Faraday to William Thomas Brande   6 May 1852

Royal Institution | 6 May 1852

My dear Brande

Your informants have not done Barlow justice perhaps they mistook him¹. I will endeavour to give you such an account as you ask me for though doubting my memory[.] I was in the Gallery at your last lecture[.] Your audience were taken much by surprise by your farewell² and when you left the room a member I think Sir H. [sic] Hall³, called on Mr. Barlow to take the chair that the audience might give an expression of their feelings. Other persons spoke and I think that several members thought they ought to have been informed by the Managers of the coming resignation and my impression was that they considered the Managers ought to have done & said somewhat & were hurt by the neglect⁴. This as you know was impossible because of the recent date of your announcement to the board for the Monday following your lecture, was the first monthly meeting after it. Mr Barlow ventured to mention the recent circumstances and the managers intention to report on the following Monday your resignation & their proposition to express their feelings by taking precisely the same steps as in the case of the resignation of Davy. Then expressions very kind to you were uttered as was most natural after such a long term of what I may truly call affectionate relationship, accompanied by some vague propositions of a fellowship a bust or some other mark to be awarded as by a vote of those present. Mr. Barlow endeavoured to explain that that mixed meeting could not act or vote on a lecture day as a body of members the act charter & bye laws being against it but that they could give the expression of their conjoined opinion in any form they thought proper whereupon a vote of thanks moved & seconded by Sir Charles Clarke & Mr. John Pepys⁵ was carried & communicated immediately by the former to you. The vote is also recorded in the printed notices & I believe elsewhere as in a report to the Managers but I am not sure about that. I cannot remember. On Monday 5th April the Managers made their report to the monthly meeting and I had the honor of proposing you as the Honorary Professor of Chemistry⁶. Several then spoke in the very highest terms of your long connexion with the R Institution and were glad to hear what the managers recommended. Several proposed some token of their feelings in which they could be joined personally, and Mr. John Pepys’ generous mind was very forward in this; but a real obstruction was thrown in the way by one member proposing so many things that nothing was distinct, a chair, a scholarship, a bust presented to yourself, a portrait, a medal, were amongst them, and some members including myself had to remark upon the fitness of things. I recommended a committee & it was understood as I believe that any thing of the kind ought to be done not as an act of the meeting of members acting for the whole body of members, but by a committee & subscription as in other like cases and I have been waiting to hear of the formation of such a Committee by those who seemed earnest for it. May 1st was the Annual meeting: then also many kind expressions were uttered during the hour of waiting for the Election of Officers, your name being in the Managers list but, as you know, nothing but the Election & the Visitors Report could then be taken as the business of the day. May 3 was the next monthly meeting and then the Election as Honorary Professor occurred⁷. You ask me whether any thing transpired[.] I cannot call to mind that any proposition (beyond what the Managers had recommended) or any hint was made. I was still expecting the formation of a Committee but those who said most on the first occasion were not present.

I have thus endeavoured to answer your enquiries but feel I have not remembered the order of things clearly: Sir Charles Clark[e] was present on all the occasions⁸ and he is one who could tell you what occurred & whom I think you would feel you could trust. On the whole I do not see how Mr Barlow when called upon could act otherwise, and I know the impression on the minds of several who were present is not that which you have received. I shall say nothing to him or any body else about your letter but consider it at present quite confidential as you desire and I trust that you will soon hear enough from other parties to remove altogether & entirely the impressions you have received. It would be indeed a sad pity if after Forty years of kind & active association between the Royal Institution & yourself the least uncomfortable feeling should remain as its result, and I cannot help saying that if I knew your informants I should feel very much inclined to speak to them as a justice due to Mr Barlow & yourself conjointly.

Ever My dear Brande | Yours faithfully | M. Faraday