i85i SYDNEY AND TORONTO 83 



of the grant in aid had been waged so long, did not see 

 the light until 1858, when his interest had been diverted 

 from these subjects, and to return to them was more a 

 burden than a pleasure. 



In the second place, the years 1851-53, so full of profit- 

 less successes in pure science, and delusive hopes held out 

 by the Government, were marked by an equally unsuccess- 

 ful series of attempts to obtain a professorship. If a chair 

 of Natural History had been established, as he hoped, in 

 the projected university at Sydney, he would gladly have 

 stood for it. Sydney was a second home to him ; he would 

 have been backed by the great influence of Macleay ; and 

 in his eyes a naturalist could not desire a finer field for 

 his labours than the waters of Port Jackson. But this was 

 not to be, and the first chair he tried for was the newly- 

 instituted chair of Zoology at the University of Toronto. 

 The vacancy was advertised in the summer of 1851; the 

 pay of full £300 a year was enough to marry on ; his friends 

 reassured him as to his capacity to till the post, which, 

 moreover, did not debar him from the hope of returning 

 some day to fill a similar post in England. 



I Edward Street, St. John's Wood Terrace, 

 July 2g [1851]. 



My dear Henfrey — I have been detained in town, or I hope 

 we should long since have had our projected excursion. 



What do you think of my looking out for a Professorship of 

 Natural History at Toronto? Pay £350, with chances of extra 

 fees. I think that out there one might live comfortably upon 

 that sum — possibly even do the domestic and cultivate the Loves 

 and Graces as well as the Muses. 



Seriously, however, I should like to know what you think of 

 it. The choice of getting anything over here without devoting 

 one's self wholly to Mammon, seems to me very small. At least 

 it involves years of waiting. 



Toronto is not very much out of the way, and the pay is 

 decent and would enable me to devote myself wholly to my 

 favourite pursuits. Were it in England, I could wish nothing 

 better; and, as it is, I think it would answer my purpose very 

 well for some years at any rate. 



If they go fairly to work I think I shall have a very good 



