Pray let me hear from you and believe me my dear Sir, with compliments to Mrs Airy,

Very truly yours,
T. SPRING RICE.

P.S.—­It may be right to add that when a title of honor is conferred on grounds like those which apply to your case, no fees or charges of any kind would be payable.

         &nb
sp;                                     OBSERVATORY, CAMBRIDGE,
                                                  1835, Dec. 10th.

MY DEAR SIR,

I beg to acknowledge your letter of the 8th, which I have received at this place, conveying to me an intimation of the wish of His Majesty’s Ministers to recommend me to the King for the honor of Knighthood.

I beg to assure you that I am most sensible to the liberality which I have experienced from the Government in other as well as in pecuniary matters, and that I am very highly gratified by the consideration (undeserved by me, I fear) which they have displayed in the present instance.  And if I now request permission to decline the honor offered to me, I trust I may make it fully understood that it is not because I value it lightly or because I am not anxious to receive honors from such a source.

The unalterable custom of this country has attached a certain degree of light consideration to titles of honor which are not supported by considerable fortune; or at least, it calls for the display of such an establishment as may not be conveniently supported by even a comfortable income.  The provision attached to my official situation, and the liberality of the King towards one of the members of my family, have placed me in a position of great comfort.  These circumstances however have bound me to consider myself as the devoted servant of the country, and to debar myself from efforts to increase my fortune which might otherwise have been open to me.  I do not look forward therefore to any material increase of income, and that which I enjoy at present is hardly sufficient, in my opinion, to support respectably the honor which you and Lord John Russell have proposed to confer upon me.  For this reason only I beg leave most respectfully to decline the honor of Knighthood at the present time.

I have only to add that my services will always be at the command of the Government in any scientific subject in which I can be of the smallest use.

I am, my dear Sir,
Your very faithful Servant,
G.B.  AIRY.

The Right Honorable T. Spring Rice.

* * * * *

“In brief revision of the years from 1827 to 1835 I may confine myself to the two principal subjects—­my Professorial Lectures, and my Conduct of the Cambridge Observatory.