In the year 1835, Sir Robert Peel wished to offer Faraday a pension,
but that great statesman quitted office before he was able to
realise his wish. The Minister who founded these pensions intended
them, I believe, to be marks of honour which even proud men might
accept without compromise of independence. When, however, the
intimation first reached Faraday in an unofficial way, he wrote a
letter announcing his determination to decline the pension; and
stating that he was quite competent to earn his livelihood himself.
That letter still exists, but it was never sent, Faraday's
repugnance having been overruled by his friends. When Lord
Melbourne came into office, he desired to see Faraday; and probably
in utter ignorance of the man--for unhappily for them and us,
Ministers of State in England are only too often ignorant of great
Englishmen--his Lordship said something that must have deeply
displeased his visitor. All the circumstances were once
communicated to me, but I have forgotten the details. The term
'humbug,' I think, was incautiously employed by his Lordship, and
other expressions were used of a similar kind. Faraday quitted the
Minister with his own resolves, and that evening he left his card
and a short and decisive note at the residence of Lord Melbourne,
stating that he had manifestly mistaken his Lordship's intention of
honouring science in his person, and declining to have anything
whatever to do with the proposed pension.
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