My dear Sanderson

We have not a day to lose if our Bill or our petition is to do any good. M^r Shaen has been here, a solicitor & excellent man, & in closest communication with the zealots of the Cruelty Soc.—² He says the Soc. makes no rapid progress, but that Admiral Elliott has had a bill drafted, & this has been examined & approved by L^d Coleridge, & that the Tory whip of the H. of Commons, Hart Dyke, has taken up the subject strongly.—³ The physiologists & naturalists like Flower⁴ who think all will blow over are mad.

Yours most sincerely | Ch. Darwin

It was really curious to see how profoundly ignorant M^r Shaen was about any benefit to mankind from physiology.—

I will just jot down remarks as they occur to me.— G. Lushington (Legal adviser to Home office) has been working at Litchfields paper & the Ladies are making 2 copies, one for your consideration, & one for Lushington to consider more deliberately.—⁵ They both think no time to be lost, & if you could get half-a dozen good names to agree to the desirability of such a bill, & you had better tell them how forward the opposite party is, we had better endeavour to get an interview with a minister. L. & Lushington thinks L^d. Derby w^d be a very good man, & he has always been very friendly towards me, as if he w^d. regard my opinion.⁶ It w^d be for those whom you consult to settle whether they w^d go in a body or appoint one or more.— I sh^d. rather dread going alone, but will do it willingly & would write to L^d Derby for an appointment, & come up to town any day.— I sh^d. think, however, it would be better if we went in a small body, with some better man than myself as spokesman. All will depend on some half-dozen 9 or 12 men agreeing on the bill.—

The Litchfields have seen Huxley & reported what we have been doing & he agrees, but will call on me tomorrow morning & I will report if he says anything important.—

I thought it w^d be good if I saw Paget⁷ & succeeded. I find he cares far more for the physiological than for the humanity side & I am not surprised seeing with what flagrant injustice physiologists have been treated; but I do not at all mean to say that he is indifferent to humanity. He ended by saying that he would gladly consider our draft bill. He had intended calling on me tomorrow morning to say that he sat yesterday at dinner by M^r Smith of the Treasury,⁸ who assured him the Government had not yet had any notice of any motion on subject, & that he felt convinced there c^d be no action this session.— Paget seemed to think that if a certain number of men were agreed about a bill, the best plan w^d be for me to see L^d Derby & ask his assistance & counsel.—

This is an extraordinary heterogenious note & I fear you will hardly read it.—

Yours | C.D