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From John Lubbock to Francis Darwin   22 February 1882

High Elms, | Hayes, | Kent.

22 Feb 82

Dear Mr Darwin1

I return the enclosed which I have signed with pleasure.2

I am | Yours very truly | John Lubbock

Mrs Darwin will be interested to hear that the House has this afternoon expelled Bradlaugh3

1
‘(F.)’ is pencilled between ‘Mr’ and ‘Darwin’.
2
The enclosure was Raphael Meldola’s certificate for election as a fellow of the Royal Society of London (see letter to H. W. Bates, 17 February 1882).
3
Charles Bradlaugh had been repeatedly elected MP for Northampton. He initially refused to take the required oath on the grounds of unbelief; his offer of an affirmation was refused, as was his later offer to take the oath. (ODNB.) In a letter to George Howard Darwin on 28 February 1882 (DAR 210.3: 41), Emma Darwin wrote, ‘The Bradlaugh affair is disgusting & why they did not accept his offer of lying by until an affirmation bill was brought in I can’t think— It is the only just way out of the scrape—’ Bradlaugh’s expulsion from Parliament was reported in The Times, 23 February 1882, p. 8.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13697F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13697F