St Leonards College
St Andrews
Novr 7th 1841
Dear Sir,
I enclose a negative Talbotype <1> done in Ireland by Mr Furlong <2> who has now begun the Art here. His Positive ones <3> will not stand. I wish much that you would send me a Positive one taken from the enclosed. <4>
Major Playfair <5> has again begun to the Talbotype, but has again failed. He fails in nothing else. His patience is indomitable. I hope, however, we shall overcome the difficulties.
I received to day your short note about the R.S. affair, <6> which I presume was written before you received my Packet with the correspondence.
Nothing will induce me to do any thing that acknowledges that my Paper was not deserving of being printed by itself. If the R.S. had given their reasons for not printing my Paper, & if after discussing these each party shd remain of the same opinion, then there wd be a ground for compromise. – But they have exerted an arbitrary power, and, however deeply I feel their injustice, I have no desire whatever to have my paper Printed. My desire is to be treated justly.
If the Mayor of Newcastle had asked all the Officebearers of the Brit. Association <7> to Dinner except me, the affront cd not be expiated by asking me to a family Dinner next day. In like manner the Royal Society cannot expiate their conduct by agreeing, (and especially upon my request) to print my two Papers in one. The very agreement to do this would prove that they were wrong & acting under pique or pride. The Half of a Paper worthy of publication must itself be worthy of Publication.
I am Dear Sir Ever Most Truly yrs
D Brewster
H.F. Talbot Esqr
Notes:
1. Alternative name for WHFT's Calotype, a developed out negative process.
2. William Holland Furlonge, sometimes William Holland Furlong (1826-1881), Irish born chemist, photographer and Assyriologist. [See also Doc. No: 04349].
3. That is, prints from a negative, a process that had given the St Andrews group a great deal of trouble. [See Doc. No: 04317, and Doc. No: 04355].
4. See Doc. No: 04440.
5. Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair (1786–1861), military & provost of St Andrew’s University.
6. For Brewster’s dispute with the Royal Society of London. [See Doc. No: 04291 and Doc. No: 04355 which also mentions his intention of sending the evidence to WHFT].
7. British Association for the Advancement of Science. Its annual meeting had been held in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1838.