It was unanimously voted by the Royal Society of London, that my bust should be placed in their great Hall, and Chantrey was chosen as the sculptor. Soon after it was finished, Mr. Potter, a great ship-builder at Liverpool, who had just completed a fine vessel intended for the China and India trade, wrote to my friend, Sir Francis Beaufort, hydrographer of the Royal Navy, asking him if I would give him permission to call her the "Mary Somerville," and to have a copy of my bust for her figure-head. I was much gratified with this, as might be expected. The "Mary Somerville" sailed, but was never heard of again; it was supposed she had foundered during a typhoon in the China sea.
I was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy at Dublin, of the Bristol Philosophical Institution, and of the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle of Geneva, which was announced to me by a very gratifying letter from Professor Prevost.
Our relations and others who had so severely criticized and ridiculed me, astonished at my success, were now loud in my praise. The warmth with which Somerville entered into my success deeply affected me; for not one in ten thousand would have rejoiced at it as he did; but he was of a generous nature, far above jealousy, and he continued through life to take the kindest interest in all I did.
I now received the following letter from Sir Robert Peel, informing me in the handsomest manner that he had advised the King to grant me a pension of 200l. a year:—
LETTER FROM SIR ROBERT PEEL TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.
Whitehall Gardens
March, 1835.
In advising the Crown in respect to the grant of civil pensions, I have acted equally with a sense of public duty and on the impulse of my own private feelings in recognising among the first claims on the Royal favour those which are derived from eminence in science and literature.
In reviewing such claims, it is impossible that I can overlook those which you have established by the successful prosecution of studies of the highest order, both from the importance of the objects to which they relate, and from the faculties and acquirements which they demand.
As my object is a public one, to encourage others to follow the bright example which you have set, and to prove that great scientific attainments are recognised among public claims, I prefer making a direct communication to you, to any private inquiries into your pecuniary circumstances, or to any proposal through a third party. I am enabled to advise His Majesty to grant to you a pension on the civil list of two hundred pounds per annum; and if that provision will enable you to pursue your labours with less of anxiety, either as to the present or the future, I shall only be fulfilling a public duty, and not imposing upon you the slightest obligation, by availing myself of your permission to submit such a recommendation to the King.
I have the honour to be,
Madam, with the sincerest respect,
Robert Peel.