INTEKEUPTED AID 349 
ment through his father for a continuance of the £400 a year 
originally granted him in India, and the tenancy, at whatever 
rent was usually asked, of one of the Crown houses hard by, 
unoccupied at the moment, where he could live and keep his 
collections, in close touch with all the materials for reference 
at Kew. It was surely the duty of the Department, whose 
commissioned officer he had been, to see that the work com- 
missioned should be adequately completed. 
This view of the case, however, his father was at first 
unwilling to adopt. However great Joseph's services had 
been, however deserving of later furtherance, the Department, 
he thought, had entirely fulfilled its duty by the simple grant 
of the sum originally asked for the Indian expedition. Any- 
thing more must be a matter of favour, not of due. Was 
the Department in arrears for the amount of its last year's 
grant ? He offered his own purse instead ; and prepared 
to make an appeal ad misericordiavi, much to his son's mis- 
liking. 
All this [the latter writes to Bentham, April 2, 1851] 
is due to his excess of modesty ; it is equally certain that 
he looks on his own Crown salary as mere kindness on 
the part of Govt, to himself, and that the fact of his 
hking his work and being wilhng or able to hold his post 
at half pay, would justify the Crown in cutting it down so 
much, should they wish to be just rather than liberal as they 
are in his opinion to himself. 
Indeed it was rather a question of himself wanting aid, 
what with his broken health, the often trying Garden duty, 
and the extension of the Herbarium and Museum beyond his 
powers, while he saw * the great accumulation of scientific 
objects which are gradually being consigned to oblivion in 
favour of showy articles.' But this was a subject which his 
son could not broach to him ; it must be left to older friends 
like Bentham or Henslow. 
But Sir William consented to delay making the application 
till he had consulted with these old friends ; and meanwhile 
the presidents of the various learned Societies spontaneously 
