John Tyndall to Faraday   22 February 1858¹

22nd. February 1858.

My dear Mr. Faraday

Though deeply sensible of the kindness which suggested the arrangement, I did not quite like the idea of having my duties lessened on the ground that I was incompetent through ill health, to perform them, my salary at the same time remaining intact. I therefore sent to you, on the 19th², a statement of facts which I thought calculated to shew, that I might reasonably expect to see these duties diminished on grounds which should relieve me from a feeling of a weighty personal obligation. My conversation with you on Saturday³ removes all uncertainty from my mind as to the real origin of the extracts which I laid before you. They doubtless expressed the private views of that member of their body whom the Managers had deputed to communicate with me, and did not commit the Managers generally. Still, standing as they did, in such close juxtaposition with an avowedly official communication, it was natural that I should place, as I did place, perfect reliance upon them. At the time referred to I was a comparative stranger to the writer of those letters, but he is now an intimate friend, the generosity of whose character, and the kindness of whose heart, I appreciate so highly that it would give me pain to see him reminded, in a manner which must be unpleasant to him, of the inducements which he held out to me. It is solely through a desire to spare him this unpleasantness that I now ask you not to communicate my letter of the 19th. to the managers. That you were “conscious of an understood engagement,” and had neglected to see it carried out, is an idea which I never entertained.

With regard to the precise matter in hand I would say, that if the Managers are disposed to regard me purely in the light of scientific lecturer to the Institution, the terms which they now give me do no credit to their liberality. I call, for example, the terms of the London Institution liberal, and they are about the same, per lecture, as I receive from the Royal Institution. True the labour in both cases, is widely different, but that is beyond the question. I have therefore not the slightest fault to find with the terms as a lecturer - They are good terms - and if the Managers would have the kindness to shorten my course⁴, and reduce my salary in the same proportion I shall retain a position which I consider it an honour to be called upon to fill. But it is my misfortune to desire to do something beyond lecturing. This desire, existing side by side with the demand for lectures, often, it is true, produces weariness of brain; but for this I am myself accountable, and I should shrink from the idea of becoming on this account, a burden to the Royal Institution. I am sure you will enter into my feelings, and will not ascribe to it any want of appreciation, on my part, of the great kindness of the Managers, when I say, that any change which diminishes my duties, while it leaves me in possession of my present salary, could only be agreeable to me under the condition that it is made upon scientific grounds alone, and without any reference to the state of my health.

Believe me dear Mr. Faraday | Ever yours most faithfully | John Tyndall