Letters dated 22 Apr. 1842 - 2 May 1844.
RJ is unwell and is 'enraged at not being able to vote for Wordsworth [Christopher Wordsworth]' and will be upset if he loses.
Concerning the changes to exams.
Buxted, Uckfield - CW canvassing on behalf of his son who intends to offer himself as a candidate for the imminent vacancy of the Regius Professorship of Divinity.
Letters dated 12 Oct., 22 Oct., and 5 Nov. 1841.
The Master of Trinity has died and Christopher Wordsworth is favourite to replace him: 'If this turn out so, he shall invite his brother here [William Wordsworth] and you shall come and meet him and we will be the most practical and psychological college in the universe - though certainly some of us are bad materials for such an edifice'. WW is glad to see JCH in print [JCH's translation of 'Sintram', 1820] but hopes he doesn't get stuck as simply a translator of 'German novels for the conversion of the heathen - your preface I perceive abuses unfortunate people who are puzzled with the connexion between the mind and the soul as I used to be and who try by anatomizing to discover the way in which the flesh and muscles of the moral man act upon the 'wordy skeleton' of reason'.
'Dec. 13 1834. Ordered by the Master and Seniors that no Manuscripts be taken out of the Library without an order of the Master and Seniors; and no Book from any of the Lock-up Classes or Cases without a note countersigned by the Master'.
Addition made on piece of paper pasted to top right corner 'No Persons except Members of the College allowed to go into the Classes. Aug[ust] 15th 1841'.
Hagley - has received a promise of support from Christopher Wordsworth, mistake in his election address, will send 200 when corrected to Blakesley. "impudent" article in the Cambridge Chronicle
Hagley - still waiting to hear from Christopher Wordsworth, High Stewardship
Hagley - has written to Christopher Wordsworth to request his support, election address
With a note in Christopher Wordsworth's hand.
With a note in Christopher Wordsworth's hand.
JCH is lucky that he left Trinity College 'before the evil days arrived'. For instance Connop Thirlwall's pamphlet on the Dissenters admission ['A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Turton, on the Admission of Dissenters to Academical Degrees', 1834] followed by the Master's [Christopher Wordsworth] harsh reaction: 'The pamphlet was I think sure to do great mischief, and the Master has requested him to resign'. WW remonstrated in vain against the Master's decision. JCH will find WW's view on Thirlwall's work in the pamphlet he has enclosed ['Remarks on Some Parts of Mr Thirlwall's Letter on the Admission of Dissenters to Academical Degree', 1834]: 'I fear that this is but the beginning of troubles - you know the Whigs are a very bitter set'.
Norwich - AS is shocked to hear that their former Master - Christopher Wordsworth - has died: 'Could you give me any information on the subject?' AS hopes to be back at Cambridge the first week in April. Can WW help AS with some details concerning a testimonial he has to write.
Kings College - Concerning the portrait of Isaac Newton that he helped Trinity College procure.
It seems unlikely that HJR will be able to preach on Whit Tuesday since it appears to be already engaged - Monday seems to be free. WW does not think he can give HJR any reasons 'for and against offering yourself for the Divinity Professorship. Our Master has declared to the electors that he is a candidate; but, if [I] understand him clearly, with the reservation of a disposition to withdraw if one of his own fellows comes forward'. Julius Hare and Connop Thirlwall are to translate the second edition of Niebuhr's History of Rome - 'a very dense & heavy looking mess of German it is. I suppose it is an excellent work but I doubt whether people whose time is less valuable might not translate it properly well'.
Norwich - AS could not reply to WW's kind letter until he knew of his sister's plans. If she had been going back via Cambridge AS could have tempted her to take up WW's invitation to stay - but she is not. AS is pleased WW is going to bring before the Seniority the revision of the statutes. AS cannot understand why their former Master [Christopher Wordsworth] did not do this earlier: 'Of course nothing will be done finally before I come back at the end of this month'. George Airy came to visit AS but his stay was cut short: 'there was such a magnetic storm in Greenwich Park that they were obliged to send just for him to come to quell this insurrection among the needles'.
WW has been meaning to write to HJR for some time 'for the purpose of remonstrating with you as to one or two things more hard than was necessary which you have said of my friends the experimental philosophers'. WW cannot imagine why HJR 'should charge mathematics with being useful and with strengthening the memory, when you may easily know that all of the science which we learn here is devoid of all practical use; and I can give you plenty of testimony that it may produce the effect of very thoroughly spoiling memories naturally good, besides giving you psychological reasons why it should do so if you wish for them. Nor do I think that you quite fairly represent the nature of progress in scientific knowledge when you talk of its consisting in the rejection of present belief in favour of novelty; at any rate if the novelty be true one does not see what else is to be done. But, to tell the truth, I am persuaded that there is not in the nature of science anything unfavourable to religious feelings, and if I were not so persuaded I should be much puzzled to account for our being invested, as we so amply are, with the faculties that lead us to the discovery of scientific truth. It would be strange if our Creator should be found urging us on in a career which tended to a forgetfulness of Him. I have undertaken to preach at St. Mary's next February, and may possibly take that opportunity of introducing some of my own views on this subject'. WW is not surprised HJR likes the Master of Trinity [Christopher Wordsworth] so much 'for he always strikes me as most admirable in respect of principles, affections and temper'. If French is made Lucasian Professor, WW will be very upset - 'It will be making the office contemptible, and will besides be a clear proof that there is no greater dispositiion here to select people for their fitness to offices than there has been in previous times; that we do not feel the responsibility of our situation. I wish Babbage had any chance. He would be an admirable person, and so would Airy who is also a candidate'.
Letters dated 25 May, 1 June, 9 July, and 14 Aug. 1840.
Trinity College - Concerning a portrait of Dr Porson.
Letters dated 11 Dec. 1838 and 13 June 1839 concerning a portrait of his father for Trinity College.
Four Fellows of Trinity delighted with their reception, questions of the Visitor of Trinity and of College Meetings
His portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence is complete and ready to be sent to Trinity College.
Norwich - Perhaps WW should have suppressed his pamphlet altogether, 'but there was something which looked like a challenge in a part of Thirlwall's [Connop Thirlwall] which drew me on' [see WW to RJ, 12 June 1834]. WW thinks RJ's suggestion that WW's pamphlet could be seen as a defense of the Master's dismissal of Thirlwall as absurd. On the contrary, WW thought Thirlwall's opinions on chapel going could have been overcome: 'This I told his friends (Sedgwick, Musgrave, Romilly etc) from the first'. WW is clear about his own view: 'The case is the same as that of an officer in any other body publishing an attack upon the system which he has to carry into affect: or a cabinet minister declaring himself against a cabinet measure: the tutors and assistant tutors were understood by most of us to be engaged to further the observance of all college rules by the undergraduates'. This does not mean a tutor cannot hold Thirlwall's opinions about dissenters, as is clear from the case of George Peacock. RJ will find that Julius Hare 'considers that the Master could not do otherwise than he did, and Sedgwick [Adam Sedgwick] acknowledged that Thirlwall's declarations were inconsistent with his position'.