4 Marlborough Place, January 18, 1881.
My dear Farrer,
I have waited a day or two before thanking you for your very kind letter, in the hope that I might be able to speak as one knowing where he is.
But as I am still, in an official sense, nowhere, I will not delay any longer.
I had never thought of the post, but the Home Secretary offered it to me in a very kind and considerate manner, and after some hesitation I accepted it. But some adjustment had to be made between my master, the Lord President, and the Treasury; and although everybody seems disposed to be very good to me, the business is not yet finally settled. Whence the newspapers get their information I don't know—but it is always wrong in these matters.
As you know, I have had a good apprenticeship to the work [He had already served on two Fishery Committees, 1862 and 1864-5.]—and I hope to be of some use; of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life—the jamming common-sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.
May we do some joint business in that way!
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
To his eldest son.