Dear Darwin

I was indeed concerned to have to call off my visit to you—but the “Treasury” has wakened up, & begins to find out that it will get into trouble with me—& that I am not to be “put down” in short, & this has brought about an official correspondence.¹

I have just heard that there is a hot fight raging between the Treasury & Mr Ayrton, & “My Lords” are all on a sudden wondrous civil to me—

The conduct of Gladstone, & indeed of the whole Ministry, is truly despicable— They are in abject terror of the correspondence being called for in Parliament, & coolly advise me to wait till a new Ministry comes in!, as if it was not this Ministry’s duty to put me right; & as if “another Ministry” had nothing else to do but to rectify their blunders, & short-comings.²

Gladstone, Lowe, Ld Ripon, Cardwell, L^d Halifax, Bruce & D. of Argyll, all say I am wholly in the right, & that I have been officially as well as privately, infamously treated—³ but not one will raise a finger to help me, till exposure in Parliament is imminent—.

I hoped to have seen Lord Derby⁴ call for the papers last night— I regret that it is delayed— The exposure will render it impossible that I & Ayrton should retain our respective positions, & I am perfectly ready for the worst. It is my clear duty to the public to expose this affair irrespective of personal consequences, & I shall not raise a whisper to stop it: but I rather expect, now, that active measures in my favor will be immediately resorted to; & they have the Whitsuntide recess to think over their position. Gladstone cannot wish for the production of a correspondence in which I have officially accused Ayrton of having deceived him (the P.M.) in a public document, & telling him a falsehood in a private letter— Accusations made 10 months ago, & to this hour unanswered!⁵

Ever yours affect | J D Hooker