To John Murray   20 March 1871

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

March 20th. 1871

My dear Mr Murray

I am greatly pleased at the sum which the Reprint has produced, & I accept your terms.— Please to pay the £210 to my account at the Union Bank, Charing cross Branch, whenever convenient & the £630 by note of hand at six months’ date.—1 It is quite a grand trade to be a scientific man.—

Many thanks for the Nonconformist.2 I like to see all that is written, & it is of some real use.— If you hear of Reviews in out-of-the-way papers, especially the religious, as Record, Guardian, Tablet,3 kindly inform me.— It is wonderful that there has been no abuse as yet, but I suppose I shall not escape. On the whole the Reviews have been highly favourable. The two articles in the Spectator have interested me much.— Wallace’s Review is admirable.—4

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
See letter from John Murray, 18 March [1871] and n. 3. CD had banked with the Charing Cross branch of the Union Bank of London since 1853 (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter to John Higgins, 11 April [1853]).
2
CD refers to a review of Descent in the 8 March 1871 issue of the Nonconformist (see Correspondence vol. 19, Appendix V).
3
CD refers to weekly journals with religious affiliation. The Record was Evangelical, the Guardian was Anglican, and the Tablet was Roman Catholic (North 1997). A review of Descent appeared in the 2 August 1871 issue of the Guardian (pp. 935–6). CD’s copy is in DAR 226.2: 82.1.
4
CD refers to an unsigned review of Descent that appeared in the 11 March and 18 March 1871 issues of the Spectator (pp. 288–9, 319–20) and to Alfred Russel Wallace’s review of Descent in the Academy (Wallace 1871c).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’
1.2 £210] ‘£’ above ‘210’
1.3 £630] ‘£’ above ‘630’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7603,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7603