Faraday to John Tyndall   20 February 1858

Royal Institution, | 20 Feb. 1858.

Dear Tyndall,

Your letter of yesterday¹ has taken me by surprise in this respect:- that it seems to imply that you had reason to believe that I was conscious of an understood engagement, rising year by year £100, according to the terms of the first quotations from a letter by a third person which you have sent me:- or of an engagement at £200, which was to be increased in a year, and should rise up to £400 or more after a time, according to your second quotation. I was not conscious of any such understood engagement, and you may be quite sure that if had felt myself answerable in any way, either by expression or implication, for such an understanding, I would have seen it carried out or else the whole matter rearranged. At the same time it is also true that I quoted Davy’s case to the Managers as a good precedent and an example for their departing from the course which, through circumstances, they had been following for many years. I should have been very glad indeed if I could have felt at the time that they had the means of doing it; and you must not suppose that I would not in that case have urged some such course between that time and this. I have often considered whether I should not aid such facility, and do more good to the Institution by retiring from the place I hold, than by keeping it. Whilst waiting, however, I hoped that other engagements would rise up, that could be held by you conjointly with the one here, and give you that return on the part of science which you so thoroughly deserve for your labours in its cause.

Your letter to me of last April² I brought (according to your request) before the Managers at the time, and again last Monday³. They shewed the kindest feeling. They could know nothing of the sense of the extracts which yours to me of the 19th inst. contains, but only of the case of Mr. Brande, to which you refer in that of April, and they seemed quite ready to go beyond that, and will meet on the 1st of next month to settle that matter⁴. Your last letter puts the subject altogether on new grounds, and will take them unawares perhaps more than it did me, for though they may know your worth to the Institution and to science, they cannot be aware of the latter point to the same extent as I am. They could not be conscious of the understood engagement, and they have not the power to be liberal patrons of science, or to permit themselves to reward it in proportion to their admiration of it.

And now, my dear Tyndall, let me say that my chief care in this note had been to write only that which would be necessary to clear away misapprehensions and remove the implied charge of injustice or forgetfulness from either myself or the Managers or any other person. We know your value to the cause of science, and therefore to us; but we also know our incompetency to express the proper sense of it. However on that I must not speak too hastily for others. I know you agree with me in the matter of open dealing, and therefore am sure that if you have entertained the impressions above referred to you will let me make the true state of the case known to the board of Managers at its next meeting.

Ever, my dear Tyndall, | Truly yours, | M. Faraday