Franklin Coxworthy to Faraday   26 December 1846

84, Pall Mall, | 26th December, 1846.

Sir – In reference to your letter of the 24th inst.¹, I think it necessary to observe, in justice to myself, that were all men’s minds imbued with the principles which govern your actions, and had not a sovereign stop been put to my correspondence with a journal in which my principles were fast gaining influence, I should have continued in the line of conduct which you suggest for my future proceeding, and in that case, in all probability, an architect of eminence, who expressed himself in unconditional terms in approbation of my principles of ventilation, and at whose request I gave to him a plan and descriptive paper illustrative of those principles, “that he might make good use of them,” would at once acknowledge that he is introducing my plans into the ventilation of the first building in the kingdom; but society not being so constituted, precludes his so doing, although I am quite satisfied, that in his silence, he is not actuated by any dishonourable motive.

As you suggest, “I may be wrong,” but the proof is most easily arrived at, and if right, which I am satisfied on inquiry will be found to be the case, it is quite evident that the happiness of millions of fellow beings, depends on the speedy application of those principles to both agriculture and ventilation.

I hope, however, that my papers will shortly appear in a journal* from which my further communications will not be excluded without just cause being shown, when I have no doubt of my being able to make sufficient influence, to obtain that inquiry, which the importance and the necessity of the case demands.

I have &c., | Franklin Coxworthy

M. Faraday, Esq.

*That of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.