i870 SAVAGERY OF THE LOWER CLASSES 359 



that crowned swindler, whose fall I have been looking for ever 

 since the coup d'etat, such a blow as he will never recover from, 

 I will never forgive you. Public opinion in England is not 

 worth much, but at present, it is entirely against France. Even 

 the Times which general [ly] contrives to be on the baser side 

 of a controversy is at present on the German side. And my 

 daughters announced to me yesterday that they had converted 

 a young friend of theirs from the French to the German side, 

 which is one gained for you. All look forward with great pleas- 

 ure to seeing you in the autumn. — Ever yours faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



In addition to this address on September 14, he read 

 his paper on " Penicillium," etc., in Section D on the 20th. 

 Speaking on the 17th, after a lecture of Sir J. Lubbock's 

 on the " Social and Religious Condition of the Lower 

 Races of Mankind," he brought forward his own experi- 

 ences as to the practical results of the beliefs held by the 

 Australian savages, and from this passed to the increasing 

 savagery of the lower classes in great towns such as Liver- 

 pool, which was the great political question of the future, 

 and for which the only cure lay in a proper system of 

 education. 



The savagery underlying modern civilisation was all the 

 more vividly before him, because one evening he, together 

 with Sir J. Lubbock, Dr. Bastian, and Mr. Samuelson, were 

 taken by the chief of the detective department round some 

 of the worst slums in Liverpool. In thieves' dens, doss 

 houses, dancing saloons, enough of sufTering and criminality 

 was seen to leave a very deep and painful impression. In 

 one of these places, a thieves' lodging-house, a drunken man 

 with a cut face accosted him and asked him whether he 

 was a doctor. He said " yes," whereupon the man asked 

 him to doctor his face. He had been fighting, and was 

 terribly excited. Huxley tried to pacify him, but if it had 

 not been for the intervention of the detective, the man 

 would have assaulted him. Afterwards he asked the de- 

 tective if he were not afraid to go alone in these places, 

 and got the significant answer, " Lord bless you, sir, drink 

 and disease take all the strength out of them." 

 24 



