Faraday to Thomas Joseph Pettigrew   20 November 1830

Royal Institution | Nov. 20th

My dear Sir

The difficulty of choice under which I lay when we conversed together still remains & is even strengthened so that I have come to a determination of taking no part in the recommendation of a President to the Fellows of the Society. It is not an hour since I refused in consequence to sign a requisition to Herschell1 & you will perceive the same feeling will keep me from the meeting you refer to[.]

I have been pressed much against my wishes to serve if chosen by the fellows on the Council of next year[.] I consented to go to ballot; but my view throughout the whole of this affair has been to return the Society as it were from the council into the hands of the fellows and abide by their advice in all things2[.] I do not want to be on council at all but consenting to be on it if elected; I do so without reference to any particular choice which the society at large may make being resolved in this case to take directions from the body of members rather than give them (as one of council) to it.

I am Dear Sir | faithfully yours | M. Faraday

J. Pettigrew Esq | &c &c

1
This was a petition signed initially by 63 Fellows of the Royal Society supporting Herschel’s candidature for President against the Duke of Sussex. A copy is tipped into RS Tract 5/5, p.26. See also notes to letter 462.
2
This took the form of Faraday seconding Herschel’s motion at the Royal Society Council of 11 November 1830 which proposed that the President and Council compile a list of fifty Fellows (additional to the normal house list) from which the new Council could be chosen by the Fellowship. See RS MS CM, 11 November 1830, 11, 119. See also Thompson (1898), 262.

Bibliography

THOMPSON, Silvanus P. (1898): Michael Faraday, His Life and Work, London.

Please cite as “Faraday0467,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0467