Ɛpsilon

To J. B. Innes   25 February [1877]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Feb 25

Dear Innes

I have received the book. Many thanks for you & your son for the extracts from the Act; but I procured a copy from London.2 Last night I gave the club a long harangue, which I think produced some effect; at least it acted like a bomb-shell for all the members seem to have quarrelled for the next two hours. I do not think there is the least chance of the dissolution of the Club. I had much satisfaction in reading aloud the penal clause3

Yrs very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Down Friendly Club, 19 February 1877.
2
The book and extracts from Innes and his son, John William Brodie Innes, have not been found in the Darwin Archive–CUL. CD evidently obtained a copy of the Friendly Societies’ Act of 1875 (Public general statutes passed in the thirty-eighth & thirty-ninth years of the reign of Queen Victoria, 1875, c. 60, pp. 514–58).
3
For CD’s concerns about the dissolution of the Down Friendly Club, see the letter to Down Friendly Club, 19 February 1877 and n. 2. The penalties under the Friendly Societies’ Act were listed in section 32 (Public general statutes passed in the thirty-eighth & thirty-ninth years of the reign of Queen Victoria, 1875, c. 60, p. 549).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10866,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10866