Faraday to William Gravatt   20 November 1837

Royal Institution | 20 Nov. 1837

My dear Sir

I am really puzzled to know how I am to answer your note; for I presume I can say nothing that you and the authorities at the Tower do not know quite as well as I do. When I was requested & authorized to lecture seven years ago, ú20 per annum were granted for annual expences, and, if any thing could be spared from it, for additional apparatus to the Laboratory; to be expended under my instructions¹. The money has from time to time been paid by me & I hope the items are sufficiently explicit: I send the receipts because I have been instructed to do so; and though in consequence receipts are given three times over for parts of the money, and though I have to pay for some of the receipts myself, and expend the money long before it is returned to me, having no pecuniary interest in, but being rather a loser by, the arrangement; I have always continued to do as I had been directed[.]

I suppose the best answer to Mr Lee's² inquiry will be a reference back to the original order but really I cannot say any thing about it. I shall be very happy to be in order but Your inquiry makes me unable to distinguish order & disorder from each other[.]

I am My dear Sir | Very Truly Yours | M. Faraday

Coll. Gravatt | &c &c &c