My dear Darwin

I have had great pleasure in signing your son’s certificate & have handed it on to Judds Assistant for him to do the like when he comes¹   No doubt you will get it tomorrow

I have accepted the Fishery Inspectorship but I am not yet officially appointed   I suspect, but don’t know that there has been a battle between the Home Secretary & the Lord President on my side & the Treasury, on the other, about some details.²

I had never so much as thought of the appointment but Harcourt wrote me a very considerate letter to the effect that he had made up his mind if ever he had the power to do something to improve the position of men of Science—& as this just involved light work he thought I might take it be all the easier.

I declined the appointment at first, but the Home Secretary asked me to call upon him & as I found he was ready & willing to smooth some difficulties which I saw were likely to arise—I accepted the appointment & left the adjustments in his hands

Lord Spencer behaved like a trump & I understand the Treasury also consented— But there has evidently been some hitch. However I have reason to believe it is all right now— The difference to me will be this—that whereas for the last twenty years I have been obliged to make as much again as my official income in order to live decently & do justice to my children—the new appointment £700 a year) will about do that business & relieve me from the necessity of bread-making

So long as I had health I was quite content with the old arrangement and I am wonderfully well & vigorous now

But I shall be 56 next May & in common prudence I thought it right to seize upon the opportunity of taking in some sail & making things snug for that old age which is likely enough to set in rapidly some of these days, in a man who has worked at as high pressure as I have

The pleasantest thing about it is that the affair is no seeking of mine— I have been a quarter of a century more or less in contact with the governing class & it is the first time that it occurred to any one of them to put me into a better position than a third class Treasury clerk

So three cheers for Harcourt of whom I know very little & who I believe has acted wholly out of regard for Science

Ever | Yours very truly | T H Huxley

I am very glad to hear what you say about Wallace’s pension³   It is all in the same direction ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠