a Civil List Pension of £300 a 

 year by Lord Iddesleigh. He replied accepting it : — 



4 Marlborough Place, Nov. 24, 1885. 



My dear Lord Iddesleigh — Your letters of the 20th 

 November reached me only last night, and I hasten to thank 

 you for both of them. I am particularly obliged for your kind 

 reception of what I ventured to say about the deserts of my old 

 friend Sir Joseph Hooker. 



With respect to your Lordship's offer to submit my name to 

 Her Majesty for a Civil List Pension, I can but accept a pro- 



* i.e. whether he was to draw his salary of ^200 as Dean or not. 



