Faraday to Lord Wrottesley   10 March 1854

Royal Institution | 10 Mar 1854

My Lord

I feel unfit to give a deliberate opinion on the course it might be advisable for the Government to pursue if it were anxious to improve the position of Science and its cultivators in our country¹. My course of life and the circumstances which make it a happy one for me are not those of persons who conform to the usages & habits of Society. Through the kindness of all from my Sovereign downwards I have that which supplies all my need and in respect of honors I have as a scientific man received from foreign countries and Sovereigns those which belonging to very limited & select classes surpass in my opinion any thing that it is in the power of my own to bestow.

I cannot say that I have not valued such distinctions on the contrary I esteem them very highly but I do not think I have ever worked for or sought after them²[.] Even were such to be now created here the time is passed when these would possess any attraction for me and you will see therefore how unfit I am upon the strength of any personal motive or feeling to judge of what might be influential upon the minds of others. Nevertheless I will make one or two remarks which have often occurred to my mind.

Without thinking of the effect it might have upon distinguished men of Science or upon the minds of those who stimulated to exertion might become distinguished I do think that a Government should for its own sake honor the men who do honor & service to the country. I refer now to honors only not to beneficial rewards; of such honors I think there are none. Knighthoods & Baronetcies are sometimes conferred with such intentions but I think them utterly unfit for that purpose. Instead of conferring distinction they confound the man who is one of twenty or perhaps fifty with hundreds of others; they depress rather than exalt him, for they tend to lower the especial distinction of mind to the common places of society. An intelligent country ought to recognise scientific men among its people as a class. If honors are conferred upon eminence in any class as that of the law or the Army, they should be in this also[.] The aristocracy of the class should have other distinctions than those of lowly & highborn rich & poor yet they should be such as to be worthy of those whom the Sovereign & the country should delight to honor and being rendered very desirable & even enviable in the eyes of the Aristocracy by birth, should be unattainable except to that of Science[.] Thus much I think the Government & the country ought to do for their own sake & the good of Science, more than for the sake of the men who might be thought worthy of such distinction. The latter have attained to their fit place whether the community at large recognize it or not[.]

But besides that & as a matter of reward & encouragement to those who have not yet risen to great distinction I think the Government should in the very many cases which come before it having a relation to scientific knowledge employ men who pursue science, provided they are also men of business: this is perhaps now done to some extent but to nothing like the degree which is practicable with advantage to all parties[;] the right means cannot have occurred to a government which has not yet learnt to approach & distinguish the class as a whole[.] At the same time I am free to confess that I am unable to advise how that which I think should be, may come to pass. I believe I have written the expression of feelings rather than the conclusions of judgment, and I would wish Your Lordship to consider this letter as private rather than as one addressed to the Chairman of a Committee[.]

I have the honor to be | My Lord | Your Very faithful Servant | M. Faraday

Lord Wrottesley | &c &c &c