1855-56 
MACAULAY’S PROPOSITION 
15 
country, and it is painful to me to think that a 
man of his merit should be approaching old age 
amidst anxieties and distresses. He told me that 
eight hundred a year, without a house in the 
hluseum, would be opulence to him. He did not, 
he said, even wish for more. He seems to me 
to be a case for public patronage. Such patron- 
tige IS not needed by eminent literary men or 
artists. A poet, a novelist, an historian, a painter, 
a sculptor, who stood in his own line as high as 
Owen stands among men of science, could never 
be in want except by his own fault. But the 
greatest natural philosopher may starve while bis 
countrymen are boasting of his discoveries, and 
while foreign Academies are begging for the 
honour of being allowed to add his name to their 
list.’ 
On May 26, 1856, Owen received the appoint- 
wient that Macaulay had suggested, with a salary 
of 800/. a year. 
But before the final arrangements were com- 
pleted he confesses to have felt very unsettled, as 
there was some uncertainty connected with the 
nature of the appointment, and from the number 
of suggestions which were brought forward he 
was apprehensive of considerable delay. As 
his connection with the College of Surgeons had 
ceased, he had no more Hunterian Lectures to 
give, but filled up a good deal of the time in 
giving lectures elsewhere at various places. He 
