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To James Torbitt   13 December 1880

Down, [Leith Hill Place, Surrey.]

Dec. 13, 1880.

My dear Sir

Absence from home has prevented me from at once thanking you for your report, which appears to me satisfactory and I hope satisfies you.1 I will get it copied and send it to Mr. Caird and to Mr. Farrer; but the latter has been seriously unwell and all his official duties, I fear, are in arrear.2 I will then call their attention to your offer to send them some of the varieties. You will remember that I hold money subscribed in aid of your experiments. As I am still away from home, I forget the exact sum, £75, or £80, or £85, I think. Will you kindly let me hear about this. I should like to return some to the subscribers. I do not want a penny back of what I subscribed, for it has been a pleasure to me to aid you in your noble endeavours to confer on your country a public benefit. I do not think that Mr. Farrer would care about any part of his subscription being returned. Please tell me how you are situated, and then when I send copies of your Report, I can report to the subscribers about the money. I told Mr. Caird that I held the above amount to be advanced to you or partly or wholly returned to him for the co-subscribers.3

Under the present dreadful state of Ireland, I fear it will be impossible to attract Mr. Forster’s attention.4

With renewed good wishes for your success in all ways, I remain, | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

Copy

1
Torbitt’s report has not been found. CD was writing from Leith Hill Place, Surrey, the home of his sister, Caroline Sarah Wedgwood. The Darwins returned home on 15 December (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
2
James Caird and Thomas Henry Farrer had helped raise funds for Torbitt, who was carrying out large-scale experiments aimed at producing blight-resistant potatoes. CD evidently sent the report to Farrer and asked him to pass it on to Caird (see letter to T. H. Farrer, 30 December 1880).
4
William Edward Forster was chief secretary for Ireland. Following the return of potato blight in 1879, Forster had introduced legislation in June 1880 to compensate evicted tenants under certain conditions. When the bill failed, Forster recommended that the Irish Land League leadership should be prosecuted for incitement. By December 1880, he faced ferocious opposition in the House of Commons. (ODNB; for more on the Land League and government policy on property rights at this time, see Comerford 2016.)

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12910,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12910