We must agree to differ.

It may be needful for me and those who agree with me to place our opinions on record; but you may depend upon it that nothing will be done which can suggest any lack of friendship or respect for our President.

[It will be seen from this correspondence and the letter to Sir J. Donnelly of July 15, that Huxley was a staunch Unionist.  Not that he considered the actual course of English rule in Ireland ideal; his main point was that under the circumstances the establishment of Home Rule was a distinct betrayal of trust, considering that on the strength of Government promises, an immense number of persons had entered into contracts, had bought land, and staked their fortunes in Ireland, who would be ruined by the establishment of Home Rule.  Moreover, he held that the right of self-preservation entitled a nation to refuse to establish at its very gates a power which could, and perhaps would, be a danger to its own existence.  Of the capacity of the Irish peasant for self-government he had no high opinion, and what he had seen of the country, and especially the great central plain, in his frequent visits to Ireland, convinced him that the balance between subsistence and population would speedily create a new agrarian question, whatever political schemes were introduced.  This was one of] “the only political questions which interested him.”

[Towards the end of October he left London for Hastings, partly for his own, but still more for his wife’s sake, as she was far from well.  He was still busy with one or two Royal Society Committees, and came up to town occasionally to attend their meetings, especially those dealing with the borings in the Delta, and with Antarctic exploration.  Thus he writes:—­]

11 Eversfield Place, Hastings, October 31, 1887.

My dear Foster,

We have been here for the last week, and are likely to be here for some time, as my wife, though mending, is getting on but slowly, and she will be as well out of London through beastly November.  I shall be up on Thursday and return on Friday, but I do not want to be away longer, as it is lonesome for the wife.

I quite agree to what you propose on Committee, so I need not be there.  Very glad to hear that the Council “very much applauded what we had done,” and hope we shall get the 500 pounds.

I don’t believe a word in increasing whale fishery, but scientifically, the Antarctic expedition would, or might be very interesting, and if the colonies will do their part, I think we ought to do ours.

You won’t want me at that Committee either.  Hope to see you on Thursday.

Ever yours,

T.H.  Huxley.

Hideous pen!

[But he did not come up that Thursday.  His wife was for a time too ill to be left, and he winds up the letter of November 2 to Dr. Foster with the reflection:—­]

Man is born to trouble as the sparks, etc.—­but when you have come to my time of life you will say as I do—­Lucky it is no worse.