[Hereupon he was allowed six months longer, but with the intimation that no further leave would be granted.  A final application from the scientific authorities resulted in fresh inquiries as to the length of time still required, and the deadlock between the two departments of State being unchanged, he replied to the same effect as before, but to no purpose.  His formal application for leave in January 1854 was met by orders to join the “Illustrious” at Portsmouth.  He appealed to the Admiralty that this appointment might be cancelled, giving a brief summary of the facts, and pointing out that it was the inaction of the Treasury which had absolutely prevented him from completing his work.]

I would therefore respectfully submit that, under these circumstances, my request to be permitted to remain on half-pay until the completion of the publication of the results of some years’ toil is not wholly unreasonable.  It is the only reward for which I would ask their Lordships, and indeed, considering the distinct pledge given in the minute to which I have referred, to grant it would seem as nearly to concern their Lordships’ honour as my advantage.

[The counter to this bold stroke was crushing, if not convincing.  He was ordered to join his ship immediately under pain of being struck off the Navy list.  He was of course prepared for this ultimatum, and whether he could manage to pursue science in England or might be compelled to set up as a doctor in Sydney, he considered that he would be better off than as an assistant surgeon in the Navy.  Accordingly he stood firm, and the threat was carried into effect in March 1854.  An unexpected consequence followed.  As long as he was in the navy, with direct claims upon a Government department for assistance in publishing his work, the Royal Society had not felt justified in allotting him any part of the Government Grant.  But now that he had left the service, this objection was removed, and in June 1854 the sum of 300 pounds sterling was assigned for this purpose, while the remainder of the expense was borne by the Ray Society, which undertook the publication under the title of “Oceanic Hydrozoa.”  Thus he was able to record with some satisfaction how he at last has got the grant, though indirectly, from the Government, and considers it something of a triumph for the principle of the family motto, tenax propositi.

While these fruitless negotiations with the Admiralty were in progress, he had done a good deal, both in publishing what he could of his “Rattlesnake” work, and in trying to secure some scientific appointment which would enable him to carry out his two chief objects:  the one his marriage, the other the unhampered pursuit of science.  In addition to the papers sent home from the cruise—­one on the Medusae, published in the “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society” for 1849, and one on the Animal of Trigonia, published in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society” for the same year—­he had reported to the Admiralty in June 1851 the publication of seven memoirs:—­