Faraday to John Gardner   9 December 18441

Brighton | 9 Decr. 1844

My dear Sir

I shall be in town next Saturday2 but have duties for the day & could not see you until Monday. But next Monday I shall be very glad to see you between 10 & 12 o clk.

There is one phrase in your letter which startles me tacit or open opposition 3. It seems that a man must be either an opposer or a supporter if not openly at least tacitly[.] Now I deny the right of any person to put me in such a position at their pleasure and as you know there are abundant reasons both in my health & habits which would prevent me becoming either the one or the other to plans which I might either disapprove or approve of in the strongest manner4[.]

You mention the names of Buckland & Sir James Clarke. I believe these are the only two persons besides yourself Mr. Bullock5 & Liebig that I have spoken to on the subject of your proposed college and that only when they came as you did to ask my impressions[.]

Whatever you do I hope will succeed but from what they told me I fear it will not be a Liebig school.

Ever My dear Sir | Yours Very Truly | M. Faraday

Dr. Gardner

1
John Gardner (1804-1880, DNB). Secretary of the Royal College of Chemistry, 1844-1846.
2
That is 14 December 1844.
3
To the foundation of the Royal College of Chemistry. See Bentley (1970) and Roberts, G.K. (1976).
4
Faraday did donate £10.10 to the Royal College of Chemistry in 1845. "Alphabetical List of Members", IC MS C/2.
5
John Lloyd Bullock (d.1905, age 93, Chem.Drug., 1905, 66: 886). Pharmaceutical chemist and one of the founders of the Royal College of Chemistry.

Bibliography

BENTLEY, Jonathan (1970): “The Chemical Department of the Royal School of Mines. Its Origins and Development under A.W. Hofmann”, Ambix, 17: 153-81.

Please cite as “Faraday1658,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1658