It was stipulated between Mr. Rose, Sir Lucas, and myself, that no person should take any part in the Vaccinating Department who was not either nominated by me or submitted to my approbation. On my reminding Sir Lucas of this, he replied, “You, Sir, are to be whole and sole Director. We [meaning the Board] are to be considered as nothing. What do we know of Vaccination.”[139]
Sir Lucas of course was jeering, but Jenner’s head was so turned with vanity and flattery that he could not distinguish mockery from sincerity. He had constructed for himself a fool’s paradise, out of which the Board pitched him unceremoniously. He recommended his bludgeon bearer, John Ring, for Chief Vaccinator and Inspector of Stations, but the Board declined to have anything to do with him, and added insult to contempt; for in Jenner’s words, written in the third person—
They appointed a gentleman in his place who was taken from an Institution which had been personally hostile to Dr. Jenner on all occasions.
Subsequently he sent in a list of seven names for Sub-Vaccinators, of which the Board rejected five, which brought matters to a crisis, and he resigned. In the memorandum, from which I have quoted, he wrote—
By the whole of these circumstances, Dr. Jenner felt himself under the necessity of withdrawing from the establishment. He could take upon himself no responsibility where he had no power, not even a vote. He did not wish to control the establishment; nothing was further from his thoughts. But he expected that the practical part of its concerns would have been under his direction, as the title of his office implied; and he expected that those gentlemen whom, from a consciousness of their pre-eminent ability, he had so strongly recommended to conduct this practical part, would have been appointed. But as his recommendations have been disregarded—as arrangements and appointments have been made which are contrary to his judgment, and as he is informed by the Board that it was intended for them to use their own discretion, and that they alone are responsible for the conduct of the establishment, Dr. Jenner declined accepting the station of Director, to which they had nominated him, since he found that he was to have nothing to do in the establishment, and that his office was only a name.[140]
To those who did not know Jenner, or who accepted him at his own estimate, the treatment to which he was subjected might appear reprehensible; but the Board understood their man, and only cared to have the benefit of his name, for little else was worth having. What could be made of a character indolent and untrustworthy; who disliked London and was off to Gloucestershire on any pretext; whose sickly family had from him the supreme consideration of an affectionate mother! He wrote to Moore—
I agree with you that my not being a member of the British Vaccine Establishment will astonish the world; and no one in it can be more astonished than myself.
He was mistaken. The world, so far as it thought at all, considered he was handsomely rewarded with his £30,000, and with so much public money in his pocket might have looked for a better disposition on his part. When his nominations were disregarded, he declined even to come to London, and thus excused his sulking at Berkeley—
I was quite in earnest at the time I informed you of my intention to come to town, but while I was getting things in order there came a piece of information from a Right Hon. Gentleman which determined me to remain in my retirement. It was as follows—