From Patrick Matthew 6 June 1864
London,
June 6/64
Dear Sir,
I am now in London for a week or so and have a desire to meet with you before I return to Scotland. If it were convenient I would visit you at Down or meet you at any place in London.1
The Affair of Schleswig-Holstein2 is occupying my attention at present on which I am to publish in a few days, & I will do myself the honor of forwarding to you a copy.3 It is highly probable that this little work will meet more contumely than any ever printed in Britain except Tom Paine’s “rights of man”.4 I hope you are now able for your vocation of forwarding natural science. If you receive the Gardeners Chronicle you will see I have not been quite idle.5 I left Germany Holstein about 9 days ago, where I was visiting my Son, a farmer there.6 I remained only 2 weeks & hastened to London to expose the shameful misstatements of the British Press7
Yours very Sincerely | P. Matthew.
Address No. 16. Ampton St. | Gray’s Inn Road, London.
Charles Darwin Esq.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Dempster, W. J. 1996. Natural selection and Patrick Matthew. Evolutionary concepts in the nineteenth century. Durham: Pentland Press.
EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.
Kennedy, Paul M. 1982. The rise of the Anglo-German antagonism, 1860–1914. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Matthew, Patrick. 1831. On naval timber and arboriculture; with critical notes on authors who have recently treated the subject of planting. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green. Edinburgh: Adam Black.
Matthew, Patrick. 1864. Schleswig-Holstein, etc. London: Spottiswoode & Co.
Origin 3d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 3d edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1861.
Paine, Thomas. 1791. Rights of man: being an answer to Mr Burke’s attack on the French revolution. London: J. Johnson.
Summary
Would like to meet CD.
He is writing a piece on the Schleswig-Holstein affair which will expose the British press.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4522
- From
- Patrick Matthew
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Ampton St, 16
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 92
- Physical description
- ALS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4522,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4522.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12