Ɛpsilon

To Charles Lyell   [November–December 1842]

Down near Bromley | Kent.

Sunday Morning

My dear Lyell

I have just taken down the controversial pamphlet of Charlsworth1 & I see his solicitor is Mr. Richardson & Talbot of Bedford Row, therefore no doubt the same man, who wrote that absurd letter to last Council, stating that he should propose so & so.2 Now as Charlsworth talked of legal proceedings, is it not probable that this letter has been deliberately written somehow to intrap the Council? Had it not better be carefully read over,— I think it was only hastily read aloud & voted absurd. & not even ordered to be acknowledged. I would have written direct to Murchison, but it may be foolish caution on my part, if you think otherwise, you can inform Murchison or forward this note.— We shall certainly have this attorney on his legs next Wednesday. or when special general meeting is called.

Ever yours | C Darwin

1
See letter to Charles Lyell, [5 and 7 October 1842] for CD’s account of Charlesworth’s efforts to become Curator of the Geological Society. The ‘controversial pamphlet’ is Charlesworth 1840. Although it is the appendix to n.s. volume 4 of the Magazine of Natural History, CD refers to it as a pamphlet because it was separately paginated.
2
Possibly the letter to Austen mentioned in the letter to Charles Lyell, [5 and 7 October 1842].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-653,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-653