Josiah Latimer Clark to Faraday   7 July 1857

Electric Telegraph | Off[ice] | July 7. 1857.

My dear Sir

I send you the Enclosed¹ merely for your information, and confidentially. It is from a brother in law of mine² whom I know very intimately & who is a Captain in the Royal Artillery.

The Statements he makes must of course be perfectly incredible to any minds not prepared to receive them. Either he has been deceived, or the facts are false or they are true.

As to his deception I leave you to judge - he is what the world would call a “very cute and wide awake fellow” up to all the ways & tricks of the world, intelligent, & with plenty of sharpness & common sense, & could not be deceived by any ordinary kind of trickery or deception, but he is not at all scientific or accustomed to scientific methods of experiment or research.

As to his intentional misstatement his position as an officer bearing Her Majestys Commission forbids the idea, & I know him personally well enough to vouch without the slightest hesitation for the truth of this statements[.]

If we assume then that the facts are true, what are we to say to them?

All I can say is that I will endeavour to get an opportunity of seeing them for I cannot deny that I feel interested in the very astonishing statements which are made to me from time to time, or evidence which I cannot well disbelieve.

Very sincerely Yours | Latimer Clark

M. Faraday Esqr.

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