XXXIV 



" As, then, your Lordship feels that, by conferring on me the mark of 

 approbation hinted at in your letter, you will be at once discharging your 

 duty as First Minister of the Crown, and performing an act consonant with 

 your own kind feelings, I hesitate not to say I shall receive your Lord- 

 ship's offer both with pleasure and with pride." 



The pension was granted December 24, but in the interval he was much 

 troubled by some, who thought that a contradiction to the injurious state- 

 ment in the 'Times' against Lord Melbourne ought to be made. 



To one Faraday writes : — " The pension is a matter of indifference to me, 

 but other results, some of which have already come to pass, are not so. 

 The continued renewal of this affair, to my mind, tempts me at times to 

 what might be thought very ungenerous under the circumstances, namely, 

 even at this late hour a determined refusal of the whole," 



On the 8th of December he, however, published a letter in the ' Times,' 

 in which he says, " I beg leave thus publicly to state that neither directly 

 nor indirectly did I communicate to the Editor of Fraser's Magazine the 

 information on which that article (an extract of which was published in the 

 ' Times ' of the 28th) was founded, or further, either directly or indirectly, 

 any information to or for any publication whatsoever." 



This year he was made Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy 

 of Medicine, Paris ; Hon. Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 Institution of British Architects, and Physical Society of Frankfort ; Hon. 

 Fellow of the Medico- Chirurgical Society of London ; and he was awarded 

 one of the Royal Medals by the Royal Society. 



Mt. 44 (1836). 



This year the whole course of Faraday's scientific work was changed by 

 his appointment as Adviser to the Trinity House. He published one paper 

 in the Philosophical Magazine on the general Magnetic Relations and Cha- 

 racters of the Metals, which he begins by saying, " general views have long 

 since led me to an opinion, which is probably also entertained by others, 

 though I do not remember to have met with it, that all the metals are 

 magnetic in the same manner as iron." 



He gave four Friday discourses on Silicified Plants and Fossils ; on Mag- 

 netism of Metals as a general character ; on Plumbago, and on Pencils, 

 Morden's Machinery ; and considerations respecting the nature of Chemical 

 Elements. 



The 3rd of February he wrote to Capt. Pelly, Deputy Master of the 

 Trinity House: — 



" I consider your letter to me as a great compliment, and should view 

 the appointment at the Trinity Honse, which you propose, in the same 

 light ; but I may not accept even honours without due consideration. 



" In the first place, my time is of great value to me, and if the appoint- 

 ment you speak of involved anything like periodical routine attendances, I 

 do not think I could accept it. But if it meant that in consultation, in the 



