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Darwin Correspondence Project

To H. W. Bates   [before 29 December 1880]1

[Down.]

Private

Huxley thinks that the Presidents had better sign in a body, so that the Memorial shall be sent to you afterwards for your signature with an envelope addressed to Sir J. Hooker, if you will forward it without delay.—2

C. D

As I do not know Ld. Aberdare’s address I have not enclosed an envelope: could you write outside the envelope “To be forwarded if not at home”; for it is very important that the Memorial shd. reach Mr Gladstone before Parliament meets—3 I have got the Duke of Argyll to write a private letter to Mr. G. in favour of the pension.—4

Footnotes

The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to H. W. Bates, [29 December 1880].
Thomas Henry Huxley was advising CD on the memorial for a government pension for Alfred Russel Wallace. CD had explained that he wanted Joseph Dalton Hooker to sign near the end of the memorial ‘so as to end the short list with a flourish’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, 20 December 1880).
Henry Austin Bruce, first Baron Aberdare, was president of the Royal Geographical Society; Bates was assistant secretary. William Ewart Gladstone was the prime minister.
See letter to G. D. Campbell, [before 27 December 1880]. George Douglas Campbell, eighth duke of Argyll was a member of the government (lord privy seal), so could not sign the memorial.

Summary

Informs HWB of arrangements for signing the memorial to W. E. Gladstone [for a civil pension for Wallace]. CD has got Duke of Argyll to write to Gladstone in favour of it.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12951
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Henry Walter Bates
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12951,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12951.xml

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